Mindful Wardrobe Management for Clothing Lovers, Part 2
When I last wrote about the Five-Piece French (5PF) Wardrobe in part one of this series, I summarized it like this:
Build a basic wardrobe of things you wear regularly. Keep it neutral, write it down, and don’t go overboard.
If one of your basic pieces wears out or doesn’t fit anymore, replace it with something equivalent.
Twice each year (once for cold weather and once for warm weather), evaluate your closet and add five pieces you really love.
This is how I’ve been managing my wardrobe (and remember, I really love clothes!) for the last several years, but it doesn’t work without a good dose of self-examination to start. That’s why I thought I’d walk you through how I boiled down my basic wardrobe list at the very beginning of the process. In future posts, I’ll go over how I do my closet evaluation, and how I choose each season’s purchases.
Here’s my basic wardrobe:
It’s super-easy to look at a list like this and think, “that’s what I should have,” which is exactly what I did when I first started 5PF. I looked at someone else’s list, and proceeded to add a blazer and a leather jacket and a white shirt to my closet, so I’d be at the “right” starting point for my new system. Don’t do that! (You’ll notice none of those items are on my list now.)
Instead, think about what you actually wear and what you have in your closet today. If you had to pick out the most functional, representative, useful wardrobe items you have, what would they be?
You can certainly use my list as a guide, but personalize it to yourself. It might help to list specific items you already own instead of more general ones (ie: “my Ramones tee,” instead of “graphic tee”). If you’re a hands-on person, you can also do this physically by taking everything out of your closet and drawers, and only putting away your most essential, neutral pieces. Though I didn’t list colors for most of the items on my list, they’re almost all black, with a tiny bit of blue denim, olive green, and brown. You might find your core is mostly white, navy, gray, beige, or a combination of neutrals unique to you.
Fair warning: it’s going to look like a skeleton of a wardrobe, and it probably won’t include some of your favorite things. Don’t panic. That’s how it should be. In fact, if it doesn’t look like that, you probably included too much, so go back and really think through those choices.
This isn’t a tidy, perfect process. If I were to set aside everything on my basic wardrobe list right now, I’d still be left with all my favorite patterned dresses and tops, a bunch of slight variations on the items in my basic wardrobe (I definitely have more than one graphic tee), some things I keep for when we travel to cold places, a pair of trendy pants, a riotously embroidered cardigan, some printed skirts, and a small pile of clothes in my favorite colors. Oh, and that blazer I bought back when I thought everyone should have one.
I’m not getting rid of those things. I love them, and I’m not starting from scratch here. Neither are most of you. This isn’t about trying to distill your wardrobe down to its essence. That will come with time. Right now, this is just about figuring out what that essence might be.
For me, the essence of my wardrobe is laid-back, comfortable, and easy-to-wear. Save for a black tie event, I could dress for any occasion in my life out of my basic wardrobe. They might not be the most exciting or beautiful outfits I’ve even worn, but they would get me through.
One reason this system—this process—has worked for me is that, at its very heart, it’s about being mindful about what you wear, and mindful about what you purchase. As far as I know, the roots of 5PF were more about personal style than sustainable fashion, but I truly believe that mindfulness leads directly to sustainability, and that’s at the core of what I believe.
Stay tuned…next time, I’ll write about distillation and share how my wardrobe has evolved over the years I’ve been consciously managing it!
