How Your Closet Should Work Like A Kitchen・Closet Talks
My closet was transformed when I started thinking about my wardrobe like a kitchen. How well one functions is largely based on how much time, effort and practice I put in.
Since I realized this similarity I’ve been drawing parallels ever since, so if you’re like me, once you see it, you can’t stop seeing it!
The ingredients are the clothes that make up our wardrobes, our personal styles are our different flavors and unique tastes (the spices we love to cook with OR the flavors we gravitate towards.) We gravitate towards similar styles of clothes and flavors of food of what we know and love. Just like when you go to a restaurant and are drawn to the food you know, your personal style is made up of what’s familiar to you, what you know you love and know how to wear, what you know you look and feel good in!
Most of my closet is comprised of neutrals, but some like a spicier wardrobe and bring the heat with bold colors, prints and patterns! Your spice cabinet or ingredients will always look slightly different from everyone else’s, with maybe a few commonalities but the core of your style will be unique to you. You wouldn’t compare your fridge ingredients to someone else’s, what they keep stocked is what they like, so why compare your style to someone else’s?
The one-off, one trick pony kind of pieces in your wardrobe (that are either too fancy for your every day life, aspirational purchases you may have made, the items that can only be worn one way, etc.) are like the rarely used ingredients in your spice cabinet: smoked paprika, cream of tartar, vanilla bean pods, whatever it is for you!
Once you remove all the noise and all the unused ingredients taking up space in your closet, you can take stock of the ingredients you use daily. (More on a practical approach to this at the end.)
If you’re figuring out your personal style, start with the ingredients you know how to use and build from there! Don’t be embarrassed that your signature dish is something easy like spaghetti, use that to your advantage and utilize what you’re confident with- if you love wearing a white tee or your favorite lululemon leggings then build from there - don’t think of it as basic or boring - it’s a spring board to building more outfits and trying different recipes!
The reality of cooking and building a wardrobe that you love is that it takes practice, every great cook or stylish person started somewhere.
Just like how someone can look in a fridge and see only stand-alone ingredients, someone else might look at the same eggs, green onion, milk, peppers and cheese and see an omelet! In the same way, it takes practice to look at your closet at its surface and see finished outfits, but it IS possible, you can train your brain to see your ingredients and envision the end result!
I don’t want to leave you without a place to start, so start here: use the tools you have, accessories, inspiration and your gut.
Accessories are the kitchen tools of completing a recipe, that last pinch of herbs to finish off a dish, the addition that elevates an otherwise casual outfit. Like accessories, some kitchen tools are non-essential but man can they make cooking a smoother and easier experience. If accessories are an after-thought for you, consider what categories you could add to, to raise the confidence level of your outfit recipes. Jewelry, hats, bags, even makeup are all accessories.
Inspiration is a huge tool, if you’re reading this, you’re on one blog in a internet sea of blogs where you can get endless ideas for FREE! If you’re on Instagram, they have a bookmark feature on each post/video which allows you to save outfit ideas or style tips easily. Pinterest is also a website/app built entirely on the idea of spreading inspiration in a place where you can easily save each image and come back to it. (If you ever need an outfit idea in a pinch, go to Pinterest and search what you want to wear such as “black dress outfit ideas” and you’ll immediately have hundreds to choose from!)
Gathering inspiration from others is essential human experience to feeling like a more experienced cook in your closet.
Your gut is your greatest tool. Because at the end of the day you know you used too much salt, no matter what anyone else says and when you stand in front of a mirror and your clothes don’t make you feel good, it should be an easy answer! Use your gut when trying different styles, trends or outfit recipes for the first time. Never ever wear something just because someone else does or says you should.
One easy way you can take stock of the ingredients you use most and help you see what you value most in your closet, is with the Clean Slate Challenge! Its a hypothetical concept I created last year that so many of you found helpful, I decided to do it again in 2022, I’ll link the blog post explaining it here.
If you enjoyed this closet talk, I have many others saved on my IG page here. On mobile, you will see the option to search by series, select “Closet Talk”. That series and my “Style Tip Tuesday” videos include a lot of resources and answers to style questions you all have sent me.
Should I bring some of that older content over to my blog? Let me know if that’s something you’d like to see! Xx Aimee