Your Closet Is Full. So Why Is It So Hard to Put Together Outfits?

You have clothes.

Plenty of them.

You have the colorful blouse you loved the second you saw it. The patterned dress that felt different from everything else you owned. The sweater in the beautiful shade you couldn't pass up. The statement jacket. The interesting shoes. The pieces that bring personality into your wardrobe and make getting dressed feel a little more fun.

And individually, there may be absolutely nothing wrong with any of them.

You like your clothes.

So why does it still feel like you don't have enough to wear?

Because having a closet full of great pieces doesn't necessarily mean you have a wardrobe that works.

The problem may not be what you own. It may be what isn't connecting.

We shop for clothes one piece at a time.

Think about how most clothes make their way into your closet.

You see something you like.

You try it on.

You like the fit. You love the color. The pattern catches your attention. It feels like your style.

So you buy it.

There's nothing unusual about that. That's how most of us shop.

But the decision is usually centered around one question:

Do I like this?

Not:

What is this going to work with in my wardrobe?

And there's a big difference between the two.

You can make a hundred good individual purchases and still end up with a wardrobe that feels surprisingly difficult to use.

Because every new piece doesn't automatically create more outfits.

Sometimes it creates another problem to solve.

You buy the patterned blouse and realize you don't have the right bottom.

You buy the colorful pants and suddenly need simpler tops.

You buy the dress but don't have the right layer to wear over it.

You buy the statement jacket and realize very little underneath it works.

So you shop again.

The closet gets fuller.

But your outfit options don't grow nearly as much as the number of clothes hanging inside it.

A wardrobe full of personality can still be incredibly limited.

Color isn't the problem.

Patterns aren't the problem.

Statement pieces aren't the problem.

I don't want you to look at your wardrobe and suddenly decide everything needs to be black, white, navy and beige.

Your wardrobe should have personality.

Those are often the pieces that make your wardrobe feel like yours.

But those pieces need support.

If nearly everything in your closet is trying to be the interesting piece, you're going to have a much harder time putting those pieces together.

The patterned blouse needs somewhere to go.

The colorful pants need tops that allow them to be the focus.

The dress needs a layer that doesn't compete with it.

The statement jacket needs pieces underneath it that let the jacket do its job.

Some pieces bring the personality. Other pieces make that personality wearable.

And when you're missing enough of the second group, you can have an interesting closet without having many interesting outfits.

This is the part about basics that gets missed.

Let's be honest, basics aren't usually the clothes that make you want to shop.

You don't wake up excited because today is finally the day you're going to buy a white tee.

You're much more likely to notice the beautiful printed blouse, the sweater in a color you love, the patterned pants or the dress that looks completely different from anything already hanging in your closet.

Those pieces get your attention.

Basics usually don't.

And that's exactly why they're so easy to overlook.

You can keep adding more and more personality to your wardrobe without realizing that what you're actually missing are the simple pieces that would help you wear all of that personality.

A white tee doesn't look particularly exciting hanging on a rack.

But put it underneath your patterned jacket and now you have an outfit.

Wear it with the colorful pants that are difficult to style and now you have another.

Tuck it into the printed skirt you haven't worn enough and there's another.

The white tee wasn't the interesting part of any of those outfits.

It was the piece that allowed the interesting part to work.

And that's the role of wardrobe basics that I don't think gets talked about enough.

Basics aren't there to make your wardrobe boring.

They're there to make the rest of your wardrobe easier to wear.

That's a completely different way to look at them.

Your basic tees, simple button-ups, neutral sweaters, jeans, trousers and everyday layers aren't competing with the pieces that give your wardrobe personality.

They're supporting them.

Think about a colorful blouse.

If you already have jeans, neutral trousers and a simple skirt that work with it, that one blouse can immediately become several outfits.

But if most of your bottoms are also colorful, patterned or difficult to pair, suddenly that blouse has far fewer places to go.

So what happens?

You start looking for another bottom.

Then that bottom needs another top.

And before you know it, you're shopping again—not because you don't own enough clothes, but because the clothes you own keep requiring more clothes.

That's how you can end up with a full closet and still struggle to get dressed.

