This morning I suddenly found myself having a wardrobe clear out. I’d decided it was time to deal with the hand washing pile languishing at the bottom of my laundry basket and somehow I ended up sorting through all my clothes and accessories. This does happen periodically; I open my wardrobe and am overcome with a desire to clear it out. Several items had been bugging me every time I opened the doors of my wardrobe and I decided enough was enough this morning.

Whilst sorting through my clothes I found a jacket I’d forgotten about (just in time for Spring – perfect!) and a gorgeous little faux fur bag, hardly used. These were my rewards for my clear out, and you’ll have them hiding somewhere too! The other reward is a feeling of satisfaction when you open your wardrobe. Everything is in there, ready to wear, no clutter, nothing making you feel bad, everything fits, nothing that needs fixing. Having said all that, I’m certainly not going to tell you that you absolutely must clear out your wardrobe (not at all – no-one’s going to die if you don’t!) but it is satisfying and I can certainly recommend it for if and when the mood takes you.

When you decide to embark on your clear out, do ensure you look everywhere for your clothes/accessories/underwear. Look in your wardrobe, under the bed, in drawers, in the dirty laundry basket, in wash baskets, on the washing line, ironing pile, and don’t forget to check the tumble dryer. Leave no stone unturned. Don’t forget scarves, shoes, underwear, coats, even socks! If you’ve got socks that are uncomfortable or ancient and you avoid wearing them then they’re just taking up valuable space!

You’ll need to evaluate each item in turn as you go through all your clothes. This sounds as though it could be a lengthy process but it really needn’t be at all (my clear out took 1.5 hours including texting my friends pictures of stuff I thought they’d like). The most important thing to note is that immediate thought or feeling when you very first look at something you own.

What’s your immediate feeling when you look at the item?

• Excitement? “Oooh! I haven’t worn that in absolutely ages… I really like it though!”, “I love that – I wear it all the time!”, “Oooh I’d forgotten I had that!” Hang on to these items. You might not have worn them in a while simply because you’d forgotten you had them.
• Annoyance? “Oh no, that’s the scarf that moults on me…”, “The sleeves keep riding up on that, drives me mad…” Get rid of anything that makes you feel annoyed or irritable.
• Depressed? “I can’t fit into that any more…”, “I’ll get into it one day…”  Get rid, or at the very least put it out of sight! Your wardrobe should make you feel inspired when you look inside, not depressed.
• Guilty? “It’s still got the tags on but I haven’t worn it and I’m not sure about it now…” Return it if you can, charity shop if you can’t (or give to a friend).
• Sentimental? “Aunt Sally made that for me…” Store anything of sentimental value (that you won’t wear) in the loft.
• Irritated? “Argh, it needs fixing and I just don’t have the time…” Okay, time to be realistic now. Either add it to your to do list to do within the next week, or decide to take it to a professional to fix. If you can’t bring yourself to do either then it’s probably because you don’t love it enough in the first place.
• Bored? “It’s OK I guess…”, “I suppose I quite like it, but it’s a pain because it’s dry clean/hand wash only…”, “Hmmm. It’ll do…” Get rid! “That’ll do” won’t do at all!
• Weary? “I love it but it’s looking rather worn out now…”, “I’ve had this ages and I loved it, but I think it might have shrunk…” It is hard to part with items we love but are past their best. Time to let go and recycle these.
• On edge? “I love how it looks but it’s a bit itchy..”, “I love them but they’re about half a size too small…” What you have in your wardrobe MUST be comfortable. This is probably single-handedly THE most important thing when considering whether to keep something or not. It HAS to be comfortable. If it’s not, it simply won’t get worn. On that cold Winter’s morning when you get out of the bath and just want something warm and soft to wear, you’ll not be able to bring yourself to reach for something that’s in any way uncomfortable or itchy.

If you find yourself struggling, ask yourself this: When did you last wear it? Can’t remember? Over a year ago? Time to give it a new home.

Bit scared about getting rid of everything you’ve cleared out? Perfectly understandable, especially if there’s a lot of it. Put those black bin bags full of clothes in the spare room or loft. If you find you need the clothes you still have access to them.

Hangers! Don’t forget to sort these out too. You don’t want your wardrobe full of empty hangers, have 3 or 4 in there but put the others somewhere else (I have a drawer in the bottom of my wardrobe for my spares). I realised I was getting irritated at the vast number of hangers clashing around in there and falling off the rail when I tried to get my clothes out. Put them away somewhere you can get to them when you need them.

