What to Do When Your Wardrobe No Longer Reflects Your Lifestyle

A couple weeks ago, I wrote my first guest post for The Minimalist Wardrobe, a blog that provides helpful advice on how to build a minimalist wardrobe and embrace living with less.  

I felt a lot of pressure to write something that would resonate with people. After doing some brainstorming, the topic dawned on me. It’s a conversation that I’d recently had with one of my best friends: What do you do when you’ve “aged out” of your wardrobe – when you look in your closet and see mountains of clothes, but feel like you have nothing to wear?

Life doesn’t stand still – and sometimes your wardrobe can’t keep up. Maybe you just graduated from college and need to substitute some of your crop tops for formal career attire. Or you recently had a baby and need clothing that doesn’t show every sign of spit-up. Whatever the reason for this sudden transition, this is a topic that I think almost anyone can relate to.  

And it was surprisingly very easy for me to write about. The words came flowing out because it’s something that I’ve truly struggled with and, while I’m still finding my way, there are a few things I’ve learned and wanted to share with people. It’s not easy to rebuild your closet to reflect your current tastes and lifestyle – and it’s even more challenging to do so in an ethical and sustainable way. Here were some of the key takeaways from my article:  

• Re-evaluate everything you have in your wardrobe and CLEANSE. Don’t hold on to anything that you don’t absolutely love. Try out apps like Poshmark and ThredUp to sell clothes you no longer want. You can also give them away to friends and coworkers or donate them to charity. Next, identify the holes in your closet, make a list of key pieces that you feel are missing and be selective about what you choose to buy.

• Pay attention to what your clothes are made of and consider the quality of materials. Investing in natural fiber clothing like cotton, cashmere and silk can be a game-changer.

• Imagine how that item will pair with the rest of the items in your wardrobe. Consider the versatility of the piece, where you’d wear it and picture how many different outfits you could potentially make out of it.

• Ask yourself: if I walk away now, would I really regret it? And be honest with yourself. I’m a sucker for a good deal. End-of-season sales are my kryptonite. But at the end of the day, I have to ask myself: do I really love that item of clothing, or do I love the price? Quite frequently, it’s the latter and I realize it’s not something that I really need or even want.

• Building your ideal minimalist wardrobe doesn’t have to happen overnight. And it shouldn’t. It’s a gradual process that requires you to make thoughtful, conscious decisions about what you choose to invest in. 

You can read the full article on The Minimalist Wardrobe. And if you’re curious to know more about ethical/sustainable fashion and minimalism, check out some of the articles on there. It’s a great resource to get started. There are some awesome, extremely knowledgeable people who contribute regularly to this blog, and I’ve learned tons from them. Go check it out!

10 Days, 10 Articles of Clothing: What I Learned from My First 10x10 Challenge

Alright, before I get into the main takeaways, bear with me for a second while I share a little background on this challenge and what made me decide to try it in the first place.

What is the 10x10 challenge? Good question. Let’s roll back the tape to a few months ago. I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and started seeing all these minimalist outfit posts with the hashtag #10x10challenge. Curious, I did a little digging and found out that the 10x10 was created by Lee Vosburgh of the blog Style Bee. The idea is to select 10 articles of clothing (shoes included) to mix and match over the course of 10 days. You can accessorize however you please, but the point is to get creative with your closet and edit down to the bare essentials. This is the ultimate capsule wardrobe challenge, albeit a very short-term one.

This year’s Summer 10x10 challenge fell on the week of July 27 (yes, it’s taken me a while to finally write this recap). I was on the fence about trying it out. First of all, I hate getting my picture taken and I’d never really tried posting any #OOTD photos, so this was way, way out of my comfort zone. Secondly, I was anticipating a busy week at work. We had our quarterly All-Hands Company Meeting coming up later that week, and it probably wasn’t the best idea to add anything else onto my plate while prepping for that.

But the first day of the challenge crept up and I made a last-minute decision to get over myself and my insecurities and just try it. The worst that could happen is that my friends, coworkers and family would think I was a weirdo, but that’s already the case, so…

I posted a flat lay of some of the pieces I’d selected for the challenge and…BOOM! People started asking me about it. Some were encouraging. Katie Tingley, a friend I met through Instagram and the blogger behind The Tingley Edit, told me how excited she was to hear that I would be joining. Stephanie Vanegas, my coworker and the gal who manages the travel Instagram account Bliss Finders, wished me luck and shared how happy she was to see that I was getting into ethical and sustainable fashion. Some were curious. Friends and family members half-jokingly asked if underwear counted as part of the 10 items (I mean, the rules are guidelines, so you do you, but I personally didn’t count underwear, socks, PJs or gym outfits as part of my 10). And a few told me they were also trying the 10x10 for the first time.

