Finding your personal style and updating your closet
I’m on a journey to create my dream closet. For me that means, a closet of clothing I can wear on repeat and things I feel comfortable in that are easy to mix and match. In order to get to where I want to be, I’ve been giving more thought to my personal style and slowly updating my closet. I thought it might be useful to share my process with you as it can be difficult to know where to begin.
Try on everything you haven’t worn recently
Try on everything you haven’t worn in the past few months excluding seasonal pieces. Get rid of anything that no longer fits, is in poor condition and can’t be repaired or that you don’t feel comfortable in.
For everything you decide to keep figure out how you’ll style it with what you already have.
Figure out your colour palette
Open your closet and note down the most common colours. For me that would be black, grey and blue followed by pink and green. They are the colours I wear the most and feel best in.
If nothing stands out think back to the outfits you wear the most, what colours do they include?
What items do you wear the most and the least?
Note them down and see how much of your closet is made up of these pieces. I’m big on wearing long wide leg trousers, cropped trousers, blue jeans, round or roll neck jumpers, midi skirts, shorts and long sleeved blouses that are slightly oversized. In the past few years, I’ve also gotten into wearing t-shirts.
On the flipside, the clothing I wear the least is dresses, mini skirts and generally anything too figure hugging. I struggle to find dresses that fit my body in a way that I like and short skirts just aren’t practical for me.
I generally don’t like clothing that draws attention to the shape of my body and instead much prefer slightly oversized clothing. If I do wear a tight top, I’ll tend to layer something over it so that I feel less exposed.
Sometimes I fall into buying items that I like but don’t feel totally comfortable in because I’m trying to experiment with something different. However, those items tend to stay in my closet unworn and then I get rid of them within a year.
Think about how you’d describe your style
Topshop used to have a personal style quiz where you answer questions and it gives you a category that your style falls into, then shows outfits and items that suit your style. It was a great starting point for some initial inspiration. However, you can easily just google something like ‘personal style quiz’ as a starting point to define your style.
I’d also recommend looking on Pinterest and creating a personal style board based on what you actually wear not what you would want your style to be.
With regard to style inspiration, there isn’t currently anyone. However, Sara Crampton was probably the first person who inspired me to embrace a stripped back colour palette. Felicity Porter the main character in what was once my favorite show has also been a major inspiration. Felicity wore a lot of plain clothes: blue jeans, long sleeves shirts/blouses, trainers, dark colours and oversized jumpers all of which are key items in my closet.
Over the past years of writing about shopping and personal style, I’ve learnt that at the core of my style is a need to feel comfortable and that comes from simplicity. My everyday style has gone from smart-casual to casual, I enjoy colour but prefer 80% of my clothing in black, grey and blue. I like being able to put outfits together with little effort (not having to think about whether the colours or patterns go together) and my style is fairly modest.
Once you’ve gathered together all your information, create a list of anything you want to add to your closet and don’t stray from it. Put it in the notes section of your phone or write it on paper. Whenever you’re shopping for new clothes refer to the list until everything is crossed off.
But don’t be in a rush, take your time to find quality pieces that you can keep long term. It might take a few months or it could take years. When I first did this, I was eager to complete my list but the more you try to rush it the more likely you are to buy things you don’t truly want.
I’ve really committed to working on my shopping habits so even when I have bought things in a rush or just because I felt like shopping, I’ll just end up returning what doesn’t align with my colour palette or the kind of things I usually wear.
My end goal is to only shop to replace items (rather than have shopping as a hobby, unless it’s just browsing) because as much as I enjoy shopping and fashion I shouldn’t feel the need to constantly buy new things when I have a closet full of clothes.
