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Wardrobe organization and realizations

Synne

Veteran

A quick hello from me. I am lurking the forum big time, but not participating much. I am doing all my shopping recently at building materials stores, as we are doing some reparations and improvements on our house (as is everyone apparently!)

Anyway, what I have been doing a lot of is wardrobe organization. What do I have? What do I wear?

Cue my new way of hanging clothes. I have two designated rods for hanging my clothes. I paired my ordinary, every-day clothes on one side, and my occasion, special, party clothes on the other side. This made me realize a few things:

- I say I love thrifting, but my thrift finds are almost exclusively occasion wear. No wonder I never come around to wearing most of it, because I never attend any special events. I need to reevaluate my favourite hobby of thrifting. Maybe my hobby really is thrift SHOPPING. Not WEARING of thrifted clothes. (Smacks hand on forehead).

- I am starting to see the fruits of sticking to a rather strict colour scheme. My clothes align with the soft summer palette, and I really love these soft, muted shades. I feel they work so well together too. I can almost pull out anything and they work together. Bravo me!

- I need more tops to go with the one bottom (trouser or skirt). I crave a variety of sleeve lengths, thickness, texture, depending on the weather, season or my mood. I prefer the colour to be the same or very similar, as I enjoy monochrome dressing very much.

Hope that made sense. My English is getting rusty and I have construction dust on my mind.. literally..

Added pics from my wardrobe. Do you see what I see? And have you done any wardrobe analyzing yourself?

Dressing

17 replies

Latest reply was from Suz

Jenni NZ

Veteran

The colours do look very cohesive Synne. I understand your English perfectly.
Maybe the wardrobe does look a little too full? ( But I sympathise because I have only had a beautiful space for under 3 years and in my previous house there was not enough room).
I feel like I organise my wardrobe all the time!

rachylou

Veteran

Your colour palette comes across distinctively. It’s very coherent. Interesting realisation re thrift shopping and what you buy!

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

I see lots of lovely texture and pattern with a soothing palette, and I know those colors work well on you! What are all those vibrant brights stashed in the drawers in Photo 1? Are those things you wear regularly?

If Photo 2 is your special occasion clothes, then yeah, it does look a little out of control. Are there ways you can integrate those pieces more into your everyday for a more playful, joyous style? Or perhaps enjoy the thrifted pieces for a while and then rotate them out by reselling like shevia does?

Sloper

Veteran

Agreeing with Jenn regarding trying to integrate the special clothes into your every day rotation.

I'm noticing some beautiful colors and textures that should be brought out to play!

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

Muted tonal dressing looks beautiful on you and it makes sense your closet reflects that.
I do understand the thrift shopping vs. wearing thrifted clothes distinction. Although I wear my finds, it is the shopping (hunting!) that I enjoy the most. As Jenn mentions, I resell the gorgeous pieces that I don't want to wear. This supports my thrifting, and also saves those pieces from the landfill, because the buyer that appreciates them is not likely to find them at the thrift store.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Good to hear from you—I miss your voice on the forum.I should spend less time on here myself. Lol at “sawdust on the brain”. I think your English is better than my German.

With little ones, you have plenty of occasions to wear the clothes. Pull them out for birthday parties, celebrations of starting school or finishing a level, music or dance recitals, all those little events, and wear them with a wink & a smile. Even in the land of (who’s that incredibly grumpy person with the “don’t be extra” list?) I would think people would smile, as long as you weren’t acting precious about it.

Yes, of course I see golden honey wheat colors in your closet. You have more of them than I do berries. I eventually wanted more tonal variation, so I added some frost pink, and I’ve always had blues (& some green) for contrast. I wonder if/when you might get a hankering for variety and what you will add. No need to do it by force, and maybe you won’t ever want a more varied palette because you have all those other kinds of variety, so the unifying color scheme pulls things together. Now that your kids are little, it’s great to have such easy mixing & matching. The colors you’ve chosen are wonderful because they are soothing but also have that glowing energy. Bonus: they also go well with sawdust. But I do wonder if all the color in the party clothes is an indication that you’d occasionally like a change.

Bijou

Veteran

Synne - I am like you, I REALLY like buying dressy occasion wear and have banned myself from any new additions that are very dressy. I am always trying to find new ways of wearing my favourite dressy items because if that is what you love, then why not wear it? I have some rules for what I buy now. No tops or dresses that are dry-clean only. I am fine with handwashing, but dry cleaning is not practical for me.

