May 3, 2019
I’ve been asked this a couple of times in the last few days – what do I do when I really have no idea where to start with my wardrobe?
Years ago I tried to think of how one could start a wardrobe from scratch; I think that my ideas might still be useful…
First up, I want our heroine to have some unifying inspiration to get her started; she’s not stuck with this for the rest of her life, but it will at least help her focus her initial choices:
I can’t emphasize this idea of mine enough – if you struggle to get dressed, make certain that you have a really GOOD, basic, neutral pair of pants. No studs, no embroidery, nothing that will make it difficult to wear your pants with all kinds of things…
And shoes. She needs good shoes!
So with warm weather coming on (in theory, in the Northern Hemisphere), a lovely pair of fluid, below-the-knee pants with nice ballet flats will make a good start:
silk pants – Eileen Fisher; flats – Paul Green
Adding in a cardigan and top gets our heroine to one outfit that she can absolutely count on…
Cardigan – Eileen Fisher; tank top – Lands’ End
If your dressy pants are TOO dressy, or your tank top is too “cool,” jeans and a long-sleeved shirt are what you need…
Jeans – Lands’ End; shirt – 1901
Five pieces of clothing doesn’t seem like much, but if our heroine is really struggling to get dressed, this might help her a lot!
When you’re a heroine struggling with your wardrobe, it might seems that you want to buy more clothing… But I’m going to lobby for the efficacy of getting some beautiful accessories in hand, in order to bring some life to your core wardrobe:
bracelet – Rituu Agarwal; earrings – Kendra Scott; scarf – Kate Spade New York; bag – Allsaints; watch – Olivia Burton; socks – Darner Socks
It could take quite a while to get all of these pieces together, but even just this small wardrobe will give our heroine enough options to quit struggling when she wants to dress nicely…
When time and finances permit, our heroine is going to branch out to her 2nd neutral – dark grey. Her new grey pieces can, of course, be worn with the black things she already owns:
tunic – Eileen Fisher; sleeveless top – Eileen Fisher; scarf – Louise Coleman
Depending on what her life requires, our heroine could replace these pants with a skirt…
cardigan – Eileen Fisher; pants – Eileen Fisher; loafers – Dr. Scholl’s
deep breath…
Now, our heroine might be able to use a couple more tops, in a new accent color, and even (holy moley!) a print!
brown tee – American Vintage; necklace – Silvia Garcia; floral shirt – Caliban
Even if our heroine never went past these 11 garments, and assorted accessories, she has assembled for herself a nice core wardrobe for business and social activities:
That said, I’m going to add onto this wardrobe on Monday!
love,
Janice
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i read for a week before attempting my own. My goal is full “suits” to mix and match. Two weeks ago I stumbled on a lovely jeans-fabric-look jacket for my jeans-fabric-look boot-cut slacks and skirt. That puts my total of “suits” to five. Waiting to stumble on the jacket I need for number six. My basics color wheel will be complete. charcoal, wine, navy, mid-blue, teal, khaki.
So happy that you pulled in the warm brown – I love cognac brown with gray ….
Since I have lost 55 pounds, I have truly had to start over from scratch! Only my shoes still fit me, nothing else at all! I am a homeschool mom, so do not have much need for business clothes though of course some are always useful! Would love to see a wardrobe that is geared more for cleaning, cooking, or running around town to the grocery store and music lessons!
Or a super casual but creative workplace.
Your advice hit home today. I realized just a week ago that not-the-right-pants was a problem. And that shoes and basic plain tops were too worn. The Louise Coleman scarf is exquisite, I wouldn’t have found it without your blog.
This is very timely for me as I may need to rebuild my “work wardrobe” a bit. After two years of total retirement I’ve gone back to what I thought would just be a very casual PT position but one that now seems to be expanding.
I’m ok to get through a casual summer period but will probably have to look at investing in a few more formal pieces come the Fall. This is a good reminder of what to do so that I can keep purchases to a minimum. I already have my colour scheme set (navy, white & pink) so that also helps me to focus. I look forward to seeing your additions to this “starter” wardrobe.
Beautiful work of art and useful post. Stacey London suggests buying a whole outfit at once. I don’t do that, but I do hang a whole outfit together so I can grab and go. It helped me to think about an outfit I feel great in and then duplicate it in other colors. A uniform if you will. Now if only I could find dress pants I like/fit!
Love this, Janice – thanks so much!
I love this scarf and it would work for me because of the dominant gray colors, however, i’d have to find a substitute for the brown clothes. I look good in taupe or gray browns, but I don’t think they would provide enough pop of color against gray or black like the cognac brown. I guess I could limit it to accessories like shoes and bags.
Sud, could you substitute burgundy for the brown?
Yeah, burgundy could work, but I mainly wear that color in the colder months. Maybe, a slightly lighter, softer burgundy.
