How much money could you save if you only needed one or two pairs of shoes instead of one or two dozen? These days we are all looking for ways to make our lives more sustainable. In this article, I will give you my foolproof affordable fashion strategy for putting the right boots with the right outfit, and then tell you what your belts and bags need to match. This can all be way easier and lower impact than you may think, on your budget and on our planet.
So pretty much everyone agrees that it makes sense to have your shoes and your bag be neutral in color, so they go with everything, right? Of course, we probably all know someone, or have heard of someone, who has a bag in every color and a pair of shoes for every outfit. I’m not here to criticize that strategy and I will come back to some ideas about how to handle it if you are that person.
But first, our values in general these days suggest another path. And I’m going to explain how you can go about planning these accessory categories in a more minimalist way.
Affordable Fashion Strategy: Lifestyle Segments
First concept you need is lifestyle segmentation.
Break your life down into the various activities you normally engage in that need different kinds of clothing. Each is a lifestyle segment. Examples include: leisure, workout, casual (which is defined as dressed with care, but not formality), business, social, etc.
How many lifestyle segments does your life require? Some people may only need one; others may need five or six. I generally assume four. Personally, I use primarily casual, a little leisure, and tiny segments of both business and social.
I’m gonna blow your mind (or maybe not): you only need one pair of shoes or boots in each lifestyle segment. If you live in the same segment most days, it’s nice to have two, so you can rotate and give your shoes a day to rest in between wears.
How to manage that? Your one pair needs to match every outfit.
Affordable Fashion Strategy: Personal Neutrals
How to manage that without limiting yourself to a very restricted palette? Which is certainly an option, but here’s the paradigm shift I’m recommending:
Rather than requiring your shoes or boots to match your outfit, require them to match you.
The next concept you need to know: your personal neutrals.
Your personal neutrals are colors found on your body. In general, they are:
- 🔸Your hair color(s)
- 🔸Your skin color
Wherever you go, you are wearing your hair and your skin; they are part of the over all composition someone sees when they look at you. A neutral in one of these colors will settle in and look natural on you. Get your personal neutrals when you take your Signature Style Journey.
The reason so many people recommend black as a neutral is because so many people worldwide have black or nearly black hair. But if you have dark blonde hair, you will look better in taupe; if you have auburn hair, you will look better in cognac.
Accessories as Infrastructure
The third concept I want to share is that your boots, belt, and bag can match, and that looks great, creating kinda an infrastructure from your feet to your face, or they can each be a different neutral chosen from within your personal neutrals, or maybe one of them is this third neutral option: a metallic, your own best gold or silver or copper or rose gold.
This week, I discovered that the metallic gold bag I’ve had for several years needs a new zipper. And I went back and forth about what to do. It is a really great color for me, basically acting as both a metallic neutral and a hair color in my case, and it’s lining and strap are still in good shape.
With the broken zipper, donating was out of the question. So it was gonna be the garbage or the shoe repair. I’m opting for the repair. Since the bag itself is leather with canvas strap, it should last at least another zipper’s lifetime.
Where Do You Fit in the Garment’s Life Cycle?
Finally, in terms of sustainability and affordability, alot of people buy second hand alot and that checks both boxes, but that is not the only right way:
If you are a person who loves to shop and can afford it, you can work at putting your dollar to work buying fair wage and high quality items, and then being diligent to pass them along before they are completely outdated.
Why not go through your boots, belts, and bags today and see if you can pare down. Share what you don’t need with someone who does, by donating to a clothing bank or thrift store. And decide, according to your own values where you fit in the garment life cycle. Will you buy new and donate or buy used and wear it out?