stitch fix & my capsule wardrobe

i opened up my fourth Stitch Fix box this week and it was just as wonderful as each one before it. i am kind of in the middle of re-evaluating and re-thinking the way i look at my closet and i am so thankful for Stitch Fix in the midst of it.

for a long time i lived my life in the clearance racks. i mean, it made a lot of sense. i did not have a lot of money and i was trying desperately to keep up with all the fun new looks of high school & college. also, i really had no idea who i was or what my style was. you would find me in zoomies, american eagle, hollister, lids, old navy, goodwill, limited too, forever21, aeropostale, and really any other mall store you can think of. i went through stages all the time – there was the time i only wore phat farms and south pole, the time i was skater, the time i was preppy, athletic, outdoorsy, hippie, and anywhere in between. but these last years since college, i have started to find myself & my style but my shopping was still a mess and most of the time all the “great things i got ON SALE” would be worn once or twice before hitting the goodwill pile or being shoved to the back of the closet.

it is expensive (even with cheap clothes) and exhausting trying to always be like someone else. even though i was much more confident in myself than high school/ college, i was still buying things i saw other bloggers wear, or buying everything from the Target sale racks because my friends shopped there,  or shopping random sales from online stores to get a “good price.” i was still shopping with a high school mentality. i was spending all my allowance money (we both have allotted  “no judge” spending money in our marriage) and having nothing to show for it in my closet. i would not like the way the $3 t-shirt fit, or the way the $10 jeans creased in weird places, or the $13 dress that i always had to wear a cardi with – so i didn’t wear them and i wasted my money.

the No Brainer Wardrobe was my first reality check to my buy & binge mentality (buy cheap things, get rid of them to justify the purchasing of more cheap things, etc). i realized that the same love for buying sale items was so similar to my love of purging my closet. i always bought, and always gave away but never felt satisfied.

and when i saw what Caroline of Un-Fancy was doing with her wardrobe, i knew i needed to change the way i viewed my closet and begin building a capsule wardrobe. this is just the beginning of the journey but with working at GAP for 2 years and now discovering Stitch Fix, i am already thinking better and have some “i would wear this everyday” pieces that are going into my collection.

over the summer, i will be working on perfecting my capsule wardrobe. i will cautiously and carefully pick items looking at cost, quality, fit, longevity, style, and heart. i will no longer waste money on things i am not sure 100% will fit well in my closet and get good use. i am letting go of spontaneous buys and focussing on intentional living. and all this too make my closet smaller, my confidence higher, and my perspective new.