Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread - Proverbs 30:8

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Simplifying my Wardrobe

Since my post last week about simple living, I’ve been thinking about areas in my life that need simplifying. My wardrobe came to mind and I was once again reminded that until I choose a base color and color scheme, my wardrobe will remain complicated.

When I first came across this idea of choosing a color scheme, I mentally chose black/gray and my base color. But I never actually went through my closet and pulled out the brown/khaki clothes.

Until today.

IMG_5122

18 pieces of clothing, 3 pair shoes and various socks/tights.

This was a bit hard for me as some of these items are my favorites. I love my long brown skirt and my brown boots. Also, some of these items are fairly new.

But having a wardrobe with two separate color schemes really complicates things. When I traveled to Illinois last month, I found myself needing two pair of sandals – one pair black, one pair brown – to match my clothes. I ended up not caring and just took one pair, but I still spent time trying to figure it all out.

So I’m doing an experiment. I’ve packed up all the above into a storage container and setting it out of sight.

My husband will be pleased (I think) as brown is not his favorite color for me to wear.

7 comments:

  1. I've been working on simplifying my wardrobe,too, thanks to project 333, and my first instinct was the same as yours: go with black and gray. But I've since learned from others much more fashionable than myself that you CAN mix black and brown (or gray and brown) and have them look great together. You might want to experiment with remixing some of your brown-ish clothes & accessories (your favorites, particularly) into different outfits with black or gray, and see if you like the results, before getting rid of ALL of the brown in your wardrobe. Just a suggestion :)

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  2. Thanks for that encouragement...I had similar thoughts. Wanna come over and help me experiment? : )

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  3. I wish I could, that would be fun! :)

    This girl is the master of brown and black, here's a few ideas for you:
    http://the-other-emily.blogspot.com/2011/08/transitions.html
    http://the-other-emily.blogspot.com/2011/07/diagonal.html

    Two more ideas:
    http://whatwouldanerdwear.blogspot.com/2011/08/happy-first-day-of-school.html
    http://whatwouldanerdwear.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-routines.html

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  4. Thanks for those links - they are so much fun to see. I'm getting some ideas. I might have to go pull a few items out of storage and thus ruin my experiment : )

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  5. I have a scarf that is black, brown, and gray stripes. With it around my neck I can mix my brown pants with a black top and black shoes and still feel put together. I think it helps that most of my clothes are solid colors so I can change my accessories to change my look very easily.

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  6. I bought new everyday sandals this summer (Tevas) and they are brown, black and gray, so they have been pretty universal. I'm so old school in that it's hard for me to ignore the black doesn't match brown "rule" of the 80s and 90s! But it seems the new fashion is to purposely not match.

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  7. Also...just discovered this for myself and thought of you:
    if you go on Pinterest and search for "black and brown" you'll get like a million outfit ideas. Have fun!

    Sorry if we ruin your experiment...but you shouldn't have to sacrifice clothes you love and wear if you have more ways to wear them than you originally thought and can put them to good use! :)

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