10 days, 10 items, 10+ outfits
1. Converses
2. Mohinder City Slides
3. Plain white Reformation tee
4. Doen jumper from their fall sample sale
5. Vintage Tommy Hilfiger sweater from Collect On Sunday
6. Old hand-me-down navy cord skirt (sorta similar here + here)
7. Esby Val Twill Pant (almost sold out but Garmentory has cool pants)
8. Wrangler sherpa jacket from Painted Bird (similar here)
9. Madewell striped mockneck tee
10. Thrifted old school cream Calvins <3
But Why
I've long had a morbid fascination with capsule wardrobe bloggers. Dedication to minimalism, as I've complained before, often ends in an aesthetic too stark for my liking. So... is it possible to be a colorful, maximal minimalist? Or perhaps, just someone who keeps an organized closet that helps her see / remember / understand what she owns and why?
I've been experimenting with this over the past few months. I majorly purged my wardrobe out of pure disgust as well as necessity – a lot of my stuff was old, uncomfortable, ill-fitted, OR better yet, brands that could be sold to help me pay rent (being a "creative type" in an "expensive city" can be HARD, friends!).
The Challenge
Enter Style Bee, Lee Vosburgh's blog, which is home to both the best comprehensive list of ethical indie designers I've ever seen and also the 10x10 style challenge. And Caroline from Un-Fancy co-hosts each season's challenge.
Lee designed this challenge for anyone, including skeptics and wannabes like myself, to do a free trial of the simple life. You pick 10 pieces from your closet (shoes count, accessories don't), style them into 10 outfits, and wear those for 10 days.
Tips + Takeaways
I found out that I honestly could have made about 20 outfits out of these items! It was so exciting the first few days but by the end, I was really ready to wear anything else.
The main thing I did right was pick a palette, which made things easy to mix and match. Earthy tones, blues and whites. The yellow Tommy sweater probably wasn't the most versatile choice but I just got it from Collect on Sunday and have been dying to wear it a few different ways... it actually fit in pretty nicely.
The main lesson I learned is that if you truly want to be a minimalist, your clothes should be well-made and well-fit. This seems obvious but how many pieces of clothing do you have that you keep around despite the tight crotch (this is the case with my Calvins) or uncomfortable fabric (the Doen jumper)? If I really wanted to narrow down to only 20-30 total items, I'd need them all to fit as well as the dreamy, expensive esby pants.
What's Next
Will I ever commit to minimalism? Embrace monochrome? Probably not. But I do aim in 2018 to buy much less, and make much more out of what I already have. Donate what I don't wear to local charities and sell things I find harder to part with to Wasteland or on The Fluf Shop ;)
I'm already planning to buy a jumpsuit and a pair of pants from Midland come spring. But other than that, I'm not going to buy anything other than food, gas, and other necessities for the first six months of this year. Maybe I'll last even longer than that! ? !
So STAY TUNED because we're doing monthly Fluf team outfit roundups starting in February and you can hold me accountable on my promise to buy less, should you so desire.
