6 steps to fabulous wardrobe planning

6 steps to fabulous wardrobe planning, it all sounds so wonderful doesn’t it? A great personal style filling you with energy and confidence, all your friends wanting to know what magic elixir you’re taking causing you to look so healthy and gorgeous!

But how on earth do you actually transform your current cupboard-of-doom into your fabulous dream wardrobe?

I can relate to this question very well. Whenever I read an article on healthy eating, or speak to any of my foodie friends, I get excited about trying out a new food or meal idea. But in reality, if it’s not in the freezer section of the supermarket, I wouldn’t know where to start finding the ingredients; let alone storing them, preparing them and serving them in an appetising arrangement.

I need a patient friend to actually sit down with me and help me write out a plan of what I’m going to cook when and how, and where the best places are to find all the ingredients

Everything is easier if you’ve thought ahead and you’ve got a plan.

With that in mind, I’d love you to imagine yourself sitting at the comfort of your kitchen table, with your ideas on colours, shapes and styles in front of you (magazine cut-outs, Pinterest mood board… however you collect your inspiration).

Now, imagine me sitting beside you with pen and paper saying, ‘this looks fantastic! Let’s make a plan so we can make it happen’.

6 steps to fabulous wardrobe planning

Step 1: Map your Lifestyle

First step in working out what you need in your wardrobe is to work out the practical stuff: what you do in your clothes, and what you need their help to accomplish (as Mark Twain so eloquently put it: “naked people have very little influence on history”).

I’m a big fan of mind maps.

If you’re more of a lists person that’s perfectly fine too. I suggest the following headings:  Home, Work (whatever your definition), Hobbies, and Social.

Then have a go at filling in all the activities you do around those areas of your life in an average day, month, or year. Include things you’re planning in the near future too (you may like to put these in with a different colour pen).

These planed activities could be a little vague, especially if your plans include a major lifestyle shift such as having your first baby, or returning to work, but picture your ideal scenario (if you plan for it, you’re more likely to find opportunities to make it happen).

As an example, here’s a mind map I created for my own lifestyle activities a couple of years ago:

Step 2:  Create your own Dress Code

Dress codes needn’t be just for businesses and fancy dress parties.

This isn’t about conforming to strict standards telling us what we cannot wear. Dress codes are simply a way of thinking about who you are with in each situation, what impression you want to give, and how you want to feel.

You can name each category whatever you like, but to keep it simple you can stick with the usual: ‘casual’, ‘smart casual’, ‘professional’, ‘formal’.

I suggest you pick a different coloured highlighter for each dress code, and go over your mind map, highlighting each separate activity in the colour you feel appropriate. Keep in mind, this is your life and your style – there is no way of doing it wrong!

Step 3:  Wardrobe Proportions

Have a look at how much of each colour, or each dress code, you have.

One of the major causes of Wardrobe-Full-of-Clothes-But-Nothing-to-Wear Syndrome is that 80% of our wardrobes are dedicated to things we only do 20% of our time.

Knowing what we spend our time doing and dedicating the appropriate amount of items to each ‘dress code’ helps to avoid Pareto’s notice.

Step 4: Key looks

Start looking at your selection of colours, garment styles and accessories and see which dress code and activity they fit in with.

Play around with different colour and item combinations to create outfit ideas. Once you have at least one outfit for each dress code, you’ll start to see just how you can relate your style and colour preferences to your lifestyle.

With any luck, you’ll find quite a lot of these items cross over into several areas. You get extra points for these items.

Step 5: Capsule

To help you maximise the versatility of the items you plan to look for, a plan of a capsule wardrobe can help immensely.

A capsule set of clothes and accessories is basically a simple collection of items that can be mixed and matched in any combination, producing a variety of different ‘looks’ with a minimal number of items.

Have a go at setting out your chosen items into the following boxes and see how many combinations you can come out with:     (You don’t have to stick to these boxes exactly; you can add or remove particular boxes as desired. The main thing is to get at least 2 of each main item.)

Step 6: Budget

Why does this word always creep into anything related to ‘planning’? I guess it’s because it’s important. The main reason I come across for people who’ve never budgeted for their own clothing is that they’re waiting until they have more disposable income over and above their current needs.

Again I go back to Mark Twain – naked people don’t get very far. Consider your wardrobe an essential expense and budget for it. It will help immensely knowing you have even $1 a week that’s solely for the purpose of establishing and maintaining your wardrobe, to help you do the things that are important to you.

Like cooking, parenting, and anything else worthwhile, wardrobe planning is something that’s ongoing. Our lifestyles and personal styles are dynamic. Being able to review and tweak our plan as we go, is the way to ensure we continue to find our wardrobe interesting and engaging.

Congratulations, you now know the 6 steps to fabulous wardrobe planning! If you’ve been keeping up with my previous articles, by now you’ll be feeling excited about getting to wear glorious colours, flattering styles and knowing how to put your unique twist on outfits.