How to dress better using what you own

You want to dress better, but you don’t want to go out and buy an entirely new wardrobe. Maybe you have some pieces you like, but for some reason, putting together outfits you love is hard, and you always feel like you’re not doing it right.

In this article, I’m going to give you some tips on how to dress better with clothes you already have. 

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If you’re new here, I’m Missy of Simplified Wardrobe, an Ethical Personal Stylist & Capsule Wardrobe Curator. I help ambitious, eco-conscious womxn who want to look great, feel confident, and simplify their lives.

Find more information about personal style, capsule wardrobes, and color analysis over on Instagram. You can also download my free 10-page Guide to Defining your Personal Style.

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Of course, I don’t know everything that you have in your closet, but these tips should give you some ideas for how to mix and match your clothes to make more stylish outfits.

Pare down your closet

This might sound counter-intuitive. Why would you get rid of clothes to make more outfits? But, the issue I often see with clients is having so much stuff that it’s difficult for them to see the forest through the trees.

Having so much stuff not only makes it difficult to see what you’re working with, but it also makes it difficult for you to justify wearing the same things over and over again. I’m sure you have some things in your closet that sit there for weeks, or months, at a time, unworn. You finally wear them because they’re staring you in the face, but you don’t really feel good in them. You take them off at the end of the day and they end up right back in the rotation the following week.

Stop! You don’t have to keep doing this to yourself. You can just get rid of the clothes that you don’t enjoy wearing and don’t make you feel comfortable and confident. You might realize that once you cull your wardrobe, it’s actually easier for you to put together outfits you love.

Paring down your closet will also help you define your style. Once you get rid of the fluff, you’re left with just the hits. You’ll probably notice patterns among your favorite pieces that you didn’t notice when your closet was jam-packed with things you didn’t actually like.

Plus, having less clothes will let you be more creative with how you mix and max your clothes, which might lead you to finding new combinations that you wouldn’t have thought to put together otherwise.

Which leads me to…

Practice styling outfits

You know what they say: practice makes perfect.

Those women whose style you admire, who always look put together and polished, who seem like they were born with style? They had to practice. No one is born inherently knowing how to style themselves. It’s something you practice over time to get better at it, just like any other skill.

Those women have probably spent a lot of time pouring over magazines, browsing stores, and experimenting with their style in order to find their personal style and figure out what makes them feel and look their best.

If they can spend a lifetime doing it, you can spend a Saturday in your closet playing around with outfits, trying new combinations, and trying to diagnose what makes you feel great.

If you don’t know where to start, here are a few things to try:

• Try copying celebrity outfits. Browse your Pinterest board or look up celebrities you admire and try to see if you can recreate any of their outfits using what’s already in your closet.

• Try mixing together opposites. Casual + dressy. Edgy + classic. Or just try mixing unexpected color combinations. 

• Add one unexpected touch. Put together an outfit you would normally wear, then add something extra, like a hat or a piece of jewelry, that you wouldn’t normally think to pair with that outfit.

• When in doubt, go monochrome. Monochrome simply means “one color.” This means wearing one color head to toe, either in the exact same shade or a few different shades. For example, you could wear a light blue shirt with dark blue pants.

• Combine one or more of the above. Go monochrome but add one pop of a complimentary color. Copy a celebrity outfit but add an unexpected touch.

Take care of your clothes

Get your items tailored so they fit you perfectly. You probably have clothes in your closet that are great quality and you love, but you don’t wear them as often as you’d like. This might be because they don’t fit you as well as they could. Most small alterations, like a gaping waistband or a hem, are simple (and inexpensive for a tailor) but make a huge difference.

Along the same lines, make sure your clothes are clean, wrinkle-free, and free of pilling, shrinking, or other damage that comes from not taking care of them correctly. Read the labels before you throw something in the wash. iron or steam wrinkled shirts, shave sweaters with pills, and just say no to shirts with discolored underarms.

Do your hair and make-up

My final tip has less to do with your clothes and more to do with your attitude and presenting yourself in a polished way.

I’m sure you’ve had an experience either cleaning out your closet or in a dressing room. Maybe you just ran in to pick something up and ended up trying something on, and when you get in their you just feel frumpy. Sometimes it’s bad dressing room lighting, sometimes it’s just that the clothing doesn’t work for you, but sometimes it’s because you’re not wearing makeup and your hair is a mess. It’s hard to judge a suit with a messy bun.

I recommend you do your hair and makeup, and maybe even add a splash of fragrance, as part of your morning routine.

All of these tips are aimed to help you get more mileage out of the clothes you have so you can present yourself in a unified, polished, confident way.

If you try these tips but you find you need some more help with your style, I can help. View my personal styling services and apply to get more info about working together.

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