I recently read the book The Curated
Closet by Anuschka Rees. This is a really
great book if you want to improve your
personal style which is something I've
been wanting to do lately so I've been
reading a few of these kinds of books to
just see how the experts do it as far as
improving my wardrobe. This book has very
calculated and organized advice. It's
also laid out really nicely. The graphics
and the pictures and the diagrams in the
book are all very clear as you can see
here it's just clean layout with very
simple pictures and clear text. This book
is really great for anyone that is like
me they like things very clear. Clear
questions, clear to-do lists. Everything
is broken down into very manageable
tasks. It's a book about you the reader.
Answer the questions, take notes. There'll
be a lot of benefits out of it as far as
improving your wardrobe. Part one of the
book goes over the book's general
philosophy with points like 1.Be Selective
2.Be Authentic 3.Aim For Quality 4.Style
Trumps Fashion and 5.Put In The Work and
she goes into explaining these
philosophies in detail. Part one also
gets right into asking the reader
questions about how they feel like
deep-seated feelings about their current
wardrobe. Some of the questions will be
things like "What was your favorite
outfit that you wore during the last two
weeks?" and Why? and How did that outfit
make you feel? "What was your least
favorite outfit over the past two weeks?"
and Why and How did it make you feel? and
"On a scale from one to ten, how happy
were you overall with your outfits
during the last past two weeks?" Part two
of the book gets into discovering your
personal style but this also includes
gathering inspiration which you can
either do on the street outside you can
do it online you can do it on Pinterest.
Pinterest is my place of choice to
organize all of my personal style
inspiration and I'll link my Pinterest
account below so you can see how I
organize my boards and what inspires me
to dress better. Once you've got all your
inspiration together the book talks
about creating this sort of like a style
list you can also see I'll link it below
my style list. I put it in an article
on my website so you can check out my
whole complete style list as an example.
It's linked below. They go over
categories like Overall Vibe, which for
example could be you could write down
words like Vintage, 70's Rock Scene, or
Grown-Up Grunge. Other categories involve Individual Items, Colors, Silhouettes,
Materials and Styling and you just want
to write down a list in each of these
categories. Writing down your favorite
things, your favorite colors, your
favorite way to style outfits, your
favorite materials etc. Part three
includes things like cleaning out your
current closet, building your new
wardrobe, color palettes, and outfit
formulas. There's a really great closet
detox diagram in this book. It's gonna be
really great for those maybes that
you're not sure if you want to get rid
of or not. The ones that you're having a
hard time deciding. There is a map of yes
or no questions. It will help you decide
on those pieces that you're not sure
about. The questions are like, "Is this
item ripped badly stained or worn beyond
repair? Yes or No. If yes then it says to
toss it. If no then you move on to the
next question which is, "Have you worn
this item in the past year? Yes or No,
etc. I wanted to also show the color
palette page just because it's pretty
There's a whole chapter just on color
and color is definitely a great part of
a wardrobe. Color inspiration, it's a
pretty page. That's a great chapter to
read. Color is definitely something I've
been lacking in my wardrobe and is
something that I want to introduce more
of so I'm hoping to challenge myself and
add more color into my wardrobe. Colors
that I'm comfortable with. And then
there's also a section on a detailed
two-week sample outfit plan which
you'll make at the end of part three. In
this section you just list every single
piece of clothing that you'll be wearing
for the next two weeks and you really
map it out every single day.
You write the list of pieces that you'll
be wearing or that you'd like to wear
and how you will mix and match pieces
each day. Part four of the book gets into
assessing garment quality, how to find
clothes that fit, how to tailor garments,
and wardrobe maintenance. There's a
really great table in the book that is
how to deal with fit problems. For me
it's definitely probably the most
important thing that I look at when I
assess my wardrobe especially because
right now I decided back in March of
this year 2017 to not buy clothing for
one year that's what I've done I haven't
bought any clothing since March of 2017
and I want to continue to do that until
March 2018 or longer we'll see how it
goes. Basically I'm trying to completely redo my wardrobe
without buying any clothes. I am very
much relying on my alteration skills so
I'm altering a lot of pieces that I've
had for a really long time but haven't
worn. I'm altering pieces to either make
them fit me better or also to just be
more appropriate with my current age and
activities just so they fit into my
current wardrobe a little bit better
because something I'm not wearing
there's a reason I'm not wearing it so
I'm taking pieces out looking at them
Why am I not wearing this? Is it the
wrong color? Does it not fit right? Does
it not fit within my current wardrobe of
how I want to present myself? I figure
out what it is and then I try to alter
it to save it or if I can't then I just
get rid of it. But it's amazing how many
things have potential to fit into my
current wardrobe if I just take the time
to look at it assess it and ultimately
alter it. This book really takes
everything that we've learned from
magazines and the media about fashion
and sort of throws it out the window. So
in this book we really learn that
fashion can be minimal, timeless, modest,
slow, and long-lasting. This is an
especially great read for anyone that is
really not interested in fashion but
wants to look better because this book
is not about fashion it does not suggest
any specific pieces to wear and Anuschka
Rees, the author, you can tell that she
really believes that there's no real
right or wrong when it comes to dressing
yourself there's just what's right for
you and you need to decide that and you
get to decide that and that's really
exciting. She talks about sort of
creating your own rules in fashion. You
don't have to listen to the magazines
and the media about these fashion rules
that they make up. Make the rules for
yourself. Be consistent and make sure
those rules bring out your best self.
There really is no right or wrong. This
book is a pretty serious read so make
sure that you set aside a good bit of
time and that you are prepared with a
notebook or your computer to take notes
and answer all the questions. It'll
really be to your benefit to go through
all of the questions and activities in
the book. And it's a lot take your time
I'm actually not completely finished
with all the activities in the book yet.
I've written notes and I've read the
whole book but I'm only partway through
the actual activities of closet
detox, building up my new wardrobe.
I'm kind of in the phase of building up
my new wardrobe right now. I'm altering
pieces that I already have. I've already
made piles of 'No'.
Gotten rid of some things. A 'Maybe' pile that I still have to go through and sort
through what I actually want to keep and
get rid of and my pile of things that
I'm going to alter to fit my current
wardrobe. This book it's ultimately about
you, the reader, so take advantage of that.
So read the book, take notes, dive deep
into the self-style-exploration and
you'll reap the rewards at the end for sure.