The clothes you overlook while shopping may be the clothes your wardrobe needs most.

This is where I want you to start looking at your wardrobe differently.

Instead of looking only at the clothes you love, look at what those clothes need.

If you own several patterned tops, what simple bottoms would allow you to wear them more often?

If you love colorful pants, do you have enough simple tops to go with them?

If your closet is full of dresses, do you have the basic layers and shoes that make those dresses easier to wear throughout the year?

If you love statement jackets, do you have simple pieces to wear underneath them?

You're not trying to remove personality from your wardrobe.

You're looking for the pieces that will support the personality that's already there.

And suddenly that plain white tee isn't quite so boring anymore.

Because you're no longer looking at it as one white tee.

You're looking at the five things in your closet you'll finally be able to wear with it.

This is also why you may keep buying clothes and still feel like something is missing.

If every shopping trip is focused on finding another interesting piece, you're adding more of what you already have.

Another great blouse.

Another fun dress.

Another colorful sweater.

Another patterned top.

Your closet changes, but the problem doesn't.

You still don't have enough pieces connecting everything together.

And because you don't recognize that as the problem, the natural conclusion is:

I need more clothes.

You probably do need something.

But it may be much simpler than what you've been shopping for.

The next thing your wardrobe needs might not be another piece that catches your eye.

It might be the neutral trouser that works with six tops.

The simple sweater that works with three bottoms.

The white button-up that can be worn on its own, underneath sweaters and with the patterned pants you never know how to style.

The basic jacket that works over several dresses.

Those purchases may not feel nearly as exciting when they're sitting in your shopping cart.

What they make possible in your wardrobe is the exciting part.

This is why I include basics in my capsule wardrobes.

When you look through one of my capsule wardrobe ebooks, some pieces are naturally going to get your attention first.

You'll notice the colors.

The patterns.

The interesting pieces.

The things you immediately think, I want that.

But I want you to start paying just as much attention to the pieces you might normally scroll right past.

The simple tee.

The neutral sweater.

The jeans.

The trousers.

The everyday layer.

They're there for a reason.

The wardrobes aren't built by finding a collection of individually great pieces and putting them together.

They're built around what those pieces can do together.

That's why you'll see the same basic used again and again with completely different outfits.

One simple top might work with a skirt, jeans and patterned pants.

One neutral bottom might give several colorful tops somewhere to go.

One basic layer might work over dresses, tops and sweaters.

And that's something you can take back to your own closet whether you buy every piece in the wardrobe or not.

Instead of only asking:

Which pieces in this wardrobe do I want?

Also ask:

Which of these pieces am I missing?

Because you may already own plenty of personality.

You may already have the fun part.

What you're missing could be the handful of less exciting pieces that finally give everything else somewhere to go.

That's what basics are supposed to do.

They aren't there to make your wardrobe look like everyone else's.

They aren't there because every woman has to own the same ten things.

And they aren't there to replace the colors, patterns and pieces you love.

They're there to help you wear them.

Maybe the boring pieces aren't so boring after all.

Because once you see what they can do, you start looking at them differently.

That white tee isn't just a white tee anymore. It's three, four, maybe five more ways to wear what you already own.

The same goes for the simple trousers, the neutral sweater, the everyday jeans and the layer you probably would've walked right past.

On their own? Not that exciting.

But neither is a closet full of clothes you can't figure out how to wear.

So maybe it's time the basics got a little more attention.

Not because they're the most exciting part of getting dressed. They don't need to be. Their role is to help you wear the clothes already in your closet and turn each piece into different outfits over and over again.

Basics are some of the most overlooked pieces in a wardrobe because, let's be honest, who's excited to shop for a simple white tee?

But overlooking them is one of the reasons so many women struggle to wear the clothes they have.

Knowing which basics to focus on, understanding the different styles available and building a foundation that adds variety without feeling boring can completely change how much you can do with your wardrobe. I've broken all of this down for you in my Wardrobe Essentials eBook.

Instead of thinking of basics as the boring pieces in your closet, start looking at them as some of the pieces worth getting excited about. Every new style, neutral color or print you add gives the clothes you already own more ways to be worn.

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