10 THINGS I STOPPED DOING To Build My Dream Wardrobe

As I get ready to move, I've been downsizing my wardrobe, I've been decluttering, and once again reminding myself of the bad style habits I had to break in order to achieve my dream wardrobe. From my initial wardrobe setup, to my last apartment, to this apartment, there are some things that I have stopped doing that has helped make style, fashion, getting dressed so much easier. These things I stopped doing are incredibly simple things, but they're underrated in that we don't talk about them enough. So let's dive into it, 10 things I stopped doing to get to my dream wardrobe. I'm bringing you this video today in partnership with Fabric. I'll be sharing with you some of my favorite pieces made from cottons, made from silks, and all materials that are natural fibers and designed to last. We'll start off with some of the major things and then get into the details and get more specific. So the first thing I stopped doing to get to my dream wardrobe was to not go shopping without an inspiration first. The best way to do it is to know you want something and then to go searching for it instead of browsing and shopping and then coming across something randomly. I touched on this in my last video where I talked about it in relations to makeup. At a Sephora, sometimes there is this new item, we didn't know we needed it functionally but it's just promising so much so we try it. But I think it's better when you know you want to achieve something like a rosy blush and then you go searching for an item that will help you achieve it. This is why sometimes in the past I would buy something and then a few weeks later, a few months later, I would kind of question why I bought it in the first place. I would question whether it was my style and whether it even looks good on. And it's because I didn't buy it with intention, I just came across it accidentally and it looked alright. Mood board first and then shopping tends to make everything more aligned to that dream vision we had. Compared to a couple of years ago, most things that come into my wardrobe are no longer by accident or a result of browsing. So even this little turquoise necklace I'm wearing today, I want to show you where this inspiration came from. I knew I wanted something in turquoise when I saw it in, I guess, Austin's jewelry box and that was my first inspiration. I had it on some Pinterest mood boards after that and then I ended up with a couple of Second thing I stopped doing is to stop adding more to my wardrobe when inspiration was low or when I was in a start rut or not feeling inspired by what I own. The thing that helps me is actually taking things away. So either I can stop putting some things away in my wardrobe that I don't want to see right now or I can take out some pieces from my wardrobe and create a capsule. So like a 10 item, 15 item capsule. The more I take away and the more I reduce in my wardrobe, the more I start to focus on each individual piece and the more I fall back in love with old favorites. A lot of clothing can get lost in a pile, lost in our wardrobe on the racks. That by simplifying, we can kind of start to appreciate the things we have more when things are not on top of each other and super cluttered. When I had like eight pairs of jeans, I didn't want to sell my jeans at all. When I've kind of gotten rid of a few, moved a few into storage, I'm suddenly back in love with my Levi ribcage jeans that I've had for five years. Number three, something I stopped doing to get to my dream wardrobe is to stop believing in universal basics that work for everyone and also that you should focus on buying your perfect basics first and then add in some cool pieces to mix it up. I don't do any of these things anymore and here's kind of the reason behind it. Basics cover almost everything. Almost everything could be a basic for someone. So when I was building my wardrobe and I constantly heard this advice, it was actually not super helpful for me because it was just an excuse to buy simple things that should work for most people. But then I found myself decluttering quite a big chunk of basics just because they felt so boring to me. And the reason is because those were not the basics aligned to my style. So then the question is, what kind of basics should I buy for my style? And this is how I like to answer that now. I actually like to start with my key pieces. There are some items that we are just obsessed with. It could be a print, it could be a color, it could be a more unique item that we just really want to wear. I'm thinking about everyday items that just have some detail to them that takes it up from a basic. If we start with these key pieces, these slightly more unique pieces, I like to use my basics to fill in the gaps to make these key pieces more wearable for the everyday or to make these key pieces more versatile so we can wear them in different ways. This then gives us a really good guideline on what kind of basics are going to be functional for our style and for our wardrobe. And if a basic is functional, we're going to end up wearing it, we're not going to declutter it because it works. And this just gives me