Building a Wardrobe: Part Three

Hello everyone! Welcome to part three of my wardrobe makeover series! So far we've covered clearing out your closet, research, and more research. Today we're going to start going over the next step: planning your wardrobe.


Step Four: Plan your wardrobe
 Time to take advantage of that research you've been doing and start deciding what you want in your wardrobe! Grab a notebook and start writing down what you think would be a good starter wardrobe based on your style. Don't go trying to make a full blown wardrobe like your favorite blogger or YouTuber. These things take time and they likely built theirs up over the course of years. Figure out which pieces are the most versatile for your style and what would work well for off days or events where you might want to dress up more. As an example, I'm going to list some of what I've put on my list for my wardrobe. I mostly wear Fairy Kei anymore with some Gothic as well as Lolita pieces, so I decided to build a "Fairy Kei/Kawaii fashion" wardrobe. I also still enjoy cosplay (even though I haven't been to a con in ages), so I took those into account as well as my local environment and figure.

• 8+ cutsews, tees, or casual blouses
• 2-3 Lolita coords for meetups (dressier)
• 4+ bloomers/spandex for under skirts
• 3+ pairs heels
• 1 pink, 1 light blue, 1 lavender, 1 mixed wig
• 3+ complete cosplays
• 1-2 seifukus OR 1 each summer and winter seifuku
• 4-5 various skirts
• 2-3 pairs tennis

While this is just a few things on my list, you can see that I list out each type of item I want in my wardrobe and how many of each I want to have. Also, you'll note with some things I was more specific than others. Instead of just writing "4ish pairs of shoes" I wrote a range of how many of different types of shoes I wanted. For some items I have a more specified range (2-4) and others a wider range (4+). I decide this based on how essential a particular piece is to my wardrobe and how much variety I want with that particular item type. I was also somewhat vague with a few items. For me, having a Lolita coord isn't as important as having a functional wardrobe, so I just list it as an item rather than listing all the pieces I need for a coord.


Once you've got a plan for what you want your wardrobe to have, it's time to go through your clothes and mark down how many of each item on your list you have. I just wrote out each of the article types (cutsew, skirt, cosplay, etc.) on a new page in the same order I had written them out originally for easier comparison, then I went through my wardrobe and did a tally mark for each item I had that fit under one of the categories. This gives you a better idea of what all you havein your wardrobe compared to what all you want in it. So say you have twelve wigs, but they're all cheap Halloween wigs or you have a dozen skirts, but over half of them are different shades of blue. This lets you know you should probably look to replace some of the items in your wardrobe to add more variety and to have better quality. And if you already have three pairs of pastel tennies that you regularly wear and you listed 2-3 pairs on your wardrobe list, you should probably stick to buying other pieces you're more in need of.


Next week I'll be going over the last part of this series, buying your wardrobe!
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