Of course, when it comes to building a great wardrobe, personal style is only one part of the puzzle. How you implement that style (in other words, which exact pieces you include as part of your wardrobe) depends on many other factors, including your specific lifestyle, your body, your favourite fits and fabrics, your budget, and even your typical laundry routine. And all these are, again, things that are solely defined by your individual preferences, something to which no ready-made list of ‘wardrobe essentials’ could possibly be tailored.
So, if you have picked up this book expecting a fail-proof wardrobe plan that you can replicate, I have to disappoint you. On no page of this book will I tell you what to wear, which pieces to include in your wardrobe, or what kind of top to match with which kind of bottom. What I will do is show you how you can figure all these things out for yourself, how to discover your unique likes and dislikes, and how to combine everything into a functional personal style that’s authentic because it’s truly your own.
3 Aim for quality: Build a wardrobe of high-quality pieces that last more than just a few years
Only a few years ago, the concept of ‘quality over quantity’ seemed inherently flawed to me. I thought, why in the world would I want to blow all my money on one pair of jeans, when I can have five pairs instead?
I was firmly in the ‘more is more’ camp, and so I put up with shoes that gave me blisters, flimsy polyester T-shirts that felt itchy, and pants that I had to readjust after every tiny movement, all in exchange for having more (equally flawed) options hanging in my closet. I didn’t bother caring properly for my clothes or storing them right, and to me, it wasn’t a big deal if a garment fell apart in the wash, a seam ripped, or a heel broke off of one of my shoes. Each individual piece simply wasn’t worth much to me, not just monetarily but also within the context of my jam-packed wardrobe.
The result of this approach was that I usually threw out the majority of my clothes at the end of a season: some pieces because they had literally fallen apart, others because the fabric was covered in pills, and many because they had simply turned out to be so uncomfortable or ill-fitting, I couldn’t bear the thought of ever wearing them again. And so, about twice a year after a thorough clean-out, my closet always looked frighteningly empty to me and the whole vicious cycle started again …
Sounds terribly wasteful? It was. Fortunately, my strategy did a complete 180 almost as soon as my goal had shifted from ‘be fashionable’ to ‘cultivate my own personal style’. That process happened quite naturally for me, as it does for most people: once you become more selective about what you keep in your closet, you’ll attach a bigger value to each individual piece and will probably no longer be satisfied with cheap, badly manufactured stuff. You’ll want clothes that feel good on your skin. Clothes that are sturdy and durable and that won’t fall apart after a couple of seasons. Clothes that fit the contours of your body well, without distorting your silhouette or restricting movement.
Aiming for quality goes hand in hand with building a great wardrobe that expresses your style and supports your life. And that’s why this book – in addition to making sure your wardrobe aligns with your style from an aesthetic point of view – emphasises choosing clothes that are high-quality, functional and made to last.
You’ll learn how to put together a wardrobe that works for your lifestyle, is as versatile as possible, and gives you tons of outfit options for all your activities. You’ll become a pro at assessing the quality of garments based on factors like the craftsmanship of its seams or the composition of its fabric. You’ll get to know your own subjective preferences for materials, silhouettes and details inside out. There’s also a whole chapter dedicated to choosing clothes that fit well, so you’ll eventually be able to instantly tell whether the construction of a potential new piece aligns well with the individual proportions of your body.
And don’t worry if you are on a budget: you don’t need a fat wallet to put together a high-quality wardrobe. The quality of a garment is rarely perfectly correlated with its price, and once you know all about assessing garments, you’ll be well equipped to find high-quality pieces at all price points.
4 Style trumps fashion: Get excited about fashion trends that suit your own style, but ignore all others
One of my biggest style-related pet peeves is the idea of ‘keeping up with fashion’.
It suggests that fashion is the equivalent of a law that it is our duty, as respectable people, to uphold. It suggests that the key to dressing well is following the rules and wearing whichever trends and must-haves the fashion world is prescribing that season, regardless of whether we actually like them or not.
Of course, that’s a very literal interpretation of the phrase, but it nevertheless captures the underlying message that the fashion industry is sending to women to drive sales, using headlines like ‘5 Skirts You Need This Spring’ or ‘Essential Trends for This Year’. And because of that, most women I know still do feel at least some pressure to dress in line with the trends, worry about certain things looking ‘outdated’, and use current fashion do’s and don’ts as the deciding factor when it comes to choosing outfits.
Most women think you have to be fashionable to be well dressed. And that’s what I thought too until only a few years ago. But here’s what I’ve learned since:
Being fashionable is totally optional.
