Welcome back to the last installation (for now) of my curated wardrobe series! I wrote the first two posts (Part 1 and Part 2) in what felt like a fever dream; grateful and excited to get all of these thoughts out of my head and into the world. I had deeply intended to do this third one at a similar time, but life happened and the haze of fixation moved on to something else.

There is a part of me that wishes I had had an outlet like this to record this process as I worked through it at the time instead of having to do it all from memory; trying to recapture all the thoughts I had at the time is impossible and I sure there are plenty of things that I have glossed over unintentionally. Equally though, there is something lovely to document this with the gift of hindsight – everything feels clearer and it is always easier to see patterns in the rear view mirror. Either way, I am very excited to dive into the last part of this series and talk about what long term impacts the whole process has resulted in for my wardrobe and what has changed in my preferences in colour and style since I started this journey.

It’s been nearly three years since I started this progress. During that time, I’ve moved to a new climate (and stayed there) and started a full time corporate job (and also stayed there). Thankfully, post move and job commencement, there’s not been much external change to create radical change in my wardrobe. Overall, the last few years have mostly been about refinement, rather than change.

Part of me thought that putting boundaries/limitations on what colours and styles I’d allow into my wardrobe would end up feeling restrictive – that I’d feel resentment towards being pigeonholed into a specific colour palette or aesthetic. In reality, the opposite has been true. Having a core palette to pull from and set style guidelines has resulted in a much deeper understanding of what goes into creating wardrobe workhorses for me and what will end up being a “once-off” item. I do think it’s worth noting here that in general, I love structure and I also love following rules. If those things do not apply to you you may have less success with this approach. However, for me, reducing the number of options I have has also made decisions waaaay less stressful.

Having an understanding of what the “rules” are has allowed to play within those bounds, refining exactly what I like to wear and why. It has also allowed me to experiment with breaking rules – deliberately adding in colours and patterns that sit outside my colour palette and seeing how that makes me feel. Following and breaking the rules in this way has allowed me to get to know my own style deeper – e.g. I love wearing orange, even though there is not a drop of it in my Deep Winter colour palette. I will obviously continue to wear orange regardless but have now accepted that orange lipstick is never going to be my best look. I will instead reserve my orange for items that are not so front and centre on my face.

Following my deep winter colour palette has also helped me come up with some incredible wardrobe wins. Prior to this exercise, I never wore much green. I don’t have anything against green, it’s just not really a colour I’m immediately drawn to – there are always other colours that catch my attention first. But, there is a lot of green in my colour palette so I ended up picking a rich emerald green to use for a dress for my sister’s wedding. I wanted something that was a little different to what I’d normally wear, but I also wanted it to suit me. So I took a stab with an online order and hoped the theory was correct.

Gratifyingly, the theory was correct! The dress looked fantastic and photographed really well; big ticks all round for colour season theory. The pattern is a highly modified Raveena Dress by Tammy Handmade (more details on how I hacked my way to this outcome in my Delgado Dress instagram highlight).

Other than my green win and my orange acceptance, the general changes in my wardrobe since I started this progress can be quite neatly summarised in the following dot points:

• Big preference for natural fibres
• A narrower colour palette
• More monochromatic looks i.e. “Dress like a crayon”

Surprisingly small list, right? Let’s go through it.

Natural Fibres

An increasing preference for natural fibres is the easiest one to explain – this change resulted from a combination of moving to a colder climate, wanting to be more sustainable (put less plastic into the world) and picking up knitting. Being able to knit allowed me to fit real wool sweaters (the nice and soft stuff) into my budget and oh my god, I will never be going back. So much warmer than the acrylic based sweaters I was wearing before and much more odour resistant. I honestly hadn’t considered that I could get more than one or two wears out of a close fitting top/sweater without having to wash it (for smell reasons) but wow, natural fibres really deliver on this front. I have one tight-fitting turtleneck made from merino and it is so much nicer and warmer and less sweat-producing than the rtw one I have (that’s definitely not natural fibre based).

