A few Christmases ago, I was gifted “The Curated Closet” by Anuschka Rees and dove into creating my own curated closet challenge that following spring. I found the process to be very useful and even though I wasn’t able to make that perfect curated closet then, it was the foundation for my current small wardrobe.
This is a great book with wonderful visuals and personally, the clothing pictured spoke to me as well. My tastes are different but I could see such similarities that it was relatively easy to apply to my own clothes.
Part 1: The Basics of the Curated Closet Challenge
This part is all about understanding that in order to get the workhorse and wow wardrobe you want, you will need to invest your time and money into quality pieces that do exactly what they need to. There are no cutting corners on pieces of your wardrobe.
Then it’s all about diagnosing your existing wardrobe because it’s assumed that we don’t already have things figured out. Which was mostly true for me. I knew many styles that don’t look flattering on me and had discarded many things I didn’t like on me. However, I was still holding onto pieces that I never wore, even when they fit, because I loved them! Clothes are sometimes not logical.
I was not able to follow this one well, as I had a work uniform and was rarely go out for anything but workouts at the time. In this part, we are supposed to document what we wear and where to for a week and then do an analysis. Here we essentially write a mission statement about our wardrobe wants and needs. Otherwise known as our why.
My why was that I have always loved to express myself through clothing but haven’t been able to because of rules from school or work for most of my life. While I wasn’t going out much anymore, I still wanted my own look. I did have a job that required dressing in “business attire”. It did not represent me well.
Part 2: Discover Your Personal Style in Your Curated Closet
This was a very time-consuming part, but quite enlightening. I discovered that the reason I hadn’t been wearing that beautiful and soft orange vest, was that it had no functional purpose in a wardrobe. I don’t like unnecessary pieces. A cardigan, that provides warmth, is functional and I’ll wear it, but a vest that had no sleeves and doesn’t add warmth for winter but has all these extra pieces so it had to be layered but couldn’t layer well, just wasn’t my style.
I went to Pinterest to make a style board. After some time, I found I was pinning things that were nearly identical in a different color palette. I learned that I like gray and black stripes but not white and black stripe shirts. I don’t like how 100% cotton lumps as I bend. I don’t like shirts with a high % of polyester, but do love cotton/poly/rayon blend shirts. Pure linen is too rough for my skin, and wide-leg pants do not function in my wardrobe.
I learned that I wanted my clothes to allow me to do basically anything I wanted to without a change. I wanted to be able to spontaneously do yoga or ride a bike. I also wanted to look nice enough for a meetup with friends or business associates. My wardrobe needed to handle a wide variety of activities without looking too casual.
It also made it clear to me that I wanted masculine materials to be used in a feminine way. Or a very feminine piece paired with a largely masculine outfit. I like that juxtaposition of masculine and feminine but only as an accent.
Part 3: Build Your Dream Wardrobe
Here’s where things went a bit south for me. I wear Talls and am right around an XL, so certain cuts don’t work as an XL and don’t work as a 2X either. My body isn’t as they expect in the plus size range and the clothing is made in such a way that I can’t have it altered so some things just have to be abandoned because of the style/cut/material.
Then the Tall issue. Long would be preferable, but that’s not what’s trendy right now, so Tall is my only option. Bad news, they are picking weird shades of colors to offer me in Talls and they sell out so fast that it’s a nightmare to try to fill in a wardrobe and they never make complete enough outfits in Talls. So, I had a lot of difficulty matching shades across brands and even more trouble getting shapes and fabrics to match up. I kept very little from my shopping trips.
The other problem I have is weight fluctuations. Sometimes I can get the same item again later, but often I can’t get it in the same color or they changed a critical detail. So now, instead of having tan or gray pants, I have slate pants….it doesn’t work the same. It’s taken years to settle it out, but I dropped virtually all colors to do it. I have shades of grey, black and white stripes, and a few solid shirts in the mix, but very little color designed to mix.
This part is still a work in progress. My jewelry was easier to figure out. I had pieces that were mixed metals, hammered, or pink pearls. Pieces that could express that masculine/feminine mix I was aiming for and could tilt the outfit on over the direction the clothing wasn’t able to do on its own.
Part 4: The Art of Shopping
This is the part I’m still working on. I had some pieces that serve as fundamental pieces in the style but aren’t the right fit for me. Right now I’m thinking of these Tom’s tennis shoes that are gray and have unusual lines. I LOVE how they look and fit perfectly into the style I’m going for, but my feet ache after I wear them for very long. The arch is somehow not in the right place. I’ve bought several pieces because I needed extreme weather pieces but had no choice in color, hence the slate gray pants.
I continue to look for the right replacement pieces for shirts with holes or pants that were the wrong material. I haven’t figured out a good replacement for jeans in my wardrobe, but just as I thought I’d figured out what style of jeans I wanted, the trend went away from it. I don’t generally thrift shop just because there are never Talls or Longs.
I continue to look. I’ve also gained weight in my arms as I stopped Pilates during the pandemic, so one of my favorite shirts doesn’t fit and I haven’t been able to replace it either. It went into the off-size bin in hopes that my arms will be the first place my body would change shape as they were the last time I lost weight.
In conclusion:
I had fun doing this. Shopping was pretty frustrating as stores weren’t letting you try on clothes in the store at this time and I would spend lots of money and then have to go through lots of returns. There were so many great ideas that fell flat because I couldn’t find a version with long enough sleeves, the material was wrong, or the waist was too high.
My accent color has been obliterated during the culling of clothing I didn’t like to wear or couldn’t fit. So many pieces didn’t hit the mark. Still, I found jewelry and footwear options that I loved. Summer dress and sun hat vacation outfits. I discovered so many types of pants that were flattering and flexible enough to climb trees if I wanted.
I rediscovered my favorite brands and found some new rerun clothing options for discounts. It is a very time-consuming process but I do know so much more about my style, even though I still have trouble finding pieces for it.