#7: wardrobe planning by way of expiry date & return of WDTW :)
Best By
Organizing your wardrobe like you’d organize your fridge
The fight against food waste, an age-old climate change villain, warrants careful meal planning, constant auditing of the crisper and keeping a close eye on expiry dates. Textile waste & wardrobe turnover – two other bad guys – deserve the same fastidious care. Much like we wouldn’t buy fresh spinach if we can’t use or freeze it in the next week, or how we stock up on long-lasting staples before each season, treating our wardrobes like our pantries will keep us well stocked with beloved basics without the usual seasonal turnover.
Non-perishables
Shelf Life: 2+ years
These are your staples – your dried beans, your rice, your black jeans. They carry your through most, if not all, seasons, and are the bread & butter that ground your outfits. When purchasing a new piece in this category (or fabric to make something in this category), imagine there was a big sticker that says: MUST KEEP FOR TWO YEARS. Would you still want it? Using this as a barometer, will help keep *future you* from a regret-filled closet, and hopefully keep your beautiful basics out of the landfill.
Fresh / Best Day Of
Shelf Life: Use immediately/intermittently, then freeze
No one’s suggesting you eat plain rice every day, and no one’s suggesting you have to exist on a wardrobe of basics. The fresh ingredients of your closet are the in-season plums, the lush green kale, the daily catch. They’re the pieces you can’t resist and that, yes, may be somewhat trend-based. The key here is to buy quality – so even if you need to rotate that gingham ruffle top out of your main wardrobe, it’ll hold up in “deep freeze” (aka. your underbed storage or in the garage) until you can use it again. Much like buying fresh at the farmer’s market and freezing at peak ripeness, quality here will ensure that, even if these happy-making pieces don’t warrant prime shelf space, they can be pulled out for years to come.
Hot Sauces
Shelf Life: Good (pretty much) forever, but stock up in moderation
Hot sauces give life to your basics and your fresh ingredients, much like spicy accessories & daring, colourful pieces give life to your outfits. Even better? Because they don’t take up much shelf space, you can keep ‘em around year round. But much like you wouldn’t stock a fridge solely of hot sauce (I mean, maybe you would – and … I’m jealous?!), keep these hot lil’ numbers to a minimum, and ensure they don’t take up too much space. Used in moderation, you won’t become bored with them and won’t feel tempted to trash ‘em.
Buying new pieces and new fabric with an eye towards their “expiry date” and category will help keep you grounded and, hopefully, with a well-stocked wardrobe of pieces that you can keep creating recipes from ad infinitum. (As for me, can you tell I’ve taken to staring blankly into the fridge when trying to come up with content ideas?)
Why Does This Work?
©Johnny Cirillo / @watchingnewyork
1. Using warm, mahogany brown as a secondary, uniting colour was the right choice. Brown conjures dusty stables, stuffy offices and 1990s school dances, which is exactly the counterpoint you want with the frivolous hat and very fun shirt. It’s like that moment on vacation where you realize it has to end & you’re zapped back to reality – that’s what the warm tones are doing here.
2. Masterful storytelling. While the breezy shirt and tourist-trap hat scream ‘vacation’, the patent leather touches, business casual winks and silver accents hint at boardroom-calls-from-beach-villa. It would’ve been easy to lean in to ‘full chill’ with a pair of cut-offs and an oversized tote, but the upscale accessories gave it a twist ending worth watching the sequel for. You know they’re going somewhere, you just don’t know where. (And isn’t that the point – a point – of fashion?)
3. This shirt already spells r-e-l-a-x, but unbuttoned all the way to the bellybutton and we transcend chill to something a little sexier, a little more dangerous. Balanced back out by the hat and the loosely-tied neck scarf, it’s a masterclass in getting close to the edge & pulling it back just in time.
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