A couple of months ago I posted about feeling like I was in the midst of a style shift. Was I interested in monochrome or monochrome-ish dressing, I wondered? This touched off a really interesting round of experiments with monochrome outfits for many forum members which was so fun to watch unfold…if distantly, because I promptly got absolutely bonkers busy and had no bandwidth for style! And when I did get a moment to cogitate on it all my thoughts veered off in several different and contradictory directions.

Here I am now to try to make sense of them, and to set myself a challenge for the coming weeks to help me take the next steps.

A style shift is not the same as a style revolution. I often feel dissatisfied with outfits that are typical of what I’ve been wearing for a while. But I still like many individual clothing items that have been staples in the past. I think I just want to wear them in a different way? And I think my core aesthetic is still there, even if I want to hone it or direct it in a slightly different or more specific direction.

Let me try to explain.

For a while now I’ve organized my deep winter wardrobe around the idea of a snowy birch forest and the Northern lights: shades of black, white, and gray; light to medium blue; ballet pink and burgundy; icy aqua and a little bit of bluish teal; pale lavender and dusty plum. Cognac footwear, abalone jewelry.

That still really resonates with me, but I’ve realized that I also like a bit of a tough vibe in deep winter: column of darks, raw-hem charcoal jeans, stompy boots. I would also like to add more amber jewelry and rough, irregular pearls.

This brings me to a persona for deep winter: Urban Snow Queen.

How to channel her?

I think the flirtation with monochrome was about wanting my outfits to be more elevated, refined, grown-up. Cohesive, somehow. But, as a gamine-ish type I need contrast and energy in my outfits. It’s easy to go for color contrast and put on a top of one color and pants of another, but this often feels slapdash, unfinished. I *think* what I want is to rely less on color contrast on this leg of my style journey and more on other forms of contrast (texture, or silhouette/shape — maybe this is the “drama” I’ve been banging on about, vaguely, for several years now, or register — dressy juxtaposed with casual etc.). Or, if color contrast, make sure the outfit also has intentionality and cohesiveness in other ways.

I think to feel more polished I also need to pay closer attention to fit. I lost some weight in late 2023 and early 2024, and initially I was just happy to be able to fit into a bunch of clothes that had been out of rotation. Now I’m realizing that some of these items are just, uh, kinda sloppy. So I really need to evaluate what fits *well* now, and put aside what doesn’t.

You can probably tell I don’t really have this all figured out yet, so I’m setting myself a “wear all the clothes” challenge.

The rules:

• Define a capsule of potential Urban Snow Queen clothes. (Images below) This is basically everything in my wardrobe that fits the color palette and is seasonally appropriate. Some things will be more useful/on point than others.
• Each day, wear an outfit that includes at least one item from this capsule I haven’t worn yet during the challenge.
• Reflect on the outfit and on the new item — what did I like/not like, how does it align with my (as yet poorly articulated) style goals (and hopefully help me to articulate them)?
• Repeat until all clothes in the capsule have been worn.
• I can repeat already worn items, on any cadence/time scale. The only requirement is that each day’s outfit includes at least one not-yet-worn item.
• Notice which items I wear first/last, which ones I tend to re-wear often, etc. Evaluate how items fit. What do I feel like my capsule is missing? Etc.

If you are still reading, gold star!! I will be back with the first outfit of the challenge tomorrow. But, as always I am grateful for any thoughts or suggestions you care to share!