The Second Step in Wardrobe Planning

The Very Small Closet Wardrobe Planning Process Continued....

Before we dive into the second step of wardrobe planning, let’s briefly review the First Step. The first step involves pulling from your closet your “best of the best” which will become the anchor pieces in your new wardrobe. These anchor pieces must meet the four criteria of being a) clothes that you love, b) wear frequently, c) look great in, and d) are in good repair.

After you’ve pulled these garments from your closet, you want to take a moment and assess exactly why these clothes are your best of the best. You are trying to discover a common theme amongst them, so that you can more easily repeat these choices later on.

Next you went through your closet and removed all the clothes that you plan to give away. And finally, you organized the remaining clothes in your closet by type.

With that refresher behind us, let’s get started on Step Two.

The first thing you will want to do is print out a copy of the VSC Wardrobe Planning Worksheet.  The worksheet has spaces for creating the twelve outfits that will be the core of your new wardrobe. In this system of wardrobe planning, there are spaces for six bottoms and twelve tops. Each bottom, be it a pair of pants or a skirt, is paired with two different tops. The “top” consists of all the elements that you’d wear together, be it a twin set or blouse and blazer. The top coordinates perfectly with the bottom, both in terms of silhouette and in color.

Building your wardrobe in this way allows you to buy pieces that go together perfectly, and look fantastic together. Bottoms usually last longer than tops, require less cleaning, and are less memorable, which means you can get more wear out of them. If you have 6 bottoms, you wear each one once a week, with one “spare” to rotate in for variety and for when you have to take things to the cleaners. Each bottom has two tops, creating two outfits. So, each outfit is worn once every two weeks. Do you think this is too often? Well, lets think seasonally. If each season (we’ll break it down evenly just for demonstration) is 13 weeks, each outfit will be worn approximately only seven times in a season. And…the outfits are not just recombinations of the same, tired ten pieces over and over again. Neat, huh? See how few clothes you can get by with?

Now, go through and add each of your anchor pieces into a slot on the worksheet.

Concerning blazers, sweaters, and other layering pieces: Generally speaking, you may use a blazer/sweater/layering piece with two different outfits. Perhaps you’ve bought a three-piece suit consisting of trousers, skirt, and jacket. You can either use the jacket with one of your pants outfits and one of your skirt outfits, or you can use the jacket with either both your pants outfits or both your skirt outfits. Using the jacket for more than two outfits means that you will be wearing it more than once a week. However, you do NOT need (nor would I recommend) that you have a different jacket or sweater for each outfit.

As you are going through this process of wardrobe planning, you may decide that you want to use all of your “a” outfits as your favorite combos, and your “b” outfits as your second favorites. Or maybe it’s the two outfits created from bottom #6 that you decide are going to be your “backup” outfits…or maybe your more casual outfits. It’s up to you as you go along!

Once all your anchor pieces have found a spot on the worksheet, add a star next to them to identify these pieces as anchors.

Now it’s time to identify what you need to complete your wardrobe. Do you have an anchor sweater that needs a pair of pants? What style of pant would go with this sweater best? You have an anchor pair of pants that is fabulous, but no top to go with them? Time to shop your own closet!

Remember how you organized everything in your closet by type? Ah-Hah! This is why! If you need a pair of pants to go with your anchor sweater, look through the pants that you have in your closet and see if you already have a pair that would work perfectly. Keep in mind that you want to steer your choices, whenever possible, to the items that fit within the color scheme and style persona you have determined for yourself. In the beginning phases of wardrobe planning it is not always possible or desirable to rigidly stick to these choices…rather they are a goal to work towards.

If there isn’t a pair that is perfect, is there something that will make do until you get the perfect pair? If so, pull it out -- but instead of putting a star next to it on the worksheet, put a “T” for temporary.

Once you’ve got complete outfits for your anchor pieces, go through your closet and see if you can fill in the remaining holes on your worksheet. Again, attempt to make choices based on your previously decided color scheme and style persona.

Depending on the size and condition of your wardrobe previously, you may find that you can fill in all the spots in your template, even if a great many of the pieces are “T”s. But you may end up with some real holes. These are the first pieces you will need to shop for.

Congratulations! You’ve just created an awesome new pared-down wardrobe for yourself! So now you are left wondering: what do I do with all the clothes that remain in my closet?

Take one last ruthless look through of these clothes still remaining. Are there some there that you know you should give away? Remember…you only want the clothes that make you feel great every time you wear them. The fact that these clothes were NOT selected as anchor items or even pulled for temporary additions does mean something.

Remove all the remaining clothes from your closet and replace them with your “new” wardrobe. You will need to find a temporary space to house the leftover clothing until you’ve completed Step Three. Make sure you keep these remainders entirely separate from your new wardrobe. You want to begin to live in your new pared down wardrobe, and these other clothes will make the adjustment period difficult.

Next time we will cover the third step…auxiliary capsules.

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