Dress For Success: How to build a functional wardrobe
I experimented with how I dressed for work for a few months and I noticed the success of my experiment had been built on the previous efforts to rebuild my wardrobe (from scratch) a few years back. You cannot experiment with your wardrobe until you have a good foundation and intimacy with the clothes you currently own. And although you never finish editing your wardrobe, you should have a solid foundation to help you tackle changes and seasons. In part because of this realization, Dress for Success has evolved into a five-part series on how to create a wardrobe you can experiment with.
A functional wardrobe doesn’t imply the absence of whimsical, elaborate, and exciting clothes. Instead, it involves the careful consideration and balance of what you like and need. It can only exist after you have considered what you like to wear, why, and where you need to go.
I have split up the wardrobe edit into three phases: Purge, Organization, and Filling in the blanks. This newsletter covers preparing for and carrying out a wardrobe purge. In my next newsletter we will cover how to store what you have kept. (Some of you might want to consider assessing how much storage space you have before purging, to add a bit of realism to what you decide to keep.)
As part of this series, I am bringing back my advice column, “Questions that lead to a functional wardrobe” (previously called “Questions that lead to a better closet”). Submit any questions you have via this Google Form.
THE WARDROBE EDIT
The first edition of this newsletter is from four years ago. Since then I have learned a lot about creating a functional wardrobe and concluded that the guidelines must differ from my professional styling process with clients, because you do not have the same sensibilities or experience as I do. These steps are created from my observations of client behaviors, and notes I’ve taken over two years of rebuilding my own wardrobe.
Editing your wardrobe begins with deciding what to keep. You must know what you like, why you like it, and if it sparks joy (word to Marie Kondo).
This new guide contains three stages: the first familiarizes you with your wardrobe and its problems; the second has you start imagining your rebuilt wardrobe; the third is the purge. Each stage has multiple steps.