I was already discovering an incredible community, and this was just the first post!

Ok, so let’s take a brief break from my longwinded spiel to get into my outfit choices. Here’s what I selected for my 10x10:

Tops

1.     Everlane white V-neck t-shirt

2.     French Connection printed tank (thrifted from Cross Roads)

3.     Banana Republic black tank with ribbon detail (from my fast fashion days)

Pants

4.     Everlane “Easy Chino” pants in the color “Stone”

5.     J Brand “Liza” white culottes (a Poshmark steal for $18)

6.     Everlane “The Cheeky” straight ankle black jeans

Dress

7.     Amour Vert “Blake” striped dress (brand new from Poshmark for $30)

Shoes

8.     Cole Haan “Piper” suede mules (practically brand new from Poshmark for $25 – they’re still selling these on Nordstrom for $140!)

9.     M.Gemi suede sandals (my first ever Poshmark find for $50)

Jacket

10.  Everlane denim jacket in their lightest wash

Day 1

I forgot to snap a photo of my first outfit (already succeeding at this challenge), so you’re just going to have to look at my flat lay photo. But if you’re curious, I started simple with my white Everlane V-neck t-shirt and my Everlane black denim jeans (#headtotoeeverlane). I knew I was going to spend the day setting up the venue for our aforementioned Company Meeting and didn’t want to try anything too crazy from the get-go when I was just going to be getting dusty and sweaty. It was classic, simple, a little bit boring – but it did the job.

Day 2

This one is a contender for one of my favorite outfits of the challenge. I wore my new Everlane “Easy Chino” pants. I’ve gotten so many questions about these pants. And I get it. They’re comfy like PJs, but they still manage to pull off a sophisticated, effortless vibe. And the price is very reasonable at $55. Unfortunately, these guys sold like hot cakes and they’re out of stock right now. But I heard a rumor that Everlane is restocking in October. I paired the pants with the same white V-neck tee from yesterday and my M.Gemi suede sandals. An easy, comfortable outfit. I think I even ended up napping in it.

Day 3

Day 3 fell on a Sunday and my boyfriend and I needed to pick a few things up from the mall, so I wanted to wear something semi-stylish, but (surprise, surprise) also comfortable. Are you sensing a theme here? I threw on my Amour Vert striped t-shirt dress, which is unbelievably soft and – even cooler – made out of recycled materials. Amour Vert is known for using sustainable materials in their clothing like their super soft Tencel, organic cotton and recycled polyester, all of which are sourced responsibly. I paired the dress with my trusty Everlane denim jacket (which you’ll see much more of) and my M.Gemi sandals. I felt good in this one. It was the perfect outfit for a shopping day and easy to change out of while trying on clothes. I’d like to point out that I was good and didn’t buy anything that day. I was doing a no spend challenge for the month of July and surprisingly didn’t cave. More on that in a future blog post).

Day 4

I chose my French Connection tank on this day, which is about as close as I got to wearing any sort of pattern throughout the entire challenge. I paired this with my J Brand culottes and my M. Gemi sandals once again. I wasn’t too sure about this outfit. It felt a little boxy for me with the tank untucked and the wide leg pants. I feel like I lost the silhouette here. But this probably could have been remedied by just tucking in the shirt. I’d probably try it again that way.

Day 5

Today was Company Meeting day. The theme was “Endless Summer” so our team had to wear Hawaiian shirts (I figured this one didn’t have to count toward my 10x10?). I wore a neutral base underneath so as not to “outshine” my very flamboyant floral Hawaiian shirt (which I ended up wearing again for Outside Lands…it was all meant to be). I repeated Day 1’s outfit with the white V-neck tee and my black denim pants. No reason to overcomplicate things when I had bigger fish to fry. This outfit was definitely starting to feel a little stale and uninspired.

Day 6

I wore my same white culottes from day 4, but paired them with the Banana Republic black tank this time and my black Cole Haan suede mules. I liked this look a lot better. Black and white is such a great, classic look. And I decided to tuck in the tank this time, which made the proportions look so much better. I even got some compliments at work. I’ll definitely repeat this one.

Day 7

I only picked three tops for this challenge and was starting to get sick of them, so I decided to transform my Amour Vert striped dress into a t-shirt by tucking them into my Everlane “Easy Chino” pants. Nobody even noticed! Threw my denim jacket on over the top and slipped on my suede slides again. I met up with one of my best friends/former coworker that evening after work for dinner and drinks. This felt like an appropriate outfit for tacos, sangria and catching up. She also helped me take my photo that day, and killed it as my stand-in photographer.

