How to update your wardrobe for Autumn /Winter 2011

Autumn /Winter will soon be on its way.

Most fashion shops have now finished their summer sales and are starting to fill their shop floor with the new season's stock.

Now is a great time to review and update your wardrobe for Autumn / Winter 2011.

I have recently written and published an article on Hubpages giving ideas on how to update your wardrobe for Autumn /Winter 2011.

If you would like to read it,  please click the link below:

How to update your wardrobe for Autumn and Winter 2011

Minimalist Wardrobe for Women - The No. 1 Top Tip.

I consider the No.1 Top Tip to creating a chic and minimalist wardrobe for women is to Review and Edit your wardrobe Twice a year.

I like to review my wardrobe twice a year, at the begining of spring and autumn.

Because my wardrobe is organised by mini-wardrobes according to each activity area, it makes the job much easier.

Mini-Wardrobes based on your lifestyle activities is the secret to creating a minimalist wardrobe. If you would like to find out why and learn how you can easily create them  Click Here

I simply review each of my Mini-wardrobes, find the clothes for a particular activity and see if they still fit, and still in good condition.

I then make sure I have enough clothes / outfits in this mini-wardrobe and if there are gaps, I put them on my shopping list.

This is the system that I use to create and maintain my wardrobe. As my lifestyle changes, I add or subtract mini-wardrobes.

It is imortant to make sure you have enough clothes in each of your mini-wardrobes. Any surplus can be discarded, leaving you with the bare minimum that you need. 

That to me is the No.1 Top Tip to having a minimalist wardrobe, one where you have enough clothes to meet your chosen lifestyle activities and no more.

As a result, each item in your wardrobe is there for a reason.

Minimalist Wardrobe for Men

Are you a man looking to declutter your own wardrobe or a woman looking to help your boyfriend or huband create a minimalist wardrobe? If so, I am sure that you will find what follows useful.


There are many advantages to having a minimalist wardrobe and I will show you how to create one that ensures:

• You have enough clothes for all your lifestyle activities
• You spend less money on clothes and less time shopping
• You have a tidy and organised wardrobe
• You always have something to wear whatever the occassion

Creating a minimalist wardrobe for men in three easy steps.

Creating a minimalist wardrobe for men can be achieved by following these three basic steps.

1. Identify your lifestyle activities.
2. Make sure you have enough clothes for each of your lifestyle activities.
3. Organising your wardrobe into mini-wardrobes

Step one - identify your lifestyle activities
The most important factor is to identify your lifestyle activities and the time that you spend on each activity.
I have put together a list of Lifestyle activities to get you started on your own list. They include:
Work, Running errands / Shopping, Smart-Casual Social events, Formal Social Events, Exercise, Leisure and Holidays.
The aim is to create separate mini-wardrobes for each of these activities.

Work

For your work wardrobe, you need to take into account two main factors, the number of days during the week that you spend at work and how formal or casual your work dress code is. This should help you decide how many outfits you need and style of the clothes.
For example:

• If you work full-time in a formal office, you might need a couple of suits, five shirts, two to three ties and a couple of pairs of shoes.
• If you work in a less formal environment, you could wear trousers and shirts, for colder months pull-overs and more casual style shoes.
• For a more casual work environment, such as working from home, or dress-down Fridays you would need a selection of more casual outfits.

Running Errands / Shopping

Most people need to run errands, such as shopping for groceries, going to the post-office or bank etc. Whilst you can get away with wearing clothes from your casual wardrobe, I would recommend having a comfortable pair of shoes that you use just for this activity, as it usually involves a lot of walking.

Formal Social Events

Everyone usually attends the following Formal Social events at sometime in their life.

• Weddings
• Funerals
• Formal Interviews

For most men, one dark suit together with a white shirt and smart black shoes would be enough for formal social events such as weddings, a funeral and a formal interview.
To adapt the suit to the event, you would also need three ties, a black tie for funerals, a tie suitable for an interview and a more colourful one suitable for a wedding.
If you buy a white shirt, which are often quite see-through, I also recommend buying a white vest top to wear underneath so that if you remove your jacket, you can't see through the shirt.
Also buy a smart pair of black socks.
If  you choose a classic single-breasted style suit, it should last you for years. If you work in an office, try not to wear this suit or the shoes to work as this will wear it out.

• Black tie

If you regularly attend Black Tie events, such as a ball, you may like to own your own Black-Tie Tuxedo Suit, otherwise think about hiring one when you receive an invitation.

