Summary: This article covers wardrobe planning when your closet is completely empty: what to buy first, how few pieces it takes before you’re covered, and the three things about your own body that decide which ones. It includes the story of a woman who rebuilt after a house fire, and a free download that maps the whole thing out.
Wardrobe planning when the closet is actually empty
Almost every wardrobe planning system assumes you already have clothes in your closet. None of that works if your closet is empty.
Sometimes a closet empties all at once. Something happens drastically. You’re starting a new job in a completely different field, or you lose your house in a fire or a flood, or you have to leave suddenly without being able to take anything with you.
By the end of this article you’ll know what to buy first, and how few pieces it takes to be covered. It’s actually about eight.
You’ll also know the one decision that order can’t really make for you.
Whatever you buy now is what people will see you in for the next few years, or at least for the next few months. So this is one of the few chances you get to be seen for who you are now, instead of who you were when you bought everything that’s in your closet right now.
What I’ve noticed is that a little bit of self-knowledge leads to a simple closet that looks effortlessly put together. That’s what we all want, right?
What do you buy first when you’re starting from scratch?
First, pick whatever part of your life you get dressed for most often. Work. Working from home. Being home with the kids. Those are most people’s contexts.
If you cover that segment of your life, you’ll feel successful, like you can get dressed every day. So fill that one out first. That’s what separates eight pieces you can actually wear from twenty that never quite make an outfit: you’ve done one lifestyle segment first.
Then, in this order, all the pieces will create actual outfits.
Shoes
Buy a pair of shoes. If you had to leave your house because it was burning, you probably were wearing shoes. Maybe slippers, flip flops. Anyway, get at least one pair that’s comfortable, right for just about anywhere you would go, wearable without thinking about it.
For a color, choose either your hair color or your skin color. It’s already a personal neutral for you, because whatever you put on for clothes, you are also wearing your hair and your skin.
Bottoms
Then get a bottom. A pair of pants or a skirt, something that goes with those shoes. Or more than one. The second pair lets you skip laundry on a random Wednesday. Although back in high school I wore the same pair of jeans every day.
Toppers
After that, get toppers. Just a couple. A blazer, a cardigan, or a jacket. This is what creates actual outfits.
I’m totally open to the fact that it’s not something you may want to do, but it’s what I recommend, and layers are always a good idea. Weather, right? I live sort of in the mountains, so we definitely have weather.
Tops
Then for each topper, get two or three different tops. That’s next to your skin, so lightweight sweaters, plain tees, even tank tops. Things that wash easily and don’t cost very much, because you’re probably going to want to wash it each time, or wear it a couple of times before you wash it.
It’s also near your face, so get something with a nice neckline for you and good colors.
Accessories
And if you’re starting from scratch, get a pair of earrings you can wear with everything. Your best metal.
So that’s eight or nine pieces, and it’s enough to get dressed for a full week. For right now, that’s the goal.
Wardrobe planning on two hundred dollars
You can do that for around two hundred dollars if you shop at Target, or Old Navy, or secondhand, somewhere inexpensive.
I’ve been thinking about that number because I host a coffee and collaboration at a place here in Spokane called Christ Kitchen once a month. The coffee and collaboration is open to any woman in business, so if you’re local, you’re invited.
Christ Kitchen is a job training program for women working their way out of poverty. It’s a food production business, and it’s got catering, a café, a food truck. When a woman goes through their program, part of what she receives is some money for her own wardrobe, and two hundred dollars is the amount I’ve heard they use.
What the buying order can’t tell you
So now you know roughly how many pieces to look for, and in what sequence, but you don’t know exactly which ones.
There are three things I can teach you today about your own architecture that answer those questions, and each one lines up with a layer you’re already buying.
Your waist shape decides your tops
If you have a defined waist with a shelf right below it, you can cinch your tops at the waist. Belted blouses, peplums, button fronts tucked in.
If you have a waist that glides in and back out in an arc, you want to build the shape in, with seaming or with fabric that drapes. Fitted knits, or princess seaming that structurally tailors the garment to curve in and back out.
If your waist is a little fuller than your hip, you can use tops that bypass the waist and take their fit from the hip. A blouson with a banded bottom. Those were super popular when I was in junior high, and they come back around every now and again. I always think they’re really cool looking, so if that’s your body type, good for you that you can wear those.
Your hip shape decides your bottoms
Your hip shape decides the shape of your bottoms, your pants, your skirts.
