I've been working on this post for ages, and am excited to share it with you today. The point of it is to show you how you can increase the number of outfits in your wardrobe by switching things up using accessories and shoes.
I've chosen these 15 items out of my wardrobe. They were all inexpensive - the total cost of them was NZ$120 (about US$99 / £62 / R994). These 15 items span seasons and can be dressed up or down.
I've included two jackets (one denim, one brown corduroy) and a black waistcoat:
Five cardigans:
Three tops (one blouse and two t-shirts):
A dress, two skirts and a pair of jeans:
Although they are not all neutrals, all of the tops go with all of the bottoms. In fact, they make over 100 combinations! But a lot of the combinations can look repetitive or boring, and that's where styling comes in.
By styling each combination in different ways you can create different outfits.
Choosing a combination = putting an outfit together
Adding accessories like scarves, jewellery, shoes, tights, belts and hats = styling an outfit
Imagine if you took the 100 combinations and styled each one in three different ways. Suddenly your 15 items of clothing have provided 300 outfits!
This is especially useful if your body is changing, particularly if the changes are temporary, for instance during pregnancy, on a weight loss journey or if you are gaining weight. With more accessories you actually need fewer clothes.
Accessories are generally inexpensive, widely available, and will fit you even if your body changes. Jewellery can be picked up during sales or on eBay, tights are available in all sorts of patterns and colours, scarves are mostly just pieces of fabric and are easy to make, I buy almost all of my belts on eBay, and if I can't find a particular colour of belt that I want I've used ribbon from the dollar store.
To illustrate I thought I'd show you 25 combinations, each styled in different ways to make 75 different outfits. Brace yourself for 100 photos of me.
Combination 1
Outfits 1, 2 and 3
Combination 2
Outfits 3, 4 and 5
Combination 3
Outfits 7, 8 and 9
Combination 4
Outfits 10, 11 and 12
Combination 5
Outfits 13, 14 and 15
Combination 6
Outfits 16, 17 and 18
Combination 7
Outfits 19, 20 and 21
Combination 8
Outfits 22, 23 and 24
Combination 9
Outfits 25, 26 and 27
Combination 10
Outfits 28, 29 and 30
Combination 11
Outfits 31, 32 and 33
Combination 12
Outfits 34, 25 and 36
Combination 13
Outfits 37, 38 and 39
Combination 14
Outfits 40, 41 and 42
Combination 15
Outfits 43, 44 and 45
Combination 16
Outfits 46, 47 and 48
Combination 17
Outfits 49, 50 and 51
Combination 18
Outfits 52, 53 and 54
Combination 19
Outfits 55, 56 and 57
Combination 20
Outfits 58, 59 and 60
Combination 21
Outfits 61, 62 and 63
Combination 22
Outfits 64, 65 and 66
Combination 23
Outfits 67, 68 and 69
Combination 24
Outfits 70, 71 and 72
aCombination 25
Outfits 73, 74 and 75
Whew! If you made it this far you must really be interested in styling! Now that I've justified my shoe and accessory collection, I'm not sure how I'll be able to justify future clothing shopping trips ;)
I'd love to see your styled outfits, or hear about which ones you liked in this post.