Day 8

I was feeling an all-black outfit today and ended up really liking it. I wore the Banana Republic tank with my black denim jeans and black suede mules. Because the tank had some ribbon detail, I felt like it spiced up my monochromatic look in a subtle way. It’s a bit of a modern take on Sandy’s iconic “You’re the One That I Want” all-black satin outfit from Grease. Ok, not really, but we can pretend for a second, right? I don’t wear monochromatic looks very often, or ever, but I’m glad this challenge forced me to put together something that I never would have tried before.

Day 9

Day 9 was a Saturday and my boyfriend, Adam, and I had some fun plans to go to the World Dog Surfing Championships (yes, you heard that correctly) on Pacifica Beach. Fun fact: this is also where my boyfriend and I met. Although if you asked him, he would say we met at a Taco Bell – because technically there is one right in front of Pacifica Beach, but that’s a minor detail. Our mutual friend (the same one I had tacos and drinks with on day 7) got a group together for a beach trip. She had wanted to try setting me up with him before, but I stubbornly refused. Turns out, she knew what she was doing. The two of us played a game of Spike Ball. He graciously didn’t make fun of my horrible Frisbee skills. I gave him a hard time for wearing red corduroy pants to the beach. A couple margaritas later and the rest is history. Hey Michelle, if you ever get tired of marketing, there’s always matchmaking as a potential career path!

But back to the outfit, I wore my French Connection tank, the Everlane “Easy Chino” pants, my denim jacket and my suede sandals. Note to self: don’t wear suede shoes to the beach. This wasn’t my favorite outfit, but it also wasn’t my least favorite. The looser fit of the “Easy Chinos” made them very suitable for beach attire.

Also, if you wanted to know more about the dog surfing, it was highly entertaining and I recommend you check out a competition if you ever get the chance. I saw a dog with a purple mohawk and sunglasses surf in backwards, perfectly matching his owner’s purple mohawk and sunglasses. Unreal!

Day 10

We’re finally at the end of the challenge (and you’re nearing the end of this monstrously long post). Adam and I went to the Alameda Flea Market on this day to scope out some fun antiques. We were on the lookout for midcentury modern furniture, silk scarves (that was on my wish list, obviously) and typewriters (Adam collects them). This was another one of my favorite outfits of the challenge. I wore my white Everlane V-neck T, my white culottes, the denim jacket and my suede M.Gemi sandals. Another monochromatic look, but the denim jacket kept it from looking too stark. I love the silhouette of the culottes. They add some pizazz to my outfits and I feel like I’m wearing something trendy without trying too hard. 

And folks, that’s a wrap. I had an awesome time experimenting with my first 10x10 challenge and I’ll definitely try it again. Would I do anything different next time around? I’d probably throw in at least one more top since I started getting really tired of wearing the same three over and over again. I’d also add another piece of outerwear. The denim jacket did pair really nicely with all the outfits, but I was craving some variety there. And I’d absolutely incorporate more accessories to help diversify my outfits, and maybe experiment with more patterns and colors.

While I learned some things about my personal style, the thing that’s most important here is the dialogue that opened up around ethical and sustainable fashion and the incredible community I’ve discovered since joining this challenge. I’ve met some amazing people and even formed some new friendships along the way. And last but not least, I discovered a newfound appreciation for my closet and realized that I really can live more with less.

Buying and Selling on Poshmark: First Impressions

If you’re a fellow recovering shopaholic like me, then you also probably get overwhelmed when you look into your closet and stare in horror at the amount of stuff you’ve tried to cram into that thing. And if we want to get really honest, you may have even woken up to a broken closet rod that didn’t stand a chance against the mountain of clothes it was trying to hold up (No? Just me?). After reading more about capsule wardrobes, minimalist wardrobes and no spend months, I felt inspired to trim down and revamp my own overflowing closet and commit to the “fewer, better” philosophy.

I’d heard about apps like Poshmark and ThredUp, but didn’t know if it was really worth it. Wasn’t it a thousand times easier to just drop off a bag of clothes at a consignment store like Crossroads or donate to a Goodwill and call it a day? But as I heard more and more people bring up their own Poshmark experiences, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to see what this whole thing was all about.

I created a Poshmark account about a month ago. I originally signed up with the intent to just sell my clothes, but as I scrolled through the newsfeed section and discovered items that I’d been eyeing for the past few months listed at half price, I was floored. What? A cashmere Everlane sweater for $35? Silk Babaton pants for only $40? Are you kidding me? If you know me, then you know I can never pass up a good deal. So full disclosure here. Even though my original goal was to minimize my closet and make some money, I have to admit that my first experience with Poshmark was a buying frenzy. Yes, frenzy.

Not great for my bank account. But luckily for you, I learned a few things from my Poshmark successes as well as my oops-I-wish-I-could-take-that-back moments.

