Wardrobe Rehab - a word on Skirts

Some of you will be familiar with the Wardrobe Rehab Series I did a while ago.  In this series I culled all my clothes down to a small number of functional, high quality and essential pieces using 6 steps - Culling, Defining Your Style, Wardrobe Essentials, Organising Your Wardrobe, Colours and Focusing Your Shopping. Doing the project gave me ample opportunity to think about the things I really needed in my wardrobe - and I came to the conclusion that there was a dire need for some knee length/above the knee skirts. I recently acquired these three and they're literally the the backbone of my wardrobe. I wear them with breton tops, collared shirts, belted with singlets, with jackets and about a million other ways. And because they're knee length (or a little bit above), I can wear them to work and they also transition well with a pair of heels into evening drinks. Once you have staples like these in your closet getting dressed in the morning isn't nearly such a chore.What essential items do you need in your closet?

Thrifted and shortened navy skirt, thrifted black pleated skirt, thrifted and shortened camel skirt.

Whats in my suitcase: Sydneybound

A little bit of nautical and neon in my suitcase. Packing for a trip always helps me to re-imagine my wardrobe.

(left to right + bottom to top) vintage canary yellow skirt, leather shorts via Fashion Zen, DIY colour block pink skirt, handmade lace shorts, vintage high-waisted black shorts, thrifted white tee, cat eye sunglasses from M&S, vintage breton top, whistles denim shorts and jeans, bright pink flippy dress from a Korean boutique, DIY beaded belt, mango bootines, handmade sequin shorts, DIY tasell earrings, suede ballet flats, Esprit Breton top, h&m tote, dior vintage mens shirt, vintage coin belt, AWang Angela pouchette, whistles black cut out back bodycon dress, zara suede wedges, reiss heels.

Wardrobe Rehab - The Camel Blazer

A little while ago I told you all about the key jackets in my wardrobe. I realised when I was writing about what every girl should have in her jacket arsenal that I was missing one VERY important item - the camel blazer. So on a recent trip to Shenzen (blah blah blah I'm sure you're sick of seeing the spoils of my trips to the tailor) I got this silk one made. I've spent a bit of time since I recieved it taking it in and making it perfect - thats the beauty of having a sewing machine I guess and I like having a very fitted style.  The funniest part? In about a month this and a few other silk jackets will be the only ones I will be able to wear without forming a permanent sweat moustache, while the rest will be relegated to under the bed. Don't even get me started on the massive fro I will be sporting once the Hong Kong humidity sets in...

Wearing: handmade camel blazer, wool full mini skirt, country road singlet, zara wedges
Ps. the bf recently said to me - those zara wedges get a bit of airtime, and yes they do indeed! Best go-to shoes around, although it has been agreed by a bunch of males on a night out that they are a complete man repeller. Hope they're not a woman repeller too!

DIY Corkboard Walls (look closely...)

The gorgeous Amalia of Smart n Snazzy brought my attention to this pic from the Lucky Mag website of Fashion news director Jen Ford's cork board lined wardrobe where she keeps all her inspiration. Lo and behold on it is a pic of me taken by Vanessa Jackman! Haha how random. Btw how good is the corkboard lined wardrobe? I know you can buy cork with adhesive on one side that can be rolled out and attached to walls - much better than wallpaper! I think this is the stuff I mean. Update: Amalia tells me this image is in this months mag too! Anyone know where I can buy it in HK?

Wardrobe Rehab - The Jacket

So in the last couple of weeks I have been mulling over the Wardrobe Rehab series I did a while ago - where I put a serious amount of time and effort into overhauling my wardrobe before I left London. But recently I have been feeling the same way about my wardrobe that I felt before - totally uninspired standing in front of my cupboard in the morning. The horror! So last weekend I did a bit more of a cull, and I think I will continue to cull for the next couple of weeks. When I have such good access to tailors who can help you completely recreate your look without breaking the budget, why not?

I went through my jackets a few days ago and culled anything that I don't wear. In reality I am almost never going to wear heavy jackets in Hong Kong (other than sneaky trips to Shanghai) so I have put them away, and made a pile of things to sell consisting of jackets that I don't think I am going to wear again. Above is a pic of the things I have left in the jacket section of my wardrobe. As I was doing the cull I thought about what the most important things were to keep, and I came up with a few rules for essential jackets. Key jackets I kept?

