Mindful Wardrobe Management for Clothing Lovers, Part 4

Do you remember back-to-school shopping? 

I loved back-to-school shopping. My birthday falls in mid-August, just a few weeks before the start of school, so I always got an extra-special new outfit in addition to whatever pens and notebooks and freshly-fitted school shoes were required for the new year. For almost two decades, that was the extent of my wardrobe planning—back to school shopping, my annual Christmas list, and a few things at the start of summer vacation.

Shopping changed for me when I got my first job and could afford to shop at the teen stores. And it changed even more when fast fashion became prevalent and the traditional purchasing seasons got muddied by an endless stream of new and exciting and more, more more. 

But what was really wrong with the old way? What would happen if we limited our shopping to a few times a year, and then just…stopped?

Let’s Review

In the introduction to this series, I listed three steps to mindful wardrobe management using my version of the “Five-Piece French (5PF)” system. The first two were:

1. Build a basic wardrobe of things you wear regularly.

2. If one of your basics wears out or doesn’t fit anymore, replace it with something equivalent.

The concept of a basic wardrobe is key to making the whole idea work, so series parts two and three both focused on defining and refining the basic wardrobe, but what about adding new things?

It’s disingenuous to pretend that. if you just spend a bit of time building out the perfect wardrobe, you’ll be done with shopping forever. For one thing, clothes wear out—and the smaller your wardrobe, the faster that happens. For another, I didn’t title this series, “Mindful Wardrobe Management for People Who Never Want to Think About Clothes Again.” For those of us who love fashion, building a wardrobe can be a fun, fulfilling process that we don’t want to be done with. 

The problem, of course, is that’s how closets get out of control and the perils of consumption start to outweigh the benefits.

That’s where step three comes in. 

3. Twice each year (once for cold weather and once for warm weather), evaluate your closet and add five pieces you really love. These could be anything from a bright red statement coat bought secondhand to a pricey pair of designer jeans that fit perfectly and upgrade your basic ones. 

5PF says, “Go ahead and add new clothes each year, but be reasonable about it.” By choosing to add only ten new pieces a year, you’ll give yourself the time and motivation to pick carefully. You can choose clothing items you adore, that you’ve had time to research, that called to you from the window of a consignment store, or that you saved for months to afford. Deciding to buy fewer pieces (the average American buys 59 new garments a year) will give you the space to truly experience the joy of each addition, which is what mindfulness is all about.

Deciding What to Add

Before you add anything, make sure you’ve done the distilling exercise I wrote about previously. You can do a truncated version of this each time you make additions to your wardrobe.

Beyond replacing basic wardrobe pieces (which don’t count towards your allotment—just replace them directly whenever they wear out or no longer fit), I suggest adding three different categories of clothing to your closet over the course of a year: statement items, auditions, and duplicates.

Remember those items that didn’t fit into the framework of your basic wardrobe, but you kept in your closet because they were so wonderful? Those are your statements. Statement items make dressing fun, indulge your creative impulses, and provide an outlet that will keep you from purchasing out of boredom or self-doubt. Statements are bold and unique. They’re the joyful heart of your wardrobe.

Statement items make dressing fun.

Auditions are pieces that you think could become new essentials, but you’re not yet sure about. My workhorse black jumpsuit started out as an audition, but quickly proved its worth as my grab-and-go, “getting down to work” outfit of choice. I added it to my “official” basic wardrobe list last year. If I had to replace it now, it would be as an essential. On the other hand, I also have a black linen cardigan that came into my wardrobe as an audition year or two ago. I imagined it being the perfect thing to grab for warmth on a cool summer evening and fully expected it to become an essential. As it turns out, that sweater is nice to have, but I don’t reach for it nearly as often as I simply grab a blanket from the basket on our patio. I’ll enjoy it while I have it, but I won’t be replacing it directly. Making space for auditions amongst your ten annual purchases keeps you from needlessly expanding your basic wardrobe list, while providing the opportunity to adjust and grow your personal style. Mindfully integrating successful audition pieces into your basic wardrobe (while transitioning  less-worn staples out) will prevent it from feeling stagnant over months and years.

Duplicates are items that are functionally equivalent to pieces in your basic wardrobe, but offer some variety, or keep you from having to do laundry quite so often. I’ve listed “graphic tee” as a basic wardrobe item, but in actuality, I have several of these. I also have multiple plain linen dresses and black tank tops. I wouldn’t exercise my direct replacement option on these items, unless I wore through my last one, but I often use a few of my annual ten purchases to round out my basic wardrobe with extra options. That also gives me leave to spend a bit more on an extra-special essential without breaking the budget!

Shopping for statements, auditions, and duplicates can be playful and mind-expanding in moderation, but too much, especially when living in a consumer culture, can be a mindfulness nightmare. There’s a solution for that. Set limits.

Two Seasons, Five Items Each

You might have noticed that step three starts out with the directive, “twice each year.” In the original 5PF system, this corresponded with the two fashion seasons: spring/summer and fall/winter. Anyone who’s shopped recently knows that the two-season system is more or less out the window. New clothing collections are released constantly, and there’s rarely a time you can’t find something new and exciting on shop racks. I still recommend trying to limit shopping to, at most, once a quarter, splitting up the item limit in a way that makes sense for your climate and lifestyle.

Here’s why:  we’re constantly barraged with sale notices in our inboxes, catalogs in our mailboxes, pop-ups in our browsers, promoted items in our social media feeds. and tempting displays in shop windows. They will us to want things we don’t really need and buy things we don’t really want. There’s really no way to live in the modern world and completely avoid this, but it’s worse if we remain in a constant state of openness to the noise. 

There’s real power in simply deciding, “I’m not shopping right now.” Just like that, the ads and sales and pretty merchandising become irrelevant. I try to do most of my playful shopping in April, August, and December, but, because I keep my wardrobe small, when I need to replace a basic piece, I do it as soon as possible. For those purchases, I have another mindfulness strategy, and that’s to set my intentions ahead of time. It’s a different, and more focused experience to shop with a specific goal in mind (“I’m only planning to purchase one pair of jeans.”), that works well for those in-between needs, and provides a balance to to make both the playful and focused purchases more satisfying.

Occasionally adding new (or new-to-you) clothing is both necessary and enjoyable (at least, for those of us who love clothes), but it doesn’t have to be an addiction, and it’s possible to do it without playing into societal pressures toward unsustainable excess. I hope these four mindful wardrobe management posts have helped you to create a framework for building a wardrobe that combines function and joy, making your closet a sustainable, creative outlet, year after year.