How to Find Your Personal Style Courtesy of The Curated Closet [PART TWO]

Table of Contents

Part One Summarized

Welcome back to our personal style series courtesy of The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees!

In the first part of this series, we learned the definition of personal style, the research involved in your finding it and how to shop optimally.

We covered the difference between a closet and a wardrobe. And we recognized the most important part of ”curating your closet” is to try on as many clothes as you can!

Keyword: try. Not buy, yet.

This post is the second and final post in our Curated Closet series. In it, we’ll move on to the ”buy” stage of building your dream wardrobe.

We’ll cover how best to detox your current closet. How to know which pieces you need exactly. And how to make a wardrobe plan.

Why Detox your Closet?

Detoxing your closet is the next step in honing your personal style.

It’s intended to focus your clothes. By getting rid of garments that don’t serve you, you’re making room for clothes that do.

Please don’t take this to mean this is the time to donate every article of clothing you don’t like. Doing that will only create huge gaps in your wardrobe that you’ll fee rushed to fill.

We’re taking the intentional, long-form and better approach by detoxing slowly. Yes, you should get rid of clothes that no longer serve you.

But, if you only have one casual bra or one pair of work pants that fit you, keep them. Even if you hate them.

They will be replaced eventually, but for now they do serve you.

Also, only detox items that are in the season you’re currently in. Often we make hasty clothing decisions for items that are out of season.

We want to avoid that trap by only detoxing clothes that are relevant to your current season.

The Closet Detox Step By Step

According to The Curated Closet, you want to have 6 different bins (or areas) for your clothes. There should be 1 bin for each of the following labels.

“Donations / Sell”, ”Keepsakes”, ”Trial Separation”, ”Get Tailored”, ”Get Repaired”, and ”Off-Season Storage”.

Donations / Sell: This bin is for clothes that you don’t need or want. Place clothes here that are not salvageable in terms of repair or style. If you have a garment that doesn’t make you feel confident or has a gaping hole you don’t care to fix, place it here. Also use the Donations / Sell bin for all garments that can serve other purposes. Maybe that old, ugly band tee is soft enough to turn into a household rag!

Keepsakes: This bin is for garments that only act as memorabilia. To paraphrase Rees’s words, they belong somewhere in your home. Just not in your closet. Place clothes here that have sentimental value, but you have no intention of wearing again. Then find a home for this bin somewhere that’s out of the way of your wardrobe.

Trial Separation: This bin is for clothes you’re on the fence about keeping. Place clothes here that you’re not sure still fit your personal style and you haven’t worn in a while. Once you place a garment here, keep it under your bed, in the basement or attic. Somewhere you won’t see it unless you seek it. If you don’t reach into this bin for 2 weeks, donate/sell everything in it.

Get Tailored: This bin is for garments you want to keep but need tailored. Place clothes here that are worth the extra investment of getting professional help. Only keep clothes here that reflect your personal style and make you feel confident. Anything you’re unsure about, place in the Trial Separation bin.

Get Repaired: Like the Get Tailored bin, this area is only for garments worth keeping. Place clothes here that are worth the extra investment of getting professional help. Only keep clothes that reflect your personal style and make you feel confident. Then seek out a tailor or cobbler to repair the item. Anything you’re unsure about, place in the Trial Separation bin.

Off-Season Storage: This bin is for clothes that aren’t in the season you’re currently in. Keeping out of season clothes away from relevant clothes makes breathing room in your closet. It also focuses you in the morning when choosing an outfit. You no longer have to dodge a bunch of items you won’t be able to wear for months!

Look through your items (clothes and shoes) carefully. Try them all on to be sure of which bin they belong in.

Any item that doesn’t fit into any of the bin categories deserves a place in your new wardrobe!

Take stock of the gaps in your wardrobe after you’ve sorted. Which items do you have a lot of and should avoid purchasing?

Which items do you need? Consider color, category (jeans, crop tops, dresses, etc.) and occasion.

If you remember in the first part of this series, we needed to make a list of activities we need outfits for over a month. Now, we’re going to dig a little deeper into that list.

Let’s see which pieces are highest priority to find now.

Reference your list of activities. How many outfits do you need per month for each activity? Can pieces from one activity be used for another as well?

