Sugar Blaze

You’ve probably read a million guides about purging unworn items from your closet, and without a doubt, most of them (if not all) told you to toss everything you haven’t worn in six months. This method is incredibly flawed. For starters, it fails to address why the items aren’t being worn. It also gives you very little credit for your choices and leaves you feeling like a moron for buying the stuff. I don’t believe that’s the way to go. If you liked something well enough in the store to shell out hard-earned cash for it, and you’ve hung onto it for at least six months, then something tells me its lack of street time has a lot more to do with not knowing how to wear it, than it does with a lack of desire to wear it.

Instead of telling you how to strip your closet down to such a minimum that you freak out about having nothing left to wear and, subsequently, run out to purchase a load of clothes that will just hang in your closet until the next time you read an article about throwing it all out, I’m going to show you how to rejuvenate the wardrobe you already own. When we’re finished, you will feel like you have an entirely new closet full of clothes, and those items you didn’t know how to wear before will finally see the light of day.

Let’s Get Started!

Your first step is to go into your closet and pull out all the items you rarely or never wear, but that you’d like to wear. We’re going to run those clothes through a process I like to call Find-An-Outfit, or, for easier reference, FAO.

Determine which you have less of in your pile, tops or bottoms. Most women have fewer bottoms, so my example will assume that scenario (if it’s not the case for you, just reverse the order here). Start with one particular type of bottom, such as skirts. Choose one skirt and put it on. Now, you are to try that skirt with every single top you own, using tops from both the unworn pile and from your closet of frequently worn items. Pay absolutely no attention to color—some of the best outfits happen when unconventional color combos are given a whirl. Most looks, you’ll hate, of course. The point is to get you thinking outside of the box and to uncover matches you would never discover, otherwise. Even matches gone wrong can give you some good ideas about how to make them right.

When you do find a look you like (and trust me, you’re going to find some great combinations you did not expect), try the outfit on with different pairs of shoes to expand the possibilities. If the outfit is appropriate for cool weather, try on various jackets with it. I sometimes wear a lightweight, fitted jacket as part of my outfit, rather than just a piece of outerwear, much in the way that a blazer would accompany a suit. This works wonders for outfits that are a bit bland on their own, and it can also aid in bringing colors together. An example of this would be pink pants paired with a blue top, made harmonious by a pink and blue print jacket.

As you find outfits that work together, be sure to photograph yourself, or at the very least, write down what you’re wearing. Don’t stop at one possible look for each outfit: if you have a green skirt that looks great with an orange top, explore as many different looks with the shoes and jacket as you can, before you take that top off and go onto another one. You may find that with just that one top and skirt, you can come up with six different looks. Using accessories, like belts and scarves, can also aid you here. Only when you feel you’ve completely exhausted all of your options should you take the top off and begin looking for another mate to the green skirt. The skirt will remain on you until there is literally nothing left in your closet for you to try it on with.

Check out some of the looks I came up with during my FAO session with a magenta skirt that I snagged at a clothing swap several months ago and have yet to wear:

Success!

Seeing all these possibilities has my head spinning, because before this, I was considering getting rid of the skirt. I was sure I had nothing to wear it with, and now, look! I can say with certainty that this piece will no longer be collecting dust in my closet, nor will I be getting rid of it. I cannot wait to wear it!

I will continue to share my FAO sessions in future posts, and I encourage you to share your own FAO experiences here, too. Just link me to your photos in a comment or e-mail me.