What To Wear When You Have Nothing To Wear
I know you’ve stared at your wardrobe plenty of times and despite clothes actually hanging in there, you’ve groaned ‘I have nothing to wear!’. We’ve all been there. That’s usually why I get a call to make an appointment and solve this issue by working out why you have this problem - but I have a great remedy for you if you’re in a bind and can’t book just yet. Let’s find you an outfit!
This week on Youtube, I made a video all about what to wear when you have nothing to wear, this goes through my three biggest tips but I’ll break those down below.
Use These Outfit Formulas
First things first, having some easy outfit formulas up your sleeve will make getting dressed so much easier. Outfit formulas are like recipes for an outfit. You can use these regardless of the size of your wardrobe and if these any formulas here you can’t make, because you’re missing part of the formula - you know what you need to add to your shopping list!
Jeans & A Nice Top
HEAR ME OUT! Especially if you were born after the 90’s. Your mothers, aunts and stylish women in your life swore by this when struggling with outfit choice. There is a trick to it though, if you want it to look elevated, wear your nicest top. If you don’t have one, switch it to a lovely jacket, or use a necklace to lift your top. What makes this work so well is the contrast between something dressy and something casual. I added heels to my look in the video but there’s a variety of ways you can do this.
Fun Pants & A Casual Top
This is the inverse of the last one, but a great option if you’re a pants girl! Often we save our ‘good pants’ for special occasions but they can easily be dressed down with some basics like a t-shirt, knit or button down. In my video, I’ve styled my leather pants that I would normally reserve for face to face sessions with clients into a casual look with sneakers, a denim jacket and striped tee.
Jacket & A Dress
It sounds vague, but try these combo’s: denim jacket and sneakers with a dress, leather jacket and boots with a dress and blazer and flats or pumps with a dress. These will take your dresses from casual to work to going out in a flash! You might discover just how versatile some of your dresses are too!
Sandwich Your Look
It’s so easy to pull a great look together by matching your shoes to your top or jacket. It will look effortless and match without being too ‘matchy-matchy’- and you’ll find more ways to get use out of coloured shoes! You can of course use this method with jackets rather than tops and neutral shoes like black, brown and white footwear options.
Match Your Belt To Your Shoes
It could be a simple jeans and tee outfit, or a cute dress that needs a little waist-work, this trick is an instant outfit lifter and will encourage you to expand on your belt options. Most people have black belt lying around, try this on with some black shoes - see? What a difference!
What To Wear When You Have Nothing To Wear Solution 2: Pinterest!
I love a quick hit of inspo and Pinterest is a great place to get it. Use it like a cheat sheet, if you don’t know what to wear, pick a top or bottom from your wardrobe and describe it in simple terms. In my video I had a green shirt so I typed in ‘green shirt outfits women’ and voila! Soooo many ideas for green shirt looks, I was spoiled. Then, you simply find a look that has other pieces in it that are similar to yours, I found a purple skirt and remembered one lovely one I have and BOOM - a new outfit is born using two items I’ve had for years. I never would have put that combo together if it wasn’t for Pinterest.
Try Some New Colour Combinations!
We often wear our clothing in the same colour combinations and struggle to see new ways to wear colours if it isn’t pairing them with black or denim. So let me introduce you to three easy colour pairings that you can try with your existing wardrobe:
Contrasting Colours:
These are opposites on the colour wheel. Keep in mind, you don’t have to pick the boldest version of every colour. Red and green contrast but deep green and deep red look beautiful together and so does pink and lime green. They’re still opposites, but now you don’t look like a christmas tree!
Harmonious Colours:
Think of these as next door neighbours on the colour wheel, red and orange, orange and yellow, yellow and green etc. Remember what I said a second ago about not picking the boldest version of those colours? Try a rich red and burnt orange - gorgeous!
Monochromatic Colours:
Probably the easiest pairing because we’re all creatures of habit and tend to buy a lot of the same colours, so work out what that colour is and wear it in different shades down your body. Not only will the colours match but it’s a very slimming and calming way to dress!