In my last few posts, I’ve been reflecting upon my summer wardrobe and style: how my style has changed since summer 2023, which warm weather pieces have left my closet, and the new items that I’ve acquired to help me dress more in accordance with my evolving style preferences.
I thought that I would have just one more installment in this series – my favorite summer outfits – but I’ve decided to slot in another essay prior to publishing that final post. In today’s penultimate 2024 summer wardrobe and style essay, I share a variety of thoughts and insights that I’ve been having about what can often be the trickiest season to dress for.
Even though I live in a place where summer weather starts and ends later than usual, I know that the warmer temperatures will soon be drawing to a close even in my part of the world. There have already been some cooler days and evenings, which are a harbinger of what will soon become the status quo weather-wise.
Since I last checked in here, I’ve really put my summer wardrobe to the test, both at home and while doing some traveling. As has been my practice for quite some time, I’ve continued to capture my thoughts about my ensembles in my outfit journal. This has helped to both increase my awareness and improve my style.
Included below, in no particular order, is a sampling of what I’ve been doing and learning regarding my summer wardrobe and style. This will be a very text-heavy post, but I promise to share lots of pictures in the final installment of this series.
Wearing My Favorites
As some of you may know, I tracked wearings of all my clothes for many years. However, I stopped doing that about five years ago, but continued to use what I like to call “the hanger trick.” In this easy and lower-key way of tracking, I start the year with my clothing hangers all turned outward instead of inward. As I wear my garments and return them to my closet, I turn their hangers inward (what many would call “the right way”). Over time, I’m able to see what I am and am not wearing. While this doesn’t tell me what I’m wearing most often, at least I’m able to see what isn’t getting worn at all.
In accordance with “the hanger trick,” I’ve typically endeavored to wear everything in my closet. As I got dressed, I pushed myself to wear at least one garment that had not yet been worn that year or season, until every item had made it into one or more ensembles. While I still check to see what hasn’t yet been worn when I’m putting together an outfit, I no longer force myself to wear the “benchwarmers.” Now, if I put something on and don’t feel like wearing it, I allow myself to take it off and wear a closet favorite instead.
As a result of this new approach, I still have quite a few hangers turned outward instead of inward for my summer wardrobe, and I don’t think everything will get worn before the temperatures turn much cooler. While that’s not ideal, the positive side of the equation is that I’ve been happier with a larger proportion of my outfits this year. I’ve worn many of the same pieces over and over again and have liked the way I looked in them. And wearing my favorites on repeat has also helped me to better understand my desired personal style.
Black, For the Win
In examining the outfits that I’ve rated as “nines” or “tens” versus the lower-rated looks, I’ve noticed that a common denominator is that my favorite ensembles all included black pieces. I’ve come to understand that I don’t really feel like myself when I’m not wearing black. Black items help me to fulfill the “dramatic” part of my style guidepost formula (which is “dramatic, polished, and elegant”). Wearing black in every outfit also makes it much easier for me to get dressed.
Not only do I enjoy wearing black garments, I also prefer shoes and accessories that are either solid black or have black in them. My favorite jewelry pieces include both silver and black, and those are the ones that I reach for most often. In addition to my solid black tops, toppers, and pants, I also like black printed items. Black-and-white prints are prevalent in my closet, but other colors combined with black also hold my favor. I own quite a few scarves that include black and other colors in the mix, and I hope to get back into wearing those versatile items as the weather cools down (it’s usually too warm for scarves in the summer months).
I kind of wonder, though, what to do with my navy wardrobe items, which I purchased over the past few years because I thought I wanted to mix things up a bit with my sartorial color story. I like to wear navy and black together sometimes, but that only really works if there’s enough contrast between the two hues. If the shade of navy is too close to black, it’s better paired with other navy pieces or items in lighter shades.
Even though I rarely or never wore my navy garments this summer, I’m going to hold on to them for now and see how I feel about them next year. But for now, I’m going to keep favoring black because that’s what’s working best for me.
Just a Few Pieces in a Category Can Be Enough
For years, I was a “more is more” type of person when it came to my clothes. I would often purchase garments in multiple colors to have more variety in my closet. Sometimes that approach would serve me well, but I typically ended up wearing just one or two of the options while the others would mostly gather dust. While I still like to have variety in some wardrobe categories, such as tops, this summer I’ve been happy with just a few good options of most item types.
