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Wardrobe basics - Part 1
 I
AGREE WITH style experts who say women wear only 20% of their
clothing 80% of the time. Naïve, carefree, single and
having more disposable income then I would impulsively buy
(especially during sale) clothes, shoes, bags and other accessories
that would catch my fancy -- regardless of its color, style,
quality, and compatibility to my existing wardrobe. My cabinet
would overflow with a mix of the few overused and often-used
pieces and the innumerable outdated, ill-fitting or poor quality
clothes I have rarely worn. Sighing and wondering why I feel
like I have nothing to wear, I would buy more pieces and the
cycle of wasting more money would go on!
Luckily, I came across books of style consultants and I learned
these time-consuming but simple, thought-provoking but enjoyable
steps to building a better and economical wardrobe:
1. Analyze your lifestyle.
Do you mostly spend your time in the office, outdoors, or
at home? Define what activities take up most of your time
and the type and amount of clothes required for each. Spend
your money on the clothes you wear most often. If you are
an office worker, buy more quality office attire rather than
wear the same drab set over and over again. Isn’t it
disheartening to buy very expensive clothes for parties or
other one-time events just to keep them in our closet for
years?
It is said that the real cost of an item is its price divided
by the number of times you wear it. If your closet is full
of rarely worn clothes, just compute how much money you wasted!
2. Weed your closet
Assign a weekend for your closet-attack. Get rid of clothes
you haven’t worn in decades, those that don’t fit
you, and those with colors and styles you bought in a shopping
trance. Leave in your closet clothes you wear most of the
time and those you wear for special occasions.
Weed also your underwear, bra and hosiery drawers! Throw
away those, which have lost their shape, elasticity or form.
Even a million dollar dress will look distasteful with sagging
underwear or loose bra straps.
Throw away your 100 cheap and over-worn undies, bras and
stockings, and make do with the remaining 10 of each, which
are more than you’ll really need at any one time.
3. Make an inventory
Now that more than half of your clothes are out of your closet,
make a chart of the remaining. How many and in what color
and fabric of the following do you have: short/long/medium
length skirts, slacks, jeans, dresses, blouses, tees, blazers,
cocktail dresses, underwear, and brassieres? This list will
prove useful in assessing future shopping priorities, e.g.
with already 3 white blouses, you would make a pass in buying
that beautiful white silk blouse on that window display and
instead buy a light blue one (which color you don’t have
yet) to match your khaki slacks and white skirt.
The list will also tell you, at a glance, how to mix and
match your blouses to your blazers and to your slacks, etc.
that next time you’re planning what to wear, you need
not open your closet.
More next issue. *
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