fashion fwd
a wardrobe to do list and building a personal fashion catalogue
newsletter #75
I fear I have become too stuck in my ways with wearing the same big coat every day this winter and now that the weather is thawing I do not know how to adjust. The every day winter coat has become like a security blanket to me; I feel weird and naked going out without it.
I feel like Columbo in one of those episodes of Columbo where he can’t wear his trench coat for some event, or it gets replaced with a different one and it completely disrupts his life and ability to solve the mystery. I am lost without my giant winter coat and even though I am grateful for warmer weather I am also unsettled!
This newsletter is about fashion, which is something I actually think about a lot in my life, but not something I think I have ever really written about here before! Mostly, it is about the processes I have been undertaking recently in the hopes of reflecting on and refining my personal style and curating my wardrobe.
As the seasons are changing I’ve felt a bit stuck with some of my outfits. I’m struggling to adjust to the weather. Old clothes are feeling unsatisfying, I can’t figure out how to style certain pieces, all I can think about are the terrible siren songs of online fashion influencers and all the pieces I do not own that pop up on my pinterest feed or tiktok algorithm, all the things I could buy…
But I know, logically, that I really do not need to buy things! I own a lot of great clothing. I do not have the budget or the storage space to expand my wardrobe, and I am actively trying not to participate in our over consumptive culture of fast fashion. But still, the temptation lingers, and the frustration with a tired wardrobe is grating.
In thinking about all of this, I realised it was time to get hands on with my clothes, to do some spring cleaning, think critically and carefully about when and how I want to add to my fashion repertoire, and finally, to remember how to love my wardrobe and my own sense of style. I’m sharing some of my process here and some thoughts on how to create and sustain better fashion habits.
Part I: Chores
As the first step of reconnecting with my closet, I created a to-do list of different chores and tasks that I needed to complete in order to refresh my wardrobe and get re-organised.
Button clinic
I know how to sew on buttons, but I find it irritating and so more often than not, when a button falls off of my clothing it means that it gets set aside for weeks or months at a time, transforming from a wearable piece to an annoying chore.
I decided to gather up all of the buttons and bits that I have set aside recently and sat down to sew on and replace all the missing buttons in my wardrobe. It turned out to be surprisingly quick and painless, despite my dread at the thought of doing it, and I even took the opportunity to replace buttons I did not like on a few items, so that at the end of this process I not only was able to wear the shirts and dresses I had set aside as unwearable because of a missing button, but in taking the time to mend things and add new details, I liked these pieces more than I did before!
I got the dress on the left at a flea market and tbh the original buttons were kind of ugly(very clunky. true vintage) so when one of them fell off I took the opportunity to replace them. On the right: one time I was unbuttoning this shirt in a very normal way and one of the buttons SHATTERED? I think the heart replacement I swapped it for is unique and a little silly. But also isn't that super weird?? Personalisation
I want the clothes I keep in my wardrobe to feel good to wear. I want my clothes to feel truly mine. To add a personal touch to some of my pieces, I’ve started finding ways to make them unique or zhuzh them up a little, such as by embroidering my initials on the cuffs of a bunch of my shirts — it’s a little thing but it makes me really happy when I wear these pieces to have that added touch!
Shoe spa
My shoes go through a lot, so one day I laid out a big towel in my room and lined them all up for a little spa day :) which is a wardrobe chore I highly recommend. I cleaned the surfaces of all of my shoes, removed and washed all laces, and made sure everything was clean and all accumulated dirt was removed. Then, I used shoe products I have but very rarely remember to use, including a protective coat for my boots, moisturiser and colour protectant for leather shoes, etc. and applied all of those to help keep my shoes lasting longer and protect the materials. My shoes felt much cleaner and nicer after this, and I felt like it was a very valuable task since these are articles I wear every day but don’t always give a lot of thought to.
Darn !
I’m still in the process of completing this, but the next task on the list is to repair(to the best of my ability) all of my damaged but fixable clothes - torn sock heels, weird holes in the sleeves of my jumpers, other assorted wear and tear. These are articles that I love and want to continue wearing, but can’t for various reasons, so finding ways to mend them, stitch up tears, and even learning to darn the socks is a very valuable chore.
