How to build a wardrobe full of colours that work for you!

Hey gorgeous!! A happy new year to you. I know I’m a bit late to the party but still…hehe!! I know this year has so much in store for you. And I too have even more in store for you this year. So, stick with me as you did last year.

Now, on to the business of the day.

The title of this post sounds long and complicated, I know, but the details are pretty simple.

 Are you tired of having a closet full of clothes, but having to overthink how to put them together to create outfits? If that’s you then you’re in the right place.

This article is meant to help you create a smaller but more functional wardrobe, one that really works.

One of the main ways we can go about streamlining our wardrobe while increasing its functionality is to pare down the number of colours we wear. But how’s a lady to go about that?

1. Observe the colors you naturally gravitate toward.

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Look through your closet. Do you see a colour trend? What colours do you tend to reach for when you shop?

Of course, you may gravitate toward certain colours only because someone you trusted in the past told you to wear those shades, but you don’t actually like them or even feel comfortable in them.

That’s why you need to reconsider those choices. If you’re happy with them, great. If you realize that you’ve been stocking your closet with certain colours that other people chose for you, you may want to switch those up.

I personally gravitate towards white, red and coral pink. So, I purposely buy items of these colours because I know for sure I like them.

2. Think about the colors that garner the most compliments for you.

What colours are you wearing when you receive compliments on your appearance? It’s mostly colour that brings on the compliments, not so much style or cut or even textures. The colours that cause people to stop and take a second look at you are probably good choices.

3. Consider your personal style essence or personality and your lifestyle.

In the future, we’ll talk more about style essence or style personality. I’ll discuss lifestyle and how it affects our wardrobe. Each of these (personality and lifestyle) could help determine the colours you prefer to wear.

For instance, if you’re a laid back lady and enjoy working and spending time outdoors, you may want to stock your closet with more earthy tones like brown, beige, or at least the colours you see in nature, like green, blue, red.

But if your personal style essence is distinctly feminine, you may prefer pastels.

4. Select your signature colors.

You might have expected me to suggest choosing your neutrals first, but we’ll get to those next. First, after following steps 1-3 it really makes more sense to select your signature colors. These are the colors that you believe will best tell your story. 

These are the colors that:

• you naturally prefer and reach for.
• you enjoy wearing.
• you get compliments in.
• you love.
• make you feel like you.
• make you happy.
• fit your lifestyle and personal style essence.

I suggest narrowing down your signature colours to 3-6. These colours can change with the seasons or with the trends. It’s really up to you. For instance, you may want to have one set of signature colours for cold seasons and another set for warm seasons.

So far, I have decided that my signature colours will be white, yellow, blue and red. There will be a little bit of coral pink too, for some weird reason I have grown fond of this colour.

What about you?

5. Consider your skin, hair and eyes.

What about skin, hair and eyes? How do these play into the equation?

Your skin tone and undertone are more important when considering the exact shades of the colours you choose. For instance, if you have warm undertones, you may want to wear an orange-red instead of a blue-red. And you may choose peach instead of pink.

Or if you have cool undertones, you may get better results wearing brown with a blue undertone instead of brown with a yellow undertone.

But for the most part, you can wear the colours you choose. You’ll just want to be careful of the undertones.

I shared more information about discovering your undertones and how to take them into consideration on my IG stories, click here to check it out.

6. Select your neutrals.

Once you’ve selected your signature colours you’re ready to choose your neutrals. Think about which neutrals – black, grey, brown, camel, navy, burgundy or olive – work best with the signature colours you’ve selected.

Here are a few other considerations when choosing neutrals:

• If black looks too stark on you, consider going with grey. It’s softer.
• If you spend a lot of time in blue jeans, you might want navy blue to be one of your neutrals.
• You might want to decide whether you’ll mostly wear white or off white. That may influence the choice of your neutrals.
• Your neutrals will generally be the colours for your wardrobe-essentials like t-shirts, camis, trench coats, jeans etc.

I suggest choosing only two neutrals if possible. Usually, you’ll find that you can wear almost anything in your signature colours with two neutrals, but if you throw a third one in the mix it complicates things.

I’ve decided my neutrals year-round will be white and grey. I will mostly wear white instead of off white. However, I’m not getting rid of the off white pieces I already own.

7. Throw in some accent colors if you desire.

You’re not actually limited to the neutrals and signature colours you’ve chosen. But these will simply make up the bulk of your wardrobe. If you still want to wear the other colours in the rainbow, just use them as accents – maybe in jewellery, shoes, scarves, handbags.

You’ll want to choose accent colours that complement or contrast with your signature colours and work with your neutrals.

What are Your Colors?

I’d love to hear if you have decided on the colours of your wardrobe. Are you joining me in narrowing down your wardrobe so that it works for you better? Let me know.

And share with me if you’ve decided on your neutrals and signature colours. And of course, let me know if you have any questions.

That’s all for now, thank you for spending time reading through. If you found this article helpful the kindly share the link with your circle. God bless you.