Is it a Rut or Routine?
Routines are my favorite, and change makes me twitchy, so it’s easy and comfortable for me to repeat what is…easy and comfortable, whether I like it or not. I’ve had the same thing for breakfast almost every day for the last 20 years, and I love that routine. Is it because I don’t have other breakfast foods in my house? No, I have plenty of other options, and I actually love breakfast foods any other time of day. But I love this routine of drinking my protein smoothie because it’s fast, it’s filling, and I like how it tastes. And to be honest, I don’t feel normal if I don’t have it.
I used to do the same thing with my clothes for the same reason. I’d wear the same things over and over, even though I had way more clothes in my closet then than I do now. But it wasn’t satisfying the way my morning smoothie is. The outfits were easy, but they didn’t suit me and I didn’t like how I looked in them. They were just easy and I was comfortable doing that. Being in a style slump was frustrating, but I didn’t really know what to do about it.
We’ve all been there at various times in our lives, probably more than once. You don’t have to change your outfits so much from day to day that it’s like rotating through a costume shop. You can still wear your favorite outfits and combinations and have a style that’s truly you. You can wear them as often as you want, as long as you love them and feel amazing in them. I have my favorite outfit formulas I use over and over, but I also know how to change them up so they feel fresh so that I love what I’m wearing.
My outfits are still fast, but now they suit me and I love how I look. It’s only an outfit rut if it bothers you. If you feel stifled, bored, unhappy and dissatisfied, that’s when it’s a rut. If you’re wearing the same things over and over again and you love it, it’s not a rut, is it?
This article and the video below are taken from the Stunning Style Weekly Style Snack! Join us Wednesdays at 1pm ET on the Stunning Style Facebook page or the FREE Capsule Wardrobes for Classic Style Facebook Group.
GET OUT OF YOUR OUTFIT RUT
I have some simple tips to help you get out of a style slump and feel happy with your wardrobe again.
Clean Out Your Closet
The number one thing that is stifling your wardrobe is that it’s too big. I’m not saying you have to limit yourself to ten items per season, but most of us have way more clothes than we want, wear, or need.
Have you ever been to a restaurant and the hostess hands you a novel instead of a menu? It’s absolutely overwhelming! How do you choose when there are so many options? We think we want a lot of options, but when we’re offered too many options, how do you choose? You could spend the whole evening reading it, and you don’t like half of what’s listed, so you pick ANYTHING because you’re hungry and you just want to eat. The next time you come back (if you come back), you just order the same thing, whether you liked it that much or not, because it’s just EASIER than reading that whole menu again.
The best restaurants have a small menu, one to two pages at most. It takes only a few minutes to see your options and choose something that sounds mouth-watering. The next time you come back, it’s easy to choose another delicious option because you can easily see what the options are. You’re not overwhelmed.
It’s the same with your wardrobe. The more you have in your closet, the harder it is to see what’s in there, and the harder it is to come up with any new outfit combinations. Chances are, you are just grabbing what you can actually physically see. It’s likely what just came out of the laundry because that’s whats stacked on your bed (or the floor). It’s what you’ve been wearing over and over because it’s in front of you and easy. It’s a cycle that causes much of your wardrobe to go unworn, even items that you may love even more.
The last Style Step of the summer season in the Stunning Style Society was all about evaluating our summer wardrobes and cleaning out the things we don’t actually love. We did this together in the Society, and I gave them a process to follow. Do you have to trim your wardrobe down? No. Do you have to stick to a specific number of pieces? No. But, removing the items you don’t actually love and wear will help you see and use the ones you do. Why keep it if you don’t love it, it doesn’t make you feel great, and you won’t wear it? It’s just taking up valuable space in your closet.
I would love to know if you’ve experienced this. Do your favorites get lost in the racks of your closet because it’s too packed? Do you keep repeating the same outfits over and over again because it’s convenient and not necessarily because you love it? I know I’m not the only one, so tell me about your experience in the comments.
One of the many benefits of the Wardrobe Guides and Calendars are the items from the wardrobe are distributed evenly throughout the 100 outfits and on the calendar. This helps you give some love to every item in the collection and still get some variety. With the monthly wardrobe calendars, we make our way through about 90 of the outfits. Our summer wardrobe items were worn, we got value from them, and were able to see what we do and don’t like because we wore it!
Since we wore everything it was easy to clean out our closets and know how we felt about it.
Incorporate Current Trends
The thing about classic style is it’s timeless. That’s why it’s classic, from year to year and decade to decade, these classic items always look current. But Classic Style can also feel boring and dated. Update your classic style by incorporating a few trends that suit you – and I don’t mean every trend. If you look at a trend and get that instant, NEVER, then it’s safe to move along. If it piques your interest or makes you go all heart eyes, give it a try!
It takes comfort and courage to try new things and change your mind about something. If you try some trends, it’s okay love them. It’s also okay to try new things and hate them. But either way you learn something about yourself and your personal style. There are so many trends that come and go that it can be confusing to know which ones will look and feel great on you. The key is to find ones that feel like they’re part of your personal style and not like you’re playing dress up because that’s not comfortable.
You can experiment and look for inspiration, or you can let me do this for you in the Stunning Style Classic Wardrobe Guides. I shop the internet and find all the pieces for a curated seasonal wardrobe, and I incorporate a few trends into the guide each season. With the 100 outfits included in the Guide I show you exactly how to wear them. Then with the Style Steps I guide you through experimenting with them so you can really personalize how you do (or don’t) want to wear them.
I just got back from our shopping trip for the Fall Classic Wardrobe Guide, and I have a lot of packages arriving today. Before I go on these trips I study the trends and figure out which ones will work best for us, because not every trend works for Classic Style and some of them seem like they won’t, but they just need a little tweak.
