Sometimes I forget that the very best store is right under my nose… my own closet.
I take my wardrobe for granted… guilty as charged… I neglect it, walk right past all the hours of thought and the legwork that I have put into collecting favourite pieces.
I am so often tempted by what is ‘new’, forgetting that what is ‘old’ can be exactly the same… and dare I say it… better…
Sorting out the wardrobe and streamlining the best pieces is probably an art that is not practiced very often.
I don’t know about you, but I find that I am very habitual when it comes to dressing.
If ‘this goes with that and that goes with this’ I repeat the pattern and wear what is easy and what I know works well together. I get lazy… and so does the clothing in the back of the wardrobe or at the bottom of the drawer…
I love accessories… yet I stick with the same couple of scarves and trot the same handbag out day after day… it’s not that I don’t have choices at home… It’s the same with the shoes… the same pair get worn over and over again…
I won’t rummage in the closet for a new look… I blame the fact that I don’t have time or that I am too busy… yet I will spend hours looking online or browsing in the stores for that perfect new piece.
Creatively it is so much easier to start afresh than revisit what is outmoded… in our minds at least.
How do we ‘shop’ our own closets?
Become re-acquainted with your clothing… Know what is in the wardrobe. It is surprising what we forget…
Take everything out… cupboard by cupboard, rack by rack and drawer by drawer… Re-arrange the sweaters, the tees, the blouses… the belts, bags and shoes…
Try it on… even the pants that haven’t been worn for years… or the blouse that you were never sure about. We change and our tastes change… maybe those items are now back in fashion… or perhaps we look differently at them… and in them….
Mix up colour combinations. Start seeing the brights with the all black… or if colour is your ‘go to’… try an all black ensemble…. or search out your neutrals…
Swap the prime positions in the closet… so that what was on the back burner… for ‘another day’… becomes front of house… Those shoes that were being saved for a special occasion… make today that day… (I am so guilty of that one… )
Check out favourite fashion magazines and online sites… find the look… and then shop your own closet… I tried that the other day when I was writing about pencil skirts… I found one that was entirely neglected… totally forgotten… and just what I was looking for…
Most of us love a good shop… we just need to remember where to look… xv