Additionally, as any eco-conscious crafter knows, trying to balance our innate desire for creation with the knowledge that we are consuming the Earth’s resources at a rate far greater than the Earth can sustain is a horrible dilemma and one with no right answer. As the Good Place so clearly demonstrated every decision (regardless of how well-researched and well-intended) will have some aspect of negative impact somewhere. However, I’ve certainly found that it sits better with my personal values at the moment to prioritise natural fibres in my crafting. I’m very aware that there is no perfect choice in this issue and that natural fibres have their own social and environmental impacts but to me, it still feels like the better option than adding to the plastic load in the environment.

Narrower Colour Palette / More Mono-Chromatic looks

Now this is the interesting one! If you had told me three years ago that I’d be deliberating restricting my colour palette further, I never would have believed you. However, here we are, arriving at this baffling statement together.

A real lightbulb moment for me in this sense came from an instagram post I read (which has since been lost to the algorithm) which shared really interesting take on creating personal style that I’d never considered before; the idea that repetition is the key to creating a recognisable style.

Firstly, duh. I know that seems really obvious and that you don’t need a degree in marketing to know that repetition is important in building a brand. However, this woman talked about it in the sense of personal style, which I had never really thought about before. She shared how people started tagging her in/sending her all this clock-related content, which she initially thought was a bit weird because she’s not super into clocks, but then realised that she wears a choker with a clock on it all the time and that people had started to associate that with her. Same idea as a cartoon character – it’s impossible to think of Daphne from Scooby Doo without also thinking of the classic purple dress and white boots combo.

The simplicity of this was mind-boggling. I started thinking about people I follow on Instagram and who have very recognisable styles (which I very much admire) and I suddenly realised that a lot of them actually work from quite a limited colour and/or style palette. People like Jess (@fat.bobbin.girl), Daisy (@_diydaisy), Leila (@leila_sews) and Rachael (@minimalistmachinist) all spring to mind as people with very recognisable, cohesive and identifiable styles AND all with a lot of repetition. I really cannot understate how mind-blowing this revelation felt to me at the time. You mean to tell me that I can be fashionable and stylish whilst also wearing my favourite pink cashmere sweater 4 times a week?! Part of my original goals of starting this process was that I wanted to develop an effortless (feeling) style – I wanted to find a way to create outfits that felt easy and breezy to pick out and wear but that looked curated and stylish. Discovering that outfit repetition could be a help, not a hinderance to this goal felt like I had unlocked a new secret of dressing. The idea that maybe I could look stylish and fun without spending 30mins most mornings creating a character to embody for the day. That maybe it could actually just be me (wearing yet another slightly variation on the overalls outfit that I’d worn for the past 4 days in a row).

Obviously, I did not chose two outfits to wear ad nauseam for the rest of my life. I still have a variety of colours and styles in my wardrobe and I really don’t see that changing any time soon. I love being able to create outfits that feel like alter-egos and I love trying new styles. However, the slow realisation that I can classify pink as a neutral has been blessedly freeing in helping me create outfits that feel like me but that also work for my lifestyle. The more I hone in on and refine my personal style, the more I feel okay with wearing the same four colours on repeat. I’m a pink, blue, white and animal print girlie and I’m okay with that.

I also think there’s an element of confidence that plays into this as well. A lot of the things that I love to wear can be surprisingly divisive – notably, the colour pink and animal print. I’ve always loved wearing them both but for a long time I thought I had to spread them out in my closet; that too much pink was childish and that too much animal print was tacky. It’s been wonderful to grow into a mindset that allows me to wear pink monochromatic outfits and lots of different animal print without feeling like I’m avoiding being a “real adult”.

Overall, this has been a wonderful journey to take myself on. It’s been easier for me to justify spending money on higher quality fabrics and more expensive projects now that I know that they are going to fit seamlessly into my wardrobe and work for me for many years to come. I spend less time pumping out quick dopamine items and spend more time creating high quality items that fill gaps in my wardrobe. The clothes that I am making now and the styles that I am wearing now feel more sustainable than my wardrobe ever has done before.