Meatless Monday: Shop Your Closet

In these tough economic times, shopping for new clothes, shoes and accessories is something a lot of us have come to know as a luxury. It's so fun to try on the newest trends and stock our closets full of shiny new things. Financially, it's not always an option. And for those of us trying to be more green with our fashion choices, it's not always a great environmental option, either. Take a long, hard, honest look at your closet, and you will likely discover that you don't need to purchase anything new. We often do not NEED the clothes we buy, we merely WANT them. I'm very guilty of shopping when I shouldn't. That is why I've found Kendi's 30 for 30 Challenge to be inspiring.

Every few months, she hosts this challenge, and I admit, I have yet to participate. But even though I'm not physically participating, I still feel involved because I enjoy rooting the participants on! It's also exciting to see how creative some of these women can be. In case this isn't clear, the concept is simple: choose 30 items from your closet and create outfits using only those 30 items for the next 30 days. It's sort of an extended wardrobe capsule concept. I find that week-long wardrobe capsules work for me because I don't like being limited in my clothing choices- 30 days sounds like torture to me!  Generally, with these challenges, accessories like jewelry, tights, scarves and belts don't count towards the 30 items. Shoes, however, do count. If you're someone who finds it difficult to avoid shopping, a 30 for 30 Challenge can help curb your shopping craving because it forces you to shop your closet and your closet only for an entire month. The best part is when you discover an outfit you didn't even know you had.

So hop on over to Kendi's blog post where she shows which 30 items she's selected from her closet to mix and re-mix for the next 30 days. You might find it inspiring! Maybe even inspiring enough to do it yourself!

Wardrobe Capsule

I'm watching the Oscars right now, but I've also been checking out some of my favorite blogs. I recently discovered Mrs. Hall who just participated in a Wardrobe Capsule Challenge via The Small Fabric of My Life. She did a great job with her capsule and I was inspired. I have unfortunately missed the deadline to participate, but I decided not to let that stop me. The challenge is as follows:

Choose ten items from your wardrobe (jeans, tops, dresses, shoes, etc.) as well as five accessories (jewelry, scarves, etc.) and create your looks for an entire week using only those items. Undergarments and hosiery do not count towards the items you select. Participants are supposed to blog about it throughout the first week of March.

Since I missed the challenge timeframe, I decided to just do it for the fun of it in one night (tonight). And as penance I made myself complete outfits for seven days, not just five. My ten items included one black & white skirt, one brown cowl neck top, one lace dress/tunic, one pair of dark wash jeans, one black top, one red cropped jacket, one blue plaid cropped jacket,one coral cotton top, one pair of black wedges, and one pair of blue high heels:

My accessories included 2 brooches, one cocktail ring, one scarf, and one pair of earrings:

So without further ado, here are my seven wardrobe capsule outfits:

Jeans, cowl neck top, red croppe jacket, black wedges, cocktail ring, and brooch.

Jeans, brown cowl neck top, lace dress/tunic, and earrings.

Skirt, coral top, black wedges, and earrings.

Skirt, black top, blue heels, and earrings.

Jeans, black top, plaid cropped jacket, black wedges and blue scarf.

Jeans, black top, lace dress/tunic, cocktail ring, brooch and blue heels.

Black top, red cropped jacket, lace dress/tunic, black wedges and cocktail ring.

Please forgive my lack of hairstyle and makeup for this photo shoot. As I mentioned, it was fairly last-minute. I'm glad I participated, even if it was only for an evening because it is a great tool to help convince anyone out there that you don't need a lot of THINGS to have a lot of OUTFITS. Ten pieces is not very many especially when shoes have to be counted! Five accessories is also an incredibly small number. But don't misunderstand- this is a good thing. Think about how many times you've packed a bag for a week-long trip. How great would it be to use the parameters of this challenge when packing? You'd have a much lighter bag! Well, I would anyway.

I challenge all of you to try this for yourself and see what you come up with in your own closet. The limited number of pieces allowed forces you to choose versatile items and also to think about how to use them in more interesting combinations. If I had it all to do over again, I would have selected completely different accessories. I thought I was choosing versatile accessories, but in reality I felt very limited by them. I would have lost one of the brooches and picked a fun necklace instead. But the exercise was educational regardless of my satisfaction with each outfit.

If you're interested in seeing more wardrobe capsule outfits, check out The Small Fabric of My Life. Also, take a few minutes to visit Danielle over at Fell 4 Fashion. She's been remixing the same LBD every Monday for the last 12 weeks! Not quite the same challenge, but still inspiring. She makes the same dress look fresh and new every single week.