INVEST IN COMFORTABLE CLOTHES
Your work-from-home clothes don’t have to be fancy, but they should make you feel polished and put together. Think comfy but nice T-shirts, long-line cardigans, comfortable trousers, loose-fitting shirts, or whatever types of clothing you find the most comfortable that also reflect your style and makes you feel like you.
HAVE A COUPLE OF PROFESSIONAL OUTFITS AT HAND
Even if you work from home, you will likely have to leave the house from time to time for client meetings and work-related events, so make sure you have a few dressier outfits sitting in your closet for those occasions. Have a look through your calendar to get a feeling for how often you need a more professional look per month and then build up a small set of pieces that you can mix and match, perhaps a simple blazer, some heels, and a couple of nicer shirts.
After reading through this chapter, ask yourself: How happy are you with the clothes you currently wear to work? What changes do you want to make to your wardrobe? What additional pieces would help you optimise it for your professional life?
From a top-to-bottom revamp to a mini update, here’s everything you need to know about overhauling your wardrobe, including how to turn your rough ideas into a concrete shopping list, what to buy first, and how to shop without getting overwhelmed.
Okay, so you’ve defined your personal style and mapped out your dream wardrobe. Now it’s time to make that dream a reality! In this chapter, I’ll walk you through the steps of overhauling your wardrobe and discuss the biggest do’s and don’ts.
Spoiler alert! It all boils down to two things: take it slow and prioritise. In other words, don’t buy everything at once! I know that’s hard, especially when your current closet looks nothing like your dream wardrobe. But it’s crucial. Building the perfect wardrobe (or even just a much-better-than-I-have-right-now wardrobe) is a long-term project. You need time to grow into your new style item by item and give yourself the chance to really think things through. And unless you have an unlimited budget (and who does?), you also simply need time to save up before you can buy everything you need at the level of quality you want.
But here’s some good news: just because it will likely take you a while to build the perfect wardrobe doesn‘t mean you have to wait that long until you can start dressing according to your personal style. That’s where the ‘prioritise’ part comes in.
Some pieces in your dream wardrobe will have a bigger impact on your ability to express your style than others, for example, a great blazer that really signifies your style and that you can wear with everything, or a versatile pair of shoes in one of your main colours that also fills a glaring gap in your wardrobe. The trick is to identify these pieces and buy them first. That way, no matter your budget, every pound you spend has the biggest possible immediate effect on your wardrobe.
The four-step overhaul
STEP 1 GET A COMPLETE OVERVIEW OF EVERYTHING YOU STILL NEED
If your wardrobe needs a big revamp, you may feel equally excited and overwhelmed right now – excited at the prospect of finally building a great wardrobe and overwhelmed because you know your wardrobe needs a ton of work and you don’t know where to start.
The first step to combating overwhelm is to get a complete overview of everything you still need to buy. So go through your style file and transfer all the notes from the last few chapters (about gaps in your wardrobe and ideas for pieces you could buy) to a new page, including the following information:
• The biggest gaps in your wardrobe (from chapter 7, Closet detox: The complete guide, here)
• Underrepresented areas in your lifestyle (from chapter 8, How to build a wardrobe that fits your real life (not your fantasy life), here)
• Missing key pieces, basics and statement pieces (from chapter 9, Closet composition 101, here)
• Missing colours from your palette (from chapter 10, Selecting a versatile colour palette, here)
• Pieces you need to create your outfit formulas (from chapter 11, Working with outfit formulas, here)
• Any additional pieces you need for work (from chapter 12, Business hours: Tweaking your wardrobe for work, here)
STEP 2 TURN VAGUE IDEAS INTO CONCRETE PIECES
At this point your notes will likely include a mix of concrete pieces, like ‘burgundy pea coat’, and vague descriptors, such as ‘clothes for casual Fridays’ and ‘something in navy blue’.
Your next goal is to turn as many of those vague descriptors into concrete pieces, so that you end up with a precise list of things to shop for.
For example, if your closet detox revealed a serious shortage of well-fitting trousers, try to specify what type of trousers would make a great addition to your wardrobe, in as much detail as possible and taking into account everything you have discovered about your style and dream wardrobe so far. Think colour, materials, patterns, silhouettes, details, and also how many new pairs of pants you need.
And, whenever possible, see if you can come up with pieces that satisfy more than one quality on your list. For example, if your notes say ‘more clothes for work‘, ‘midi skirts’ and ‘heather grey’, one of your pieces could be a heather-grey midi skirt that’s smart enough to wear for work. Or if you know you still need several casual tops that you can wear on the weekend as well as pieces in red, white and black, add ‘casual red top’, ‘casual black top’ and ‘casual white top’ to your list.
Streamline your list as you go along. For example, feel free to cross off ‘more blazers’ if at a later stage you can specify that you want a ‘charcoal blazer’ and a ‘navy blue blazer’.
