No Repeats W & W: Day Thirteen

This week is turning into 'Mr. Eccentric's Greatest Hits'.  He bought me this jacket as well. I wore it Tuesday (day before yesterday) on my walk. It's great - not too warm, big enough to wear a sweater underneath, fun faux fur trim, easily worn with skirts or pants, classic aviator style-feel.  So much for the stereotypical 'men have no taste' meme!

This outfit was when i 'hit the wall' with this workaday capsule. I got bored. I'll stick with it - that's the point of a challenge, right? I did realize that i could live with this small of a wardrobe IF i had a larger, more varied accessory wardrobe. After all, when you're dressing in neutral-colored basics most of the visual interest comes from the accessories.

These thoughts tie in with what Cynthia at Be Fabulous Daily has been writing about recently. She wrote a post on her closet clean up which ended with the question, 'Do i have too many clothes or a normal amount?' (paraphrased). She also did a well-thought out post defining her personal style preferences. To my way of thinking, a person's style strategy will influence what is the optimal amount of clothing for them. Cynthia said it well herself - she relies on a lot of color and pattern combos in her outfits, and thus usually only needs one accessory - scarf, necklace, earrings - to pull the look together.  Right there you can see the contrast between what would be optimal for Cynthia and what would work best for me in terms of clothes to accessories ratio.

I've always felt that the 'perfect number of clothes' will vary from person to person and across a person's life.  There are many factors to take into consideration - budget, tolerance for laundry, how 'hard' you are on clothes (how long they typically last), climate, lifestyle, special interests (workout clothes, clothes for hobbies such as horseback riding or dancing, fencing, etc.), type of social life (clubbing, charity balls), professional requirements, and so on.

I can think of a few question to ask yourself in order to determine how close you are to your optimal wardrobe (# & appropriateness of items).  How often do you find yourself with nothing to wear? Do your laundry duties seem reasonable?  Can you put together outfits appropriate to your daily, weekly, monthly, and annual activities out of your current wardrobe? Can you bundle up and cool off? Do you feel comfortable with the image you project? Are you aware of any 'holes' in your closet, and do you have a plan in place to fill it? Do you feel you are spending the appropriate amount of money and time (shopping, planning) on your wardrobe? Are you bored with your clothes? If you got an unexpected opportunity to do something spectacular that you've always wanted to do (trip to Antartica, ball at the White House, invitation to Carnivale in Venice), would you have a pretty good idea of how to go about clothing yourself for this experience?

Now, everybody go read Cynthia's posts. Then, tell us how do you/would you go about determining how close you are to your optimal wardrobe? (If you've got it figured out, you can start a church!)

Jacket: Victoria's Secret
Hat: gift, trimmed by me
Cardi:  Charter Club by Macy's (turtleneck, cut up the center)
Earrings: gifts
Tee: Target
Lace Cami: Old Navy
Belt: Thrift Town (?)
Skirt: own design
Wool Blend Tights: Hanna Andersson
Shoes: Bass Lacey