As two examples, I’ve mostly been wearing three pairs of pants and four pairs of sandals for the past few months (all shown in this post). The pants are an instance where buying “multiples” did serve me well, and I actually wish I could have another color in the same style. Sadly, however, the pants (Athleta’s Brooklyn Utility Pants) are no longer available, so I’m glad I opted to buy three pairs earlier this year when they were released. The fit of this pant style on my body is so good that it’s helped me to wear more of my tops (because I didn’t feel such a need to cover my back side), so it’s been a win-win for me.
As for the sandals, they’re all either black or a black and metallic combo, which is also the case for the few purses that I carry day after day. When it comes to my jewelry, my go-to capsule is larger, but it’s still a relatively small grouping, especially given my moderate-to-large-sized overall jewelry collection. I know that I could be perfectly happy with a much smaller number of pants, shoes, and jewelry pieces than what I own and still feel like I have what I need to dress well for all the occasions in my life.
The variety in my wardrobe tends to come from tops and toppers, although mixing up my jewelry pieces helps, too. On my recent trip in early September, I happily wore my three favorite summer pants and two favorite pairs of sandals the entire time. As is usually the case, I packed too many tops, but summer tops don’t tend to weigh all that much or take up too much space. A few toppers were all I needed with the warm temperatures (mostly for the evenings), but having several colors to mix and match with my tops and pants made a big difference to my outfit happiness. All the ensembles on my trip were rated as nines or tens, so I clearly don’t need a large wardrobe to achieve that type of sartorial success. In fact, having less made getting dressed a lot easier (so the wardrobe minimalists are on to something!).
Not Loving Dresses and Skirts So Much This Year
Although I stated in my summer closet additions post that I’m “back to wearing skirts,” I didn’t end up loving outfits with either skirts or dresses all that much this year. In fact, I ended up returning two of the pieces I covered in that post: a denim skirt and a black Ponte top. I discovered that I already owned more than enough skirts and tops to pair with them to cover those times when I wanted to wear skirt ensembles this summer. As with summer 2023, I’ve vastly preferred wearing cropped pants, so that’s mostly what I’ve put on when I’ve gone out.
When I did wear a dress or skirt, however, I was happy to have the new longer toppers that I purchased early in the season (see this post). Not having toppers that I felt good in was a major reason why I almost never wore a skirt or dress last summer. It’s amazing how a few extra inches of coverage in a topper can make such a big difference to my emotional comfort when wearing skirt and dress ensembles (as I almost invariably need a topper for cooler summer evenings).
Another thing to mention about skirts and dresses is that I’m no longer a big fan of maxi-length styles. I only wore my lone maxi skirt once this summer, and I didn’t feel all that happy or confident wearing it. It just felt like my previous style, not the style that resonates most with me today. I didn’t wear my two-remaining maxi-dresses at all this year, but I plan to hang on to them until next summer to see how I feel then. I don’t like to be too hasty about letting things go, especially when it’s a type of item that’s difficult for me to find for fit or style-related reasons (dresses and skirts fall into this bucket).
Think Outside the Box
I’ll end these summer style reflections on a high note. When I did the closet audit that I wrote about in this post, which was based on a five-day program offered by the host of The Everyday Style School podcast, I was directed to rearrange my closet in a more straightforward way than it had been previously. I grouped all my tops together based only by sleeve length and color, which meant that my out-and-about tops were no longer separate from my at-home tops.
The different arrangement of my closet led me to think outside of the box in terms of which tops I could wear with my summer pants. I discovered that several of the tops that I previously wore only at home or on walks worked great with many of my out-and-about pants. I also tried on some of my three-quarter-sleeve tops with my cropped pants and created several combinations that I liked. It’s amazing how a simple closet rearrangement can help us see new possibilities among our clothing pieces.
Although I eventually returned to a somewhat more complex closet configuration that works better for me overall, the lessons from my post-closet-audit layout stayed with me. I now know that many of my tops can do “double-duty,” and I continue to wear those items both for exercise and as part of my “regular outfits.”
Conclusion
All in all, I feel like it’s been a successful summer season for me in terms of my wardrobe and style. I pared down my closet to a more manageable level, I’ve acquired some great new pieces that I love and wear, I have multiple pieces that are doing “double-duty,” and I’ve rated the majority of my outfits as eights or higher (with a greater number of nines and tens than ever before).
