At this point, the wardrobe is almost finished. So again, you’re going to ask yourself: Are you happy with it? Is there anything you need to adjust? Or maybe you don’t like it at all and want to start again? At any time.
Personally, I think it’s better to make more plans than to buy a lot of stuff and then regret it. You might want to try more directions, one plan more neutral in style and another more interesting. As I’ve written before, it’s a good idea to start shopping when you’re clear on your style and wardrobe and know you’ll be happy with what you’ve planned.
Also, now you can add things you already own to your plan. You may not find pictures of exactly the same things you have in your wardrobe, but try to find at least similar items. You’ll see your wardrobe in a more complete way. Of course, only add what fits – in color and style – with your other items, otherwise your plan will no longer look cohesive.
For the next step, it’s best to sort things by color. That way you can see if you have enough pieces of clothing in each of your main colors, or if you need to add somewhere to balance it out. If you want to.
I prefer to leave some gaps in my plan, because…
…when I look at my wardrobe now, there are still a few things missing. I want a tank top and a long-sleeved shirt in white. In brown, there are only three things – I would add at least a sweater and a dress. The skirts I’ve chosen are more winter skirts, except for the green one, I would need at least two lighter ones for summer, preferably long. I don’t have enough green, yellow and pink things for my taste. A few tops and sweaters should fix that. In red, a short sleeve t-shirt and a dress would be nice too. Finally, I added a few things I already have at home – a shorter green skirt, a blue and pink tank top and a blue dress. I could have done with more dresses, but it’s not easy to find suitable pictures 🙂
So the final plan (minus a few things I already own) looks like this:
Despite the fact that the essentials were already in my wardrobe, I added a lot of things (about 18). That’s more than for any of the previous steps. But the important thing is to have the basics, whether you add a lot, a little or not at all is up to you. The best way to tell for yourself is to look at the plan and see if there’s anything missing, and what it is. Also, don’t be afraid to delete or replace something if you don’t need it or if you’d rather have it in a different color in the end, looking at the whole plan.
But even if you feel like you’ll never wear, say, a blouse or sportswear, it still makes sense to have it. I’d also recommend adding a formal dress if you don’t have one, a cocktail dress of some sort – you never know when you’ll need it.
It’s also a matter of your experience, you can add to your plan gradually as you shop. For example, I find that I wear pink and white tops and green skirts a lot, so I want to have some for every season. Likewise, I don’t go most of the year without a sweater and I’m always running low on them. I originally bought cardigans, but then I realized they don’t fit that well and I’m replacing them. That just happens when you’re building a new wardrobe 🙂
Start shopping for the most necessary and neutral pieces first and then see what you need to add to them to be happier with your new outfits.
So finally, to show that it’s possible to have a smaller functional wardrobe, I’ve modified my plan to include only what I feel is necessary. So if I didn’t already own anything and wanted to keep it simple, my plan would look something like this:
Now let’s see how much the remaining two plans will need to be improved. First, the witchy one:
We have 3 short sleeve t-shirts (+ one for home), 3 tank tops, two blouses, one long sleeve t-shirt, 4 cardigans, two skirts, two pants and three dresses. As for colors, black and blue are in the clear minority, but that doesn’t matter at all, they are not the main colors. But brown and white could appear a bit more.
What else could be improved? To balance it out, I would add a pink short-sleeved shirt, a brown tank top and two more shirts, like a white bohemian blouse and a purple short-sleeved one. It’s also lacking more typical witchy and bohemian stuff. It would definitely need a shoulder scarf, a patterned blouse, maybe some higher laced shoes or second sandals, belts and a second hat. There would certainly be room for black leggings or bell bottoms, a white bohemian dress, a short top and a second long skirt.
We don’t necessarily have to add everything, even this way the plan is functional, but it’s the additions that push the wardrobe more into style and further away from neutrality. And of course more items could be purchased for home, sports and more jewelry, but it’s up to the owner if she would use them. Let me see what I can find for this wardrobe…
The final version of the wardrobe. What do we have here? I’ve added fourteen items in total. I’ll take it from the left – black gladiator sandals, brown and white striped shoulder scarf, brown t-shirt with owl print, simple brown tank top, black neutral bell bottoms, black and grey belt, black hat, white blouse, white dress with ruffles, white short top, blue patterned skirt. I wanted to add a pink t-shirt, but it’s not easy to find one in the right shade (that goes for most shades of pink…). So I added at least a purple velvet shirt and a purple and pink patterned shirt.
It’s not an everything-goes-with-everything wardrobe, some colors and patterns don’t mix well, BUT the important thing is that most things do mix and match, even the harder to mix items can be made into many combinations, and it’s a wardrobe with all the important bohemian and witchy elements.
A smaller, more neutral wardrobe could also be created, this one has around 40 items of clothing + accessories. I think the ideal amount of clothes for the whole year is around 50 pieces, you can manage with less but at the expense of variability. Less clothes equals more frequent washing, it also makes it harder to dress for warmer or colder temperatures, someone can get bored if they wear three t-shirts over and over again. But it’s possible that less stuff will be enough and you won’t add, maybe you even erase something at this point.
I’ll finish our last example wardrobe. The dramatic-artsy one:
At first glance this wardrobe is lacking beige and blue tops, one could add a tank top and one or two long-sleeved shirts, plus another sweater or jacket. Also, more grey items, pink trousers and something dressy perhaps for the theatre would be useful.
Compared to the original version, I swapped the yellow pants for jeans, the pink sweater for a turtleneck, and added pink pants instead of one pair of beige pants. I also added a silver dress with earrings – for parties, theatre and similar occasions. I accidentally came across a dress in the perfect shade of pink, so I added it. And then, as planned, two blue t-shirts and a patterned grey blazer. With the yellow sleeveless blouse, we already have a tank top, a short-sleeved shirt, and a long-sleeved shirt in each of the main colors, with the exception of the beige and blue tank top (probably not necessary yet).
On second thought, I didn’t add the beige tops at all, they don’t go as nicely with the colorful pants as I would have liked. And finally a few accessories to liven things up – pink sunglasses, apricot and yellow necklace. You can always add more interesting, unconventional things to an artsy wardrobe. The problem is that they are hard to combine, so this wardrobe remains atypical especially in terms of color – but even so, you could definitely create some “shocking” combinations. By the way, this wardrobe has (without accessories) under 40 items.
What about your plan, have you got it yet? Are you happy with it? The next step is to buy the items. And what to buy first? What you need most. It could be those classic pants, it could be a winter coat, it could be a summer dress. It depends on the season and your lifestyle.