• The Black Blazer - an absolute essential. Should fit you like a glove and look great with pencil skirts for work and tight dark denim jeans and heels for Friday drinks.
• The Statement Jacket - Mine is a vintage black beaded jacket I nabbed from a jumble in north london (I was part of the furniture at that place for a while). It is perfect for throwing over a simple outfit. Go for a super textured one in a beaded or sequin style.
• The Camel Trench - A bit of a cliche perhaps but this comes in handy all the time, mine is hip length so not the classic style but looks amazing with trousers or jeans and flats.
• The Leather - This goes without saying really. The leather jacket should be a staple in everyone's wardrobe. I have a beautiful faded tan one from Zara and an extremely supple bomber style from Whistles (both gifts from the bf). Spend as much as you can afford on this item, and choose a simple and classic style - you'll have it in your wardrobe forever.
• The Khaki Hooded Jacket - Slightly military inspired, this jacket lends a little bit of edginess to a ladylike outfit and is perfect thrown over my weekend go-to outfit - uniqlo jeans, nautical breton top and black ballet flats. Luckily I bought a very light cotton one that will transition nicely into HK spring.
• The other blazers - Red, White and Blue. These ones get a whole lot of wear. Buy a few well fitting blazers in different colours. Well cut jackets never go out.

Stay tuned for my wardrobe rehab posts on trousers, skirts and dresses. All in the name of 'buy less buy better'. Here's to the perfect wardrobe.

Jackets from left to right: Vintage round neck denim jacket, handmade Navy Blazer, Zara black blazer, Zara tan leather jacket, Whistles Leather Bomber Jacket, Vintage beaded statement jacket, Zara camel trench, Zara red short trench, white vintage blazer, H & M khaki hooded jacket.

Wardrobe Essential - the camel dress

Got an absolutely massive haul from my tailor in Shenzen this week, including a number of wardrobe essentials I'll be showing you over the next couple of weeks, and a few samples for the shop (watch this space!). This is one of the wardrobe essentials I got made, the camel dress. Made of a camel silk with a flouncy skirt and slightly puffed sleeves, this is another one of those dresses that looks amazing on and can be worn anywhere. I paired it this week with a DIY tassel belt - two tassels glued onto some black rope, and my DIY tassel earrings.

DIY More Wardrobe Rehabbing

Got a pretty amazing delivery of goods from the tailor a few days ago, and have had to make room in my wardrobe for the things I liked, so have pulled a few vintage things out which I will be selling this week. Our little flat is kind of like a small boat, every time you bring something on board you have to get rid on something. Stay Tuned.

DIY Night Time Get Up

A little while ago I showed you my weekend uniform, this is a slight variation on it for going out at night. Such a go to outfit. And I cannot overstate how much I love this jacket. If the house was burning down..... ok well you get the picture. Also, this outfit wouldnt be complete without berry red lipstick.

Uniqlo jeans, perfect sheer soft cotton tee by some random japanese brand, gap triangle bra, vintage beaded statement jacket, black crystal bracelet, Reiss Mesh heels, thrifted black leather envelope clutch.

White Linen Blazer

Thrifted blazer and shorts. What's not to love? So many of you liked them yesterday so thought I would show you them on!

Wearing: thrifted white linen blazer, gap grey marl tee (definite essential), thrifted maroon wool shorts, zara ankle strap wedges, black crystal bracelet.

This weeks takings...

This week's lunchtime thrifting was very kind to me, and I left piles behind in my favourite store in HK. But this is going to be the last of it for a while, I have decided to embark on a month long shopping ban. It will give me time to further refine my wardrobe and focus on what I really need. 

Ladylike pink collared blouse, white linen blazer (was able to cross that off my essentials list - and it actually fits well!), pleated navy silk skirt with tiny white flowers, blush silk blouse with lace detailing, dark red wool high-waisted mini shorts.

For Sale

Am continuing a slow cull of the wardrobe. I can't help but collect goodies, but minimalist and organised is best. Email me at apairandaspareonline@gmail.com for postage costs  and I will send a paypal invoice once we have agreed. I am posting to anywhere as I am in hong kong, have used US dollars as the prices as its easy for you all to translate into your own currency.

Amazing vintage studded leather mini shorts. These are almost a work of art and remind of the Alexander Wang ones. Uk Size 6. US$50. 24inch waist. Comes with black leather twine for the lace up front.

H&M geometric print jacket. Size 10. Never worn. US$15.

Vintage lace sleeveless top. US$10. Size 8.

Vintage wool pleated midi skirt.  26 inch waist. US$25. This is absolutely gorgeous but taking up too much room in my closet. Must part with it!