If you can’t come up with a concrete piece for some points in your notes or can’t decide whether you want that ‘light pink something’ to be a top, dress, or pair of shoes, that’s okay. Simply write ‘one additional piece in light pink (top, dress, or pair of shoes)’ and move on.
STEP 3 ORGANISE YOUR LIST BY PRIORITY
To indicate priority, you can organise your pieces into groups (high, mid and low priority to keep it super simple) or rank them.
To organise your pieces, ask yourself the following:
1. How big of an impact will this piece have on my ability to create outfits that express my style?
Prioritise pieces that really signify your personal style and that you can wear in lots of different ways:
• Key pieces (over basics and statement pieces)
• Pieces in main colours (over accent colours, neutrals or colours that are not a part of your colour palette)
• Pieces that are a part of one of your outfit formulas (over pieces that aren’t)
2. How big is the gap that this piece would fill?
Prioritise pieces that fill a big gap over pieces similar to what you already own:
• Pieces for activities and occasions that are currently underrepresented in your closet
• Pieces in colours that are missing from your wardrobe (over ones in a colour already represented by a couple of items in your closet)
• Pieces for outfit formula ingredients you don’t own, or have only one of (over pieces you already own a couple of)
What I need to buy
Here’s an example of what your shopping list could look like once you’ve completed these three steps.
STEP 4 OVERHAUL YOUR WARDROBE ONE ITEM AT A TIME
Think of your list of priorities as your personal shopping compass. Start from the top and find a great version of your highest-priority item. Then, work your way further down your list, however fast or slow your budget allows.
And remember: Your shopping list isn’t set in stone. Feel free to add more items or details about existing items, delete others, or reorganise your priorities as you discover more about your style.
Top three overhaul mistakes to avoid
MISTAKE 1 COMPROMISING ON QUALITY FOR A LOWER PRICE
If your wardrobe still needs a lot of work, you may at some point feel tempted to go ahead and buy a bunch of so-so but affor
dable pieces just to have more to wear. Don’t do it! Remember that your goal is to end up with a high-quality wardrobe that you can wear and love for many seasons to come. By compromising on crucial things like a great fit or a comfortable material, and knowingly buying something that won’t last long or that you’ll eventually want to replace, you are jumping straight back into the same vicious cycle you are trying to break out of.
If you are on a tight budget, that’s all the more reason to use your money well and not spread it across lots of imperfect things.
Make it your mission to always find a great-quality version for each item on your list. Now, that does not mean that everything you buy needs to be expensive (read more about the shaky relationship between garment quality and price here). But for some big-ticket items like a great leather jacket or a winter coat, it may mean you can buy only one item this month or even this season. And that’s okay because over time you’ll end up with a great selection of high-quality pieces that you can wear for many years to come.
MISTAKE 2 BUYING YOURSELF AN ENTIRELY NEW WARDROBE ALL AT ONCE
If you want to completely revamp your wardrobe (and, say, go from your standard jeans-and-tee combo to a more edgy, glamorous chic), it may also seem like a good idea to just buy yourself a whole new wardrobe all at once, Cinderella-style.
The danger here is of course that, as with any extreme makeover, you’ll rush it, not think things through properly, and subsequently end up with a whole closet full of stuff that you thought you would like, but that in the end just doesn’t quite feel like you.
Because even if you spent a good chunk of time defining your new style and were extra diligent during the experimentation stage, you can never predict with 100 per cent accuracy how you’ll feel wearing a completely different look in real life. And that’s why the more you want to change your wardrobe’s overall aesthetic, the slower you should go. Because each new piece gives you a chance to recalibrate the overall style direction in which you are heading.
And as you revamp your wardrobe, slowly and piece by piece, you are also giving yourself ample time to adjust to your new look emotionally and grow into it. Because the second major risk of shotgun makeovers is that you may not feel quite like yourself, as if you’re wearing a costume.
The moral of the story is there’s nothing wrong with aiming for a total wardrobe revamp, but do it gradually. Buy one piece in your new style and wear it with the rest of your wardrobe for a while and see how you feel. Then add another new piece and so on.
MISTAKE 3 BUYING A TON OF NEW CLOTHES JUST BEFORE A MAJOR LIFESTYLE CHANGE
This one is closely related to mistake 2 but deserves a special mention because it’s all too common!
Starting a new job, having a baby, or moving to a new city – if there’s a big change coming up in your life, it’s only natural that you want to be well prepared and stock your wardrobe in advance with a few new pieces. And that’s totally fine. What’s not such a good idea is spending a lot of money on new clothes just before a major lifestyle change, especially if you want to use that change as an opportunity to revamp your look.
Before I moved to London for grad school I bought at least five pairs of high heels. During college I probably wore heels a total of three times, but I thought, ‘London is a fashion capital – now is my chance to up my fashion game!’ And guess what happened: I ended up selling every single pair on eBay because I’m a flats girl at heart, even in fashion-forward London.
