Let’s face it: we all have clothes that we’d like to wear more. We want style, we want variety and yet, time and again, we fall short of fulfilling this dream of ours, despite relentless new purchases that are meant to [finally] fix the problem. The truth is we don’t need more items. We don’t even need less items. Chances are we already have what we need in terms of clothes & accessories. What we lack though, is a strategy to put them together in outfits that work for us and make us feel great and true to ourselves.
This article aims to give you 5 tips on why you are getting your style strategy wrong and what you can do to bring it back on track. So, here are the top reasons why your closet doesn’t work for you.
Wrong Expectations
The first reason you might not be happy with the way your outfits work is the fact you are comparing your selfies to the glamorous photos of top influencers, celebrities or other VIP personalities. Don’t get misguided by their glossy looks: those people rely on them to earn a living. For them good looks are a source of income and they invest heavily to look polished or “casual” in a well-measured degree. Also, don’t get distracted by the “effortless” look mantra. Remember, it takes a lot of effort to reach the point where you can look effortlessly stylish with ease and grace.
Impatience
Wanting it all here and now. This strategy actually slows you down instead of speeding up the process of learning how to dress the way you want and how to do it fast and efficiently. Each new piece takes time to get to know. It needs to settle in your mind that you own it. It requires at least a few wears for you to understand how it fits, how warm it is, how well it combines with what you already have, to name a few. So, in regard with the number of wardrobe pieces, less is more.
Careless Shopping
Let’s face it: you most likely don’t really need any new items based on true physical need. You “need” a new item because you’d like to have it. We often add new pieces with the excuse we don’t have anything like this. Instead of bringing up excuses based on the price, uniqueness, attractiveness or great fit of the item, simply ask yourself whether you will really wear this. Even if this denim jacket really has everything you want to see in a denim jacket, will reach often enough for it to say that your cost per wear for it has fallen to $1 USD or less?
Role Models
Women, more than men, tend to follow role models. You like someone on Instagram and you start to imitate her looks. Why not, you ask yourself. She looks great in what she wears and I have the same body shape. Besides, I like her style. This logic conceals several crucial truths:
- The fact you LIKE her style doesn’t mean this is YOUR style.
- She might look like you as a body frame but her body proportions or skin tone could be entirely different.
- What you might mostly like in her photos is her lifestyle, the scenery, her great hair, her entire aura: nothing that could be achieved through way of dressing.
Your Three Style Words
A popular concept when working on your style is to choose the three words that describe most precisely the way you dress. It is widely-recognized as an effective strategy and rightly so. Too often we add items or style outfits with the idea that we’ve seen this on someone and it looked great or that we “might” actually wear this on a date out, to the opera or at the opening ceremony of the school year for the kids. How many dates out did you have last month? One. How often do you go to the opera? Once every two years. And the last time you couldn’t attend the opening of the kids’ school year. Applying your style words to every outfit you create or item you buy is a guarantee that you you’ll end with more conventional outfits/items that you can wear on a daily basis and less with “special occasion” entries, which you “might” wear and do so once every three months.
We have just presented you a brief review of five popular reasons why you might not be wearing the items of your wardrobe as much as you do. As always, we invite you to use your UByDesign digital wardrobe app to track cost per wear for items, style outfits that you actually wear and sort the items per wear frequency. Those valuable statistics would help you see what value you are actually getting out of your wardrobe, what are the pieces that you truly love and which are the outfits that make you say WOW in front of the mirror.