wearing [your] clothing: second in the series

Presumably, you are still interested because you are still reading this series! Yay, I haven't lost you yet! Also, if you are back, I hope you have had some time to think about your clothes and what you wear. The next steps are some of my favorites.  A while back, I showed you my mood board, I think it was for fall or winter of last year. Now you get to see the process and hopefully I can convince you to make a few tear sheets of your own.  A mood board, for those who aren't familiar with the term, is a collection of images, fabric swatches, photos, and anything else that inspires you and your clothing choices assembled, collage style on a bulletin board. Tear sheets are what I call  the pages you rip out for inspiration.

Some of my Spring tear sheets.

Before you start ripping, you may have a little housecleaning to do. Remember when I said I was gonna go back to your closet? Well, I may have lied a little. I am going to go back to your closet a few times.  This time is for organization.

Step One:  Only deal with the current season. If it is transitioning from Winter to Spring, go a head and start to pare down. For example, I took out all the heavy, heavy sweaters, wool sweater dresses, dark scarves, and anything that just seemed a bit too visually "wintry" for March. I did leave lightweight merino sweaters that layer on those chilly but sunny or just plain cold spring days. Likewise with the scarves.

Step Two: Organize your clothes so you can see what you have. If that means hauling it out of the closet, I am sorry, but take an afternoon and do it. You will be glad in the long run to have really looked at everything. I organize by color, but you could organize by type of clothing or a combination of the two.

Step Three: Look at your newly organized closet and be proud! Fix yourself a drink and sit down with a stack of your newest mail order catalogs.

*** A note about catalogs vs. fashion magazines:  I use catalogs instead of magazines for a few reasons. First they are free and since I am planning on tearing them up, I don't feel like I am ripping up dollar bills. Second, they are blatantly trying to sell things, instead of cramming "articles" between advertisements, I like honesty. Thirdly, I like to identify with the models, and mostly, the highly stylized shoots in magazines leave me cold.

*** A second note about catalogs: In case you are wondering the catalogs I use most are Garnet Hill, Anthropologie, J.Crew, Boden, Free People, Toast, and Sundance Catalog.

Step Four: As you peruse your catalogs, dog ear your favorite pages or if you want to skip ahead, tear them out and start a stack.

 If you have a decent size stack of pictures and you are bored, stop. and proceed to step six. If not, repeat a few times over the course of a few weeks or months until you feel amply inspired. Ooh, and in case I forgot to mention it, save anything else that inspires you, or take a picture of it. A piece of lace, a ball of string, a button, a card, a photo, anything that makes you think about what you want to wear.

Step Five: Look for patterns in your pictures and sort them into piles.  This spring my piles included, white lace, rolled-up baggy jean cut-off shorts, stripes, easy layers, vintage florals, long maxi length skirts,  aviator sunglasses, stacked bracelets, and easy shift dresses.

Step Six: Here comes the fun part, compare you lists and pictures with that beautifully organized closet. Do they match up in places? Do you already have everything on your list or are there holes? A lot of holes or only a few? In my closet there has been some serious upheaval as I changed sizes between this year and last. It has left some gaps but I also try look for patterns in my seasonal "wish lists" to know whether or not I will actually wear the clothes I am drooling over in the pretty pictures.  For example, come warmer weather, I ALWAYS gravitate towards white and cream lace. Usually of the eyelet, Battenberg, and crocheted varieties. Skirts, shirts, dresses, scarves lots and lots of white lace. So when I looked at my tear sheets I wasn't surprised to see lots of styles that featured white lace. Likewise with the stripes, aviators, bracelets, and dresses.These are things I know I will wear because I already do. They are things that may need updating or replacing. But mainly these pictures serve as fresh inspiration for wearing clothes I already have. New favorites were the jean shorts and maxi length skirts. These are things that I want to try out and see how they work for me, meaning, I don't want to spend a lot of money on them.

In case you are feeling intimidated with your wish list or discouraged, let me cheer you up! First, it isn't that bad, your closet has much more than you think. Second, this is just the beginning, I will take you through my steps for paring down, donating, and getting rid of the clothes that just aren't perfect and then we will go through my steps for finding those pieces on your wish list in affordable (read "really inexpensive") ways.

Finally, remember, this is only how I do it. If you have a system that makes you happy and you want to share please leave comments!

Coming soon: Cleaning, Donating, Swapping, Thrifting, and Creating.