(Most of us only wear about 20 percent of the clothes in our closets.)
Planning the clothes you wear to work means you do not need a lot of clothes in your closet. What you do need are clothes that suit your personality, your physical type, suitable for your job and budget and fit your body and lifestyle.
Creating a workable wardrobe means starting with what you have. Lay your current wearable clothes from your closet on the bed or floor. Clothes you no longer wear are non-used clothes and only clutter up your closet. Those clothes that need some repair or adjustments should be put in a pile. Try on these clothes to find out why you aren't wearing them. Do they need to be repaired? Doesn't it fit? Could it be recycled into something else? Consider giving some new life to old clothes. Discard those clothes you don't plan to wear in another pile. Those garments may not fit you any more or are out of style. Maybe you can get together with friends and have an exchange or have a garage sale with the garments you no longer want.
The clothes you have left is your working wardrobe. Do you need to add any pieces? Can you sew? Do you have a friend that sews? Will you need to purchase any additional pieces? Can the garments you have left be mixed and matched with other garments?
The key to a working wardrobe is "mixing and matching" rather than collecting clothing items. Learn to mix and match different pieces to discover some "new" outfits in your wardrobe. Consider using one or two basic colors so mixing and matching will be much easier. It may consist of as few as eight pieces or as many as twenty pieces. For example: five pieces in a wardrobe could be a blue/white jacket, white skirt, blue pants, a blue/white print blouse and a white sleeveless sweater. From this you can mix and match and combine these pieces into at least twelve different combinations. A working woman may want to consider 12 items that can be mixed and matched into 40-50 different combinations.
Consider "wardrobe accessories" that you have in your closet. They include belts, scarves, jewelry, hair ornaments, shoes and purses. Wardrobe accessories add flair, uniqueness and personality to the basic parts of your wardrobe.
Depending on your activities, you need clothes for your job, being with friends, indoor/outdoor activities and other events in your life. Think where you spend your time, the climate in which you live, and what you enjoy doing. The clothes you have should take you to the activities where you need to go and want to go, giving you a feeling of well-being.
Build your wardrobe around basic styles. Choose fabrics that can be worn in more than one season and have small fabric designs. Wear colors you like that can be used together, garments that can be mixed and matched, and quality garments that will wear well.
As you take control of your clothes, remember to create outfits, not garments. Don't make or buy a garment or an accessory unless the clothing item has a definite place in your clothing wardrobe. Instead of saying "I don't have a thing to wear," your clothing lets you "have a thing to wear" wherever you want to go!
Clothing Planning Challenge Activity
Activity One - The purpose of this activity is to see how many outfits you can create from this woman's clothing collection. It consists of a jacket, a two piece dress, an A-line skirt, a sweater, a sweatshirt, a knit top, a pair of jeans and three accessory items. Using the numbers by each garment, put different pieces together to make a complete outfit. Example: 1+3+4. You should be able to come up with approximately 20 different outfits. How many were you able to create?
Activity Two - From your closet, select three tops (one could be a jacket) and two bottoms like a skirt and a pair of pants that can be mixed and matched together. How many outfits can you make from those five pieces? Look at the chart below how to do this activity. The X's mean you wear those pieces together.
Using the chart below, list your garments in the boxes on the top line.
How many outfits were you able to create?
3 to 4 Good
5 to 6 Very Good
7 to 8 Great!!
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