If you’re widest just below the waist, at the high hip, then tapered is your shape. Pencil skirts, cigarette pants, slim jeans. And sometimes on that structure, even something loose-ish through the leg will look straight, because it’s taking its design from your body. That’s how it’s hanging on you.
If you’re widest at the top of the thigh, at the low hip, then wide leg. Wide legged pants, palazzo pants, A line skirts. Anything that creates an A shape is the most natural fit on you.
If you’re equally wide high and low, straight through the hip, then straight leg trousers and column skirts are most natural.
There are always ways to work with things artistically if these aren’t your favorites. But if you’re looking for simple, this is where you go.
Your length proportion decides your toppers
Measure from the widest part of your hip, as described in the last section, to the floor.
If that’s more than half your total body length, you probably look like you have long legs, and you can wear longer jackets and cardigans ending at the leg break or below. You can also wear extra long sleeves, like those fun winter ones with the thumb hole in them, or bell sleeves.
If that measurement is less than half, you can wear cropped jackets, waist length cardigans, boleros, sleeves pushed up, or even half sleeves.
All of this is written out with little illustrations in a free download called Body Design Basics.
The woman who lost everything in a fire
When you’re rebuilding from nothing, there’s a default wardrobe planning answer most people reach for, and that’s replace what you already had.
I had a woman come to me a few years ago after her house burnt down. She had lost everything. She had insurance money to replace it and she could have just gone out shopping and bought it all. But she wanted to make sure that what she was buying to replace everything was going to work for her, and be the right pieces for her.
She was the mom of twin toddlers. First she told me she wanted to take the plunge, wear some things outside of tees and jeans. And she did end up with a few pieces outside of tees and jeans, some fun toppers and stuff.
But mostly she ended up with tees and jeans. The right ones. Good colors for her, good shapes, ending at the right place on her, good proportion, good fit.
And when she was at the playground with her kids, she looked put together in jeans and a t-shirt. That was her real life. That’s what we’re doing here. We’re dressing for real life.
So when the elements are right, the simplest clothes stop looking like a compromise.
What wardrobe planning looks like when we work together
There’s an assumption I see a lot, which is that style work starts with what you already own, and then we rip through it and throw things away. Which might lead you to think that if you’re at zero, you should just get shopping and get help later.
I understand where that comes from, because we’ve all seen the television version where they empty your closet, hold up your favorite sweater, and then there’s a reveal at the end. The assumption is that wardrobe planning work begins by taking something away.
Here’s the order we actually work in.
Before all of this, we’ve done a personality profile. First off, you have your personality. That’s what’s most important about you.
Then you find images of things you find beautiful. Landscapes, architecture, objects, lifestyle, nature. That’s the Essential Aesthetic work, and it shows us what your eye is drawn to.
Second, we work on silhouette and proportion. Which lines relate to your body, where your balance points are, which necklines work.
Third, we work on your colors. You find your personal neutrals, your contrast level, the colors that come out of your own coloring and the ones that come out of your aesthetic. And we create a harmony where all of those go together and look good on you.
And then we put together the actual pieces, and have time for you to work together with me so we can refine your vision. Learn more about the Discover Your Style DNA program.
So by the time you’re standing in a store, you’ve eliminated ninety percent of what’s there, and your choices are much simpler.
Try this at home
Here’s a simple wardrobe planning project you can do this week. Shop your own closet like it’s a store.
One pair of shoes, one or two bottoms, two toppers, two or three tops for each topper. Put them on the bed. Everything else stays on the rod.
You can use the Body Design Basics guide while you choose. Waist for tops, hip for bottoms, proportion for toppers.
What’s on the bed is the wardrobe you would pick today. What stayed in the closet is information.
Let’s talk about your wardrobe planning
An empty closet is a small number of wardrobe planning decisions made in the right order, and then a set of questions about your own architecture that decide which pieces fill them. Letting your Style DNA lead your wardrobe planning is the most effective way to build a closet that looks like you instead of the one you had before.
An accurate closet takes one decision off the table every single morning. So what would you spend that energy on instead? What would you say yes to if getting dressed for the day was already handled?
Reading through waist shape, hip shape, and length proportion in an article is one thing, and standing in a store deciding whether this particular jacket is your length is another. A free thirty minute call is a conversation where we look together at what you already know about yourself, what you’ve tried, and what’s missing. If you’d like to have that conversation, you can book it here: Style System Synthesis Call Calendar.