Wardrobe Taming — Day Four

Wardrobe taming series:
Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five Day Six Day Seven Day Eight

Woohoo! Day four! I hope you’re all beginning to feel the benefits of taming your wardrobe!

Your fourth task is to talk to someone else about your wardrobe & clothing choices. If you can, pick someone who knows you well, & whose style you respect or admire! It doesn’t have to be today, any time that the two of you can get together is fine. While you speak to them, whip out your clothing journal & start jotting down the things they say. Pretend you are an intrepid style reporter or fashion spy. You get the picture!

Some questions to ask them:

How would you describe my style?
What is the best thing you’ve seen me wear?
Do I make terrible fashion faux pas?
How can you picture my style evolving over the next two years?
Whose style would you compare mine to?
What one thing could I do to improve my overall look?

The next thing to do is drag them into your bedroom, & ask them to pick something for you to wear tomorrow. Ideally it should be something from your piles of stuff that you never wear. This is always an interesting exercise, since having a fresh pair of eyes running over your wardrobe can be quite amazing. Your friend will probably find something you haven’t even looked at in three years. When my friend Ana was staying with me, we once spent five hours (!) going through my wardrobe, getting dressed & undressed, & trying new things. It was totally illuminating.

Now that your friend has chosen the item, discuss the ways it could be styled — would you wear it with a hat, stockings, big shoes, ballet flats, a scarf, huge sunglasses, a corsage? For extra points & a gold star, coordinate it with other items from your piles of unworn clothing!

While you have your stylish, awesome friend held captive, take the opportunity to ask them what they plan on wearing this season, what their style obsessions are, & if they have any new style icons. Hopefully this will spark some fabulous responses in your own imagination, & help give you a style angle for the next few months.

Again today, & not to be totally predictable, I’d like you to try wearing another one of your typically unworn items, & make notes on how it makes you feel & other ways you could style it in the future.

P.S. If, this week, you have tried wearing things that are the wrong size, colour, shape, or just make you unhappy & uncomfortable, I want you to put them into another pile. If you feel that this stack needs a name, perhaps the name could be “Argh!”. We’ll deal with this soon!