Velvet, lace, silk and brocade are part of my daywear capsule. I find dressy tops easy to dress down with denim and wore this combination yesterday just out and about on my normal Saturday. The ripped jeans and stompy boots made the lace top and peplum vest daytime appropriate for me. For some people, this would be too dressy, but I am OK with being a bit overdressed.

I have some stuff which can't be worn casually but adding a leather/denim jacket and boots to a sequin dress, does tone it down so I can wear these out to dinner.

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Minaminu

Veteran

I think you have a beautiful cohesive colour palette and lots of interesting texture. Your jumpers are lovely, seems to be very soft and cosy!

Do you store seasonal clothes? I have limited space and find that this method helps me to quickly visualise what is available and helped me understand what is missing.

Like Bijou, I like lace and broderie anglaise and try to incorporate it my daily wear and when it works, it makes me smile all time time,

Irina

Veteran

Great job organizing your closet! Your main colors look beautiful and work together.
As it happened, I’ve been thinking about occasional clothing myself. I don’t have a lot and don’t have any events to attend in a near future. But another day I saw a woman in a black, boxy, silk Eileen Fisher top. I do have the same top and haven’t worn it yet, assuming it’s too dressy for everyday wear (the silk fabric is sheer and requires a camisole). I saw it worn with jeans, flat shoes and a casual bag. Not groundbreaking and yet, it didn’t occur to me to wear this top just out and about. I bought it as a “special occasion “ piece.
I think that sometimes, we need to take another look on our dressy clothes.

Joy

Veteran

Very interesting. For special occasions you might try limiting yourself to accessories and perfect neutral bottoms. A few years ago I studied what women were wearing to the symphony and noticed that most of the best outfits were a simple ( usually black) pair or trousers or skirt with a fancy top or topper. The fancy tops or jackets can be worn with jeans for a Smart casual look to meet friend at a bar or go for a casual dinner or meeting. That may help that side of your closet.

nemosmom

Veteran

Very smart to split your closet by occasion so you can see where you might want more balance. I giggled at your realization of love for thrift SHOPPING not necessarily thrift WEARING!
Your muted palette looks soothing and flattering for you — I can see why you continue to build out colors in a disciplined way!

I have been doing a lot of reorganization, too (my closet is where I go when life feels overwhelming)… and I had a funny forehead smack
myself: For seasonal switches, I have been grouping fall with winter and spring with summer — BUT! It dawned on me that spring here is more like winter than summer. Spring is cold, wet, grey… until June or July when it instantly flips to hot and humid. And fall is just an extension of summer. Hot, with some cool spells, but not COLD. I’ve been thinking about seasons all wrong!

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Nemosmom, the seasons are like that here too. It’s a little matrix that makes (at least) 4 seasonal capsules necessary: (warm or cool) x (light or dark).
Fall isn’t any darker than spring, but it feels like it because the length of daylight changes and plants are different colors.

Anonymous

Your English is excellent and natural!

What a gorgeous color palette! You do those soft tonal looks SO well!

Maybe you could try choosing a small number of occasion pieces, just 3-4, to try to work into more casual outfits, and hang them together in a designated spot? And do something to draw your eye to them like placing them on special hangers or tying a ribbon onto the hanger?

P.S. I completely understand the “thrill of the hunt” aspect of thrift shopping. That is why I have a designated “lamp closet” in my home for the ones I haven’t found a place for yet!

Runcarla

Veteran

Well, that colour palette is gorgeous, and there are no ‘rules’ about how many or what colours a person ‘should’ have in their closet!

I LOVE thrift shopping, and in regular times shop thrift weekly. BUT, I shop with a list of specific wants/needs the same as my regular shopping. I still have to look at everything in the store and get to appreciate some wonderful stuff, however they don’t have to come home with me. If anything, there is less pressure to buy something at thrift if you are sticking to a list, because you are looking for something specific, and when you actually find a list item at thrift, the score is so much sweeter!

Sal

Veteran

You write very well - I enjoy your posts a lot.

I also am attracted to occasionwear and have too many party dresses, bags and shoes......Sadly I don't go to enough parties!! In thrift shops there is often more occasion wear because people don't wear it out.

I see a bit more eclecticism and luxe in the evening wear - which is typical I think.

I think we need to have a virtual YLF party where we all get dressed up!!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I can see your cohesive colour palette coming together successfully! Good job, and great that wardrobe holes are presenting themselves too.

Your English is perfect, and good luck with the remodel! It will be worth it in the end

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Your colour palette is beautiful! And if you love occasion wear, finding it at thrift is a good thing! True, you may need to put the brakes on for a while or find ways to incorporate those items into regular wear. But that's a good discovery to have made!