12 DIY Tips To Breath New Life Into Your Wardrobe

Tis the new season and with that comes the time to re-organise the wardrobe and importantly be playful with your pieces to inject new life. I especially love Spring and Autumn for the spectacular colours in nature which ignites my creativity. These 2 seasons are the best time to edit your wardrobes to set you up for the months ahead. Here are 12 DIY Steps To Breath New Life Into Your Wardrobe that will set you up for a fabulously fun & stylish season ahead.

To prepare - set aside a few hours for the actual edit and do not allow any distractions. Make yourself a tea, coffee or a drink and be in the right frame of mind. Natural light is ideal, however if that is not possible, then make sure there is plenty of light.

Focus on the season at hand only. It's easier to make clearer decisions about the clothes you are currently wearing rather than 6 months away when the weather changes.

1.Go through each item, drawer, storage box one by one. There will be several piles once you have finished. Firstly, put aside any keepsake items that you will never wear again but are sentimental.

Keep?items that make you feel confident and look great. These would include an estimate ratio of 60% practical every day pieces/20% special occasion pieces/ 10% statement pieces. This will vary with everyone depending on what your lifestyle is & personal style you have. For me it’s more 50% statement pieces. And?purge?the dead ends. They are those pieces that go with nothing else in your wardrobe and are difficult to make work because of colour, style of size. For any dead end piece that you love and want to keep, have a think about what item is missing in your wardrobe that could make that piece work for you i.e. pair of pants, or shoes or a belt.

2. Put aside items that are brand new and you've never worn saving it for a 'maybe' day. Have them sitting aside and visible to you for a week and really study them to see if you will wear them. Remember impulse purchases are emotional purchases, and aren't necessarily the right ones. If you can't think of ways you will wear them, either sell them, give to friends, or donate.

3.?Aim for balance with bottoms and tops. For example, if you have 30 blouses and 3 bottoms, time to cull tops and introduce a couple of extra bottoms so you have variety when dressing. When you have too many of the 1 item, they get lost in the wardrobe and only the same are worn.

4. Get rid of worn out lingerie, knickers, socks, tank tops, t-shirts, leggings, tights. You only need a few basics, and they take up unnecessary space. Trust me, this is such a good feeling.

5.?If there are some pieces that look great on you but are a little damaged, that is no reason to part with it. You can mend it yourself or take to a tailor and re-introduce this piece into your wardrobe. If your items however are faded, broken beyond repair, and worn out, it's okay to get rid of them.

6.?Fun?time! Play dress ups with the items you've decided to keep (including your maybe pile). Here it is important to open your mind and to experiment with different colours, prints, styles, and TRY to create several outfits out of the same pieces. Add belts, accessories. Take photos and carefully observe if they are flattering, interesting and fit with your personal style. Ask a trusted friend for advice on these looks. The throw out pile might become larger here as once you’ve tried them on again, the final decision on your body counts. If they don’t make you feel and look great, get rid of it. No second guessing and NO maybe. Make a list of items that are needed to compliment the pieces you have.

7.?With what you have decided to keep, hang them in your wardrobe. At this point store or move all clothing that is next season & keepsakes, so that you only have your current season easily accessible and visible. If you don’t have the luxury of another wardrobe or lots of storage, then vacuume packing down your clothing and stacking them under your bed or in a small storage space usually fixes this problem.

8.?Arrange your clothing in an order that visually works for you and easily accessible. I prefer to go from smallest to largest i.e blouses to long dresses as below:

1. camisoles 2. blouses 3. Short soft jackets/cardigans 4. skirts 5.trousers/denims 6. dresses, and then add heavier jackets/coats at the end. All knits and t-shirts are best folded in drawers to retain their shape. Denims can also be folded if space is an issue. If you have two racks, one above and one below, it generally looks better to have upper body garments at top and lower body garments on bottom but sometimes that is not possible and blouses/jackets need to be placed on bottom which is all good. Some people like to have their wardrobes grouped by colours, but I have found this harder for my clients to dress. You are time poor, so you want to be able to go straight to the blouse section and then to the bottoms section for easy and speed dressing.

And if space allows, separate your work clothing to your weekend, evening, formal clothing. This again allows ease when dressing in the morning. If you don’t have the space then the trick is to prioritise them in their purpose style: e.g. place the work blouses before the evening blouses, work jackets before the statement evening jackets etc.

The final step of this process, is to place the plain colours before the prints in all sections.

P.N. Formal dresses can hang beside the coats or in another wardrobe in garment bags. When I say formal, I mean gala event/ weddings where you may only wear a few times a year.

9. Change all your hangers to flocked hangers. They can be purchased at Kmart, Target, Hardware stores. These save you space and protect your clothing and oh it looks fabulous when all same size hangers. For coats/heavy jackets I prefer timber or padded hangers.

10. Organise your accessories and shoes too. These are often overlooked. With accessories, it's always a good idea to have them accessible so you can pull out easily. Accessories are what will give your outfit the lift and point of difference so take your accessories seriously. I've often seen women have their accessories hidden in boxes and tucked away and hence?forgotten?about. Depending on your wardrobe/bedroom, there are hundreds of storage options available that you can find online such as Pinterest,?or places like IKEA and Kmart.

11. For all tossed clothing, they can be sorted into 5 piles –Resell/ Donation to friends/ Charities/Recycling organisations/Alterations. Research those in your local area.

12. Go shopping for those missing pieces to complete your new season wardrobe and once purchased, play dress ups again with those exisiting pieces. Take photos of each outfit and store in your photo library so you can access daily.

Lastly, have fun with it all. It is so therapeutic doing this and you'll feel like you have a completely new wardrobe. I would love to know what you think and how you go with this. If of course you are time poor and prefer me to do this for you, reach out and we can organise a wardrobe edit and style session.

About Me:?I'm a personal stylist based in Sydney, travel worldwide for my clients.?I help women (and men) - mainly executives, professionals, business leaders, business owners, change makers, politicians, to fearlessly?express their 'visual' voice?through their style. If you want to harness your creative flair and to stand out from the rest in your own unique way, let's chat about making some 'silent' noise with your style. I have in person and virtual style sessions available.

You can read more about me?here?and follow me on?IG?@stylebygessica?where you will be inspired by my style curations to commence shifting your style boundaries and shake things up.?

Enjoy

Gessica