Organizing my clothes

I am attempting to upgrade my wardrobe. I think of categories of clothing for people my age and status in life and I think of them as being these progressing from low fashion to higher fashion:

1. bag lady-self-explanatory

2. casual -presentable with SOME attention paid to color and texture coordination, wears only classic styles

3, nice casual - presentable and coordinated including jewelry, handbags, shoes; classic styles in some expensive fabrics and makes

4. Sophisticated casual - fashionable and coordinated in all accessories. Expensive fabrics and makers in classic stles with some trendy expensive items thrown in to be fashionable and modern

I am currently at Bag Lady level. I want to move onto “casual “level for every day where with occasional forays into “nice casual. “

I will never be “sophisticated casual.” That’s fine, I don’t want to be that.

I’m out of town at a garden club event so I killed time one evening at the local mall. I actually went into a clothing store and bought clothes in a mall store. I can’t even remember the last time I did that, more than a decade. I bought clothes at the store “H&M. “They have cheap clothes. Cheap cheap cheap.

oh, but I have to tell you my new dressing strategy, which is making it easy to buy clothes. I’m buying items only in these colors: black, white, ivory. Do you know how easy it is to breeze through a store if you’re only looking for a limited color palette? It’s super easy!

Eventually I will branch out to add in tan and camel colored pieces, and after that, two accent colors in warm shades.

So this is my clothes shopping strategy which I can employ at Goodwill as well. Oh, believe me I haven’t given up shopping at Goodwill. I LOVE Goodwill.

My trip to shopping mall land was…interesting. This major mall in a big college town was eye-opening. It was not crowded at all. Apparently shopping malls are dead. Anyway, I wondered around the Dillards store looking at their handbag selections.

OMG. A huge selection was available. Just huge, mind boggling. I have always made fun in my mind of the handbag culture, but I can kind of see the appeal of a pretty, smooth leather handbag. I just want to find one that doesn’t have the makers name plastered all over it and that appears to be impossible. At least you can’t get that for handbags that cost a few hundred dollars. I guess if I go up into the multi thousand dollar range of bags I could get one without someone’s name all over it. Yeah, a Hermes Kelly bag for $28,000. That’s the ticket! Ha

I love this--you at a shopping mall is like Stranger in a Strange Land.. And I love how you put H&M in quotes--I think most shoppers are VERY familiar with H&M. At least I am, because my kids and grandkids shop there.

I consider myself a solid #2. I have seasonal "uniforms"... to your point about sticking to one color palette, that is key for me, although I've strayed a little bit. My business travel color palette I called "Guiness"--black and tan. I still like that combo, but since this is Vermont and you're not a Vermonter unless you wear jeans to everything from the garden to church, I've had to integrate blue. And being I'm a "fall" if you remember that popular book a few decades ago that put you in season categories for color, I also buy loden green.

I could never be the type to switch out jewelry and handbags every day. I'm lucky if I comb my hair some days. But I'm starting to use more lipstick in proportion to the degree to which my complexion fades into oblivion.

I have been making an effort lately to weed out clothes and shoes and it is a slow process. I am a solid #2. Reducing to several colors is a good idea - most of mine seem to be some shade of blue. Most is thrifted but lately, pickings are slim. My main criteria is how it fits. I am 5'2 and 105 lbs so finding smaller sizes that I like can be challenging.

Was thinking recently about the trends in clothing. Do you wear clothes to be “in style” or would rather wear clothes that look good on you (and may no longer be the current fashion trend)? Of course there are those who wear whatever just for the sake of comfort… not caring how they look. I tend to wear classic styles or those I think that detract from my flaws. I don’t cater to fashion trends. My “uniform” is solid colored bottoms and a multitude of blouses/shirts that can go with those colors. My favorite recently is medium-dark gray bottoms.

I read in NYT that Gen Z thinks leggings are gross which made my heart sing. They apparently like baggy now. I am sticking with something in the middle.

My wardrobe is black bottoms. Brightly colored tops, mostly in shades of pink, purple, blue. A few black and white prints. Shoes are all black except for my purple crocs. :)

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Originally Posted by catherine

I love this--you at a shopping mall is like Stranger in a Strange Land.. And I love how you put H&M in quotes--I think most shoppers are VERY familiar with H&M. At least I am, because my kids and grandkids shop there.

I consider myself a solid #2. I have seasonal "uniforms"... to your point about sticking to one color palette, that is key for me, although I've strayed a little bit. My business travel color palette I called "Guiness"--black and tan. I still like that combo, but since this is Vermont and you're not a Vermonter unless you wear jeans to everything from the garden to church, I've had to integrate blue. And being I'm a "fall" if you remember that popular book a few decades ago that put you in season categories for color, I also buy loden green.

I could never be the type to switch out jewelry and handbags every day. I'm lucky if I comb my hair some days. But I'm starting to use more lipstick in proportion to the degree to which my complexion fades into oblivion.

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One fashion video I saw claimed blue jeans are a new “neutral “so you really don’t have to think of them as blue.

Look at me and how fancy I’m getting: I ordered one of those clothes hanging rolling racks because now I’m going to start actually hanging up my clothes rather than stuffing them into drawers. I don’t have a closet yet in my room since it’s not finished.

Hanging some of the nicer pieces rather than rolling/stuffing them surely will elevate me part way out of Bag Lady Land.

IL, this "outfit" (business--not literally a clothing "outfit") is really great, but I have a feeling not something you would do. I subscribed to them for about 3 months when my wardrobe was pathetic, because I hate shopping. They specialize in clothing for short women, and I was really happy with about 60% of what they sent, and I sent back the rest. I now have nice jeans, one nice business outfit or outfit if we go to a nice restaurant, and a classic blazer. I stopped the subscription when all the gaps in my wardrobe were filled, but if I needed to refresh, I would definitely go back to them.

The clothes are not necessarily that cheap, but you give them your budget and they work with it. My other go-to for online shopping is ThredUp, which is all resale stuff.