I nailed the outfit I wore to work today.  I feel comfortable, confident, and stylish.  I wore black knee-high boots, a midi denim skirt with a cream cotton turtleneck.  It’s a simple look that looks effortless. 

In past years I have tried to create a strong closet.  One that fits me, makes me feel comfortable, and confident.  I feel comfortable when I wear oversized, boxy, and flowy.  I am not comfortable in a fitted look.  I love a causal preppy conservative look.  I always feel I dress like a stylish librarian.  I love pleaded skirts, sweaters, hair accessories, and most importantly shoes. 

I want my closet to feel easy to navigate and I want the flexibility of combining anything with anything.  I’ve tried to create a style formula to help me pick my outfit every morning.  Creating this formula has been hard work because I love “pretty things” and a lot of styles and putting everything together is challenging. 

In the past year I’ve tried to step away from buying more “pretty things” because they are pretty.  I realized that I don’t wear all the “pretty things” I have because I don’t feel comfortable wearing them. Getting to this place was hard because knowing what I like and don’t like does not come easy to me.  Reflecting and taking inventory on what I like and don’t is not something that comes naturally, I have to physically document and review multiple times to come up with a pattern.  

 I had to clean out my closet over time.  I did not do it in 1 day, it took a long time.  I had to sale or give away some of my “pretty” clothes.  Those clothes that I continued to convince myself I would wear.  There was the other part of my closet that I thought one day I would fit in; that day was not coming soon so parting with those items was also part of the process.

Once I had a more concise closet, I found that one of the key components of creating a strong closet is establishing consistency when building an outfit.  Consistency provides a guide you can quickly follow.  One example I use is to start with a category and use for the whole week, the category can be bottoms, shoes, tops, and hair accessories.  For a week straight I pick out the shoes I want to wear first.  Then I will build and combine an outfit based on the shoes.  Another week I will focus on the bottoms and everything else is built from that.  

Every morning I feel like I am being creative and experiencing an art form.  This consistent routine works my creative muscle because I have a starting point.  For me having a starting point gives me boundaries that help me think about possible combinations.  This has been important because I can be expressive with what I am wearing.  As the week goes by every day seems easier to pick what I will wear that day.  

The outcome of this consistent routine is coming up with a simple look that looks effortless.