Spring bling
Fresh ways to springclean your look
‘For every item I’ve slightly regretted binning, there are 30 things I don’t miss’
Iknew I’d hit a low point when, confused by mountains of clothing, I managed to buy the same top twice (and we’re not talking about a T-shirt from Gap). It appears however, that I’m not alone. According to a recent survey commissioned by Ariel, the average Brit spends over £1,000 on new clothes every year, shops for new items every two months but still leaves a third of it hanging in the wardrobe.
Other research suggests that most women only wear one tenth of what they own and that the average UK woman spends £13,000 in a lifetime on clothes that she will never actually wear.
Before you suppress an eye roll, this isn’t another bossy fashion article beseeching you to chuck out the whole lot and employ the services of an expensive style consultant.
But there is a lot you can do to stop you making foolish fashion purchases – and look better dressed in the process. I know because 10 years ago I purged my wardrobe and it changed my life immeasurably.
So ruthless was I in my culling that I could probably challenge Philip Hammond to a duel of cutbacks … and win. My clothes, shoes and accessories now fit into six small-ish drawers, a monastic (by fashion editor standards) two sets of rails and three shoe racks. Shoes are kept on display (all the better to see what I actually own) as well as ensuring that I don’t succumb to two dozen pairs of heels better suited to an alternative, er, fantasy lifestyle. Oh, and I’m down to seven handbags: four smallish, classic day bags, two cart-around-everything totes and an evening clutch.
Getting dressed in the morning is no longer a half-hour struggle despairing that I have “no clothes”. I can see what’s in my cupboard and, consequently, any “gaps”. There’s a lot less, but it’s an edited, super slick curation of things I really love.
Everything was subjected to the questions: did it fit properly and did I feel good wearing it? The overlying stipulation was that I had to really love each piece – and it had to give me the sartorial equivalent of a good hair day. That’s quite a lot to ask from a skirt, but I knew I was always going to find something I would want and feel happy wearing.
It was simple, kindergarten-ish sounding criteria made up entirely by me but it worked. Clothes that hadn’t been worn for three years, no matter how much sentimental value/ wonderful looking/expensive/one -off/designer-y, were donated to charity or sold through a dress agency.
Vestiaire Collective, for buying and selling pre-owned clothes, has been a revelation, while many fashion aficionado friends earn a couple of hundred pounds a month from regularly getting rid of even high street buys on e-bay.
Anything that didn’t fit properly and couldn’t be remedied by a seamstress was discarded. As for those “fashion heirlooms” I’d been stashing in the event of having a daughter? I got over myself and got rid of those too. (For the record, I’ve since given birth to two daughters, and still don’t regret it.)
Being seven months pregnant and not being able to wear nearly all my wardrobe (not to mention, happily wearing the same four great outfits for the past two trimesters) has also given me fresh perspective on how much I wanted of what was in there. For every one item that I’ve slightly regretted binning, there are probably 30 things I don’t miss.
Of course my husband points out this is hardly a challenge for a fashion editor who, for many years while working on a newspaper, was privy to advance notice of sample sales and “gifted” the odd bag.
Except I’m inclined to agree with most of the stylish women I know, that too much choice clouds your judgment.
I’ve since concluded that reluctance to undergo a wardrobe detox is actually the fear of ending up with too few clothes. In our consumer-crazed society, we often choose quantity over quality. So what are you waiting for? Get culling. You’ll be surprised, you’ll be constantly torn, but once you’ve started, I guarantee it will be hard to stop, so cathartic is the satisfaction from seeing a clearer wardrobe. If nothing else, you’re going to learn something about yourself.