Tips for Buying on Poshmark

• Research an item thoroughly before you make an offer. I bought a pair of Everlane Modern Babo shoes and they ended up being slightly too large for me. If I had just read the reviews on Everlane’s site beforehand, I would have seen that they run bigger and to size down. Now I’m stuck Googling ways to shrink leather shoes. Has anyone been able to do that successfully?
• Make a (fair) offer if the price isn’t quite right. The fun thing about Poshmark is that you can negotiate the price. It’s like bartering at an outdoor marketplace in Southeast Asia, except way less stressful. The seller may accept your offer or they could counter offer. Don’t low-ball the seller, though, because that’s just going to piss them off. Offer a price that’s fair and that you think you’d accept if you were in their shoes.
• Ask the seller specific questions. If the listing description isn’t giving you the information you’re looking for, don’t be afraid to ask. You can leave comments to request more photos or ask about the type of material or find out whether an item fits true to size.
• Choose brands you already know and trust. There’s always some risk buying on Poshmark since you can only return items if there are signs of damage that the seller failed to disclose. If you buy a shirt that doesn’t fit or just isn’t your style, you’ll have to “re-posh” it. My recommendation is to buy from brands you’re familiar with since you likely already know your proper size and measurements. You can follow specific brands and you’ll be notified whenever new listings are posted under that brand.

• Always rate and give feedback to your seller. If the item arrives on your doorstep on time and is as described, do the nice thing and give the seller a five-star rating. Many sellers put a lot of hard work and care into their packaging and delivery, so reward them for it. If your experience was less than satisfactory, give honest feedback so the seller knows how to improve.

Now that you’ve heard my tips for buying on Poshmark, let’s talk about selling. It took a little over a month for me to make my first sale on Poshmark. I had listed about 20 items in my virtual closet, but wasn’t getting any nibbles. Poshmark allows you to “share” your items with your followers, so I tried doing that too. Nothing.

Finally, after a month of not-so-patient waiting, I made my first sale, followed quickly by my second sale just a few days later. Here’s how I did it.

Tips for Selling on Poshmark

• Take Instagram-worthy pictures. No one wants to buy something they can’t see clearly or looks unappealing, especially when it’s second hand. Take pictures during the daytime when you have access to good lighting. Hang items like dresses and shirts up so potential buyers can see all the details better. I like to lay some items out against an aesthetically-pleasing backdrop like my hardwood floor or a fluffy, white rug. Taking the extra time to stage your shots increases your credibility with potential buyers.
• But be honest. Don’t try to hide any stains or signs of damage. You need to build trust with your buyers and if they end up purchasing something from your closet that is damaged or just not what they were expecting, they’ll never buy from you again. And thanks to Posh Protect, they’ll have the right to return the item for a full refund too. Always disclose whether an item has pilling, holes, stains etc. in your listing description and take close-up photos of the damaged area. Transparency is key.
• Showcase items from popular brands Make sure to note the brand in the headline of your listing, especially if it’s a popular brand. You don’t necessarily need to be selling Louis Vuitton or other designer brands to get interest. Items from Madewell, Everlane and J. Crew tend to sell particularly well. If I have any items from these brands, I make sure to share these often, so they’re always featured at the top of my closet feed.
• Party, party party. Poshmark has themed virtual “parties” that allow sellers to share items with a much larger group of potential buyers who are interested in the theme of that particular party. Themes can be dictated by brand (“Anthropologie, Lucky Brand, Free People & Brandy Melville Party”), occasion (“Backyard BBQ Party”) or type (“Best in Tops Party”). This is the best way for your items to get exposure to a larger audience so share, share share!
• Pretty packaging is a nice bonus, but personalized touches are a must. I always include a handwritten note in my packages, along with a selection of beauty samples (that I get for free from Sephora). It really helps to make your package stand out from the rest and ups the likelihood that you’ll get that coveted five-star rating.  

• Buyers want FAST shipping. Put yourself in their shoes. You want your item as soon as possible. You don’t necessarily need to be Amazon Prime fast, but I aim to ship within two days if possible. Shipping is super easy. Just print your pre-paid shipping label that Poshmark sends you, stick it on the package and drop it off at the nearest USPS store or blue drop box. To make it even easier on yourself, grab a couple envelopes from the USPS and bring them home to use for future sales – they’re absolutely free! Fast shipping is the most critical thing sellers are looking for, besides the quality of the items you’re selling of course.

All in all, I’m very happy that I jumped on the Poshmark bandwagon and I’m not looking back. It’s a great place to sell items for decent money in comparison to consignment stores like Crossroads and Buffalo Exchange and it’s an even better place to score deals or find that sold-out item you’ve been lusting for. If you’ve ever tried Poshmark, I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. You can also check out my closet on Poshmark at @laureneho. Happy shopping/selling!