I have lots more wardrobe rehabbing and DIYing to do this weekend so stay tuned for more of my wardrobe to go!

Wardobe Rehab - The One With All The Blogshops

So by now most of us have already thrown off the cruel shackles of our new years resolutions (gym twice a day, not drinking, no cakes blah blah blah). But one resolution that the whole of the blogging world seems to have kept has been to revitalise their wardrobes. A while ago I went through the 6 steps of my Wardrobe Rehab Project, where I revitalised and organised my wardrobe. So happy with the organisation of it (like my new wardrobe above?)! Is it just me, or has this time of the year spurred everyone to do the same? January is such a great time to make a few changes in your life - or your wardrobe.

To tell you the truth I think that rehabbing your wardrobe is something that should be done every 3 or 6 months, as its inevitable that we collect things along the way that need to be culled and organised. I have been pretty minimalist about my shopping since I did the Six Steps, which has been really good - I really held back when I was travelling and since I have moved to HK, wanting to only invest in high quality pieces that will go with the rest of my wardrobe. Have been trying to live out the Dead Fleurette vibe with my clothes buying. If you often have trouble getting dressed in the morning even though you have heaps of clothes, you probably need to rehab. Start from step one (look in the right hand column for the steps) and within a few weeks you'll have a beautiful and organised wardrobe!

Heaps of my favourite bloggers have done their own version of wardrobe rehab recently, from which offerings on their blog shops are a devastating blow to my minimalist 'buy less' pledge, and very counterproductive. But what the hey. If you wanna get amongst all your favourite blogger's old stuff, read on.

Shannon from Dirty Hair Halo has also done an amazing job following my wardrobe rehab steps (so happy to have inspired her!). Check her blogshop out here yo.
Check Annabel of Blushing Ambition's blogshop here if you haven't already.
The lovely Jen of Style Crusader has also done a serious overhaul of her wardrobe - I loved her recent 'Closet Confessions' post where she quantified all her clothes, loved the pile of 38 jumpers among other things haha. Go here to see here shop. There's even 20% off until tomorrow afternoon!
Also, the very stylish Megan of Another Day to Dress Up has stocked her Etsy shop with some of her favourite things that were filling up her closet. Have been drooling over some of her offerings! Check her store out here.

If you guys know of any other great blogshops, leave me a comment. Share the love. x

Image: Dead Fleurette

Wardrobe Rehab in Action

Here's a few more pics of my whats left of my wardrobe - channeling an Isabel Marant (or November Zara) look. Leather shorts, leopard print, splashes of red, suede wedges and lots of black.

Have you had a read through my recent wardrobe rehab project? It has been the best thing ever - its now so easy to pull together perfect outfits!

DIY Wardrobe Rehab Step 6 - Focusing your shopping

If you've been following along you'll have seen a few pics of what my wardrobe looks like now, smaller and way more organised. Hurrah! The final step in my project is to put a few rules in place to focus my future shopping, so I don't end up with a massive jumbled wardrobe again. I've put these rules together from looking at a number of different blogs and articles in magazines.
My rules for focusing your shopping - making sure that anything I buy is useful and will be worn - are as follows:
1. As mentioned in the Wardrobe Essentials post, buy your basics and essentials in a neutral palette such as black, navy, beige or another neutral colour that suits you, increasing their versatility;
2. When you put together your list of essentials in one of my last posts, there were probably a few things that were on your list but you didn't own. If there are things that you truly need that will make your whole wardrobe more wearable - a navy blazer or well cut pair of black trousers for example - put these items on your list and save up to buy the best quality you can afford. Go without anything else and keep that item in mind while you are saving.
3. Don't go to sales unless you have a specific item in mind. How many times have we all nipped out to have a quick look in the sales and come back with something we bought for a tenner that will only be worn a couple of times. All this does is add to the clutter in your life. Add up all the stray tenners you spend a year and that is a whole lot of money that could be saved up for something good quality and infinitely wearable.
4. Limit the amount of cheap clothing you buy. To be honest, a lot of it is crap and poorly made. When you can, head to charity shops. Often you find better quality in charity shops and vintage stores than you do in high street stores.

How else can you maintain your organised wardrobe? Try to work through it and organise it as much as possible - have a three monthly clean out to get rid of anything you have accumulated that you won't wear. Sell these items on ebay or at markets so you can pay for new, good quality clothing that has been on your list for a while. Tash from Excessive Consumption recently blogged about this being her approach, and Dead Fleurette (who is on a blogging hiatus - devo!) only buys 3 - 4 items per season, and makes sure those are items she will treasure forever. I am sure we can all take a leaf out of their book! Happy Wardrobe!

