Have you ever stood at your wardrobe with the doors wide open and simply exclaimed “I don’t have anything to wear”? Well I have, over the last month or two; those words have tripped off my tongue on many occasions. Bored of wearing the same old same old, and not being inspired by what I saw, I just longed for a new wardrobe of clothes that would spring some excitement into life.
The other day when reading the September Good Housekeeping magazine, an article sprang out of the page at me. How to have the perfect wardrobe! Oh I long to have the perfect wardrobe full of all those wonderful things that will make me feel like a million dollars. My mind flew – this was what I needed a license to go out and buy more clothes, matching Jewellery, Handbags and of course not forgetting the Underwear, I now had that contented warm feeling, but hang on – that’s not what the article was about at all.
Elika Gibbs author of “Practical Princess Perfect Wardrobe” had other ideas. She wanted me to pull out all my clothes etc. from the depths of my wardrobe and systematically go through Item by Item and divide them into 6 separate piles, I wasn’t sure if this was going to be fun or just a long boring task that you really should do, but keep putting off. However, I did want to change my wardrobe over from summer to winter, pull out those thick jumpers, long socks and hat and glove sets that I had in a great hurry put away as the first of the very sunny days appeared telling me Summer was on its way.
The 6 piles of clothing grew on my bed as the wardrobe emptied. My wardrobe may have been empty, but my bed now looked like I was about to start a jumble sale. Bagging the piles going to the charity shops, setting aside the dresses that I had worn once (never to be repeated) in ready anticipation to sell on E-bay, they went into a large empty suitcase. The pile of things that can only be worn in the summer, headed their merry way to the drawers under my bed, and believe it or not the pile that was for mending thank god was only small, I made the necessary repairs, binned those that didn’t make any of the above categories, then left with those that would return to the wardrobe, dividing them into types, dresses, skirts, trousers, tops, jumpers and placed back into the wardrobe, but not just in type but in colour as well – starting with the lightest colours first, moving down the line to black. (Black pairs of trousers how many does one women need?)
As you can imagine I collapsed onto the bed in relief that, that arduous task had been completed. But there was this nagging thought at the back of my head, going round and round – How could Elika Gibbs write a book about the Perfect Wardrobe, when the article in the magazine was only two pages and that included a large photo. There must be more to this perfect wardrobe lark than I was reading……… Most people I would imagine would go downstairs make a cup of tea and thank god that that was over…. Not me
The very next day I went out and purchased said book (“Practical Princess Perfect Wardrobe) only to discover that what had taken me most of the day, really was only the tip of the iceberg, there was oh so much more to be done. (Why did I buy the book? – am I really that mad).
I read the book from cover to cover and then very carefully place it on my bookshelf. And that is where it stayed until, I heard those words trip out of my mouth “I have nothing to wear” – (surely there must be something in there now, I’d changed it all around). Reverting back to the bookshelf to retrieve Practical Princess Perfect Wardrobe, I slowly opened the book and read on to the next chapter; - Now this could be fun, try the outfits on. So once again I emptied the wardrobe of its belongings, this time neatly on the bed in their correct departments. Grabbed my clothing from the ironing pile, set up the iron and board on the landing (outside my bedroom) and proceeded to try on everything – making sure that anything that needed ironing, was completed first. 5 hours later, I had managed to try on every item that had been in my wardrobe, made sure that the trousers had shirts, blouses, or jumpers that matched and the same for the skirts. That I also had shoes to wear that any belts or scarfs that matched could be found. (That’s were the grey belt I’d been looking for went). I’d given the family a fashion show and had received a few complementary comments, I even managed to take a few items out of the wardrobe that just didn’t go with anything, paired things up that I totally forgotten about removed my summer shoes and packed them carefully in the loft. And all of a sudden, I’ve now got at least 14 outfits that I can wear to work without repeating, 6 outfits that I can wear as very casual and even 3 that I can wear for the pending Christmas parties. I can just hear my husband sigh with relief, that new clothing was not going to be needed for the wardrobe.
It is quite amazing, that with a little bit of thought and time, I’ve managed to revamp my wardrobe; given a new lease of life to old favourites alongside the newish items I’d already bought this year. – I do have spaces in my wardrobe for things that are missing, but they now can wait until another day.