some guidelines, some reasoning of what basics I should look for. Otherwise, it's just so broad that you could end up with anything. This general advice of just focus on your basics first or just wear basics was some of the most confusing advice to me because it never gave me the clarity I needed to build a wardrobe that aligned to my vision. Let me take a moment to share with you some of my favorite pieces from Fabric. So if you don't know Fabric already, they're an online retailer who partners up with over 300 designers working at a lot of the major fashion houses. They work together to create exclusive designs for Fabric and I feel like they specialize in elevated basics where you can clearly see the designer's influence and intention in the clothing. You won't be surprised by what is my favorite item. It's this polka dot set that I'm currently wearing. So this is a lyocell linen blend and what I like about it is that it moves really elegantly. The drape on the top and the skirt is beautiful. When the fabric used to make clothes has good drape, it makes the biggest difference and you'll see it in the movement in these outfit clips. I love wearing this together as a set, of course, but I also feel like I really enjoy wearing them and styling them separately. I think Fabric is kind of known for making sets, so I also have this cotton poplin version. This one is a bit more structured, it's a bit more dramatic, a little bit more voluminous, but the cotton material on this is so silky and smooth. I also own this black skirt from Fabric made from a cotton material and there's like a little bit of stretch to it as well. So this is a fitted skirt, it's called a maxi but it's actually a midi length on me. This rarely happens, it's usually the other way around. And this skirt is a fitted skirt around the hip and then you've got a little bit of a flare out at the bottom. It's a very, very subtle fishtail hem and I just find it to be a simple piece that fits nicely on the body. By the way, this skirt has a stretchy fabric, so it's very comfortable and it still suits my casual, easy lifestyle. One of the best materials from Fabric are their cotton silk blends. So the reason for it is that I think they wash really well. I always throw them in the machine and they come out perfect. I don't even need to iron it. So this little pink top, which also comes in a black, also comes in a yellow, it's just a very lightweight summer piece and it's got a very pretty floral fabric. It kind of reminds me of the Joanne traveler top in that style, but this one is cotton silk. This may not be what the instruction recommends, but I always machine wash the cotton silk pieces and I have pieces from last year, last season, everything has held up really well. They've also recently released a line of handbags and I have this bag here that basically has six different looks. It's actually reversible, so you can get different looks. You can also shorten the bag as well as wear it at its full size. And I think you just have a little room to play with this bag depending on what you need capacity wise on the day. At its full size, it's huge, it will fit everything. So I kind of like the function of this one to be able to adjust it depending on what I need out of my bag. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about these pieces, I will leave links to everything down below as well as my discount code if you'd like to check anything out. Thank you so much for your support and we'll get back into the video. A mindset shift for me is that I stopped thinking a new outfit every day is the chicest thing ever and I actually feel like now it's not that chic. I have gone through periods where I wanted to post like daily outfits on Instagram. So then, you know, there's no point wearing the same thing and then taking photos of the same thing. So I try to do like new outfits every day. Maybe it was not new clothes, but new styling every day. And I really feel like the best outfits do not start from scratch. I always talk about how sometimes if you're trying a new color or silhouette in your wardrobe, it takes a while to get it right. The first time I wear something, it's probably styled in a way that's really safe. And then it's when I start to get bored of this item, I start to try new things and that's when my best outfits come out. It's so satisfying to try certain things that you didn't think would work together, but they end up being your favorite. So there is a satisfaction there and I love to achieve that with pieces I've had for a long time. This is one of those things where, of course, new clothes are always exciting, but to be honest, when I look in hindsight, my best outfits are the ones where I style pieces I've owned and loved rather than the outfits where I've styled a bunch of new things. I think this also applies to jewelry stacks. I save a lot of stacks where people just mix and match their collection in different ways. And it's always so inspiring to see the same pieces being worn again and again and again until they come up with the best stacks and the best combination for each piece. I mean, of course, jewelry is something you'll wear forever, but it's nice