Images: Excessive Consumption

Wardrobe Rehab Results

Bigger is not necessarily better. So happy to have made my wardrobe a bit smaller and more organised with the wardrobe rehab project. These are some of the things I have kept to wear during the day.

DIY Wardrobe Rehab Step 5 - Colours

Check out the whole series of Wardrobe Rehab posts here
Step 1 - Culling
Step 2 - Defining Your Style
Step 3 - Wardrobe Essentials
Step 4 - Organising your wardrobe

Sooo I have to admit that I took my sweet time in getting around to posting this. Apologies! Life has been hectic. If you've been following along, you'll know that the purpose of the wardrobe rehab project has been to shrink and clarify my wardrobe, in the face of moving overseas, so I can throw together amazing outfits effortlessly and so that I have no 'tat' in my wardrobe that I don't wear. Through this process I culled my wardrobe (halving its size!), had a go at defining my style, made a list of  my wardrobe essentials and I tried to organise my wardrobe (although spent last night packing for HK so obv all the organising went out the window).

A major reason that historically my wardrobe has been a shambles, apart from the sheer size of it, has been my penchant for buying all different random coloured items with no reference to what exists in my wardrobe and what I will wear it with. How do you solve this problem? Firstly, as I mentioned in one of the previous posts, when buying basics and essentials you should probably stick to a neutral palette of black, navy, beige or white (or any other colours you wear alot and think of as your 'base' outfit colour). This is a point I picked up off this post by Dead Fleurette about the secret to french elegance, and I totally agree. If you think about all the amazingly dressed french women you see being photographed by The Satorialist and Tommy Ton, they usually build on neutral basics with lots of navy and beige and black.

But no one wants to wander around all day in only neutral colours, and thats where buying colour wardrobe 'updaters' comes in to play. Once you have a smaller wardrobe with lots of well fitting neutral coloured essentials, you can purchase a few coloured items (from the high street or charity shops) each season to mix with your basics and make them more on trend. An example? I posted recently about loving burnt caramel colour, and this colour has featured alot as the standout piece in my outfits - paired with dark jeans, black pants, skirts, tweed jackets and blazers. I picked up a top and a pair of shorts from a charity shop for nothing and they have been great for mixing with basics. Buying coloured shorts, silk shirts and other smaller items will allow you to mix them in with your neutral basics. Tash from Excessive Consumption has block colour dressing to perfection.

Another style of dressing that I really like is wearing tonal colours, choosing a single colour and wearing items that are different shades of that colour in the one outfit (see a few examples below). I really love this look, but very rarely ever do it - the Anywho girls and Maria from Vanilla Scented get tonal dressing so right! Can go horribly wrong if the shading is off though.

My main piece of advice is to wear what looks good on you. Choosing colours that suit your look and skin tone is much more important than strictly adhering to trend colours or tonal dressing- yes Zara might be pushing washed out blue but if it doesn't suit you don't go for it. Back in the day our grandmas used to go and get their 'colours' done, where someone would sit them down and work out  what colours suit them. This may seem a bit archaic but sometimes having an unbiased critique of what colours suit you is the best thing!

Block Colours

tonal dressing

frenchy (just for fun!)

Images: (from top left) Style Scout / Just Jared / Hanelli Mustapata
The Style Crusader / Anywho
excessive consumption / image of me by Street Style London / excessive consumption
Vanilla Scented / Anywho / Anywho
Excessive consumption / excessive consumption/ excessive consumption

DIY Wardrobe Rehab Project Step 4 - Organising Your Wardrobe

Images: Maria of Vanillascented's wardrobe, wardrobe from mode d'amour, my wardrobe during the cull (most of its been sold now!), Girly Style Memo, Moodboard, Moodboard, Sabrina from AfterDRK's wardrobe.

Step 1 - Culling here
Step 2 - Defining Your Style here
Step 3 - Wardrobe Essentials here

If you've been following along with the Wardrobe Rehab project, you will have just finished Steps 1, 2 and 3, and should now not only have a wardrobe with only clothes that fit well, look good and make you feel great, but also have an idea of what your personal style is and a list of your wardrobe essentials. You are well on your way to an amazing wardrobe! An inspiring wardrobe is an important step to being excited to get dressed in the morning, remember Cher from Clueless and her futuristic wardrobe? 'I'm just, like, a normal girl!...'. Although we can't all have that level of sophistication in our wardrobes, putting the time into the organisation of your wardrobe will pay off.  Looking for pics on the net of blogger's wardrobes, I was surprised by small, compact and well organised many of them are, perhaps that is the key to looking great all the time? I love the simple look of Maria of Vanillascented's wardrobe (top pic), and she shows us that you don't have to have an over the top, carrie-from-SATC-movie type of wardrobe to look amazing.