Closet clean out
This may seem like an obvious one, but a big step in this process was just getting rid of things, especially things that were irreparably damaged in some way. There is no point in keeping things around that are torn or worn out or stained in ways that cannot be fixed or that make them unwearable, and for some reason my closet was full of these articles. Why do I feel the need to hang onto the pair of socks that are more hole than sock, or something with a visible blood stain? I pulled all of these items out of my closet and threw them out. I also set aside items that were not damaged to this degree, but I knew I wasn’t going to wear because they did not fit correctly, did not suit me, had materials I don’t wear a lot, or just were not interesting to me anymore, all of which can be recycled or reused. This brings me to…
The long goodbye
I often have a hard time getting rid of old clothes, even things I know I don’t wear or like, because I get caught up in the what ifs. Like, oh maybe I’ll wear it next autumn, or maybe I’ll find a use for it someday, or maybe it will fit me eventually, what if I need it in the future? To ease the discomfort I feel at getting rid of things while also clearing up closet space, I’ve decided to set aside all the things I am contemplating donating/recycling for a period of a few months, at which point I will review them again and make a final decision, then do a big haul to donate to a charity shop.
My thinking behind this is that, in that period of time, I can let go of some of the weird emotional attachment I feel to these things, and be able to think about them more objectively having seen how my closet functions without them, and then it will be easy and freeing to let them go. I know it will be for the best, and will be a satisfying end to my big closet clean out.
Part II: Cataloguing
With all of these problems dealt with, items repaired and cleaned, and things put back in their place, the next step in my process was to catalogue what I had left.
Essentially, I wanted to have a digitised version of my closet, one I could keep up to date and easily look at when thinking about what to wear or evaluating any new clothing purchases I might make. I’ve thought about doing something like this for ages, but it always seemed too complicated or impractical, and admittedly this was perhaps the most time consuming and arduous of all of the chores I have set myself, but I am really happy with the end result.
I took photos of every article of clothing I own and then turned them into transparent images, then I arranged everything in one big file so that I can look at my entire wardrobe all at once. Every article is movable, so I can rearrange things however I want in the future, and move things around to look at different outfit combinations, a little bit like paper fashion dolls or that computer programme Cher has in Clueless that generates outfits for her.
(In case you missed it, you can read my last newsletter about my obsession with journaling and cataloguing every aspect of my life. lol)
As I am also thinking a lot about consumption and how to continue to work on carefully curating my style as well as being really thoughtful about how I buy anything new, I think this will be a really valuable tool for me in making those decisions and having a useful living document of my own personal style and fashion collection.
In one version of my wardrobe catalogue, I starting annotating it and made notes on things like materials, how long I’ve had different items, where I got them, and more, which is another process that is helping me to think critically about what I add moving forward. I have a better sense of the types of materials I like and wear most, the places where I can get the best pieces for my style and fit needs, how long I am able to keep different types of things, and other personal factors that I think are really important to building my perfect wardrobe. I realised as I went through all of these things also how many articles of clothing I have had for five or even ten years, how many second hand and vintage articles I have that have been worn even longer, and I feel like through continuing to keep up with caring for what I already have and finding ways to continue to style things I own in new ways, it is very possible to continue to wear a lot of my wardrobe for years to come!
I am very excited about the new possibilities and styling options this whole process has inspired for me, and while it was a lot of work, I am really glad I decided to take the time to do a deep spring clean and reorganize my wardrobe. You might not do all of these steps, but I cannot recommend enough that if you are feeling tired of your clothes or getting pulled in by that urge to buy new trendy items, you try out some of these chores and see what options open up in what you already have.
What we wear should always be first and foremost about what works best for us, and I think there are so many creative ways to figure that out and to approach clothing and style in ways that don’t revolve around consumption the way so much of internet fashion pushes us to do.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that I won’t ever buy more clothes! But when I do, I want to do it thoughtfully, and to put real thought into where new things will fit into my current wardrobe and get things that I know will fill a need and have a use in my life. I don’t mean to say that they always have to be serious or ‘practical’—I count ‘having fun’ or ‘being cute’ as genuine uses when it comes to clothes—but that I want to make informed and thoughtful purchases. I want to prioritize buying things second hand and in other sustainable ways. I recently watched this youtube video about “Clothing You Will Always Regret Buying” and really appreciated the straightforward and practical advice offered about things to keep in mind when buying clothes that I think are really useful to consider.
Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoy cloudtopia please consider subscribing or sharing with a friend :) I also recently(finally!) set up an option for paid subscriptions, and if you have any interest in supporting this publication and my writing it would mean the world if you would consider upgrading your subscription <3
until next time,
isobel
i need a detailed how-to on this digital closet pleaseeee