to see how it started and then the amazing stacks they end up creating. Something that breaks the rules a little is that I stopped thinking that outfits could only have one pattern, one bright color, one main detail, and just like that one accent piece. What I found in my outfits is that sometimes when you have one really bright item or one very eye-catching item in an outfit, your eye just goes there and it's the only thing you can see. So the item feels a little hard to wear, but if you actually match that item with other key pieces that had some detail to it, suddenly it feels more balanced and you're not looking at that one piece anymore, you're looking at the outfit as a whole. My style is not that bold these days, so my examples are pretty subtle, but I think the same thing applies. If I'm wearing a printed dress and I wore it with really simple accessories, sometimes it feels bolder that way than if I were to wear accessories that had some details in themselves. The outfit almost blends more and feels more harmonious. Sometimes mixing patterns, mixing colors, makes an outfit more natural rather than bolder and this is something I love doing because the combinations you can come up with when you break the rule that you can only have one key piece, multiplies. Most of my favorite outfits involve two or three key items as opposed to just one. Here are some examples. I love a stripe and paisley, they're very different prints but because they're both quite classic, I think they work so well together. Mixing this floral with the blue and the red in colors and then adding that tweed texture and the plaid in the bag, I think ties everything together really well and it doesn't even feel bolder than if I were to wear that skirt with a plain white t-shirt. It almost feels more natural in this combination. This is a rule I love to break and a big factor in helping me achieve my dream style and what's on my vision board. A habit I broke to help me get to my dream wardrobe is that I stopped holding onto items that I was honestly never going to wear again. It often is tied to a lot of guilt where if we bought something and we didn't wear it as much as we wanted to, we'll hold onto the item thinking that, you know, in the future that might change and it could but for me often, even if I've held onto it for three years, if I don't love it, I'm still not going to wear it. I always challenge myself to try and wear it in the next week, in the next month, in the next season and if I don't, chances are I'm just never going to wear it again and I would much rather see someone else enjoy that item rather than it being kind of hidden at the back of my wardrobe or folded up at the bottom of my drawer. I get a lot of comfort in knowing that whatever you don't like, someone else might love because if no one wanted it, the brand would not make it. The point is, this item is for someone else on their dream vision board. It's just that it's not on yours. So I feel so much more satisfied when I can find that item a purpose instead of it being kind of sad and neglected in my drawers. For myself, what I get out of it is that I know that I'm not going to make that same mistake again in the future. I'm not going to buy this kind of item because it clearly does not get worn. I make a lot of content relating to this because I think it's so important that we bring this information forward rather than buying the same things again and again. I get more space back so then my clothes have more breathing room and I can see the pieces I love. And I also get clarity where I'm not distracted by items that I either just don't like or doesn't fit or I can't wear for whatever reason. I really love a curated, intentional wardrobe. As I say again and again on my channel, and as someone who does a lot of reviews, tests a lot of clothing, my wardrobe is always a little bigger than I want it to be. But always trying to edit down, keep it curated, definitely improves my style and my wardrobe for the better. So if this is not your job, then this is something I would 100% recommend. Keeping everything curated, intentional, and not letting things you never wear or make you feel guilty distract you in your space. A style habit to get into is to assess all trends, assess all recommendations to see whether it's actually right for you. Beige and camel are considered to be two of the most versatile colours where you just can't go wrong. But in my wardrobe, these are actually the colours that go wrong the most. Beige and camel work for most people, I think that's true, but for me it's just one of those things where it doesn't really align very well. I think to achieve my dream wardrobe, my dream style, I had to realise this because all of the beige, camel-y pieces I owned always made me feel a little off. And for everyone this will look different, for you it might be navy, for you it might be black, it might be white. But there are these colours that don't align with our style, they don't make us feel great, so we can just eliminate them from our wardrobe. There's no pressure to wear them just because they exist. A habit I broke is saying yes to things that are very, very close to what I want and