"Luuucccy, where's my white collarless shirt from Fred Segal??? It's my most responsible-looking outfit!"
(totally did that one from memory and am super impressed with myself right now)
Since my post this morning was a little light, I thought I'd throw a little more info out into the universe on this gloomy Monday. I'm llinking up with Fashion Beauty Friend Friday to talk about how I plan my outfits.
1. How do you go about picking your outfit for the day? It's honestly a mish-mash. I usually try to pick out at least one thing to incorporate in an outfit for every day of the week (which is helping me accomplish my goal of wearing everything in my closet this year), so I'll pull those out of my closet and hang them on a door-hook to make them easily available. Occasionally I'm really organized and productive and I plan out a few days' worth of outfits, which is always great because it streamlines getting ready in the morning and I iron those clothes ahead of time. If I don't do that (which is most of the time), I try to pick something out the night before so I can iron it, but a lot of times I just wing it in the morning. This can be somewhat of a challenge because 1/2 the things I pull out to wear will be wrinkly and I absolutely don't have time to iron in the morning (it's much more important to snooze 6 times before I get out of bed, amirite?). Am I the only person who constantly has this ironing/wrinkly clothes problem? I hope not... So it's pretty much random - I try to plan but usually don't, in which case I end up picking the same day. I also have tons of Pinterest and magazine/catalog tears as inspiration, and I have other ideas listed in Evernote and in notebooks I carry with me, so I turn to those if I can't think of anything when my brain isn't working at 6:00 a.m.
2. Do you try stuff on and then take pics to see how it looks, like Cher in Clueless? No, but I always think about that Polaroid scene when I'm doing outfit photos - "I don't rely on mirrors, so I always take Polaroids!" I seriously love that movie. Occasionally I'll try something on ahead of time if I'm not sure how it will work together, but usually I just put it on when I'm planning to wear it. If it doesn't work when I put it on, I just pull other things out of my closet until I find something that works (or doesn't... in which case I try to learn from my mistakes).
3. And are you consistent in your planning or lack thereof, or is your planning limited to special events? See #1 - I am totally inconsistent. It kind of works for me though because I don't want to be so rigid that I plan every single outfit every day, but sometimes it helps time-wise to have a few things coordinated ahead of time. I also never feel like I'm absolutely limited to what I plan out - if I don't feel like wearing what I planned, I just save it for another day and go with whatever I'm feeling or whatever the weather is commanding me to wear. I do always try to plan ahead for special events like vacations, weddings, or parties, because (a) it's fun to anticipate events, and outfit planning allows me to revel in that, and (b) there's nothing worse than needing a fancy dress or a bathing suit and not having one - you can never find one if you need it the next day!
4. Do you have a way of keeping track of which outfits you wore when? Nothing I do specifically for that purpose. I try to have an editorial calendar of what I'm going to post when, so sometimes I have certain outfits listed on dates just so I know which pictures to use. And then of course I have this blog, which I occasionally look through to make sure I'm not duplicating an outfit (especially when remixing an item), but nothing specifically to remember when I wore it.
5. How do you come up with new clothing combinations? Inspiration pics! I have tons of magazine and catalog tears in binders (the old-school Pinterest), my stuffed to the brim folders on Pinterest, and I constantly keep up with other bloggers and celeb pics for inspiration. From time to time, I'll copy an outfit totally with pieces I have, but more often than that, I pick out one piece I want to wear and then try to build an outfit around that, either just making it up or using other photos for inspiration.
How about you - what's your outfit planning process? I love hearing how other people do this! And be sure to check out Modly Chic to check out other answers and add your own!
