Years ago I worked for a woman who had a semi-public role for a year. I helped her organise her wardrobe which I absolutely loved. She had beautiful suits and dresses for day time and amazingly beautiful evening wear.
I remember a bead encrusted Yves Saint Laurent evening dress with the beads sewn onto a chiffon over-dress; an emerald green silk satin dress ruched in the bodice, full length, gorgeous. Of course, she had an amazing figure too. Then, I’d return home, to normality: to jeans; jumpers, skirts, tops, and of course dresses. The best that I could afford, and make at the time. But I had nowhere near as many clothes as my boss, and neither were they of the same quality level. My boss’s clothes were absolutely beautiful. But they weren’t the right clothes for me: we had very different lives, and we had completely different body shapes and we were at different stages in our lives.
Your own perfect wardrobe
Even though her clothes were beautiful and she had a great sense of style, her wardrobe was not right for me. Perfect wardrobes are only perfect if they are perfect for the person they are designed for. There is no use in having a perfect wardrobe that is perfect for someone else!
The world around us can lead us into thinking that there is a certain wardrobe that we have to aspire to and once we’ve obtained that we have a perfect wardrobe and then, probably, a perfect life too. Capsule wardrobes, for example are great, but to try and conform to someone else’s idea of a capsule wardrobe is not going to be the perfect wardrobe for you and provide you with clothes that you want to wear every day and that suit your daily activities.
Join the Working Frocks list today to get styling tips and advice from us on what to wear to create the perfect life for you. We are entirely focussed on your and your clothes. It’s like having a virtual stylist. In fact that’s exactly what it is. Join the list and let us help you.
Additionally fashion headlines are targeted at the FOMO in us, using language that is designed to imply that we are getting the inside track on clothes that we absolutely need to own right now: “This month’s must have”, “can’t live without”. And that just isn’t true, even though it may seem like it.
What your perfect wardrobe is and isn’t
The answer to what is your perfect organised wardrobe is neither:
a) what someone else has and is beautiful but not necessarily right for you nor,
b) what others may say is currently essential in terms of clothes and accessories, but doesn’t suit you or is irrelevant in your life.
Your perfect organised wardrobe is the one that is perfect and organised just for you.
So, how do you get there? Where do you find your perfect organised wardrobe and is it really possible to achieve in amongst our busy, imperfect lives? Are you at a loss as to know how to start to build your perfect wardrobe? Well, this is the perfect post for you. Read on and discover that’s it’s much easier than you may think. And, not only that, the rewards in terms of how you will feel about yourself, will sky rocket your self esteem and self confidence.
How to create your perfect wardrobe
One of the major concerns women raise about their wardrobes is that they want to be able to express themselves and their individuality. At the same time they feel that they have lost their way. This may be through the busyness of life, or through trauma or unexpected curve balls chucked at us by life.
Creating the perfect wardrobe for your life is easily achievable. You don’t have to be a fashion model, or in the know regarding the latest design trends, or want to wear up to the minute high fashion to be able to achieve a pretty amazing collection of clothes that you love to wear. The perfect wardrobe for you has nothing to do with how creative or designery you are.
Neither does the perfect wardrobe for you rely on a large shopping budget to implement. Cash is not a barrier to entry. Neither is money a guarantee of great style and knowing what to wear and how to wear it.
The perfect wardrobe for you relies much more on organisation than it does on creativity. Most women I know are expert organisers. Even if you’re not an expert organiser, our foolproof, tried and tested wardrobe principle (see below) has done most of the organising for you in advance.
So if you are reading this article and you want to know how to have your own, perfect, wardrobe, read on!
Use our 70,20,10 Principle to create your perfect wardrobe
The 70,20,10 Principle
I have a working method called the 70,20,10 principle. 70,20,10 refers to the way clothes are divided up in your wardrobe. It’s simple to implement, ensures you always have something to wear that you love and stops you wearing clothes that you don’t love.
What is the 70,20,10 principle?
The 70,20,10 principle is a system that I developed after dressing women for many years. It is a system of dividing the clothes in your wardrobe into categories that suit your lifestyle. Generally we use 3 different categories, sometimes 4.
How does the 70,20,10 principle help you?
The 70,20,10 method helps you see exactly what you’ve got in your wardrobe and check it against the life you lead.
So, the 70,20,10 principle states that 70% of your wardrobe should cater to what you spend most of your time doing, 20% to the next chunk of time, and 10% to the next chunk of time.
To break it down: If you work full time, that’s the major part of your week, then if you’re with your family or significant other at the weekend, that would be your next chunk of time, and then if you’re out for dinner/drinks/coffees to see friends/family, that’s your third biggest chunk of time. This means that 70% of your wardrobe should cater to work. 70%! Then 20% to family/social/weekend wear, and 10% to going out clothes.
Why is the 70,20,10 principle so valuable?
Ever wondered why you are searching your wardrobe looking for work clothes and all you can find is either party dresses or gym kit? This is why. Your wardrobe allocation needs some serious recalibration!
We are not taught or guided as to how best construct a wardrobe of clothes. We don’t need huge amounts of clothes but we do need the right clothes that help us carry out our daily activities. This is where the 70,20,10 principle will really help all women when we struggle to find the right clothes to wear each day. The 70,20,10 principle guides you back to getting back in control.
If you join the Working Frocks list we work with the 70:20:10 principle so come and join us let us help you streamline your wardrobe and getting your clothes working really hard for you.
There is sometimes a disconnect between what clothes women buy and what we actually need in our wardrobes. This may apply to you. Many women buy the same item or type of item multiple times either because we know that style suits us (eg a white shirt) or because nothing else currently fits (buying jumpers because you know they’ll fit and you’ll feel comfy and you won’t have to think about weight gain). Or we repeat buy what already suits us: black trousers, shoes, jackets without realising that we are overbuying for one particular area of our life
Question: Are the 70,20,10 numbers fixed amounts?
The 70,20,10 method is designed to help women allocate clothes to their most frequent activities. However, the numbers aren’t intended to be some draconian law to beat you over the head and make you feel inadequate if you don’t fulfil them. There are certain areas of flexibility. For instance, the 70% has a certain flexibility to it.
I discuss this flexibility more in the video in the facegroup group, “Rock your wardrobe”. Join the group for access to that video. In the video I should you how to customise the numbers and get them working exactly right for you. Go to Working Frocks and request to join the group. We’d love to have you onboard…
Would you like to learn more?
So either, way, take action today. Wear what you love and love what you wear. Life is too short to feel less than great every day.
Have an amazing day,
Sarah