Some of the biggest style icons of the last century were people who explicitly did not follow every new trend out there and instead had their own very distinctive looks from which they rarely strayed. Think Marlene Dietrich, Grace Jones or Marilyn Monroe and also modern style icons like Jenna Lyons, Tilda Swinton or Angelina Jolie. In fact, some of the most consistent style icons of today come from the fashion industry itself, like Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Wintour and Emmanuelle Alt. All these people are stylish, not despite the fact that they don’t follow trends but because of it. They know exactly what they like and what they don’t like. Their style is iconic because it is completely authentic.
That’s not to say I am against fashion, not at all. And having your own personal style and being into fashion aren’t mutually exclusive. What’s key is that, rather than seeing fashion as a ubiquitous standard, you see it for what it really is: an art form. Like music, architecture and literature, fashion is a form of art and an important part of human culture that reflects both bigger cultural shifts and smaller movements (such as seasonal trends). Now, what separates fashion from many other art forms is that it is much more prevalent in everyday life. In that sense, it is perhaps most comparable to music, another art form that most people have an opinion about. But unlike with clothes, you wouldn’t make yourself listen to songs all day just because they are at the top of the charts right now or because a ‘hip’ person told you to, right? Of course not; you listen to music that you like. And that’s exactly what it should be like with fashion as well.
Just like music, fashion should be about celebrating creativity and having fun. You should not feel bad about wearing a supertrendy head-to-toe look if you love it, but you also shouldn’t feel bad about wearing something that’s not in line with what’s currently considered to be the look. If you are a creative person, fashion can be a great outlet for experimentation, inspiration and just having fun. I personally still get just as excited about Fashion Week nowadays as I did during my shopaholic phase. But what’s changed is that now, instead of treating all the new trends and pieces like a to-do list, I think of them like a buffet. I’m free to pick and choose. If I see a look and immediately love it, I will look to buy something in that style and continue wearing it long after it’s gone out of style again. But if I don’t see anything that suits my style, I’ll just stick to my old favourites for that season.
In this book, we’ll focus on style rather than fashion. Fashion can be fun and inspiring, but it is volatile, and there is no guarantee that the trend you’ve so madly fallen in love with just a few months ago will still look just as enticing to you once the
season is over. If your ultimate goal is to build a great wardrobe that you will love for more than a couple of seasons, your personal style should always be your primary compass.
5 Put in the work: Invest time and thought into developing your style and selecting the perfect garments
Many people have the misconception that a great sense of style is one of these things you either have or don’t have. They imagine that people who are well dressed simply get up in the morning and, through some act of divine inspiration, come up with a perfectly original and brilliant new outfit idea.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are the people who believe the exact opposite: They think of clothes and fashion as simple, almost trivial, and something they should be able to master without too much effort. But when things then turn out to be a little trickier than expected, they feel as though they’ve failed, and their wardrobes become huge sources of stress and frustration for them.
So who is right? Neither, because styling is a skill like any other. And that means anyone can learn it and you don’t have to be born with a natural talent for it. But you also cannot expect to be great at styling without putting in any effort at all.
Like everything in life, styling takes practice.
It takes time to train your eye, experiment with different aesthetics, and develop a sense of style that feels natural and effortless to you. It takes time to figure out which types of pieces work best for your lifestyle and to curate a versatile wardrobe. And it takes time to then learn how to best utilise those pieces to create outfits that you love.
The bottom line is that if you want great style and a wardrobe that reflects it, you need to put in the work. But the good news is that, no matter what your wardrobe looks like right now, you can get it back in shape and even have fun doing so. You can cultivate a strong personal style, even if right now you have no idea what that could possibly look like. All it takes is a little time, a little effort, and the right techniques.
Minimalism and the Curated Closet
If I had to sum up my wardrobe and my overall approach to clothes in one word, it would be minimalist, even though my personal style is not minimalist in an aesthetic sense. And guess what: the tools and techniques in this book will help you build a minimalist wardrobe too! No matter whether your style is stark and minimal or a crazy mix of punk rock and gothic Elizabethan vibes.
Because here’s the deal: minimalism as an aesthetic style and minimalism as a lifestyle philosophy are two very different things.
Minimalism as a Style
As a style, the term minimalist (or minimal) can be used to describe any concept that’s pared down to its most essential elements. Some examples:
• Minimal art, which became popular in the 1960s as a counter movement to the bold and colourful abstract expressionism of the post-World War II years, features a much subtler use of colour and often a focus on clean geometric shapes.
• In literature, Ernest Hemingway and Samuel Beckett are often cited as great minimalist writers because of their very matter-of-fact way of putting things, without metaphors, flowery descriptions or adverbs.
• And, of course, minimalism as a visual style also plays a huge role in the fashion world. Calvin Klein, Jil Sander and Balenciaga are all labels that are popular for their stripped-down aesthetics. Their pieces are usually constructed with a special focus on functionality and a clean, modern silhouette, with minor to no embellishments and a toned-down colour palette.
