In 2014 the Coletterie blog began a series called Wardrobe Architect. The idea behind this was to encourage a more mindful approach to sewing clothes, to help us to think about what we need in our wardrobe rather than just sewing pretty dresses and things we would wear maybe once but would never make it into general rotation.
Wardrobe architect icon from Coletterie
I only stumbled on this when they began the second series in 2015, but very quickly read back over all of the previous entries which talked about minimizing 'stuff' in our wardrobes and working around a 'signature look'. I think I was very guilty of having all sorts of clothes, some of which I bought to match pretty much everything, but others I struggled to put together. I remember thinking about what I would wear for work the next day and thinking "I want to wear that top, but that doesn't go with those trousers, but the only trousers it does go with are in the wash" and ending up wearing something I felt a bit rubbish in.
So over the summer I thought I would give the Wardrobe Architect approach a go. So I figured, with that feeling like a fresh start I could talk about my experiences of following this approach and how easy it has been, and how easy it is to follow the 'useful items' sewing. My aim is to have a wardrobe full of things I feel happy and confident wearing, things I feel excited about making and things I feel are really beautiful and really 'me'
The WA series has been broken down by Coletterie into different stages, the idea being that you do a different task each month. Of course as I read it all in one afternoon I've not so much worked in order as seen a task and thought 'ooh that's a good idea, I'll do that now' so I'm a bit all over the place.
I won't reiterate all of the stages here, they can all be found at Coletterie, but I will talk about the stages that I did spend time thinking about, how easy they were to do, and how they've changed the way I think about my clothes and what I make.
The 2014 series focussed mostly on being mindful of how you would like to present yourself. The first few tasks I found really helpful in planning my wardrobe/sewing projects, making me much more organised, and surprisingly more confident.
Photos from Pinterest
Task 1 : Defining a style...
This task asked you to think about what you feel happy wearing, whether you prefer smart tailored clothing, pretty girly dresses, or casual jeans. Because there's so much choice in the shops it's so easy to have a bit of everything, but this doesn't mean that we feel each look is 'us'. I found that by actually sitting and thinking about what I like to wear I realised that I'm actually very comfortable in blouses, really feel confident in dresses and skirts, and am rarely out of a cardigan. So ok, that's somewhere to start.
Once again... Pinterest
Task 2 : Exploring shape...
This task I really loved! It's all about thinking about the shape of your outfit, what shapes you feel good in. It also goes quite in depth to think about details like do you prefer long or short sleeves? Do you like a low waist or a high waist? Do you like loose clothes or skintight clothes?
This is fantastic to take into consideration when choosing patterns, what's the point of buying a pattern with a drop waist and mini skirt. It might look great on the model or the hundreds of other bloggers, but I'm never going to feel comfortable wearing that. Give me a knee length dress with a big skirt and I'm happy.
Guess what... Pinterest
Task 3 : Building silhouettes...
I loved this task, it was all around thinking about putting outfits together when planning what you want/need to sew. This is something I am very guilty of not doing, I see an item of clothing I like and I go for it worrying about what to wear it with later on. The result, something I can only wear with one pair of jeans or no cardigan to match or just a really unusual colour/pattern that I never reach for.
I managed to identify three distinct silhouettes which I love to wear and know I feel good in. Skinny jeans with a floaty loose blouse, skirt/dress about knee length with a cardigan, and loose tailored trousers with a shirt and yet another cardigan (can you sense a theme here?).
Using these three silhouettes (one being for work) I can plan which sewing patterns to work on for the coming season. It might be that my chosen silhouettes change next season, and that's fine, I can pick new ones and new sewing projects to meet those needs
Task 4 : Your colour story...
The focus of this task on the Coletterie blog was to look at your colouring (hair, skin) to see whether you suit warm or cold colours, which of these you're likely to wear, and selecting from these a neutral (beige), a mid neutral (chocolate/plum/blue) and a bright (something that would stand out). I would really encourage reading over this particular task, It is quite a useful one to use alongside tasks 2 and 3 to Actually construct a functioning comprehensive wardrobe rather than a jumble sale of stuff (unless that's the look you're going for!).
While I didn't go all out with colour charts and picking mid neutrals to match my neutrals (a bit in depth for me), I did find it a good prompt when I've bought fabric since. Now I don't just look at the pretty pattern or colours, I actually think about how it will fit in my wardrobe and which items I can make with it. It has also given me inspiration to follow a general colour 'scheme' of colours I really like to wear and which colours compliment these. I also realised how much I like navy grey and red.
So I know this has been a very long, very talky post. But I hope it's been helpful and given you an excuse to spend all afternoon reading the Wardrobe Architect post on Coletterie and see which parts you find really useful. The 2015 series went much more into developing a capsule wardrobe... But I'll come back to that later
No comments:
Post a Comment