After a week of total fashion immersion, the "fashion side of my brain", experienced a complete and total shutdown. Khalas! Too much to process!
As much as I LOVE fashion and never, ever complain about my job (even though styling people with big egos on a daily basis can be quite a challenge... nope, not complaining... I needed a few days of fashion detox.
Beautiful and stylish fashionistas competing for attention around the French capital had gotten to me. It wasn't about style anymore. It was about OTT outrageousness, and being showered with praise by your peers. At some point it stopped being fun. I lost interest and started looking elsewhere for eye candy. A young Parisian woman crossing the street carrying her cape, draped elegantly on her shoulders with a felt hat caught my eye, and inspired me a hell of a lot more than all these ladies deploying sartorial efforts to look "different" at Costes restaurant or Colette or around the Jardin des Tuileries where the fashion exhibitions and catwalks were being held.
All this hustle and bustle made me crave a head-to-toe detox. One for my body, my soul as well as my closet. It's almost spring, and I'm itching to clean up and restock.
Project: Closet Detox requires TIME. Before embarking on it, be ready to spend a whole day, alone with your wardrobe, your mirror and a critical eye. Everything has to be taken out: your T-shirts, shirts, skirts, trousers, scarves, dresses, coats, accessories, shoes, lingerie, stockings. Everything!
- One to throw worn out and irrecoverable items.
- Another to throw in items that are still in good shape, but don't fit you anymore; are from another era with a cut that doesn't follow your body shape or are not as cool or funny as you thought they were when you first bought them.
- The third, to throw in everything that requires alteration or laundry.
Put aside all the items you like to wear and that represent your comfort zone, a mere 20 percent of your closet.
Your target is to wear 90 percent of your closet in your daily life, the remaining 10 percent are the exceptional pieces for evenings out.
Try everything on. You have to. As you lay out the "Yeses" in a row, you may find yourself mixing and matching items from different decades together! The keyword is to keep ONLY what enhances your body shape.
Now here comes the fun part. Treat your closet as a professional stylist: Mix and match your clothes then take pictures of the combinations you like. It will make your mornings much easier.
While mixing and matching, take note of missing items in your closet that you need to buy to complete certain looks. That will make your shopping more efficient.
Sort your clothes into three different seasons: Winter, summer and the passe part-outs i.e. items that can be worn year round -- for instance, the little silky black dress perfectly worn in summer with slinky sandals and in winter with opaque nylons and biker boots.
- Long sleeved T-shirts together, cardigans together, etc.
- Hang dresses and tops by color.
- Store your shoes in boxes with a description on the box.
- Keep your bags hanging or stored, stuffed with paper to maintain their shape.
I don't know about you, but in few days, I'm starting a double detox. I'm sticking to vegetables juices for 3 days and after that I'll attack my closet with a clear body and mind.