By Josie Gudgeon
If I am being honest I do not have the prettiest most organized wardrobe, which I would choose for myself. However, this all comes down to money. As I am a university student I have to make the most out of what I have. Although I do not have the largest wardrobe with the maximum amount of sections to spread my clothing out. I have still managed to accumulate a large array of clothing.
However, I always manage to find myself saying the same old thing: “I have nothing to wear?”. Despite the fact, every time I open my wardrobe door clothing is slipping out. So many people have too many clothes, but nothing to wear? Me being one of them.
Our closets are supposed to be a collection of the best clothes on the market. Why? We spent hours searching for the best blouse, shirt, or piece of jewellery. So why can we still not figure out what outfit to pick when we’re going out?
Why you have nothing to wear:
Half of the time this is due to the inability to see what to wear due to the capacity of all your clothes. This is often the situation with my wardrobe and I find it a disaster looking for items. My clothes are so squashed that every time I pick an item out; I would have to iron them as they have emerged from the depths of other clothes. I have also been attempting to squeeze hangers into negative space, my shoes were in disarray and my socks were so single they’d signed up to Tinder.
For me I find myself to be a bit of a hoarder. I see the potential in everything. Doing a costume and textiles degree I see every piece of clothing as fabric or I believe that if I don’t like it I can just change it. But for me, it’s time! I never have time! So, everything just gets left in my wardrobe and I never get around to it. So, when it comes to throwing clothes away I find it hard to get rid of anything. I’m always finding something I love in all of them: colour, fabric, the sleeve detail… So, I give them chance after chance. Unless they’re completely ridiculous or I can’t get them to fasten – even then I’m still hanging on and thinking about the potential for fabric and what I could use it for.
The biggest problem is your wardrobe being too full. If you have too many clothing options, you’ll get overwhelmed and won’t be able to notice interesting outfit formulas. Every time it came to the weekend, I would frantically run from store to store trying to find something new to wear. Surprisingly, the more I buy and own the more I don’t have anything to wear. I kept wondering to myself “where are all my clothes going”.
The number one reason for us having nothing to wear, is we buy clothes that are not suitable for our lifestyle. So, just spending some time assessing your lifestyle will definitely eliminate many of the frustrations you have with your wardrobe.
How to edit your wardrobe:
If you are wanting to clear out your wardrobe I feel the best way to go about it is to sort your wardrobe into 6 piles. This may take a while but personally I feel this is the most efficient and achievable way to get a well-organized and wearable wardrobe.
Pile:1 Items not worn for two years
Pile:2 Items that are too big, small, over worn or damaged.
Pile:3 Special-occasion wear
Pile:4 Clothes that can be altered
Pile:5 Items for work
Pile:6 Items for daily life and weekends
Once you have sorted theses 6piles out it is good to make a bag of donation items to give to charity this can be the whole of pile one which is items you haven’t worn in 2years. if you haven’t worn an item in 2 years this generally means that you no longer like the style of it or it no longer suits my body shape. These are the perfect items to donate to charity as they may be perfect for someone else’s body shape. Some of pile2 can also go to charity but only the items which are no longer a perfect fit. The damaged good would better as scrap fabric for creative projects or useful for the clothes bank.
The clothes that you are saving to be altered can be taken out of your wardrobe and placed into your box to live under your bed or in some spare storage room. This then just leaves the clothes you do wear to be organized and sorted out in your wardrobe.
Organizing your wardrobe:
I feel it’s often good to take a strategy when organizing your wardrobe. I have many different methods and technique of ways in which you can organize your wardrobe you have to figure out the best way that suits you. My first strategy is organizing all the categories together. For example, all of the trousers together, all T-shirt together and so on. Making sure you hang all similar items together, will allow you to see more clearly what you have within each section. Then you’ll realize just how many of the same thing you have.
The second technique of organizing your wardrobe is to put the items of clothing in colour coordinated sections. This is really helpful for when you are putting outfits together you may know what tones and colours you are looking for in your outfit so this really narrows down your search.
My third and final technique is one that may seem a little strange. Usually, when you think of an organized closet, you think of putting your dresses with your dresses, or your pants with your pants. But in order to reinspire yourself with your old wardrobe and pieces you already own; try grouping your closet in outfits. Put together the tops with the trousers on the hanger. Making getting dressed and finding an outfit a whole lot easier.
Shopping for stuff to go in your wardrobe:
Depending on which wardrobe organizing technique suits you best then some of these shopping theories may apply more closely to one technique. However, they can all be successfully achieved despite your choice of organization method.
By organizing your wardrobe and being aware of how many of the same items you have got it can make you feel silly buying a duplication. When shopping, it is often good when you have picked out an item to think of your wardrobe and see if you can create outfits with this piece, this may seem radical, but instead of picking out stand-alone pieces that strike you as cute. You are choosing a piece that will build the foundations of your wardrobes clothing, being an element to many garment creations.
However, that concept is very similar to the principle of everything matching as we buy it. Because, if you buy one item that does not match then that leads you onto another. This continues in a cycle; in the end, you will be left with a wardrobe which nothing matching. It is thought that having as little as 18 items in your wardrobe that are all interchangeable is the ideal. This is a concept whereby you may have 7 tops 5 bottoms and 6 dresses. By switching the clothes up every day, changing which tops are paired with which bottoms it will create around 41 outfits. This should mean you will never have nothing to wear. As your outfits will always be changed up and varied.
Also, when shopping it is also good to keep in mind your colour palette. If you try to keep your wardrobe to a specific colour palate this will ensure all the clothing will suites your skin tone; making you more likely to wear it as you know it suits you. Not only that if everything is within a specific colour tone then everything will match allowing you to use the interchangeable method or easily pair outfits together.
Reasons why we buy more clothes:
One of the most common reasons we often feel like we have nothing to wear is because we open the wardrobe doors and see the same formulas and combinations staring back at us. In order to shake things up and tap into the potential of the items you already own, we need to de-clutter and downsize our wardrobes. I’m sorry to tell you all but more is not better than less!
Another key impact on why we continuously buy new clothes is media and online marketing. Online websites are constantly spamming our emails with promotional codes and offers, that seems just too tempting to resist. On social media, we get inundated with swanky pictures of gorgeous models, in nice new clothes. Clothes that we don’t have! Clothes that we obviously want because they’re different from ours. So, what do we do? we buy them. We probably enjoy wearing them for a day or two and then a week goes by and they just add to the pile. So, your back in the same situation your wardrobe has several new additions, your bank is X amount of money poorer and you still have nothing to wear. All you need now is to repeat the cycle a few more times. Then your searching for tips on how to sell your clothing so you won’t be poor.
However, clothing is used as a form of communication. We use clothes to express our personality and emotions. Often many people use clothing as comfort; it allows them to feel confident within themselves. Especially in the younger generation, people use clothing to gain popularity. Its seen as “cool” to be the first to have the latest trends and everyone is buying the same things as their friends.