I still hope we see another few weeks of summer weather where I live, as I’d love to continue wearing my favorite items and ensembles for a while longer. But even if the cooler temperatures arrive tomorrow, I will count summer 2024 as a winning season for my wardrobe. Hopefully I’ll be able to say the same thing about the upcoming cool weather season (I don’t really call it “winter” where I live).
In my next post, I’ll share some of my favorite outfit formulas from this past summer, and I’ll also weigh in on how I see my summer style evolving in 2025 and beyond. But now I’d love to hear from you, either about what I shared here today or about your own summer style journey. Since I’m sure many of you are well into wearing your fall clothing by now (or spring clothing for my friends in Australia and New Zealand), I’d love to read your early season thoughts about how that’s working for you, as well as the changes you’d like to make.
As always, thank you for reading, and I wish you all the best with your wardrobe, style, and overall life journey in the final three months of 2024.
My Wardrobe, Myself 
Thanks Debbie, this was an interesting post! Your comments on black ftw and on a few pieces in a category being enough particularly resonated with me. I’ve stopped trying to force myself to wear more colour and embraced a mostly black (with touches of white, khaki, red and occasional blue) wardrobe this year, which is definitely my happy place. This has also meant cutting right down on certain categories: for example I now only have three pairs of jeans, all black, but different weights and cuts. What I have embraced instead is fully accepting I live in a place with four seasons, and I am much more comfortable dressing in seasonal fabrics. Full on wool flannel, tweed and knitwear for winter, midweight gaberdine and cotton for spring/autumn, linens and silks and light cottons for summer. This means I have about a dozen pairs of black trousers, but in different fabrics so I can only wear roughly a third of them at any one time. It feels like more variety to me, and I am much more thermally comfortable than when I tried to wear supposedly transeasonal clothing all year round. This has really clicked for me, and I’m feeling quite content with my wardrobe as we change seasons to spring in the southern hemisphere.
Thank you for your comment, Elissa, I’m not sure if you’ve commented here before, but I enjoyed reading your insights. It can be incredibly freeing to just allow ourselves to wear what we most want to wear, whether that be in terms of colors or styles. I’m sure it’s more difficult to dress for a four-season climate. I already feel like I have too many clothes and we really only have two main seasons where I live (with a little bit of “shoulder” seasons that also occur). You seem to have the fabrics down for the different seasons, and having trousers in different fabrications can provide variety, even if those trousers are all black. Your wardrobe sounds lovely, and I’m sure I would like it, especially with all of that black!
Interesting post! I’m also considering the role of black and navy in my wardrobe- I probably have 20 items in each color for all seasons. However, this summer I reached for black a bit more I think. Navy is probably a little softer with my coloring but I still like myself in black and black seems easier to find. Also, there are a lot of shades of navy and they don’t always go together even though I think slightly different shades of black usually blend together.
My other realization after assessing what I wore during the summer is that I reached for solid colors – mostly black, white, and lapis blue- more than prints. I still like my favorite print tops, but I am focusing on solid colors for new purchases because they feel more versatile.
You’re so right about shades of black combining more easily than shades of navy, Murphy. I’ve noticed the same thing, which has made it harder to wear navy. Which shoes to wear with navy can also be a bit challenging. You mentioned another time about preferring solids over prints, so it’s good that you’re focusing your purchases on solid pieces. You’re right that solids are often more versatile. They’re also less memorable and can be worn more often. Like you, I usually confine my prints to tops, although I’ve enjoyed having a few printed toppers, too. It sounds like you’re really figuring out what you most like to wear. I love lapis blue, too, and hope to see more of it out there in the retail landscape.
You are making good progress and it sounds like it is all coming together for you.
As you already know, I also wear a lot of black and prefer it for the same reasons you do. Navy is a better color on me (as you can see in my photo) but navy has a whole other vibe, and when I’m feeling the need for dramatic, I reach for black and wear it with bold earrings. Sometimes I combine navy with black, and I agree, it depends on the shade of navy. Currently my basic colors are black, gray, navy, camel and denim, with a few other limited colors. But I have also discovered that I grow tired of color, and never get tired of black. Keeping my colors simple makes (almost) everything in my wardrobe work well together.
For the past few weeks I’ve been slowly going through my clothes and letting go of everything that is causing me to split my wears. My closet is beginning to take on a peaceful feeling and I feel calm when getting dressed. Having less decisions feels wonderful!