For example, you may need 12 professional outfits. Can you use a blouse or skirt from your professional outfits for another activity like going out?

The more pieces you can use across activities the better.

Now, reference your list of activities and the notes you took post closet detox. Where are the gaps that need to be filled most urgently?

To fill in those gaps, we need to have a plan. More specifically, a wardrobe plan.

Colorful clothing, shoes and a baseball hat arranged on a portable clothing rack — Image by Sonia Sanmartin

What is a Wardrobe Plan?

A wardrobe plan tells us what our personal style consists of in terms of colors, cuts and combinations.

It’s essentially a roadmap to develop your personal style.

According to The Curated Closet, our wardrobe plan will consist of 2 broad categories: Pieces and Colors.

Pieces: Your wardrobe will have pieces divided among 3 categories: key, basic, and statement.

Colors: Your wardrobe will need a clear color palette.

How to Make Your Wardrobe Plan

Let’s start with your pieces. We divide your wardrobe among 3 categories of pieces: key, basic and statement.

Key pieces are the backbone of your wardrobe. They represent your personal style and can be worn a lot of different ways.

Basic pieces are your version of neutral garments. They are used to fill in the gaps of your wardrobe.

Statement pieces add variety to your wardrobe. They’re the good-time items that allow you to express yourself while still abiding by your wardrobe plan.

Everyone’s everything will be different. Your idea of a basic piece may be more formal than someone else’s.

That’s okay! Just remember basics are more casual than key pieces and key pieces are more casual than statement pieces. Easy!

Neutral Clothes on a rack next to a tan plant — Image by Alyssa Strohmann

For your key pieces prioritize quality and your personal style. Consider your moodboard and your notes from trying things on.

Choose 5 – 10 pieces that best signify your personal style, and the ones you would be able to make a lot of outfits from. Take note of these pieces.

For your statement pieces look again to your moodboard and notes. Consider which colors, silhouettes, patterns, etc. you didn’t choose for your key pieces.

Pick 5 pieces that reflect your personal style and are preferably mixable with other items in your wardrobe. Ability to mix isn’t a necessity for a statement piece, but it’s really convenient!

For your basic pieces, fill in the gaps. Consider your chosen key and statement pieces.

Which items do you need to complement those pieces? Remember, basics are simpler than key and statement pieces.

Now, compare your wardrobe plan to your current closet and cross out any items you already own. Take note of which categories (key, statement, basic) your current closet has too little/too much of.

We have the categories of our clothes down! Now it’s time to build a color palette.

It’s About Colors

We know how we want to dress. We know which items we need and how many of each to get us nearer to our dream wardrobe.

Now, we need to guarantee all these items will go together. We solidify their compatibility by making a color palette!

Don’t worry, this isn’t as hard as it seems.

Plus, by building a color palette, we have a clear roadmap for our wardrobe. We know our pieces will complement each other on their hue as well as their styles.

Having complementary colors in your wardrobe makes for an even easier time of choosing an outfit.

A man touches 2 pages of color swatches — Image by Stefano Manzini

How to Build a Color Palette

You’ll need to have a workspace, preferably digital. A blank Microsoft Word or Google Drive document will do.

Make 6 – 12 empty boxes on the document. These 6 – 12 boxes represent your color palette.

Your color palette is divided between 3 categories: main colors, accent colors and neutral colors.

Main Colors: These are colors you love wearing and can see yourself wearing a lot

Accent Colors: These add variety to your closet

Neutral Colors: These fill in the gaps of your color palette. Plan your neutrals to complement your main and accent colors.

To choose your colors, reference your mood board. Based on it, write a list of colors that reflect your style.

Be sure to add colors that you already wear and love. Choose your favorites of those colors then divide them between main, accent and neutral.

If you’re having trouble with designating the color to a category, ask yourself: ”How do I want to wear this color? As the main focus, a canvas for other colors or as smaller accents? Does this color go well with other shades in the palette?”

Remember, your dream wardrobe will not look like the hodge podge of random colors and patterns of your old closet. We avoid that trap by being intentional with building our color palette.

Having a set of mostly complementary colors to work from gives you confidence in your wardrobe. It guarantees your clothes work together.

And it makes getting dressed every day and loving your outfit that much easier!