How to edit your clothes for a versatile wardrobe

This autumn I came to the conclusion that I'm an edit wardrobe maniac if such a thing exists ! How else can I explain the fact that I edit and pair down my entire wardrobe every 3 months.

Well , that's how I paired down my clothes for this winter . As many of you know already I have zero money to spend in new clothes or accessories for the rest of the year and 2012.
This unfortunate fact makes it critical that I rediscover and make the best use of my clothes in the hopes that I enjoy wearing the same clothes.

What you see here is my entire winter collection . I did a lot of recearch on the net and realised that the best dressed women are the ones who spend more time on thinking carefully about and organising their clothes . Fortunately not the ones who shop frequently.
Another information that sort of put everything in place for me is that a versatile wardrobe consists of 40% of classic garments 35% of basics and 25% of more trendy items.

MY CLASSICS

I took the contents of my entire wardrobe out and put back only my classics . What I qualify as classics are the best quality and best tailored clothes I own that I will keep for many years to come :

• A little black dress
• 2 chanel like jackets
• A grey jacket
• A beige greatly tailored jacket
• A white button down 
• A pair of black pants 
• An A line skirt
• A pair of classic levis jeans

Despite the fact that I spent a lot of money on clothes the last couple of years I know now that it wasn't money well spend . My classics are very few and some not as good quality as I deserve . I feel a bit stupid because I have already spent the money but not on the clothes I should buy. The good thing is that now I know better.

MY BASIC SWEATERS

Then I put back my basics . It's the clothes that I wear often and the clothes that bridge the gaps between my classics and are mostly tops . They offer the maximum versatility so I feel that I have more clothes than I really have. I tend to replace them every couple of years. My simple sweater collection is :

• Black cardi
• grey cardi
• beige cardi
• black sweater
• grey sweater
• white sweater

It's nothing fancy but offer the canvas to use my patterned or colored pieces and they mix and match nicely with the classics so that I'm always decently dressed. I would like them to be a bit better quality but from now on , each one I will replace it will be with a new one of great quality and fit.

MY SHIRTS COLLECTION

 Then I put back in the closet my shirts . It came to me as a surprised when I realised that my shirt collection is mostly patterned . I hope they play along nicely with my basic  and classic pieces this winter and many winters to come as they are of good quality and show no signs of wear. It's a versatile collection as I have :

• A stripped grey&light blue stripes
• A stripped grey&black stripes
• Nautical themed
• Red tartan

I was sort of late to adopt shirts into my wardrobe but I assure you that a shirt can make a huge difference as it gives instant class to an outfit. I feel like I have to explore shirts more.

MY STRIPES

These are my favorite basic pieces and I have to admit that it was last year I wore stripes for the first time . I find they give instant class to my outfits and they are oh! so french. I know already I can mix and match them with both my classics and basics. As you can see I own:

• A white/red stripes
• A blue/white stripes
• A black/ white stripes tuttleneck

SOME MORE BASICS

These few pieces I don't exactly know how to classify . You see the jacket on the left is a classic design but the fit and fabric are not good , the fake leather skirt is too short ...you get the picture . But at this point I can make good use of them to strech my wardrobe .

THE MORE COLORFUL PIECES

In the selves above you can see my more colorful items be it tees ,cardis or skirts . Most of them aren't of excellent quality but they will do the job . What I plan to do is to wear my neutral colors more and when I become an expert at making outfits out of them only then will I start adding color . Hopefully. it will be around spring by that time. I also relay havily on my scarves collection to add color to my outfits.
It might sound frivolous or silly but I feel like I have to study what I have , put some thought on the planning of my outfits and have a strong knowledge of what I can accomplish with what I have. Only then will I be able to make a special addition that will stay with me for a long time and that I will enjoy everytime I wear I wear.

How to rediscover your clothes

dress i've made back in 2009 , camel cardigan , french scarf , my favorite riding boots , velvet bag

Things are getting tighter and tighter with the money here in Greece so I decided this is the year to really play around with what I have in my closet.
Like I have already mentioned in earlier posts there will be no new purchases this year , including 2012 , too.
So this afternoon I had the inspiration to play Polyvor with what I have and mix a few clothes to make new combinations.

burgundy chanel like jacket , light blue men's shirt , emerald  scarf ,denim trousers (not pictured here  ) , broques

I made a bit of recearch and got inspired by this great blog of the vivienne files and I came up with the following conclusion probably a no brainer to many of you but for me it hit home just this morning.
If I train my eyes to many different color combinations then I can have numerous new outfits without spending a dime. 

olive green tartan scarf  and denim dress , strong blue cardigan and camel bag & shoes

Only by playing around with color , scarves and accessories ( I plan to diy a few during this winter ) I can strech my existing wardrobe big time.
I love all the outfits I came up and evrything seems so new again just because I tried different color palettes.

olive green monochromatic cardi /tshirt /skirt and a puprle scarf on top , never have I tried that

If you want to do what I did you follow these steps:
hung your clothes roughly according to color (all black together ,all greys together next to blacks etc )
get inspiration from polyvor or numerous other collages 
Pay attention to color combinationsthere
 try to recreate a few with what you have.
make outfits around the scarves you own .

bag I made , scarf I love

Whatever you do just make sure you blessed the clothes you already have and buy nothing new. This will give you time and space to rediscover what you already own and give them the love they deserve . Clean them , iron them put some  perfume to them and they will become precious to you .
I greatly enjoyed playing around with my clothes. I hope you find my outfits well put together and I hope even more that  you  try some new combinations yourselves !

How to rediscover your jewelery

 I took all my jewels out yesterday to make an inventory and decide which ones I wear and which ones I could probably revamp and inject some new spirit into my otherwise same wardrobe.

What you see in the photos above is necklaces I joined together with a pair of my hoop earings. Very simple ,instant results.

 I want to up cycle many of my bracelets , as well .One thing I want to do is turn them a size or two smaller because when I shopped from them I made the mistake not to check carefully for their shape. I feel like I threw my money away since I don't enjoy to wear them if they slip all the time so I have to find a way to fix it.

The best way to do a jewllery clean up is :
take all your jewelery out and put on a large surface 
put all alike together hoops with hoops ,rings with rings etc.
 this way you will have a clear view of what you own.
make 3 piles one to keep  , the second to give away or throw or put somewhere out of sight to rediscover in the future and the third pile
to revamp or upcycle or tear apart to use in future projects.


Keep the third pile in a big box and throw a piece of paper inside and a pen. Each time you see on the net or in magazines something you like note down what materials you need in order to create new jewelery from your existing ones. 
After a while you will be able to know what you want to do exactly and what you need to shop. 

Now that you took all your jewelery out try to think of different ways to store what's left. The best way according to me is to keep somewhere you can see everything you own because that's the only way you can use it all. Try to make displays like in shops .I 'm sure we can all make a nice little corner to keep our jewels.
I'll keep you updated.

Take a different direction

It so happens in life that interests shift and at the moment my creativity forces me to put all my energy in decorating and transforming my house .

All my beautiful followers I'm sure have noticed already my falling in love with DIY projects and this time I'm not gonna walk away from what my instict  tells me to do.

I will keep my dressing style very simple and minimal involving a few basic pieces and I will be blogging about my diy and decoration adventures in my other blog angie's world.
I will be checking your wonderful blogs and occassionaly post my outfits probably on a weekly base but mostly I will dive the diy deep waters. Feel free to join me !!!