Smart / Casual Social Events

It is often in the smart / casual element of people's wardobes that people don't have enough of the right type of clothes, which usually leads to the cry of "I don't have anyting to wear".
Events that come under this heading could include:

• Eating out at an informal restaurant
• Meeting friends after work for drinks
• Going to the theatre
• Going to someone's informal 40th birthday party.
• Going to a nightclub

I would recommend building a mini-wardrobe based around two types of outfits, the first consisting of a smart pair of dark denim jeans a smart/casual shirt and smart/casual jacket.
The second outfit would be based around a neutral coloured pair of smart casual trousers, preferably that works with the shirt and jacket above.
You also need to buy some smart casual shoes.
To ring the changes and extend this wardrobe, you can add more shirts if you like.
Don't forget to buy some nice belts and cufflinks for the shirts.

Exercise

• Do you exercise regularly? Would you like to but lack of clothing may be one of the factors stopping you.
• Write down the exercises you do or would like to do
• Write down the number of garments / outfits you need together with the type of shoes you need. 

Hobbies, Leisure and Holidays

You may have some hobbies that require a separate set of clothes, such as if you play golf.
Write these down and work out what you need.
For a Holiday Wardrobe you need to think about the type of holidays you go on. For example:

• Beach holidays - for which you would need swimwear,sunhats, beachfootwear
• Skiing Holdays - for which you would need ski-wear
• Citybreaks and sighseeing holidays - for which you would need comfortable walking shoes
• Action / Activity holidays - for which you might need more specialist clothes.

How to organise your wardrobe

I believe that it is a good idea to organise you wardrobe so that all elements of the mini-wardrobes a kept together.
I keep clothes that I wear everyday to work in the main part of my wardrobe and on top of my wardrobe I keep the clothes that I don't wear very often. For example, your suit and it's accessories (for weddings, interviews and funerals) could go on the top of the wardrobe in a box, or hang the whole ensemble up in a clothes bag in the wardrobe.
The benefit of organising your wardrobe in ths way is that when an event crops up, you instantly go to the relevant part of your wardrobe and everything for that particular activity such as a wedding should all be in one place.

Review and Edit your wardrobe twice a year

I like to review my wardrobe twice a year, at the begining of spring and autumn.
Because my wardrobe is organised by mini-wardrobes according to each activity area, it makes the job much easier.
I simply find the clothes for a particular activity and see if they still fit, and still in good condition.
I then make sure I have enough clothes / outfits in this mini-wardrobe and if there are gaps, I put them on my shopping list.

This is the system that I use to create and maintain my wardrobe. As my lifestyle changes, I add or subtract mini-wardrobes.
It is imortant to make sure you have enough clothes in each of your mini-wardrobes. Any surplus can be discarded, leaving you with the bare minimum that you need. That to me is the essence of a minimalist wardrobe, one where you have enough clothes to meet your chosen lifestyle activities and no more.
As a result, each item in your wardrobe is there for a reason.

5 piece wardrobe - the French way to create a chic and minimalist wardrobe

French women are  famous for their chic and minimalist wardrobes and here is their method of using just 5 pieces to create a core wardrobe. 

Step 1

Each season, decide what your 5 basic pieces will be. These form the core of your wardrobe and you will wear these day in, day out.

They should be classic in style, of good quality, a neutral or basic colour and perfect fit. Over the years you should aim to build a wardrobe of basic staples.

Here are a couple of ideas for both a Spring / Summer and Autumn/Winter Core Wardobe.

Autumn/Winter

• A warm Winter Coat
• A warm black jumper
• A Dark Pair of Jeans
• A Black Wool Pencil Skirt
• A pair of black knee-high boots

Spring / Summer

• A raincoat
• A White T-Shirt / Top
• A light-weight pair of Trousers in a light neutral colour
• A light-weight Pencil Skirt in a light neutral colour
• A pair of ballerina pumps or sandals

Step 2

Add just a handful of new items to keep it fresh. New items could include:

• A new basic staple item - so you continue to build them up over the years.
• Trendy / Interesting pieces
• Accessories - basic and trendy.
• One noticeable flirty item! - High heels, a leather skirt, a skim of black eyeline, red lipstick. The trick is to wear just one item, never two!
• One expensive classic that will last a lifetime! - A Vuitton bag, a Hermes scarf, a pair of Charles Jourdan heels, diamond earrings.
• Signature Item - Find what you love and make it your signature. It might be your long flowing hair,  a chic bob haircut, scarves, statement jewellry, mini-skirts or long boots.
• Perfume

Aim for less - Less clashing colours, less make-up, less costume jewellery, but one ravishing perfume.

The result - A closet that although is minimalist, is fresh and high on style.

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If 5 items of clothing aren't enough for you, you may like to read one of my other articles:

The 10- item wardrobe - How French women create a chic and minimalist wardrobe.

