Home Page - A blog on how to create a minimalist wardrobe, how to be chic and how to live a simpler, more stylish lifestyle.

Dear Reader . . . . . . .

Welcome to my Blog - Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe.

• Do you wish to live a simpler lifestyle?
• Would you like to reduce the possessions in your life, including your clothing?
• Would you like to own a small wardrobe of stylish clothes that meet your needs?
• Would you like to know what type of clothes are basic wardrobe essentials? 
• Would you like to know how to be chic and dress with flair?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, and need help in achieving your goals, this website is for you.

I hope you find it useful.

Below is a list of articles that I have written on this blog and on other websites.

So, if you would like to know how to be chic, how to create a minimalist wardrobe and how to live a simpler, more stylish lifestyle, please read on.................

With Best Wishes

"Simply Me" - Chic and Minimalist Wardrobe Blog

 

                                                       * * LIST OF ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS * *

* * Latest 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.

Minimalist Wardrobe Essentials for Fall / Autumn 2012

* * Other Articles * *

Parisian style wardrobes - tres chic and minimalist

• The secrets of the Parisian womans chic and minimalist wardrobe.
• The French 5-piece wardrobe - a famous French technique that can help you create a small and stylish wardrobe each season

Minimalist Wardrobe Essentials

• A humorous and holistic approach to creating a minimalist wardrobe

How to be Chic - Tips on looking Chic, having a Chic home and Lifestyle

• How to Be Chic - 10 Easy Ways to become more Chic

Films that feature inspiring Chic and Minimalist wardrobes:

• A week with Marilyn 

Cure a wardrobe crisis with capsule wardrobes - Never again have to say "I have nothing to wear"

• How to cure a wardrobe crisis with capsule wardrobes

How to update your wardrobe each season:

• How to update your wardrobe for Spring / Summer
• How to update your wardrobe for Autumn / Winter
• Minimalist Wardrobe Essentials for Fall / Autumn 2012

Chic and Minimalist Accessories

• The only shoes you need in a chic and minimalist wardrobe
• How to tie and wear a silk square scarf
• Different ways to tie and wear a Pashmina
• How to tie and wear  an oblong / rectangular scarf  

Parties

• How to dress for parties and how to create a party capsule wardrobe 
• Recession Style - What to wear to the Downsized Christmas Party

My capsule wardrobes
Article coming soon

Chic and Minimalist Make-up
Article coming soon

 Basic Wardrobe Essentials
Article Coming Soon

Minimalist Wardrobe Essentials

Many people are looking for the definitive list of Minimalist Wardrobe Essentials and whilst other blogs or  websites provide the same list of basic wardrobe essentials, such as the white shirt or black dress, I personally found that when trying to create a minimalist wardrobe for myself, these lists didn't work.

The main reason that they don't work is because they don't take into account your complete lifestyle or the seasons.  So, I decided to use a different way to build my minimalist wardrobe.

I now have a minimalist wardrobe that is based on my regular lifestyle activities as well as the social events that occassionally crop up such as an invitation to a party, wedding or having to attend a funeral. 

So, 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, I am confident that you will find this way of creating a wardrobe useful, minimalist and unique to you and your lifestyle.  

To start, take a look at your lifestyle and break it down into activities. Then from your existing wardrobe, start to create smaller mini or capsule wardrobe for each activity. 

To help get you started, take a look at my lifestyle and the mini / capsule wardrobes I have created.

My lifestyle is as follows:

• I work outside the home four days a week and my clothes are provided by my employer.

• I am at home 3 days a week and wear casualwear at home.
• My wardrobe - Capsule 2 - Casual Week-end wear

• Occassionally I go out to lunch with friends or family and have two nice outfits to wear, one for winter, the other for summer. They are ideal for times when I need to dress up a bit. 
• My wardrobe - Capsule 3 - Informal Socialwear / Smart Casualwear

• For my more formal social life, I keep three outfits - a party dress, something to wear to a wedding and something black for a funeral.
• My wardrobe - Capsule 1 - Formal Socialwear

• "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

• For holidays, I usually take clothes from my week-end wardrobe and active wardrobe.

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" - with a mini / capsule of office wear, such as suits, blouses,skirts and trousers. Plus accessories - briefcase or smart handbag, office shoes, smart watch & jewellry.

• "Night Club Wear"

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

You are probably going to find that there are gaps in your wardrobe. To solve that problem, create a list of the items that you need and put the list into priority order. Focus on buying your top priority items first.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post and found it useful. You may also like to read my other blog posts.

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.

How to create a chic and minimalist wardrobe the Parisian way

Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the way that chic Parisian women dress, with many women wishing to create a chic and minimalist wardrobe based on their style.

 

Parisian chic is essentially frugal and minimalist in approach, based on purely practical reasons - many Parisians live in small apartments and due to lack of space are unable to store large quantities of clothes.  

As a result many Parisiian women have embraced the "less is more" approach to dressing. 

"Parisian Chic: A Style Guide" by Ines de la Fressange, was published recently. 

Ines was a supermodel and the face of the Chanel brand for many years.

In her book Ines identifies the Top Seven Items that all women should own in order to create a chic and minimalist wardrobe. 

 

I think they offer a great basis for building a chic and minimalist wardrobe and would like to share these ideas with you.

Outerwear - 3 items:

The first three items are outerwear:

• A Trench-coat- a practical item, ideal to wear all year round.

• A Leather Jacket - ideal to wear with jeans for a smart casual look or over a floral dress. 

• A Black, masculine style blazer - again can be worn with jeans with the sleeves pushed up or for evening with black evening trousers.

Tops - there are two tops recommended that are versatile and can be worn in a variety of ways.

• V-Neck Navy Jumper - this can be worn with jeans and dressed up with a scarf or necklace, or under the leather jacket for a smart casual look. It also looks great with white jeans for a nautical look.  Navy is softer than black.

  Neutral coloured Short-sleeved Top - The Colour could be white, black or grey. It should be short- sleeve or sleeveless such as a t-shirt,camisole or vest top. The fabric should be slightly luxurious such as having a small amount of silk or cashmere. It can be worn with jeans and the leather jacket for a smart casual look, or can be dressed up with sparkly jewelry for evening.

    

  The final Two Essential Items:

  I am sure these will come as no suprise as they are great basics to have in your wardrobe:

  The LBD - Little Black Dress - this item can be worn in the daytime for a smart look or dressed up for the evening. Choose a simple versatile style such as a black wrap dress in a good quality jersey fabric or a shift dress. 

  A great pair of jeans - that fit well and for in a dark blue wash for most versatility. They can be worn casually in the day with the black jacket or leather jacket or with the silk top for a casual evening look, just add a pair of evening shoes.

   

  I hope you have found this post useful. 

  I think Ines' " Top Seven Items" are a great place to start building a chic and minimalist wardrobe around. 

  If you have enjoyed this article and found it useful, you may like to read one of my articles that I have published with Hubpages. It uncovers the secrets of how Parisian women create a chic and minimalist wardrobe.

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

  http://hubpages.com/hub/The-essence-of-French-Parisian-Chic