Minimalism as a Lifestyle
The key idea of minimalism as a lifestyle philosophy is no different from that of minimalism as a style: remove what’s non-essential or what isn’t working to put a greater focus on what is left. Or, in other words, get rid of everything that doesn’t make you happy or enrich your life to make space for stuff that does.
But there is one big difference: in art, design and fashion, minimalism is a specific style that can be identified by a set of characteristics, just like many other styles.
But when it comes to minimalist living, there is no one way to do it. Why? Because being a minimalist in itself is not the goal; it’s always only a means to an end. And that end is usually less stress and more happiness. Living simply is essentially just a technique that you use to improve your daily life, like yoga, healthy eating, meditation, or whatever else you do to stay happy and sane, and that’s why you can pick and choose how and to what extent you want to incorporate aspects of minimalist living into your life.
It’s not about owning or doing as little as possible. It’s about owning and doing the right things, things that add value to your life.
Minimalism is all about that little bit of extra intention and making conscious choices. It’s about being thoughtful and selective and figuring out what’s right for you and your life specifically instead of blindly following trends or the advice of other people.
That extra intentionality is what makes my wardrobe minimalist. And it’s what this entire book is about: Being superclear about how you want to dress, based on your unique personal style and lifestyle, and then putting together a functional wardrobe that contains exactly what you need to express that style.
Minimalism is not a numbers game. So don’t worry – I’m not going to ask you to throw out three-quarters of your entire closet or learn how to make do with two pairs of shoes. The goal is not to build a wardrobe that is as small as possible but one that is as functional and personalised as possible. Sure, most people who go through the process, me included, do end up with a somewhat smaller wardrobe, but that is only because once they have figured out how they want to dress, they see no point in holding on to all those imperfect pieces that have accumulated over the years. But it is completely up to you how many clothes you want to include in your final wardrobe. And that number may shrink and grow over the years as your style continues to evolve.
How to use this book
Are you ready to build your best wardrobe yet? Here’s everything you need to know to get started.
No matter whether you are a long-time fashion enthusiast with closet troubles or a total beginner, this book will teach you how to take your closet to the next level, step by step and with a lot of fun and a little self-discovery along the way.
Here is a quick overview of everything you’ll learn, do and discover.
The Curated Closet system
We’ll start with a thorough inspection of your current style and closet situation so you’ll know exactly what to focus on throughout the next chapters. Perhaps you’ve already followed the flow chart here to diagnose your closet’s weak spots. In the next chapter, you’ll find a comprehensive questionnaire (here) to help you dig even deeper and analyse your style and wardrobe from all angles. Based on that, you can then put together a little mission statement for your style journey ahead.
Discover your personal style
In this section, you’ll learn how to discover (or refine) your personal style through a series of creative exercises and lots of helpful prompts. You’ll immerse yourself in inspiration, try on a ton of clothes, and figure out what colours, cuts and combinations make you feel inspired and confident. In the last chapter of this section, you’ll find out how to create an in-depth profile of your unique personal style. That profile is what you’ll use as a road map for the revamping of your closet that we will work through in the rest of the book. So don’t skip this one!
Build your dream wardrobe
Now comes the nitty-gritty: curating your closet! This section features plenty of tips, step-by-step instructions and concrete examples to help you put together a versatile, personalised wardrobe that’s just right for your style and your life. We’ll start with a little prep work: detoxing your closet and analysing your day-to-day lifestyle.
I’ll then show you three different concepts you can use to map out your ideal wardrobe: closet composition, colour palettes and outfit formulas. Use them all together or just pick and choose one or two favourites. And to make sure your ideal war
drobe is well tailored to your professional life, there’s also a whole chapter on how to tweak your closet for work (here).
Once you know exactly what you want your closet to look like, it’s time to turn that dream into a reality. You’ll learn how to do just that with the step-by-step guide here. And lastly, you’ll get to know your new and improved wardrobe inside out and become your own best stylist.
The art of shopping
This section is packed with lots of practical techniques that you can use to make smarter purchasing decisions as you overhaul your wardrobe and for the rest of your life. Topics include how to become a more selective shopper, find pieces you’ll love for seasons to come, and make the most of your budget. There are also two chapters dedicated to garment quality (here) and proper fit (here) to help you stock your wardrobe with high-quality, great-fitting clothes that make you look and feel great.
And finally, the last chapter in this book is all about maintenance: how to keep your closet in good shape throughout the year (here).
How to work through this book
It is completely up to you to what extent you use the tools and techniques in this book. If you want to give your closet a serious upgrade, work your way through each section and rebuild your wardrobe step by step. Or, if you are already pretty happy with your closet, feel free to choose your own programme of exercises to put the finishing touches on your style or improve individual aspects of your wardrobe.
The Curated Closet Page 2