How should you organise your wardrobe to allow for easy access and aesthetics? This is a question I have mulled over lots and lots. There are numerous schools of thought on this one - your could colour coordinate all the items to give them a rainbow effect (very pretty and what most bloggers tend to do) or organise them by type (ie all your skirts together etc), or have a kooky monica from friends style organisation going on complete with dewey decimal referencing....

Either way, when you are deciding how to do this you need to keep in mind that the purpose of this project is to make it easy for YOU to get dressed and look great. I love the look of my clothes lined up in a row all colour co-ordinated, but the mixed up styles does make it harder to get dressed in the morning and I tend to forget what I have if everything that is say, black, is all together. If you have a big enough collection of clothes and a wardrobe with different compartments, sort your clothes into different types (pants, shorts/skirts, jackets, tops, shirts) and then organise by colour within their types.

If you have enough room, try to hang as much as possible up. Drawers are great for jeans and underwear but I find I am much more likely to pull something off the rack than out of the bottom drawer. If possible store accessories and shoes at eye level and jewellery on a hanging rack. Hangers? I love wooden hangers and even padded ones for lace and sheer tops. That said, I haven't invested in any luxury hangers because, really, who knows where I'll be living next year?

DIY Wardrobe Rehab Step 3 - Wardrobe Essentials

Step 1 - Culling here
Step 1 - Defining Your Style here

I guess the first thing for me to say is that this post has been inspired by Dead Fleurette's amazing style blog. She has such simple style, and only buys 3/4 items every season! As a result she has the french simple/chic look down pat with the most lovely essentials, and she has inspired me to buy less and better quality. In addition to this post, you couldnt go wrong having a long read through her blog. Would love to have a chic wardrobe like her's one day!

Wardrobe essentials are the staple items in your wardrobe that you wear regularly and make special by mixing with different colours, trends, accessories etc. If you read blogs or fashion magazines you will have seen many a '10 things every woman needs' article, some helpful and others a barely disguised attempt to push a micro trend down our throats by labelling it an 'essential' (FYI sunday times style, I do not think I NEED a blue pair of suede boots).

This post by Garance Dore about wardrobe essentials is great, as she does a fantastic job of categorising what an essential really is - an item that is the starting point of any good outfit. The comments at the bottom of her post where other people have listed their own essentials is also interesting - you can see how everyone differs!

For that reason noone else's list will really tell you what your wardrobe essentials are, it will come down to your body, your style and a whole host of other things. What you can do, though, is determine your own list, based on what you love wearing and what looks good on you. Up until a couple of years ago I didn't think about basics at all and always purchased items I loved but that I found didn't go with anything in my wardrobe (it was a bit of a clashy mess in there truth be told!). Since then, I have haphazardly developed my list of essentials by trial and error, and by seeing what's in my suitcase when I have tp pack light. Writing this post I have tried to analyse what the important 'essential' items are in my cupboard, so here's my list.

Well fitted black blazer (cropped just below the hips)
Blue/grey skinny jeans
Black skinny high waisted pants
Neutral coloured singlets and three quarter length tops (I don't go for tees much)
Nautical striped boat neck tops
Black, high waisted full mini skirts
Black and tan high waisted mini shorts
Black bodycon dress
Black leather jacket
Black and white herringbone winter jacket
Black opaque and sheer spotted tights
Patent black heels (with a toe that's midway between pointed and round)
Black ankle heeled boots + suede wedge boots
Black flat brogues and ballet flats
Wide brim fedora hat
Tan and black skinny belt.
Black pashmina scarf

Along with a few patterned and coloured bodysuits and shirts, the above list is all I would need to dress well - and I have continued to cull my wardrobe recently with this in mind. In relation to the colour of your wardrobe essentials, I usually stick to a neutral colour palette - black, white, camel, navy or beige being easy ones, so that I can then mix in coloured items and accessories. What are your wardrobe essentials? I'd love to know!

Images: Knock you for Six, Jak and Jil, Excessive Consumption, AfterDRK, Moodboard