After that first step of only putting the clothes you LOVE back in your closet (and Cladwell recommends that you put away non-seasonal clothes, unlike Kondo), their next recommendation was to make a Pinterest board to see what you like. I've read that recommendation from a number of other people, and so far I have not done it, but I think that something about the fact that I had paid for this advice made me take it. So I did it. I created a Pinterest board. I'm so ashamed. Most of you who know me know that I have been anti-Pinterest for years. I don't like how it creates competition among women and pressure to have the most creative perfect-looking homes, parties, etc. But I admit that it was actually helpful for me. Between looking at the clothes that I kept and writing down why I kept each piece, and pinning outfits and nature scenes that I like, I was actually able to develop a theme for my wardrobe that I really LOVE. I would've never thought that nature scenes could actually help me pick out clothes, but for some reason something clicked for me with nature. I found myself being drawn to scenes with a path in the forest, optionally including some type of water (stream or lake). I LOVE walking in the forest more that almost anything. It is so calming for me.
So, I decided that I walk in the forest (with optional water and flowers) would be my theme. What that means for me is that my "neutrals" or base of my wardrobe will be brown, blue, and green. Any shade of those colors works for me. Then my "pop of color" is flowers - pink, yellow, red, purple, orange. I didn't like how Cladwell (and most other advice for capsule wardrobing) limit me to a set number of neutrals, main colors, and accents, usually 3 maximum of each. It just doesn't work for me. It's actually been one of the most frustrating things for me, because as I said in my last post, I just like colors! So, I'm super excited about this idea of using brown, blue, and green as my base neutrals, and other colors as accents.
Also, it helped me realize how important comfort is to me. In my list of the clothes that I love, I listed comfort as a reason 18 times. Clothes have to be comfortable in order to wear them to relax and walk through a path in the forest. You wouldn't wear a suit and heels - it just doesn't make sense. So even though I'm usually walking down a city street, somewhere inside I want to feel like I could be walking through the forest, because that helps me feel more relaxed and not so stressed. And stress is the reason I'm doing all of this, to help reduce the stress of decision-making every morning from a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear.
After all that, Cladwell asks you about your lifestyle activities and what types of clothing you wear, then makes recommendations for how many items of each type you should have and if it should be a neutral, main color, or accent color. I was disappointed by this last step, because it was so far off from my actual wardrobe. If you are starting from scratch, it could be really helpful, but it just didn't work for me. Because I had already gone through my wardrobe more than once on paper by number of items per type, I felt that I had already done this step in a more personalized way. If I had just listened to advice from other places, I would not have needed Cladwell. So, I'm glad I did it, but I cancelled my subscription. As far as whether or not I would recommend Cladwell, I think depends on where you are in the journey. It's helpful, especially if you're just starting out, but it's not necessary. Pinterest was actually helpful for me, though.
Fascinating. I love Pinterest and virtually ignore other people's pages and boards, I just love it for keeping track of my thoughts or things I've found. And I had not heard of Cladwell, thanks for the review!
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