How Do I Wear More Of What's Already In My Closet?

Field Trip!

My dear friend Rose [name changed to protect the shameful] is gearing up for a big move: both apartment AND career-wise. She asked me to help her clean out her closet, as she had not in nearly a decade and found herself moving the same unworn clothes from apartment to apartment. The before and after pictures are not particularly impressive, but we were both pretty psyched with the results.

 

Before and after. Not visually obvious, but a lot of progress was made, I swear!

The bulk of her spring/summer wardrobe is already stored away. I told her to keep that stuff in their boxes and deal with them after the move. Packing up SUCKS, why unpack what's already good to go?

We started by removing EVERY SINGLE ITEM from the closet slowly. We made piles on her bed: Wear A Lot; Spring/Summer; Give Away; and Love But Not Sure How To Wear. (Give away was banished outside the room and separated into Give Away and Try To Sell.)

The start of the piles.

Rose had an extra suit bag, so we hid all the out of season clothes in there. It is my strong opinion that the more you look at something you can't wear, the quicker you get sick of it.  I didn't start putting seasonal clothes away until 4ish years ago, and MAN is it awesome! I end up forgetting most of what I have, so it's like Christmas every time I unpack. I feel the same way for sizes you can't wear. I told my pregnant sister to put her regular clothes away until she lost the baby weight (she didn't listen to me, but I still stand by my suggestion!). This works on children and their toys too, btw.

The bag. We hung it in the back of her closet, and anything that didn't fit inside was hidden behind the big bag. In addition to seasonal items, we also stored vintage things she loved but wasn't going to wear anytime soon.  I understand and condone this.

Next, we hung the Keeps back in the closet according to item: Pants, Skirts and Dresses on the long side, and tops categorized as Overs and Unders. Then by color family.

Then, we tackled the Love But Not Sure How To Wears. One by one, I chose a Not Sure and made it into an outfit. If Rose could see herself wearing it, I'd snap a picture, and make it into at least one more wearable outfit. We made each piece earn it's place back in the closet. If we couldn't make at least 2 legit outfits, the item was tossed into the Give Away piles. I took the pictures and sent them to her as reminders for those mornings when she just can't decide on her own.

The real beauty of this was that I pushed her out of her comfort zone and made matches she said she would NEVER have thought to pair. Even pieces she already got good use out of gained new life.

We made a ton of outfits, but here are a few examples of how we made multiple sets with the same piece:

  

 

   

So what's the universal takeaway here?

1. Separate your clothes seasonally! Even if you have enough room for everything to be out, do yourself a favor and put the stuff you won't wear away. Even if you are a serial mixer like me, at least put anything with inappropriate fabric away (lightweight dresses, sandals, and anything linen for summer; wool, corduroy, and heavy coats for winter). Also hide things that don't fit but you can't bear to get rid of yet. Revisit them later, you'll have a fresh perspective.


2. An undiscussed hot tip is: Turn all your hangers backward, so that the curve goes around the back of the rod. As you wear stuff, hang them back up and put the hanger back the right way. At the end of the year, any clothes on "wrong" hangers needs to go. (Or at least needs serious consideration!)


3. Suit fabrics with gentle patterns (pinstripes, tweed, etc) should be treated as solids, NOT PATTERNS. I kept repeated to Rose, "These are just brown pants."


4. Nature-y colors do not have to go with other nature-y colors, and bright colors do not have to go with other bright colors. In fact, if you scroll through my pictures, I prefer to mix them together. Don't let yourself get into a rut. I would pull out a piece to make an outfit, and Rose would say, "My instincts are to pair that with the black pants," so I would purposely not use the black pants. I (almost) never wear the exact same outfit twice. You don't have to be that extreme, but mix it up, girl!


5. You don't need a blogger or even a fashionista friend to help you make new outfits. Have ANY friend come over and make a few outfits out of your closet for you. Sometimes all you need is a fresh pair of eyes to give your existing wardrobe a new life.

How do you keep your wardrobe fresh?

How Do I Wear My Sewing Supplies?

This request comes from reader, frequent commenter, fellow blogger, and dear friend "The Other Amy":

It's not really an item that I have. It's an item that I sort of need. When I work on set, I need something to carry my kit on me. I need to be able to have my hands free and move around but still have supplies to fix up costumes. So I need a fanny pack basically. But I need something with lots of pockets so I can be relatively organized and have everything that I need but I want to look cool and not dorky. I live in LA. Everyone drives an Audi. I need the Audi fanny pack.

When I first started reading, I immediately thought of this or this:

 

And when I read the part about The Audi of Fanny Packs, I thought of this:



But neither seem to really fit the bill. (I assume the Gucci bag is not big enough, but if it is, I'm POSITIVE you can find a similar one Made in China...)

I dug a little deeper into the world of Lady Tool Belts and came up with these options:

 

(with a lot more color/configuration options here)

And then, of course, you could sew your own!



Here's one with a tutorial:



And you could use a badass fabric (snakeskin? black pleather with added studs? a repurposed California flag?) and/or attach it to a cool belt.

I hope this helps! Let us know what you end up with.

xo

 

 P.S. I should also add that THE only way to wear something like this is cocked to the side like this awesome broad. 

 

How Do I Wear Brown Oxfords?

