Why don’t you know how to plan your wardrobe? Because you’ve never been taught. And not only have you never been taught how to plan a wardrobe, you haven’t been taught any of the sub-skills you’d need to get there. Since you can’t plan your wardrobe, you can’t budget your clothing expenses. Since you can’t plan your wardrobe, you’re at the mercy of snap decisions. Since you haven’t planned your wardrobe, you spend money on clothes that don’t fit in with your lifestyle or goals. Your lack of skill in this area makes you a great consumer – from the vendor’s point of view.

Step 1: Stop feeling guilty about not knowing how to plan your wardrobe

Chances are very good that you were never taught how to plan anything in the household whatsoever. Planning your consumption is a marginalized skillset. There are few enough who are taught to write a menu, inventory their pantries, and cook nutritious, tasty meals that don’t break the bank. If you have to purchase food every day and you barely know how to do that, how on earth do you expect yourself to know how to budget and plan clothing expenses which come up periodically?

We haven’t taught home ec in schools since I was a girl, and even when I was a girl, they’d given up teaching budgeting and long-term planning. Unless you’ve read up and done the work on your own, there’s no way you’d know this stuff. There’s no secret club, you didn’t miss a meeting of the Girl Brigade.  I’m very trad, I was a housewife for a couple of decades, and I used to be an image consultant. That’s how I got these skills. Let me share.

Step 2:  Accept that you have work ahead of you

This will not be a one-day process! You have a lifetime of missed opportunities to learn and observe and take notes. There are a ton of sub-skills to practice. You’ve got some growing to do in order to make this happen. 

But it’s fun :) And it’s empowering. Knowing what you want to wear, then planning that wardrobe and watching it slowly take form, wearing clothes that you really like (instead of clothes that are just okay) makes you feel strong and certain of yourself. 

Step 3: Accept that this is counter-cultural

You’re going to have to work to find your style. You’re going to have to commit to a color scheme. And once you do those things, you’re going to have to do a lot of footwork to find the garments that you want. Yes, you’re going to look better (and more pulled-together) than anyone else on the block. You’re going to save tons of money (long-term) and love how you look. But it won’t be something you do on autopilot. Planning your wardrobe is a multi-step process.

So, you say… how do I get there? 

1. Find your style
2. Find your colors
3. Determine your needs
4. Itemize what you currently have
5. Source your ideals (and get price points for key items)
6. Learn about how long clothing items can be expected to last
7. Write a “menu”, aka a capsule wardrobe list
8. Budget: Key items first, then filling in as you can.
9. Shop.
10. Care for your clothing so that it lasts as long as possible, so you get the most for your money

If you’d care to get more information up front (and not wait for articles and videos as I produce them), I recommend my book, Wardrobe Communication. 

For now, let’s break this down, just for a winter coat – what would I need to know, to make the best purchase possible? Let’s assume you don’t have a winter coat at all, to remove one step in this process.

1. What’s winter like?  Here in SoCal, a warm windbreaker can be everything you need. If you lived in Montana, you’d need a bit more. Do you get snow, rain, sleet, wind? What happens in the winter? How cold does it get?
2. How much time will you be spending in the weather? Are you strictly going to walk from your car to your house, your car to the store? Or will you be walking outside … or even working outside? If you need to work in the coat, it’s going to need to be something you can move in.
3. Speaking of work – are you likely to get your coat dirty, or will it stay relatively clean? (No winter coat should be expected to stay pristine, because you’ll be wearing it too often in all weather. White coats, or coats with white collars/cuffs, are not a first-item purchase. They just need more maintenance. But there’s a huge difference in an office dweller, who is going to get a bit of dirty slush on her coat and a homesteader who is milking cows). 
4. What kind of clothing do you wear under that coat? Hemlines matter. 
5. What silhouettes look best with your figure?
6. What color is a good base color (goes with most of your pants/skirts/boots) for you, and also looks well with your complexion?
7. What materials do you prefer? I love wool, personally – but many people have allergies. Different materials have different properties. 
8. Assuming this coat lasts you 5 years (which is entirely reasonable for a coat, except *perhaps* for someone working hard outside in that coat), how much can you afford to spend?
9. What secret things make you really happy? Good pockets? A pretty lining? This falls under “nice to have” but it’s a good thing to think about before you start to shop. What’s your style? Are you cottage core, classic, modern, etc ?
10. Shop. Now that you know that you’d like a knee-length wool coat in dark brown, with a removable interlining for extra-cold days and big pockets and a boho vibe, you search *that*. Not “coats”, hoping you find something. You search for exactly what you want. Ouch. You found her… but she’s pricey. Can you find something similar at a discount store, or second-hand? Or can you figure out how to budget your other items so that you can fit her in? Will she need to last for 7 years instead of 5? Maybe you might sew her. You’ll shop instead for patterns and materials (and maybe you’ll find a good seamstress to make her for you – I’d love to see that come back!)

Now you have your winter coat. You’re pleased with this purchase. You can make other purchases knowing that this one is covered. You can make other purchases based on knowing you have a dark brown wool coat – so the items you wear with it should coordinate. And, having bought this first coat, you can write down how much you spent and plan to spend a comparable amount next time (adjusted for inflation). That means that your next coat-buying year will probably not also be a boot-buying, suit-buying year. Planning is power. Wouldn’t you like to know how to plan your wardrobe?

Wardrobe planning is just one of the skills which was marginalized with other productivity. Let’s take it back. 

Want to chat about this? HistoricalFemininity.Locals.Com