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What I No Longer Buy
Structure of Style in action
Short sleeve tops with fitted sleeves aren’t in my Structure of Style. I don’t buy them any more, but I only just realized why.
I’ve been refining my wardrobe for a while now.
Pruning, writing down closet holes in my Notes app, purchasing items I know fit into my structure, and selling or donating the pieces that aren’t reflective of (or physically fitting!) who I am right here, right now.
Over the years, I have developed a strong Structure of Style. I can easily fill in the blanks for each of the 4 foundational style components (read about my Structure of Style method here):
Vibe - Minimal, relaxed, classic, vintage. I also want to feel slightly unexpected or have something be “off” or a little weird.
Body - I know my body measurements (they’re in said note in my phone) and how those translate to shapes that support me. I’m bigger on the bottom (and have recently gone up a size, so I’m navigating that in my choices, made easier by looking at the numbers as facts).
Colors - I have my primary, secondary and accent colors that all work well together along with a list of rare or never wear colors (for me, never wear includes most patterns).
Silhouettes - Various shapes that I love fill my closet so that no matter what vibe or feeling I’m going for that day, I can create it. I’m always on the lookout for new shapes that I can add or old shapes that no longer jive with me (bye bye skinny, low rise pants! I do not care low rise is “back,” I’m simply not interested).
I use this as a filter every time I’m shopping or cleaning out my closet.
What I love most about my Structure of Style method is that it’s a living, breathing guideline for getting dressed and shopping. Because the Structure serves as an outline for you to fill in with your style specifics, it can change as you change. And the beautiful thing is, you don’t need to have every detail pinned down for it to start working for you.
Think of it like this:
Your Structure of Style is similar to the chicken or egg question… You don’t always need reasons or rationales for why something is in your Structure or not. All you need to do is trust your style gut (I believe everyone has an innate style gut, which grows stronger the more you use and learn to trust it) and things will click into place when you least expect it. But, if you’re still learning to develop and trust that style gut, then you can rely on the guideline of your Structure to give the you reasons and rationales for why things should be in your wardrobe. It’s a little bit science, a little bit just trust the process.
I do know this: once you start using your structure of style and begin to understand and define for yourself why things work or why they don’t, things click into place when you least expect it.
I had one of these clicks happen for me last month.
You see, I really hate short sleeve tops. It’s something that is an immediate gut reaction any time I put one on. So I don’t include them in my Structure of Style. When I look for tops, I go for sleeveless, 3/4th or long sleeve. I put those on and it feels like I’m ME. I put on a top with fitted short or cap sleeves and I generally feel… not like me. Objectively, these tops look fine on me and I can make them work, so for years I couldn’t pinpoint an actual reason for why I didn’t like them. I just didn’t and that knowledge was (usually) good enough for me. I loved that I knew enough about me and my style to know what worked and didn’t work. I didn’t know why, but I just let not liking them be good enough.
If you need a visual, the tops I avoid look like this:
This knowledge didn’t stop me from trying altogether, though. I’ve worn quite a few of these shirts over the years. It’s a wardrobe staple, right? All of the “must buy lists” say you have to have one in every color, right?
I had one short sleeve top in particular that I thought I should try to make work. It was cream with a papery-like fabric that I dug. It was oversized and boxy, things that I look for and love in clothing. But every time I put this short sleeve top on, something felt off and I would inevitably take it off and chose something else. I couldn’t put my finger on what was “wrong” with this top. It should have worked, but it failed, every single time.
Sure, I had oversized t-shirts, but those were mostly borrowed from my husband. And I had other sweater-style tops with sleeves one could call short, but the construction was oversized and chunky. The tops hanging in my closet went from sleeveless to long sleeve, completely skipping the short sleeve category.
And then one day it clicked.
For me, it’s all about the sleeves. I like a very specific type, length, shape and style of sleeve.
The thing that was “wrong” with that cream shirt I tried so hard to make work was the sleeves - they were tight and fitted and that’s the thing I don’t like.
It seems obvious now and maybe you even got there before I did.
But finally having this little nugget of information click allowed me to update my Structure of Style with two things.
FIRST: I got more data points about what to buy and not buy. When buying tops that have shorter sleeves, I know very specifically what I am looking for: sleeves that wide/oversized/chunky. This bit of knowledge makes shopping easier because now when I run into a top like “the trouble top” - the top that had a lot of elements I liked and tried to make work for years - I can pass over it because I know right away where the trouble occurs: those teeny tiny sleeves.
SECOND: I got a rationale about what I’m buying / not buying based on my body type. I know, based on my body measurements, that I am bigger on the bottom. For me, tops with fitted sleeves don’t provide enough visual balance for the top half of my body to feel equal with the bottom. Tops with wide/oversized/chunky DO.
While the basic, fitted short sleeve top won’t be making its way into my closet any time soon, I am very excited to start seeking out short sleeve tops with wide/oversized/chunky sleeves. This feels fun and a way to purposefully add to my closet pieces I will actually wear and love.
And as far as I’m concerned, the wider the sleeves the better!
YOUR TURN:
What category of clothing do you not buy and do you have reasons and data points why?
STYLE LAB is coming!
We start April 3.
STYLE LAB is a 6 week, self-led style program. You’ll get weekly worksheets with prompts and experiments to work through. You’ll also get access to two group calls with me for support.
You will not focus on trends or purchasing a whole new wardrobe.
In fact, buying things isn’t even the goal of the lab. The focus is on getting into your closet and treating it like a lab! In this process, you’ll learn the structure of your own style through the worksheets (aka: the classroom) and learn how apply them to your closet (aka: the lab).
Program goals:
Learn the four components of your style foundations
Put those components into practice in your closet
Learn more about the program, including dates everything kicks off here.
Cost: $88. Sign up before 3/31/24 with code STYLELAB424 and save 30% - making the program just $61 or $10/week.
PLUS, you’ll get a free annual subscription to Vogue[ish}!
(If you’re already an annual Vogue[ish] subscriber and want to join, email me for your promo code.)