to my dream item. If you're at a store and you know you want these shoes, but they ran out of them in black so you have to get them in brown. A part of me wants to say yes, but now I always know the answer is no. I won't get them, I'm gonna wait, or I'm gonna find something else. Whenever you compromise and get something that is really, really close to your dream item or what you want, but it's not quite there. Those are items I always replace, regret, or just never wear. We fall in love with items because of the details. It's about how all the things come together to create that item. So sometimes, when you take a detail out of that equation, it's no longer the item you want. And therefore, it doesn't get the wear that you expect it to get in your wardrobe. I'm using the shoe example, but the same thing for clothes, the same thing for bags. When the color changes, when the fabric changes, sometimes when the brand changes, it's no longer the same item you loved. So always try to hold firm to your wish list and don't say yes to that item that is really, really close, and you could have it now, but it's not 100% the item you wanted. I came to this realization in my major declutter last year, where I just had so many items that were things I really wanted, but in a slightly different color, because that color was in the sales, or in a slightly different design, or I could get it quicker. And ultimately, sometimes it just loses the essence of the original item you wanted. This one is kind of annoying. It's annoying to wait and to hold off, but ultimately, if I'm not going to wear it, then it's an epic waste of money. There are so many things where when it's in the stores, when we're shopping for it online, it looks so much better than the version we have in our wardrobe. And mostly, it's just usually because it's packaged up better. It looks nicer in the photos, it's nicer in the store on the hanger, and the clothing is perfectly ironed, crisp, and it's new, so the details are all perfect. A work in progress in my wardrobe is that I always like to try and display my items in the best way. The basics would be making sure it's ironed, pressed, ready to wear, or just buttoned up and in the right silhouette, so that it doesn't look messy and kind of misshapen. I also love wardrobe organization, and making sure like items are together, making sure knitwear is folded nicely, and just categorizing my wardrobe in the most aesthetic way possible. There's nothing very fancy here, we're just talking about simple folding and organizing. This is also about garment care, where when we look after our clothes, when we hang them and store them the way they're meant to, they last longer as well. The same thing applies for my jewelry, where I like things to be in a nice little box. I like the box to be organized for things to be displayed well, because it makes that jewelry look and feel so much more special. All of these things collectively, with storage, with organizing, they make me appreciate the clothes I have more, and honestly, I'm looking after my clothes so they last longer. I get so much inspiration on Pinterest as well, just seeing how people organize and display their items. It's so satisfying to see, and I'm always trying to recreate bits of it in my wardrobe. Here is something that changed in my styling. I stopped buying clothing pieces that had major statement details, and instead, I try to recreate it myself. So I used to have a lot of bolder pieces in my wardrobe, and arguably, my wardrobe was a lot more interesting. There were really bright colors, there were really loud prints, and there was just a lot more going on in my wardrobe. This is so noticeable as you look at my past wardrobes, and you compare it to my current. Here's the thing though, with those statement pieces, I used to style it in a very simple way. So take a key piece, pair it with something simple, and the outfit would be done. I think my whole approach to styling has changed, and this is a preference thing, not a what is correct or wrong thing. But my preference now is that I like to have pieces where they mix and match more freely. So then I can combine that stripe with that paisley. I can create these bolder looks by mixing things together. Whereas previously, I relied on that one item to make the outfit unique. Now I like to focus a bit more on the styling to make the outfit my own. I don't think my outfits are as bold as they were in color and in prints, but now I just feel I have more freedom in my wardrobe to play around with different things. This aligns really well to how I like to dress, and this helps with the longevity of my wardrobe because it's so much easier to get tired of an item where there are three key details because they're tied down to that piece. Whereas a stripe and a paisley, you can wear these together, you can wear them apart. It's easier to break down the elements and make it work in different looks. Thank you so much for watching today's video. All of the pieces I featured from Fabric, I'll link down below if there's something you'd like to check out. Let me know what's something you stopped doing in your wardrobe, and I'll see you next week. Bye.