So, what to do with all the clothes you no longer want? Give them away to a charity shop or to family and friends. Worn out clothes should be recycled.

Okay, so your wardrobe is certainly looking a bit emptier after that clear out… Now what? Don’t panic if you now have gaps. It’s time to go shopping and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Write a list of clothes you need, but don’t worry if you don’t end up finding something you really love to fill a gap. And you have to really love it which means that patience is key. You can start off with the cheaper shops like Matalan and Primark. Charity shops are great, if you’re feeling nervous take a friend with you. You’ll be surprised at how much new or nearly new clothes end up there. Swishing parties are great! Encourage your friends to have a clear out too. You could even swap clothes if you’re similar sizes.

I had my colours done back in 2010 and today was a momentous occasion for me. After writing a post about my own colour journey (and seeing just how bad black really is on me!) I finally got rid of that little black dress I’d been hanging on to in case I needed it. Making that decision and then texting my Winter friend felt so good! 😀

I had my colours analysed back in 2010 and not long afterwards I went back to House of Colour for a Style Day. On the Style Day, amongst many other things, we talked about our ‘clothing personalities’ which are a key part of knowing what clothing suits you and why. What is a clothing personality you might ask? I will start by saying that personal style is about what suits you, it’s not about what’s in fashion. Your clothing personality explains why an outfit (even in the right colours) that looks great on someone else might look frumpy/at odds/like a costume on you. Personal style is about dressing to reflect what’s on the inside and knowing your clothing personality will help enable you to do this. Of course, two people who have the same clothing personality won’t necessarily dress the same, personal taste and personality comes into it too, but there will be similarities and the overall look (e.g. youthful or sexy or dramatic) will be the same. A clothing personality is designed to be a guide and an inspiration so that you are able to refine your clothing choices.

House of Colour aren’t unique in educating people about clothing personalities. There are several systems and most usually cover a version of the following style types:

• Dramatic (statement dressing, think Victoria Beckham),
• Natural (a much more relaxed and casual look, bohemian or sporty, think Elle MacPherson),
• Gamine (young, boyish and fun, think Carey Mulligan),
• Ingénue (youthful, feminine, elegant and pretty, think of Emmy Rossum when she was in Phantom of the Opera),
• Romantic (sexy, grown-up, think Marilyn Monroe),
• Classic (timeless, smart, think Kate Middleton).

David Kibbe came up with 13 ‘image identities’ in his 1987 book “Metamorphosis” but he doesn’t include a type for Ingénue. I was diagnosed by House of Colour as a ‘Natural Ingénue’ and this feels perfect for me so I decided not to research that system very heavily.

This brings me neatly on to David Zyla. I recently read Zyla’s book ‘Color Your Style‘ (which can be purchased on Amazon) and I really do like his approach to clothing personalities. He calls them ‘archetypes’ and so far I’ve been able to find my archetype very easily. I suspect knowing I’m a ‘Natural Ingénue’ in another system helped (considerably) but his descriptions are thorough and I do think that someone who knows their season would be able to identify with one of the archetypes (there are 6 per season). It’s also a very fun read. Zyla appears to have a lot of fans – a quick search on Pinterest reveals lots of different boards for each of the archetypes created by people who’ve read the book. I found these immensely inspiring after I was able to pinpoint my archetype and my own personal style board grew quickly as a result. I did find Zyla’s clothing recommendations in his book excellent.

The only real downside of the book is that if you’ve not had a colour analysis (that’s not a plug I promise!) you’ll find it impossible to figure out your season from the information given in the book, and you need to know what your season is in order to identify your archetype. This isn’t a fault with the book I should add – no book can tell you what season you are. It is impossible (of course) to know how your skin reacts to colour by reading a book, and this is a crucial part of identifying what season you are.

I have two Zyla-inspired Pinterest boards. The first shows my ‘true colours’ according to Zyla: (to find out what the different colours mean you can look at Zyla’s website)

I have to say, although finding these colours sounds simple I’m of the opinion you need a colour analysis before you can figure out exactly whether, say, peach is your more flattering version of pink, etc. My essence colour is in fact a fairly substantial mid-pink (a rose). The idea is that all of your ‘true colours’ flatter you, and a pale pink isn’t going to flatter someone (i.e. me!) if depth of colouring is important, for example.

Some clever person made an image for all the different archetypes and I’ve pinned them here:

You will need to read about the archetypes in the book to figure out which one you are, but the images are certainly interesting to look at and it’s nice to have them all there at a glance. If you buy the paperback version you can share it with your friends 🙂