The Purge
Are you familiar with the term wardrobe refresh? A wardrobe refresh is a term used by personal stylists (different to the stylists who dress famous people for the red carpet) to describe a way of updating your wardrobe that might involve a purge, getting rid of pieces you no longer like or wear, either because they don’t fit or simply because they don’t fit your lifestyle, they can then be sold, recycled or given to charity. This process is also a good opportunity to identify pieces that need fixing, altering, debobbling, need to go to the dry cleaners or simply need a chance of hanger. The entire wardrobe should be emptied so nothing is missed (diligent wardrobe organisers will give the space a good hoover and add cedarwood to prevent nasty moths nibbling at your knits)
When its time to put everything back, then you can decide how you prefer it hung, the best and most popular option is by category, blazers, blouses, trousers, and what you hang them on is important too, narrow flock hangers might be good space savers and they’re fine for lighter weight items, but they aren’t strong enough for jackets or coats, and they won’t take the weight of more than one pair of trousers (another space saving tip is to double hang similar trousers) in this case wooden hangers are best. When everything is hung nicely its so easy to see what you have, perhaps even what you don’t have that would be useful when building your outfits.
Although I prefer to hang my own clothes in category order I also sub categorise by colour, so all black blazers together, then navy, and I spiral down in shade darkest to light, this is also a second chance for you to see by eye that perhaps you have too many of a certain colour / shape and maybe you can things narrow down your options to make room for a colour or fit you have been lusting after, or even just to make it easier to get dressed, you won’t like them all equally, some will be more flattering, comfortable, stylish than others, keep those.
The other benefit of your clothes being in colour order is being able to see the colour combinations you can make, which means you instantly have more outfit options without buying any new clothes. Colour combinations can be colour blocking, that’s pairing bold colours together, or head to toe one colour, all red is stunning in every season, while all cream is set to be a big trend for Spring Summer. You can try putting similar shades of the same colour together or creating an entirely fresh combination with muted neutrals, navy & brown, or cream and white.
Treat yourself to a DIY wardrobe refresh, its like spring cleaning but you wind up better dressed.
