How to refresh your wardrobe

When it comes to revitalising your wardrobe to better serve how you want to dress and feel, there are three main steps:

1. Firstly, you need to declutter your wardrobe of any clothes you no longer want to wear for whatever reason. Perhaps they don’t fit anymore, or they simply don’t align with your current style. Donate or bin anything you no longer want.
2. Organise your remaining clothes in a way that makes sense to you and makes it easier for you to see what you own when you’re putting outfits together.
3. Buy new items to fill the gaps in your wardrobe – making sure to buy pieces that will last a long time and are truly what you are looking for.

This blog will focus on the third part of the process, so keep reading to learn more about buying new clothes with intention.

How to refresh wardrobes

When we talk about buying with intention, what do we mean? Well, if you go shopping without a plan in mind, it can be easy to buy things on a whim – because it looked nice on the mannequin, or you liked the colour, or it was on sale, for example. But this can lead to a cluttered wardrobe full of clothes you don’t really want or need – and after you’ve done all that hard work to declutter it, too!

Buying intentionally means taking that extra time to think about your purchases and determine whether the item will serve you well, or simply sit at the back of your wardrobe unworn. So how can you do that?

Take stock of what you have

First things first, before you start browsing what’s available in the shops, you need to decide what it is you’re looking for. To do this, look at the clothes you have. Is there something missing? Perhaps you have a blazer in a certain colour, but no trousers that would match for a monochrome suit look? Or maybe you’ve noticed you don’t have many items in a certain colour, but you’d like to?

Whatever it is, add it to a list so you can have your eyes peeled for opportunities to buy something similar. As well as ensuring you know what you need to buy, this method is great for helping you to remember what you already have, to avoid buying duplicates.

Window shop styles

Of course, it’s entirely possible that when you look at your wardrobe, no immediate gaps jump out at you. That’s fine! It could be that a more streamlined wardrobe works for you, so don’t feel like you must buy things just for the sake of it.

If this is your situation, though, you might find it interesting to do a spot of window shopping in lieu of… well, actual shopping. Sometimes, you just need to see someone else wearing something for it to click in your mind that you’d like to try that, too. Remember, window shopping doesn’t have to mean spending hours in a shopping centre gazing at the displays. You can get style inspiration anywhere – from people on the street and on TV to pictures on social media or online shopping sites.

The key to this method, however, is not to see something you like and immediately start looking for somewhere to buy it. It’s common to get a sudden urge to buy something if a person you admire was wearing it, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right item for you, your style or your body type.

Instead, take note of the item and what you like about it. Was it the colour, the material or the detailing on the zips, perhaps? Whatever it was, taking the time to think about it can do two things. Firstly, it can help you to decide whether the item is right for you. And secondly, if it isn’t, it can help you to narrow your search for clothes that are suitable by highlighting those aspects you liked.

Declutter pre-emptively

This step might seem familiar. Didn’t we already declutter in the first stage of the wardrobe refreshing process? Yes, we did, and that’s precisely why we need to pause before we buy new items.

One technique that can really help you to be objective during the decluttering process is to make a rule for yourself. Can you think of three different outfits where you’d happily incorporate this item of clothing? If you can, great. Keep it. If you can’t, that’s a sign you might need to get rid in favour of more versatile items.

This is also a trick you can employ before making a new purchase. Say, for example, that your heart is set on a new pair of floral wedge sandals. You don’t already have anything like them, and you’re sure you like them. Now is the time to think about your existing wardrobe. What would you wear with them? If you can’t think of three outfits to wear with those sandals, it could mean you’ll end up wearing them only occasionally because they don’t match with enough of your clothes.

There are, of course, exceptions, and this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Evening wear, for example, tends to only come out for special occasions, so you might not have as many items. It’s up to you to decide whether the three-outfit rule should apply in each particular case – but always try to employ it, as it gets you to stop and think about new clothes rather than purchasing impulsively.

We’ve outlined our three favourite techniques above for making every clothes purchase measured and intentional, but there are plenty more out there you can try if you often feel your wardrobe is lacklustre or doesn’t serve you well. The key is to make sure you’re buying things you’ll wear, not just something that will live forgotten in the back of your wardrobe until your next declutter.