Fashion Fridays: The Closet Massacre

I have a wonderful, brave, friend.  She and my other brave friend have allowed me to shop for them (which you may remember from past posts) and have allowed me to give them total closet makeovers.  My friend Brandy, whose closet I invaded last week, called it the Closet Massacre of 2014.  Well, it wasn’t really a massacre.  It was a closet editing.  My friend Julie’s closet makeover is still referred to by her husband as the great purge of 2013.

Here’s where we started – pulling everything from her quite impressive walk in closet.

In her bedroom we set up three boxes:  the biggest box for Goodwill, the next box for tailoring, and the final box for trash for items too far gone to donate.  And of course, being the fabulous hostess, Brandy had wine and cheese and a couple of our best girlfriends over for the closet review.  She’s got a super roomy bedroom so they stretched out on the sofa while we got to work.

Here were a few of the misses and why:

1.  Worn out clothes – Brandy found a pair of MATERNITY pants because she hadn’t edited her closet since the birth of her son 8 years ago.  So this pink blazer wasn’t on it’s own problematic (although the color isn’t ideal for her), but it was worn and faded and certainly not worthy of a professional wardrobe.

2.  Dated items – the next two items show that the closet hadn’t been modernized.  Plaid pants or calf length skirts are outmoded items quickly culled into an oversized giveaway box.  She hadn’t worn them recently, but having them take up space in her closet kept her from quickly identifying the pieces she could pull on any given morning.

3.  Pinstripes – I found every single type and size of pinstripes in her closet.  Now my favorite suit of all time is a classic navy pinstripe, but you have to be careful about the kind and style of pinstripe.  This black blazer had matching pants with red pinstripes – it felt dated and failed the executive polish test.  The khaki pants had oversized pinstripes that could look cartoonish if not careful and were the wrong scale for her small figure.

Here were a few of our hits that had been underutilized or that surprised us (from top to bottom):

1.  Blazers – Brandy had kept several blazers paired with dated skirt suits.  This blazer looked lovely on her, a brown tweed that nipped in at the waist with velvet ribbon, but it had been partnered with an overlong skirt.  By breaking it up and wearing it with a neutral pant, and boxing up the skirt, she has a new business blazer for any of her “business casual” days of the week.

2.  Crazy dresses – Mercy.  Brandy had several dresses that I scrunched up my nose at until I saw them on her!  This yellow and black wrap dress she calls her taxi cab dress and pairs with a black blazer.  It looked pretty sad on the hanger, but on Brandy it looked amazing.  I would never have even picked it up at the store.  Same for a couple of other bright dresses with big prints that looked fabulous on.  Just goes to show you – good or bad, you’ve got to try it on.

3.  Neutrals – While she is fan of color, we found some promising neutrals with fun patterns in her closet.  This gray animal print sweater is perfect for a Saturday with her son at the museum or paired with a dark denim jean and nice blouse for casual Friday.  This gray floral print dressed looked incredible on, with the ribbon lines falling just where they should, and it could be a Sunday brunch dress or paired with a very structured buttoned-up jacket as a work outfit.

So if you’re going through a closet massacre, ahem, I mean makeover, here’s some do’s and don’ts:  (1) don’t hold on to something strictly for emotional value, (2) don’t hold on to something if you haven’t seen anyone wear that style in years, (3) don’t hold on to something if it will never fit you again, BUT (4) do take things to a tailor to repurpose them (we found two blazers that could be shortened and modernized and used again), (5) do hold on to it if you fluctuate in sizes (I have three sizes in my closet that I could vary depending on the year), (6) do take care of classic pieces and high end wardrobe items as they retain their value and can truly be worn for years to come.

Brave Brandy has done a cool experiment called Snake A Day where she finds a creative outlet in every day.  You can’t miss her Snake A Day post from the closet massacre – it will crack you up.

Here are Brandy and I at the end of the night and some closing thoughts from my victim, I mean my friend – go forth and clean your closets friends:

PART 1 – I am really glad I did this.  Now I know everything in my closet is “safe,” and I can mix and match.  So while we took tons OUT of my closet, I actually have more to wear, because I know what is left is okay.  I’m not afraid to wear things I had been avoiding because I wasn’t sure.  And with the mix and match/ok to break up a suit or a set idea (as in, I don’t have to wear the gray pants with a gray shoe with dark top) , that opens up a tons of possibilities, as I think I was way too matchy matchy.

PART 2 – (When she realized she’d learned more!)  I learned I can wear more of what I have instead of wearing the same few things over and over. I can break apart a suit! {Oh my wow I had a maternity skirt in my closet!! My son is eight.}  I was reminded that in my current job, which is pretty high level, I need to look the part.  Even our casual Fridays policy shouldn’t give me an excuse to look too ratty. And pale jeans are bad even on Friday.  Also stripy pants bad!! I had several pairs. And scarves good for concealing things!!