Closet case

One of my life goals is to create a wardrobe that is timeless, where all my clothes fit, coordinate with one another, and will wear for years. Sure, it makes me sound superficial, but I will admit that I do like clothes and I do care what I look like. Feeling good about how I look gives me confidence. It's not so much about looking good, it's more about feeling good. But they do depend a little on each other.

I wrote a post in one of my online forums in response to a girl wanting help with her overflowing closet of clothes. She said that she has too many clothes, yet nothing to wear. She wants to minimize her wardrobe, yet still have outfits that look good. I think many of us share this. Just flipping through a Real Simple magazine, there are shots of people wardrobes that look immaculate. Everything is well organized. There aren't too many pieces of clothing there. Plus, everything looks like they would match with each other. Sure, it's a magazine shot so it's artfully arranged to look pleasing to us readers. But you know there are people out there who have closets that look like this. I want to be one of them! I'm slowly on my way.

To be honest, I must say that my wardrobe is looking pretty good. I took some photos this morning of our "his and her" Ikea armoires. They are fairly organized and not too very cluttered. Sure, the rest of our place is a mess, especially my work area, but from these photos, you can't tell.



Tom and I share two armoires. Most of his clothes are stored on the lefthand armoire; most of mine are in the right. Now, open up the RH armoire and you will see all my clothes hanging. There is a shelf on top where my purses are stored in a round, light blue hatbox suitcase. Many of my scarves and cold weather accessories are stored in the little red floral suitcase. There are two pullout drawers. The top one has Tom's clothes in it. My tops are in the lower drawer. On the bottom shelf are two zippered covered boxes. Tom's LH box holds boxers, tees, and jammies. I have zippered hoodies in mine.



The clothing rod and upper shelf in the LH armoire are for Tom's clothes. There is a shallow, pull-out draw that holds Tom's dress socks, belts, handkerchiefs, and other accessories. My belts are also there. There is a pant hanger shelf which pulls out on the lower half of the armoire. Tom's pants hang there as well as my pants (on the right side).

I'd like to say that all our clothes fit in there, but that is not true. I have two underbed storage boxes that hold jammies, slips, and other miscellaneous things. I have two Rubbermaid-like boxes that hold my runnings clothes. I have a drawer that holds underwear. Tom also has an underbed storage box for his sweaters. He has his cold-season running clothes along with our snow clothes in another rubbermaid-like box. Our jackets are in another armoir in the hall (our loft only has one built-in closet, and that has been transformed into Yoshi's "bedroom"). Our shoes are on a shelf in the hall, next to the coat armoire.

Now onto the actual clothing.

A while ago I created a clothing wish list with categories like: tops, pants, skirts, sweaters, jackets, shoes. I would ideally have several neutral colors of each item, like a brown sweater, black sweater, and white/ecru sweater. Hmm... actually I do have all those sweaters in those colors. Yay, scratch that off my list.

My tees that I have now are pretty much the same style. I bought a bunch of them when they were on clearance at Club Monaco for like 7 bucks each. Most are in neutral colors, but I do have a bright pink shirt that I love and wear a lot.

It helps to know what colors look good on you, and what color combinations look good together. For instance, I have a pair of pants each in charcoal, black, brown, and one pair of jeans. Most of my tops will coordinate with at least three of these pants, like my said pink shirt will match with all three, and I can top it off with one of my sweaters. I almost always pair brown and blue together. Brown goes very well with many colors. I find that black is more difficult to match because it's easy to create a too harsh of a contrast with colors, although sometimes this is the effect you want to make.

I have button down dress shirts in black, white, and a print. I'm currently on the hunt for one in brown and light blue.

I'd like to get some basic skirts. Almost all the ones I have have been knit or sewn by me, but they aren't really suitable as businesswear, which is what I need more of.

Underwear. I am devoted to Calvin Klein, especially the hipster/brief style. I get the good deals at the outlets. I have only 4 bras (sports bras not included). If you know me, you know I am not, ahem, well endowed in the chestal region, so I can often get away with just a cami with build in shelf bra under a shirt. I have five of those: black, white, pink, orange, and green polkadot. Great for layering, too.

My weakness are coats and jackets. I love them. One of the main reasons I want to move back to SF is so I will have an excuse to buy them. It's usually too warm for me here in the East Bay to necessitate a coat or jacket. Poo. I will usually wear a blazer though when it's chilly.

Okay, another weakness is running gear. New running clothes, shoes, accessories give me motivation to run. I store my running bottoms in one box, running tops in another. They mostly all match so it doesn't matter what I grab.

Shoes, for me, is always complicated. I would love to have not too many pairs of shoes, but it seems too difficult for me. I'm trying to only buy shoes that are comfortable for me (gotta be able to chase after my toddler), but I really want them to look good too. Being a runner (or at least trying to be), I can't afford to get my feet jacked up from wearing ill-fitting high heels. So, at the moment, the shoes I have now are: 2 pairs running shoes, 1 pair casual sneakers, brown boots, black boots, black pumps, black strappy heels, red strappy heels, brown low heels, pink flats, black loafers. Good quality shoes will last a long time. I've had those black strappy heels for five or six years. When the soles get worn I will just get them resoled.

I do have a few pieces of trendy-ish clothing in my wardrobe, but those are clothes that I made myself. I don't like to buy trendy clothes because I know they'll go out of style or I'll end up looking like the person next to me, or worse yet, a mannequin standing in a store window. I try to use accessories to jazz up my outfits. Scarves are great and versatile; I tie them in my hair, or around my neck, or as a belt. I love knitting my accessories. They make for quick projects and I feel good wearing them. My earrings are usually pretty simple, usually gold or silver, and I usually alternate between 3 pairs. My necklaces are usually more funky, but still, I only have a few. Wearing accessories, along with a good haircut, really will pull your look together, no matter what you wear.

For those of you who want to streamline your wardrobe, go through your closet and clear out all the clothes that don't fit or you don't like. Host a clothing exchange with your friends (drink some wine too!), sell, or donate them. Figure out how to maximize each piece of clothing you do keep, try different clothing combinations, see what works and what does. Then make a list of some essentials that you want, and go from there! When I go to a clothing store, I don't buy anything unless I know it will go with my other clothes at home and that I'll still want to wear it years from now. And it must fit well, even if it's a 2 dollar shirt from a thrift store. If it doesn't fit, no matter how inexpensive, it's still a waste of money for me because I know I'll end either up not wearing it or always feeling uncomfortable when I do.