Find a Few New Favorites
It’s amazing what one or two new pieces can do to breathe new life into the rest of your wardrobe and expand your outfit options. The special pieces are the ones that tend to bring a dose of freshness to your old favorites with a pop of color or a dose of pattern, and the wardrobe staples tend to be the ones that expand your outfit options.
If you really want to make your wardrobe feel new, go for a couple of fall-appropriate items that will make you feel like you are really embracing the season, or a current trend. It could be a color, texture, or pattern that makes your heart sing like the hills are alive with falling leaves.
Shopping can be really time consuming and stressful if you don’t know what you are looking for, and now the options available in stores are becoming more limited because the world is changing, and so are the silhouettes. You don’t have to find new favorites in stores. You might find them in your closet, the things that have been buried beneath all the things you didn’t love. Going through your racks can be like shopping in a store and finding new, but actually old, favorites that you haven’t seen in a long time.
If you’ve been back to school shopping, you’re looking for fall wardrobe items. You may have noticed there’s not so much available because the retailers are releasing things later and later. Lucky for you I happen to love a challenge, and I’ve found some amazing pieces. This season I’ve found so many great things that my current dilemma is what I don’t include because I do keep it limited to a degree. I don’t have a specific number I stick to, but I can’t include everything. It’s a combination of getting the right quantity and coordination so that everything in the collection works together as a cohesive wardrobe. I’m currently working on curating all of these fantastic finds so you not only don’t have to hunt things down, you can do it all from your phone or computer through the member-exclusive Shopping Portal.
Gather Inspiration
Maybe you don’t want or need anything new. Your closet is stuffed as it is! In that case maybe all you need is a fresh perspective on what you already have. Inspiration outfits that contain pieces similar to what you already own can give you so many new ideas of how to wear old favorites.
You can find inspiration by looking on Pinterest or Instagram. Search for wardrobe favorites that you currently have, like “leopard flats outfits” or “red sweater outfits.” I also go for wardrobe staples in this case because that is where things can start to feel stale and boring. Try searching things like “black pants outfit.” Save these ideas to your Pinterest board for easy reference. You can either keep one just for outfit inspiration, make separate ones for each season, or one per outfit item you are looking for.
The Wardrobe Guide has 100 inspiration outfits, and I hear over and over from members that they’ve had many of these items for years and never thought to pair them in the ways that I share with them. Their wardrobes feel new just from new combinations, no purchase necessary!
Shop Your Closet
I guarantee you have more in your closet that works for you than you realize. Instead of shopping the stores for a few new favorites, you can probably shop your closet and find things you’ve forgotten or didn’t know how to wear. All you need is a little of that inspiration we were just talking about.
Last week we talked about the the essentials that make up a stylish fall wardrobe, and we announced the Shop Your Closet Challenge starts this week! Shopping your closet to discover old favorites, hidden gems, and recognizing trends in what you do and don’t love will propel you out of a style rut as you rotate through more items that have perhaps sat untouched.
As you work your way through your closet, you can slowly purge your closet by keeping and discarding items as you go, making it something that just happens effortlessly over time rather than an overwhelming weekend dedicated to a chore that you dread.
I specifically base the guides on classic pieces you probably already own, and then I add a few special pieces to refresh your wardrobe, if needed. And chances are, you may have something that already works for those too. The intention of the guide has always been to shop your closet first, and some of my members shop their closets exclusively. Nothing makes my heart sing like when a member tells me, “I didn’t need anything new this season, I shopped my closet for the whole thing.”
One of the first Style Steps we take together is I show you how I shop my closet for the current guide. This helps you see how I substitute for most of the collection and give members ideas of how they can do the same in their own closets. Whether it’s swapping out colors, switching items, picking a different pattern, or incorporating these things in different ways, it works for each of us individually – because none of us are clones and our closets can all look very different.
Shop Your Closet Challenge
With school starting, Labor Day looming, and summer coming to a close, we want all the fall feels, even if the leaves aren’t falling yet. All of the outfits in this season’s Shop Your Closet Challenge are transitional outfits that will help you get that autumn vibe, even if it still feels like swimsuit season.
I don’t know about you, but where I live, September isn’t sweater weather, no matter how much I want it to be, but I still want to embrace the fall season with my outfits. For me, fall begins the day after Labor Day. To help you get out of your style slump and dress for fall, we are starting the Shop Your Closet Challenge today. If you’ve been with me for a while you know how fun these challenges are!
Starting today, Wednesday, August 24th – Monday, August 29th, I’ll share an inspiration outfit at 2 p.m. ET in the Capsule Wardrobes for Classic Style Facebook group so you can shop your closet for the next day’s outfit.
The purpose is to dig into what you already have, get fresh inspiration to wear things you own, and get creative about how you wear what you’ve got. Your creativity will really flow as you mix up the outfits based on what’s in your wardrobe and your personal style and preferences.
Share your outfits in the group and each outfit will enter you to win a $100 gift card from Kendra Scott because nothing elevates your outfit and tells your style story like a great accessory! I love their quality and these are pieces that will last a lifetime. I am featuring some Kendra Scott items in the Fall Wardrobe Guide, and this is a great way to bring in something new to refresh your wardrobe.
4 thoughts on “5 Tips to End a Style Slump”
Hello to the stunning style Team.
I‘d like to join the Facebook group.
Kind regards,
Marion
Hi Marion, here is the link to join the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/classiccapsuleconversations
What color is your blouse? I’m not sure what shade of red or purple? anyway you look amazing on it.
Thank you for your useful article, I will save this link so that I can use it