Terra, I have thought of you a lot recently, so it’s wonderful to see you comment here! I think you look lovely in both black and navy. I agree with you that the vibes of these two colors can be quite different, which is probably why I’ve been preferring black (I might look better in navy, too, but I’m not sure). Black with bold earrings is a look I love, too, and I also never get tired of wearing black. Good for you for getting rid of anything that is causing you to split your wears. The “splitting your wears” concept is one of my favorites from Bridgette Raes (she has so many good ones, though), and its something that I could definitely improve upon. With black pieces, I can see having SOME wear-splitting, but I need to be careful there, too. I hope you continue to feel more and more peaceful with your closet and calm when you get dressed. Those are wonderful feelings to have!
I have enjoyed wearing jewel colours in summer lately. Mid to dark blue denim jeans. A pinky purple denim jacket. Printed Ts and blouses with navy or black backgrounds.
But although I have also been embracing more colour in recent winters, I must write that I felt very put together yesterday in my black V-neck blouse, burgundy skirt, and black tights and shoes. So I can understand where everyone’s joy of black comes in. I find that some colour can help lift my mood, but I think I’ll always have a place for black in my wardrobe.
Overall, I enjoy seasonal variety, I think. It’s so much fun right now to rediscover my old cool weather favourites. And I’m doing my best to weed out summer misses so that I love everything in my office closet that I rediscover there next spring.
Your summer wardrobe sounds great, Sue. Like you, I also love jewel tones and enjoy pairing them with either black or denim. Pairing black with burgundy is a lovely and sophisticated combo, in my opinion, and your outfit from yesterday sounds great. Seasonal variety is nice to have, and it’s fun to rediscover old favorites as the weather changes. I look forward to wearing many of my cool weather pieces again soon, but I hope summer lasts a bit longer since it’s always the shorter of my two seasons. It sounds like you have a good handle on both your wardrobe and your style, which is what I wish for all of us!
Hi Debbie, sounds like maybe black is just your preference! Which is fine! It’s an easy colour to find, and I think sometimes stylists feel that people only choose it because they find it easier. One stylist (I forget who, one of the Australian ones) even calls women dressed all in black “blackcidents”!
I think your recent choices sound really good and you’re making fewer mistakes.
I really like black pants too especially in our winter. I have one summer pair as well as an option. Despite being probably of “Spring” seasonal colouring I don’t want to do without them. I like more colour in my shoes though.
Yes, black is really my preference, Jenni, but I do like other colors, too (often paired with black, lol). The stylist who coined the term “blackcident” was Bridgette Raes. Here’s a video she did about that phenomenon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTgiUrqNRG4
I’m glad to be making fewer mistakes and hope to continue on that trajectory! I wear black pants all year round, but I wear more color on my bottom half in the summer (because I have a lot easier time finding cropped pants than full-length pants). If black isn’t your best color, it’s easier to wear if it’s not right next to your face. I would love to see your shoe collection, as I’m sure it’s amazing!
Yes Debbie I Googled it and found it was Bridgette, I had thought maybe Imogen Lamport or Jill Chivers from Australia. I have looked at all their sites occasionally over time.
Thanks for the compliment about my shoe collection, it has more pairs that I actually wear since I became way more careful in my purchases. Some pics on YLF posts of mine if you want to see any! Cheers Jenni
I love Bridgette, Imogen, and Jill! They all have so many great insights to share. I have more shoes in my collection than I actually wear, too, because I used to be less discerning than I am now. I would buy shoes because I liked the way they looked, but I didn’t think enough about how they would fit in with my clothes and whether or not they would be comfortable enough to wear all day long. I’ve purged a lot of shoes that were uncomfortable, but I still have some pairs that are great in theory but haven’t been in practice. I’ve seen some of your shoes in your YLF posts, but I’ll have to go and check out more because I know I miss a lot on that forum. The shoes I have seen have been lovely, though, and often quite unique!
Thinking about the role of navy in your wardrobe… This may be a strange, unpopular, or controversial opinion, but I think there can be a place in your closet for clothes you rarely-to-never wear for some people…and I don’t just mean specialty items for weddings or other rare events but just normal clothes you could wear but don’t.
Of course there are those who really do well over the longer term with some version of minimalism or an otherwise really streamlined closet; Terra uses words like “peaceful” and “calm” in her comment, for example. For the right kind of person, continuing to winnow out the benchwarmers, removing pieces to eliminate splitting wears, all of that wardrobe optimization that leads to an ideally small wardrobe with little churn and provides enduring benefits.
