Wardrobe Planning

A couple of days ago, I was sorting through some things that I was thinking of putting on ebay. One of them was the book by Brenda Kinsel called Brenda's Wardrobe Companion : A Guide to Getting Dressed From the Inside Out. I was looking at books on organising your wardrobe on Amazon, and bought this one. I didn't like it when I got it, and it has sat, mostly unread, on the bookshelf for the last 18 months. I thought I would flick through it just to check whether I should sell it, and I started reading. Really reading. The book has a lot of exercises (I think that is what put me off it in the first place) on getting you to think why you buy what you do and why you have so little clothes to wear. According to the author, we are only wearing about 10% of our wardrobe. That is a lot of wasted money and resources just gathering dust and using up space.

Some people just know how to put a fabulous wardrobe together, but others have to work at it. I know my wardrobe is suffering from severe neglect over the last couple of years, and I am working on changing that. Doing some of the exercises, I realised that my wardrobe could do with a dose of more dramatic clothes. Perhaps I want to stand out more! Kind of hard to do if you are about 5 foot tall.

The book has a kind of soul searching psychological focus, which is useful for working out why not much of what we have is wearable. There are the people who might buy great clothes, but then save them for 'best', and they go out of style. Then there are people who think they don't deserve to look good. Other excuses are buying clothes a size too small, because they were on sale, or clinging to a style that no longer suits. There are a whole lot of other reasons, which makes for interesting reading and much reflecting. The second half of the book is devoted to the classic wardrobe purge and then how to shop carefully.



Image from the www.palmerpletsch.com website



I have also been eyeing off this DVD by Nancy Nix-Rice on wardrobe planning for the last 18 months, and finally gave in and ordered this one. It should arrive this week. I have had her book for a while which I really like, but agree with what a lot of other people have said on Amazon reviews; they really could do a new edition with more up to date fashions. Despite the dated fashions, the basic advice does not date.

Perhaps I just need to get sewing (with a plan) and that will solve some of my wardrobe problems.

I did do some sewing this weekend, finishing my top for Lisa's wedding. I got it finished with 2 weeks to spare. I will post a photo of the finished top (and describe how that satin fabric nearly got the better of me in the end) when I have taken up the hems of the RTW trousers I will am planning to wear it with. It is still cold here, so I don't think I will wear a dress to the wedding.