 

This "How Do I Wear This?" request comes from my sister Liz. About a month ago, she picked up these cute brown oxfords from DSW, but wasn't sure what to wear with them once she got home.

I told her to treat them like brown ballet flats, but to make sure that whatever else she wore had some kind of girly aspect.

That wasn't super specific, but here are some pants ideas for work:

I like the idea of showing them off with a cropped pant. I'm obsessed with blouses right now, and I thought the tie neck blouses added that bit of girly-ness so the look isn't TOO boy-ish. (I know that my look tends to read "butch" pretty quickly, thanks to broad shoulders, so I know all the tricks to bringing it back to feminine) I threw in the VERY feminine jewelry to take it a step further and elevate the look from just being pants, a blouse, and flats.  Each look also has a pop of color.

Here are some work looks featuring skirts:

Liz, like me, is a shrimp of a lady. So we need our skirts to be at or above the knee ESPECIALLY with flats. These oxfords would look adorable with a short(ish) full skirt. With such a girly skirt, the top can be a little less frou-frou.  Now that it's Fall, I would recommend  gray or patterned brown tights. If the rest of the look is pretty neutral, you could also pump it up with a DARK opaque colored tight in burgundy, plum, or forest green.

And now for some casual looks:

I'm still searching for the perfect chambray shirt, because those babies go with EVERYTHING! Including these shoes.  I threw in a few skirts with the same ideas as the work skirts, but a little shorter and/or more casual. I also like the idea of cropped patterned jeans or corduroy with these. A patterned sweater lends the "I'm a girl!" vibe without going overboard. I would still pair these casual looks with sweet jewelry, or maybe some leopard print in a belt or scarf or bag.

Click on the pictures to find out more about the specific items.

And there you have it! What do you think? Would you wear these shoes differently?

If you have an item you aren't sure how to wear, or need fresh ideas for, give me a holler and I'll try to put my take on it.

How Do I Wear Leopard Jeans?

Printed jeans are EVERYWHERE right now. Most styles are not for the faint of heart. I bought a pair of floral skinnies from Target, which the boyf says look exactly like a pair of thermal pajama pants I already own... But one pattern for the adventurous-but-not-insane is leopard! Leopard is a classic print and is made up of neutrals (tan, black, and/or brown).

Because oxblood and cobalt are still off and popping, I created two looks using these to wear with leopard print jeans.  The first one is the "dressy" look. (I originally tagged these and "night" and "day" but the night look could also easily work for day)



The oxblood blouse classes it up a bit - and if you know me, you know I love a good juxtaposition. The leather jacket is an obvious choice, but this one is grey and has a yummy collar to keep it interesting. The boots HINT at tough biker shoes, but with the leopard AND the leather jacket, we need to tone the Harley vibe down.  Finally, an arm party adds a little color and that messy-oops-I'm-fabulous vibe I love.

• Pants: Current/Elliot (turns out these are corduroy! buy them here) (similar jeans here) (similar jeans here) (tougher jean version here)


• Blouse: OAK (buy it here) (long sleeve option here) (peplum option here)


• Jacket: Muubaa (buy it here) (similar here) (fleece option here)


• Boots: Some weird bargain brand? (buy them here)


• Cobalt Bracelet: Vita Fede (buy it here) (similar here) (similar here)


• Black bracelet: Susan B. (buy it here) (similar here) (similar here)


• Oxblood bracelet: Top Shop (buy it here) (similar here) (similar here) (chunky option here) (bangle option here)

This is the casual look. THEY ARE STILL JUST JEANS, so casual totally works.  I am obsessed with grey t-shirts for making anything look more casual. The burgundy cardigan gives us color, but the muted tone keeps it understated. Ballet flats are essential for casual looks, these have some special details, but are still completely neutral.  The flats also inject that lady-like juxtaposition. Statement necklace because the tops are just cotton basics (but still in neutral tones). I'm not in love with this particular bag, but I adore the look of dark florals with leopard. Just make sure the neutrals in the floral match the neutrals in the leopard (black floral with brown leopard is weird).

• Tee: Alexander Wang (buy it here) (similar here)


• Cardigan: Hollister (buy it on sale here) (similar here)


• Flats: Tory Burch (buy them here) (similar here) (similar here)


• Necklace: Kate Spade (buy it here) (gold option here) (triangle option here) (teal option here)


• Bag: Ted Baker (buy it here) (similar here) (dr bag option here) (bowling bag option here)

And just for fun, here are a bunch of tops and shoes that will work with these pants.



The colors/patterns can be used for a number of different pieces (floral or lace tops, orange or black/white shoes). I would just say that because the pants are sort of one statement, there should only be one other statement-y  piece. So if you wear a red top, tone down the shoes. If you wear the floral shoes, tone down the top.

If you only want to dip your toes into mixing patterns, try either a small clutch, or wear a patterned shirt with a solid jacket over it. Classic black blazers are perfection for toning down the "crazy" of a look and making it read more sophisticated.

(info on pieces here)

OMG YOU GUYS. While I was searching for options, I came across this jacket on ebay:



I don't see myself wearing this for serious, but I HAD to share. Maybe for a bad-ass angel costume?? (buy it here and tell us how you'll wear it!!!!)