Bringing a new item home is like having a new kid on the first day of school. They are met with the intimidating presence of the items who have been there for years, know the lay of the land and want to claim their territory. It's then your job to ensure the pieces have a seamless transition and figure out where they fit into the wider ecosystem of your wardrobe so that they thrive and have the maximum impact in this new environment.
This is easier said than done and can lead to breakdowns on your bedroom floor. A lot of the time there is a disconnect between our desires and the reality of what we own and it can be difficult to determine how the new item will contribute to the conversation we are already having with our clothes. We are then left with a wardrobe split between the items we wish we could wear and the items we wear, the presence of our aspirational self taunting us daily from the back of our wardrobes. To prevent this, it is important to build an intimate relationship with your wardrobe and use the knowledge gained in this relationship to make more quality purchasing decisions.
A mistake a lot of people make when introducing a new item into their wardrobe is relying on the support of an additional new item to make it work. We’ve all been there when the purchase of a new dress leads to the purchase of new shoes that leads to the purchase of a new bag because how can you possibly buy one with the other? However, thinking in this way leads to the consumption of items with no through-line as there is no solid basis for your decision-making. If you constantly rely on a new item to strengthen other new items then there is a lack of synergy between the items you own and this leads to a wardrobe full of clothes with nothing to wear. To combat this, when considering a new item, think of three ways to style the item with pieces you already own. This thinking helps you build trust and find the connections between what you already own, building an internal database to make well-informed purchase decisions. This way you can identify any potential gaps that need filling and feel less lost when getting dressed. Gone are the days when your wardrobe was filled with a graveyard of items you could never figure out how to work.
Next is to stick to what you know and pair the new item with what you wear the most. There is no point in taking this opportunity to reinvent the wheel and get overwhelmed by a sea of newness. This is the time to refer to your defaults and use styling patterns you are familiar with to integrate the new item into your rotation. For example, if you know that you always wear tank tops with jeans but the jeans you have bought happen to have rhinestones all over them, grounding this new item in the familiarity of the tank top allows you to relate it to what you already know works style-wise. This line of thinking lets you conceptualise the new items in your wardrobe and makes the item less intimidating to work with.
Lastly, relying on your old faithful pieces makes the novel item feel more familiar. Old faithful pieces are accessories or finishing touches in your wardrobe that you pair with most outfits to bring a sense of yourself into any look. My old faithful items are a baseball cap or a loafer but for you, it could be a pair of sunglasses or your favourite lipstick. These are small touches that once styled with the new item, can mentally begin to make it feel less foreign, allowing you to find its place in your wardrobe.
The example above perfectly encapsulates the advice listed above. The new item is the Cos barrel leg leather trousers that are new to me in both material and colour. Instead of letting this steer me away, I leaned into what feels familiar, the barrel leg, and used this to make styling decisions that could incorporate it into my wardrobe. I paired it with the Tricot polo sweater I wore all last winter and quickly became a comfort blanket piece. The softness of the material nicely counteracts the edge of the leather and brings a dynamic but familiar feel to the trousers. Next, the Aeyde Clara pumps bring in extra texture with the snake print but the pointed toe polishes off the oversized silhouette and streamlines the bottom of the outfit. I trust a pointed-toe shoe to work with a wider silhouette pant so this styling pattern that I am already familiar with worked well to finalise a full look with the Cos trousers. Lastly, I added my green New Era baseball cap, an old faithful piece of mine, to add the perfect finishing touch that feels truly like me.
As you can see, the key to this decision lies in finding ways to ensure that it thrives in the pre-existing system of your wardrobe. This approach strengthens your style concept and over time leads to more aligned, stronger decision-making when shopping for new items.
I hope you found this newsletter useful and speak to you next week!
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