My mantra for 2025 was ‘Older and Bolder’. My plan was to wear the heck out of the clothes I owned, adding a few colourful or bold elements (gold? leopard print?), and being braver with my style. I’m not sure that I adhered to my goals, but I didn’t loose the plot entirely.

I did wear the heck out of my clothes. In fact, nothing in my closet went unworn and many items have racked up high numbers. 3 pairs of jeans have accumulated 66, 98, and 124 wears over 2 years. Red, black, and green sweaters have accumulated 51, 41, and 56 wears over 4, 2 and 3 years respectively. A navy button down 74 wears in 4 years (including 27 this year), and a thrifted novelty t-shirt 48 wears over 2 years. To prove the point, 3 outfits in my collection of 12 favourites are nearly identical to ones featured in 2024!

Shopping, per usual, added 20+ new items to my closet. 5 items were thrifted/gifted. 2 were leopard print per my plan, 3 burgundy - my colour for 2025. 10 were neutrals (navy, black, white or off-white) one was a floral, and the others purple, brown, and seaglass. The colours weren’t bold - but they were new introductions. The shapes aren’t ground breaking, but two pair of pants are wide legged, and a couple of sweaters are loose fit/oversized.

I don’t like to focus on ‘fails’, but they should be noted. Experiments with new sneaker styles as alternatives to Converse, resulted in 2 pairs being donated due to problems not evident at time of purchase. A thrifted sweater was more fragile than anticipated, and broke down rather quickly. Two new sweaters are showing signs of being pill prone, but I bought a shaver last year, and I like the sweaters enough that I’ll put in the work to maintain them - for now.

Style intentions: keeping it simple and leaning into my comfort zone of Sporty, Classic, Colourful. Top of mind for adding anything new will be texture.

Below: 12 outfits representative of my style

Finds: clothing items that ‘spark joy’