Style Buzz: Inside a Wardrobe Revamp + Anatomy of a Layered Outfit
- Eugene Stylist
- Feb 27
- 4 min read
Ideas to Inspire Your Style This Week!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Putting on drawstring pants, a blouse, a jacket, and flats actually might take me less time than putting on jeans, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt and tennis shoes."
Apart from slip-on athletic shoes, a flat is SO much faster than tying laces. And drawstring pants vs a zip and button? Also a timesaver! But think about the difference in your appearance. You're still comfortable, but you're also presentable and don't look like you're headed to a construction site. Plus, a pretty flat makes it much easier to add a little bit of personality to your outfit, especially on the days when you just want to get dressed and go - without too much thinking.
xxx rachel
INSIDE A WARDROBE REVAMP
One of the questions I get most often is, "How did I get into personal styling?" and my honest answer is because I was nosey! I remember hanging out at friends' houses and if their closet was a mess, I'd start tidying it up. (How presumptuous of me!) Which led me to finding pieces in there that I'd never seen them wearing. I'd ask why not, and usually it was because they didn't know what to wear it with. So we'd figure it out. And then I'd end up going shopping with them, helping them find new pieces that worked with the things they already owned.
A lot has changed since then, but I must admit, a tidy closet still thrills me to no end!
Check out this before and after from a recent client's wardrobe revamp:
from chaos..... .......to calm
I honestly felt for this lovely lady. She's an entrepreneur, a mum, a busy member of the community, and when she described her style, she said, "Actually, I probably don't 'love' any of my clothes! haha". Which really was reinforced by what she saw when she went into her closet every day: a jumble of pieces with no organization or thought, things just shoved in wherever they'd fit after doing laundry and putting them away. Dresses, blouses, and t-shirts were all mixed in together, pants were hung from one end of the closet to the other, and it was so crammed that there was no space to really see each piece.
The consequence of this was significant:
I've quoted Gretchen Rubin before and one of her mantras is, "Outer order leads to inner calm" so the first thing we did was to reorganize the wardrobe visually.
As we went through each piece, we pulled out the ones she knew made her feel great ("Love"), the ones she didn't like anymore or they didn't fit ("Toss"), and the ones she rarely wore because she wasn't sure what to wear them with ("Please Style Me"). The "Toss" pile went into bags for donation, while "Love" and "Please Style Me" went onto a rail outside her wardrobe. Everything else stayed in her closet.
Starting with the rail, I sorted it into categories that move from lighter to heavier weights: short sleeve shirts | long sleeve shirts | thin sweaters and overshirts blazers | pants | dresses | sweatshirts | mementos
And each one of those sections was organized by color. Because she works in a creative industry where color is key, this really resonated with her. We also moved bulky jackets and outerwear to the lower rail so they weren't front and center when getting dressed.
Once that was done, we had a good mental inventory of her "working" wardrobe, the pieces she could just grab and go for any occasion. We then turned to the "Love" and "Please Style Me" pieces that I'd hung on the separate rail. Knowing everything else she was keeping helped us remember other pieces that would go with the ones that needed styling.
The end result in only a few hours? A closet full of only the clothes she loves (and that love her back), a firm grasp of how to style the clothes she already has, ten new outfits from pieces she'd never worn more than once and an understanding of her formula, plus an oasis of calm that she later admitted she couldn't wait to go and play in. Which also thrills me to no end! |
Now go back and look at the After picture again. Can you see the stack of empty hangers in the lower left corner? Yup, we took 5 bags of clothes out of there! She has SO much more breathing room now. |
ANATOMY OF AN OUTFIT
This is a peek into my favorite outfit of the week where I break it down for you: why I've put it together and why it works, what elements could be swapped out, things to consider, etc.
I don't know when I started layering shirts under sweaters but it's such an easy way to play with proportions and pieces. This week's cold snap (but yay for sunshine!) brought out one of my favorite outfits. The blouse is a souvenir from England, a light robins-egg blue with a beautiful brown paisley print. It's very long, though, so I balance it with a slightly-cropped grey cashmere sweater. Having its collar peek out over the top and its tails below the hem lets you see enough of the shirt to appreciate its pattern. Because of the high neckline, a necklace would be too fussy, so I chose gold dangly earring and my gold bee pin to complement the brown tones in the print. Flared blue jeans and some dove grey cowboy boots complete the outfit with a cohesive casual vibe.
Blouse: Sweewe from The Edit, Altrincham, UK
Sweater: Cuyana
Jeans: St John's Bay from JC Penney
Boots: Frye from Miss Meers
Earrings: Stella & Dot
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