Summary:  Best selling author and one of my favourite fellow bloggers, Jennifer L Scott (The Daily Connoisseur), recently published a book "Secrets of Madame Chic: 20 stylish secrets I learnt while living in Paris." It is based on her year spent in Paris as a student, where she lived with her host family (Family Chic) in an apartment in the wealthy 16th Arrondissement. To Jennifer's suprise, the mother of the family, "Madame Chic", only had 10 items of clothing in her wardrobe, but always looked chic and well dressed whatever the occassion. 
I love this method of creating a minimalist wardrobe and have adopted it myself. It works!
To read my full post and learn how Madame Chic achieved this, click here.  I have also

included Jennifer's YouTube Clips, where she shows us how to create the chic 10 item wardrobe, as well as a clip of her interview on TV.  

Click here to read my full post.

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I hope you found this article useful. For more FREE ARTICLES & TIPS you may like to visit:

Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe Blog HOME PAGE

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I have also published the following articles on Hubpages which are FREE to read:
  
How Parisian women create a chic and minimalist wardrobe

The minimalist shoe wardrobe - the only shoes a woman needs.

Minimalist wardrobe for women (Part 1)

Minimalist wardrobe for women (part 2)

Wardrobe Essentials for Women

Many women would like to find out what the essential items are for a minimalist wardrobe and whilst many other blogs and websites provide a list of items, such as the white shirt or black dress, I found that when trying to create a minimalist wardrobe, these lists didn't work for me as it didn't take into account my complete lifestyle or the seasons.

Instead I chose a different way to build my minimalist wardrobe based on my various lifestyle activities.

As a result, I have five small capsule wardrobes, which contain enough clothes to meet my needs and I store my clothes according to the capsule it belongs to.

If you are reading this blog with the hope of finding out what the wardrobe essentials for women are, I hope you will find my approach to creating a minimalist wardrobe for women useful.

My five capsules are as follows:

Please click on the links to see a photo of each capsule.

• "Casual/Weekend" - based around two casual classics - a denim skirt and denim jeans.

• My wardrobe - Capsule 2 - Casual Week-end wear

• "Formal Social"  - three outfits for a smart evening party, a wedding, a funeral

• My wardrobe - Capsule 1 - Formal Socialwear

• "Smart Casualwear" - two outfits, (summer and winter), worn when I meet friends for lunch or visit family and want to dress up a bit. 

• My wardrobe - Capsule 3 - Informal Socialwear / Smart Casualwear

• "Outerwear" - a raincoat and warm wintercoat, together with a smart pair of boots and snow boots.

• My wardrobe - Capsule 4 - Outerwear

• "Activewear" - for exercising, swimming, walking and hiking.

• My wardrobe - Capsule 5 - Activewear / Exercise

My complete wardrobe takes up half a rail, but that is all that I need.
My complete wardrobe.

You may have other "Lifestyle Activities" that aren't represented in my wardrobe. For example, you may want to create capsules along the following themes:

• "Office Wear"
  

• "Night Club Wear"

• "Hobby Wear" - if you have hobbies that require specific items of clothing.

I hope you will find this approach useful whether you are young and looking to start creating a wardrobe or older and have accumulated a lot of clothes and are looking to declutter your wardrobe.

Wardrobe Essentials for Women - My minimalist wardrobe is made up of five capsule wardrobes that meet different activities. Pushed together the clothes only take up half a rail, but that is all that I need.

Wardrobe Essentials for Women - A Formal Social Wardrobe. You may not wear these three outfits very often but they form an essential part of every womans wardrobe. They are a dress to wear to a wedding or garden party, an evening party dress and a black outfit for funerals.

Wardrobe Essentials for Women - A Weekend/ Casualwear capsule wardrobe. Based around two great casualwear basics - a denim skirt and jeans, you can create a variety of outfits suitable for summer and winter. Add another summer top and winter top if needed.

Wardrobe Essentials for Women - Smart Casualwear. I like to have a couple of more dressier casual outfits in my wardrobe, for occassions when jeans and a top aren't smart enough or I want to dress up a bit. I may wear these outfits on occassions such as meeting a friend for lunch, or visiting family. One outfit is for summer, the other for winter.

Wardrobe Essentials for Women - Outerwear. If you live in a country with harsh winters and wet springs a core outerwear wardrobe consisting of a warm winter coat and boots to wear in snow, together with a classic raincoat is essential.

Wardrobe Essentials for Women - Activewear. I enjoy hiking and swimming so my Activewear capsule wardrobe consists of a swimming costume (not shown) and hiking shoes and boots (not shown), shorts, a couple of tops, and a lightweight, packable waterproof jacket and trousers.