I require all pants have functional pockets, as all men’s pants. Why isn’t this a fashion standard?
Amen!!!
hugs,
Janice
my mom always brought her slacks to an alterations place to have pockets added. I’ve done that with various garments as well. – nancyo
Thanks for this great review of your “How to build a wardrobe from scratch” series! I look forward to Monday’s additions to this wardrobe!
I’m curious if sometime in the future you could expand more on this “nothing that will make it difficult to wear your pants with all kinds of things…” and related concepts about interchangeability of items.
Specifically, I love your “Whatever’s Clean” wardrobes, but when I try to pull one together from my own wardrobe (which is very tightly coordinated color wise) I end up with a lot of silhouette issues. This shirt works color wise with that skirt and those pants, but the waistline of the pants won’t work with the shirt at all. This sweater looks beautiful next to all of my shirts, but when I put them on together half of the shirts are too bulky to be worn underneath the sweater without looking lumpy. That cardigan is beautiful with all my bottoms, but it hits at awkward lengths if paired with a top that’s too short or too long. And so forth.
I *love* those posts and would really enjoy your advice for making clothes “work” together in these capsules when shape or design is the issue rather than color. Is there an easy way to unify the general silhouettes when I’m adding something new to my wardrobe?
I also have a lot of these sorts of problems! Even when the colors go together, often the clothes don’t work together.
Just my $.02: have you identified a formula or silhouette recipe that works for you? For example, my go-to silhouette is “long over lean”. Since I know that formula works for me, I can then shop for the broad category of clothes mentioned above that fit that silhouette. So, instead of the adorable short cardis that Janice sometimes features, I look for that category (topper) in a style that works better for me (long, slightly structured) and I decide before I buy if my shirt/blouse will lie comfortably underneath. Likewise, cropped pants are not my preference, but good fitting pants in a style that suits my recipe are what I look for.
Not to say I don’t make mistakes, but shopping by color or silhouette alone always gets me into trouble with closet orphans.
Thanks for letting me spout!!
Thanks chris in indy for the suggestion, I’m having the same problems V and Kim mentioned of colors synced but clothes not flattering or interchanging well with one another silhouette-wise.
The reminder to keep a personal style in mind helps to stay focused on top of following a color scheme. Janice also addresses this in the longer version of this from scratch series with reminders to assess personal preference, check the roadmap. I’m still working on this!
Thank you. Barbara
This is often an issue for me as well. I find that on me tops that look right with skirts/dresses don’t really work for when I wear pants. This applies to jackets and sweaters as well, so if I am packing a tight capsule, I often leave out skirts and dresses. Shoes are tricky as well; often mine go best either with pants or with skirts/dresses. – nancyo
Chris in indy, that’s great advice! Like nancyo, though, my issue is often one of skirts/dresses vs pants. I’ve been adding a lot more skirts and dresses to my wardrobe lately, and, even though the general style feel is the same and the silhouettes are roughly similar, they don’t really work with the same items that my pants did. It’s one of many issues I have with making pieces interchangeable, but the pants vs. skirts thing is a definite factor.
I always enjoy the refresher course I receive when you review this process.
I think it’s time to ‘shop my closet’ and see what kind of shape my basics are in.
Janice,
Similar to Susan Menzmer above, I am shedding some lbs. and as I do so, I am shopping my closet from the formerly too small clothes, with keeping an eye on an overall “ formula” for
having mix and match options ! I have always loved how you break down your thinking process into simple templates or formats to ponder, digest, and apply to our own color schemes ! This current post would also be a wonderful thought process for packing, which is always just a thought away !
Gotta’ start with the pants and shoes, as that is hardest to fit for me !
I loved the starting from scratch series, so a revisit in colors that are closer to my wardrobe is a treat. I know this will be one beautiful and super functional wardrobe. Quite timely, too, as I am in the process of losing weight and will need to start renewing my wardrobe very soon. Good news is, that since I’ve listened to you, I have plenty of lovely accessories that will always work no matter my size.
My life at the moment is rather casual, but since my heart loves a bit more polish, I dress that way. There is no law against wearing pearls for running errands, and instead of totally blending in one can look execptionally lovely…
I second the difficulty with interchangeability of silhouettes! This alone is the main reason I can never seem to make a capsule work.
Hi Janice, It was a fantastic article I have read so far about creating a wardrobe capsule from scratch. Lots of love from India.
I have only one doubt which is very basic. Could you please tell me the precise app or online tool to create these clothes clusters ? Also how and where to gather apparels like tops, cardigans, pants, jeans, accessories without any background (and with transparent background) so as to create clothes cluster ?
Your response will really help me as I’m a practicing Image consultant working on Vegan and Sustainable Fashion. Thank you :)
I use PowerPoint! I can resize images, move them around, remove the backgrounds, and then convert each image to any “image” type file I need. Really pretty simple…
regards,
Janice