Are your clothes too good to wear - title card

We all have those pieces that seem too good to wear.

We fell in love with them in the store and we’re worried about ruining them doing mundane tasks. So we save them, adoring them gathering dust and wishing we had the right place to wear them. I hear you!

I can think of one item I came across recently, a client had this gorgeous blue Cue dress, she looked fantastic in blue and felt even better in this dress. I asked her what she normally wore the dress with and what she does in that dress. Her answer was that it was her going-out dress that she wore maybe once or twice a year, and held onto in case something came up in her calendar that required her to get a little more dressed up.

The interesting thing was that this dress cost her more than her average dress, yet she wasn’t wearing it and it would waste. She was instead flogging her around the house clothes and feeling a little dull in her day-to-day outfits. I recognised what had happened instantly, I’d been in this situation before myself and with other clients. She’d mentally categorised her item, something that made her feel more fantastic than many other pieces in her wardrobe, and told herself that feeling fantastic and expensive is for special occasions. Gorgeous, no!

Fashion pieces a little more fancy than normal casual wear

We all are guilty of this to some degree, we have our good clothes and our regular clothes, the good clothes we spend more money on and wear less, the regular clothes don’t always make us feel good and were often purchased on the fly without much thought into what the whole look could be, but we wear them because apparently, everyday outfitting shouldn’t make you feel fab. What’s the deal with that?

A few minutes later, I had her pop it on with sandals and a lightweight jacket and she was wearing something suitable for lunch, catching up for a coffee or just going about her day looking gorgeous. We then turned it into a winter look by adding stockings and a thick leather belt, and fabulous boots. After that, we layered a medium weight jumper over it and transformed the dress into looking like separates. She was gob-smacked, and at the end of it all, she could still wear it as a going out dress but had so many more uses for something that she’s only really been able to look at in the past.

We often mentally categorise certain items in our wardrobes that we don’t see past these categories and try to mix them into other areas. Now, before you get your statement necklace in a twist, I was to say that this blog post is not about convincing you to wear your most formal gown to the supermarket, but I’m hoping to convince you to take those things that could cross over into smart casual or work attire and give them a chance to be worn. They’re there for a reason, you love them! Wear them!

Sometimes you don't need to remove an item from your wardrobe, you just need to recategorise it

That blazer you wear to work for special meetings: could it be put on with some fabulous jeans, heels and a cool tee and worn out for drinks?

Could that silk blouse you wear at work pair with jeans, a skirt or dare I say leather, outside of work? What about those pencil skirts? Could they be mixed with a tee and a denim jacket or cardigan and turned into something a little more effortlessly chic? You bet they can!

In this post, I want to show you some ways you can dress up and down items we’d normally categorise into an area of our wardrobe and leave it. I want to help you break those items out and give them the attention they deserve. Are you ready? Let’s go!

RE-PURPOSE WORK CLOTHING:

Often we have lots of work clothing, but not much casual or smart casual in our wardrobes. Work out what you need for work, and bring out any leftovers from work into your smart casual clothing. Changing up a shoe, accessorising with a scarf or even adding softer fabrics like wool, or t-shirt fabric can stop you from looking like you’re wearing work clothes out.

UPGRADE THE WORK-HORSES

If you’ve got pieces in a certain area of your wardrobe that needs replacing, look in other categories of your wardrobe before replacing them. Instead of having three pairs of work flats that you don’t wear all of, take one of those pairs to replace a worn out casual pair. Shop your wardrobe first.

USE ACCESSORIES TO DRESS UP AND DOWN

This isn’t always a case of change the bag and shoes and voila! Your outfit can be dressed up and down in other ways. Adding a felt hat or a scarf to an outfit can give you a warm wintery look, putting a woven leather belt over a linen shirt and a pleated floral skirt can help you work a special occasion skirt into a summer day outfit.

HERE’S A CHALLENGE FOR YOU!

Separate your clothing into casual, work and going out clothes and then pull out one thing from each category that you haven’t worn in a while because it’s too good to wear. Jump online to Pinterest and search for images of that type of item, on there, you’ll see some alternative ways to style it.

You could be looking for different ways to work a navy pencil skirt you purchased for the office or a way to make your maxi dress more of a casual autumn outfit option. When you’ve found some fresh ways to wear it, shop your wardrobe first, before going out to buy anything. You’ll probably find you’ve got so many more options in your wardrobe than you originally thought and those pieces that were too good to wear can suddenly be worn in so many more ways.