We all have preconceived ideas about what it’s like to live a certain lifestyle. But unless you yourself have been in that situation, it’s impossible to predict exactly how you’ll feel, what the atmosphere and the people around you will be like, and, consequently, what you will want to wear.
If you’ve already had a baby and know you lived in maxi dresses and cardigans during your last pregnancy, go ahead and fill up your wardrobe with those pieces again now that baby number two is on its way. But if you are moving to London and you have never lived in a big city before, it’s better to wait before spending a lot of money. Wait a few weeks and suss out what your new life is really like. Then repeat the lifestyle analysis from here and use the results as the basis for your wardrobe overhaul.
How to cope when shopping overwhelms
‘I love fashion but I hate buying clothes.’ What sounds like a paradox is actually a pretty common sentiment.
The combination of way too many options and a public setting (read: more pressure) make stores a powerhouse of overwhelming experiences and choice anxiety. If you have a tendency to feel stressed, awkward or anxious while shopping and it’s keeping you from making the best choices you can – or even from buying any new clothes at all – this section is for you. If you’re a die-hard shopaholic and can’t think of a more fun way to spend your Saturday afternoon than to shop, then feel free to skip this page.
THE BASICS
• Don’t shop during rush hour. A big factor that makes shopping a stressful experience for many is being surrounded by people, which adds a certain amount of social pressure and raises stress hormone levels. And more people equals more stress, so avoid going shopping during notoriously busy time slots (that includes early evenings, lunchtime and weekend afternoons). Weekday mid-mornings are usually the quietest. If you work nine to five, try going early on a weekend.
• Don’t shop when you are tired, sad or otherwise not feeling well. Wear a favourite outfit for an extra boost of confidence.
• Wear something that’s comfortable and easy to take off and put back on.
SHOP ONLINE!
The easiest way to circumvent all the stress of shopping is to simply do it online. That way you can take all time in the world to browse and compare your options and can even see how the pieces you have ordered look with the rest of your wardrobe. Plus, your lighting at home is always going to be nicer and more flattering than the bright fluorescent light in your standard fitting room.
But of course, shopping online isn’t always the more practical option and, in some cases, going to an actual store may actually be quicker, and less of a hassle when you want to try on a ton of clothes from multiple brands, have no idea what size to order, or don’t want to deal with returns. Here are three easy techniques to help you banish overwhelming shopping experiences for those situations.
ANTI-STRESS TIPS FOR SHOPPING IN PERSON
TIP 1 Set mini goals
When we feel overwhelmed, it’s usually because (1) the task at hand seems too hard or (2) the task is unclear. That’s why, as a ‘nervous shopper’, your best bet is to make the whole experience as easy and fail-proof as possible. Don’t force yourself to go on three-hour shopping trips. Instead, choose one or two stores that you want to visit and predetermine what type of clothes you’ll look at too.
For example, try on button-down shirts and look at sunglasses in shops A and B. Or, find five jumpers in different colours to try on in store X. Make it super specific and super doable. Ignore everything else. Then set another mini goal and repeat.
TIP 2 Research possible buys before you hit the shops
Have you ever heard of the paradox of choice? It’s a term coined by psychologist Barry Schwartz and describes how we as consumers typically end up feeling less satisfied and more anxious about our choice when we have more options.
Most stores nowadays have a huge selection of clothes on display, making them a major source of shopper’s anxiety. If you are already prone to feeling anxious in stores, you need to find a way to artificially limit your options.
The easiest way to do this is to simply spend a bit of time online beforehand. Browse the online shops of brands and stores you’re considering and pick a small number of pieces to try on. That way you can just head straight for your mini preselection at the store and ignore everything else.
TIP 3 Postpone your decision until you are back home
To buy or not to buy: When it comes to making a decision, some people get so overwhelmed and stressed out th
at they drop everything and leave or, even worse, buy whatever they have in their hands right then, just to be able to get out of that store. If that sounds like you, try this little technique the next time you need new clothes:
Enter a store, but decide beforehand that you are not going to buy anything. Your goal for this visit is solely to collect information. Try on a handful of pieces, inspect from all angles, and take pictures with your phone while you’re in the dressing room. Then, just leave. Once you are back home you can go back over all the information you have collected at your own pace and make your decision without feeling pressured.
If you love the idea of owning a small collection of perfectly interchangeable clothes, this chapter is for you! Learn all about capsule wardrobes, including how to curate your own in six simple steps.
So far, our focus in this part of this book has been on your entire closet: how to detox it, how to improve it, and how to overhaul it piece by piece. But you can use the same tools and techniques you’ve learned in previous chapters to perfect just a small subsection of your closet: a capsule wardrobe.
The Curated Closet Page 10