But I’ve noticed that some people experience a positive feeling after a thorough closet clean out, but it doesn’t last. They start getting antsy in some way…feel that they need to start filling the closet again, are bored with the lack of variety, think they need to buy something new and/or trendy to be relevant, miss the high of shopping, feel insecure with perceived scarcity, something. This leads to the classic buy>purge>buy churn cycle that is marked by regular feelings of dissatisfaction with one’s wardrobe despite all the time, money, and effort that goes into it.
While keeping some rarely-worn items in your closet may not help as much with shopping-for-a-high or with wanting to feel trendy, I think it can help buffer against feelings that the closet is too empty, that you don’t have enough clothes, or that you don’t have enough variety. You may really love wearing black most days of the year but still at least occasionally have a sense that having only black is too limiting in some way and feel like you need to expand out. But if you have some navy items that you do like (even if you don’t wear them that much because you like the black more) already in your closet, I think that can temper that antsy feeling that you need to do something.
I am 100% NOT a person who will be happy long-term with a small wardrobe. Instead of the “peaceful” and “calm” feelings, I would experience anxiety and uncertainty. I know myself and accept myself, and I manage my wardrobe accordingly. Part of that is recognizing that if I cut back too far or go too long on a shopping freeze, I risk triggering non-mindful shopping and start up the buy>purge>buy churn cycle, which I really don’t want to do (because to me, it’s the worst of all patterns). (Ask me how I know, hah.) So I keep my wardrobe at a size that works for me, even if many people would say I “should” get rid of benchwarmers or items that split wears or things I’ve not worn in 6 months/a year, whatever. With all due respect to these people, including the experts, they are not me and they are not the boss of me. Something can be a useful concept or generally good advice and still not be applicable to my wardrobe (right now or ever).
In the current environment where we see the extravagant excessive shopping pushed by fast fashion and influencers (e.g., $500 Shein shopping haul!!!!! video) on the one hand and aspirational, fantasy minimalism (e.g., gorgeous light oak wardrobe with 5 items hanging in it stock photo) on the other, and with ever-greater pressure on us to “optimize” every part of our lives with these “top hacks,” we can get kind of get caught up in this madness of feeling like we constantly need to be doing something to improve our wardrobes. Shopping, purging, reorganizing. It’s a hurry up and do SOMETHING pressure when I think we’d often be better served to get our wardrobes to a “good enough” place and just let it ride for a while.
As usual, what you wrote made me think, Sally. I agree with you that there can be a place in our wardrobes for pieces that we only wear once in a while. This is particularly true for those of us who prefer to have larger wardrobes (I used to think I wanted a small wardrobe, but now I don’t think that I really do – I just want a manageable wardrobe filled with items that I really like and that work well for me). I have definitely developed that “antsy” feeling that you wrote about after paring down my wardrobe, which can get me to fill it up again. That’s part of why I’m okay now with having a larger “holding zone,” as I will sometimes end up bringing those pieces back into my closet (which is better than going out and buying new).
Interestingly, I did have the desire to wear navy recently and I was quite happy wearing it for two outfits in a row. It provided a degree of “freshness” or maybe even a “palate cleanse” in between my many black-heavy ensembles. I think I’m more like you in terms of my wardrobe rather than a wardrobe minimalist like Terra. I’m not sure I’ve found my “sweet spot” in terms of wardrobe size just yet, but I’m getting there. I will tell you, though, that since you commented earlier this year about me being a lot “pickier” about what I wear vs. what I buy, I’ve done so much better with my shopping. I’ve still made some mistakes, but those were usually easily remedied through returns. When I get to the end of the year, I will analyze how successful I was with my shopping and I hope to be able to say that most of my purchases were at least pretty good (if not great). Thanks again for your willingness to share your insights here!
Sally,
Yes, that’s it! That antsy “do I have enough” feeling. This is why I don’t mind splitting wears & don’t need clothes to be “perfect for my style.” I hear people say get rid of things you wouldn’t buy again or you don’t love—I’d be naked! If I “split wears” that means my items last longer & I have backup for laundry & or worse, stains, holes, etc. That concept never made sense to me. If I already have the item, why would I get rid of it & just rebuy it when something happens to the original?
oh I answered my own question: rebuy. Which is what some of the advice from “gurus” boils down to: just buy more.
Splitting wears probably is a good thing to consider when shopping but I agree that it makes much less sense for things already in your closet! I think “rebuy” hits the nail on the head.
I got a chuckle out of your “I’d be naked” comment, Ocd! I feel much the same a lot of the time… I don’t think we necessarily need to absolutely LOVE everything in our closets. After all, it’s the finished outfit that matters more than the sum of its parts. Some “basics” are necessary as outfit “building blocks,” but they won’t always inspire a lot of excitement. Additionally, just because we wouldn’t buy a piece again today doesn’t mean it’s awful or unwearable. Our tastes might shift and we might learn more about what fits, silhouettes, fabrics, colors, and prints work best for us, but we might still like what we have well enough to wear it, especially if we combine a “serviceable” piece with more of a “wow” item.
I agree that most of the “experts” just want us to buy more, particularly if they will get affiliate income from it, as is the case for most “influencers.” It’s not in the best interest of the fashion industry and the “gurus” for us to continue wearing what we own, but that is often in OUR best interest, which matters more to us! It’s all too common for us to look outside of our closets and find things to buy rather than looking inside our closets at what we have and can be quite happy wearing. I have been guilty of that more times than I can count, but both of you raised excellent food for thought with your comments!
I like color in my wardrobe and never had a closet with a lot of black, until I let my hair go natural. That’s how the woman who does my hair refers to my new not artificially colored hair. I think black looks good with my salt/pepper hair and I have added several black tops to my line-up. I still like blue as a main color, but since I like the way I look with black and silver accessories I’ve added a few. To borrow a phrase from those 30 years younger than myself — it’s self-care!
I get mixing your at-home with your go-out items, and finding that they can do double duty, but I had an experience recently that caused me to think that might always result in appropriate outfits. My husband signed us up to go to a political event. I said to myself, there’ll be a lot of people like me there, what I’ve got on is fine – mauve Uniglo puffer jacket, green khaki chinos, keds sneakers. the invite did not say “cocktails and buffet dinner.” The room was full to the brim of ladies my age with perfectly blond hair, black skirts, stockings and shoes that did not tie up! My salt/pepper hair was fine. This was an event where I wanted to fade into the woodwork (because I wasn’t thrilled to be there and I managed to stick out like a sore thumb.
As my life continues to become more home-based/casual i think I need to have a “will see people I may not know outfit” that is predictably dressed up. So, even if you hang them together in your closet, don’t let that lull you into thinking those casual clothes will automatically fit in to every event. I think the distinction in your closet can help your head not drift off the mark of what is going to help you fit into occasions.
It’s interesting how transitioning to our natural hair color can change what colors we like to wear, Rose. It hasn’t changed as much for me, as I always enjoyed wearing black and jewel tones, but I’ve definitely seen it with other women I know (and those I follow online). What has changed for me, though, is that I can now wear pastels and red much better than before (I had dyed auburn hair that didn’t pair that nicely with red, but I LOVE red now with my gray / salt & pepper hair. I agree with you that black looks good on those of us with gray or grayish hair, and silver accessories pair nicely, too!
I’m sorry you had a bad experience with what you wore to the political event. I’ve never been to one of those, but I think I’d want to fade into the woodwork, too. It’s always tough to know what to wear to events we’ve never attended previously. I’m sure you looked nice, but I can see that it would be awkward to be dressed more casually than others in attendance. Your plan for having some “predictably dressed up” outfits for future ambiguous events sounds like a good one. If you’re already uncomfortable attending certain events, it helps to feel like you’re dressed appropriately. That can actually help a lot, especially for those of us who really care about what we wear.
I love the comments from Sally and Ocd! When I think about it, I’m not really happy with myself or my wardrobe when I try to force myself to be a wardrobe minimalist. If I get rid of too much I do feel deprived and anxious, and I can feel bored with my clothes and fear that I don’t look polished enough. But I don’t need a thousand items, either- I’m pretty sure that would make me twitchy too. Not sure what my ideal size wardrobe would be, but I clearly need a few new things every season to feel happy and confident with my clothes!
I relate a lot to what you wrote here, Murphy. I think we all have a “sweet spot” in terms of what wardrobe size works best for us, and that size can change over time. At one point, I would have thought my current wardrobe wasn’t big enough, but now I’d like for it to be somewhat smaller (but not necessarily SMALL). One thing I’ve noticed, too, is that I’m more okay with some SECTIONS of my closet being small or smallish, such as pants, shoes, and purses. I’ve found that I’m fine with a smaller number of options in those areas, but I like to have more variety with tops, toppers, and jewelry. Like you, I need to add at least a few new pieces each season to add a “boost” to my closet (but sometimes I still add TOO much).