Jennifer Scott and the ten-item wardrobe - mostly a ladies' post

After some of our comments on the previous post, I thought I’d like to say a bit more about how valuable I’ve found Jennifer Scott’s blog, videos and books.

Her TED talk on the ten-item wardrobe has been key, for me. I looked at capsule wardrobes for ages, but couldn't get it figured out somehow. But it's all fallen into place for me since I saw that - I'm not quite sure why. Now I can operate on a really small minimum of clothes without feeling I'm missing anything. I whittled it right down, and then a bit more.

Maria, who used to read on here, once made the wise suggestion of keeping a quarantine box, so if I change my mind I could retrieve things rather than having to buy again.

I do that, and have found it very successful. If, over time, I keep retrieving an item, wearing it for a morning, then remembering why I thought it wasn’t working in the first place, I  move it on (laundered of course) because by that stage I’ve got it firmly fixed in my mind why it doesn’t work, and I won’t replace it.

I think part of what has worked is the idea of a wardrobe with ten hangers in it.  My hangers are large and strong and have clips on the cross bar, so I can put a whole outfit on them – a skirt, blouse and cardigan. That helped me to think in outfits, and also limited me to thirty garments rather than ten, which felt easier to begin with.

Another contributing factor is that I’ve aged a lot in the last couple of years, and the tops I used to wear don’t suit me so well. Plus my size tends to fluctuate, so I had to work out how to address that: loose lagenlook linen dresses in the summer; in the winter stretchy straight skirts, shirts two sizes up tucked in, and a cardigan or waistcoat and jacket. If you aren’t sure what ‘lagenlook’ dresses are like, search ‘lagenlook’ on eBay/Google/Pinterest – very helpful solution for less than perfect figures and for women who like modest clothes but are not over-keen on the Little-House-On-The-Prairie look.

It’s well cold here in England at the moment, so I’m still in my winter wardrobe.

This is what I wear, from the base layer out! Full briefs, because they are practical and comfortable and I can’t see the point of briefs that cover only half my ample posterior. What they call a ‘comfort bra’ – ie a sort of stretchy crop top thing – because I have become very suspicious of the idea of tight corsetry around the bust; what about all those lymph nodes etc? What I wear is not very Trinny-and-Susannah, but I’m not all that enthusiastic about the Headlamps-Full-On look anyway, so hey. I wear a vest (underwear not waistcoat) if it’s cold.

Then in winter I wear merino tights. I am ashamed of the amount of money I’ve spent at Marks and Spencer buying tights in synthetic yarn, that all work downwards so the crotch is uncomfortably low. No thanks. Merino (also Marks and Spencer) stays put, is not scratchy, is warm but not hot. I like it. On my feet I wear ankle boots, flat walking shoes, or Vivobarefoot running shoes (depends where I’m going). I like the advice I read somewhere that you should be able to walk, run and dance in every pair of shoes you own. Not hobble –please!!  In summer I wear leggings and sandals. I have to keep my legs covered because I have cankles and awful varicose veins.

Summertime I wear scoop-neck tees under a sleeveless linen lagenlook dress, with a loose linen jacket over the top if it’s chilly.  Winter, it’s skirt, blouse and cardi.

My summer colours are mainly grey, white and blue. My winter colours are brown, green and grey. I have three cheery scarves and some fingerless mittens. If it’s windy and freezing and I need a hat, I fold one of the scarves and wear it as a headscarf.

Until recently I had some trousers, but I found them difficult to manage. Fine when just washed, baggy in no time. And then that verse by Noel Coward kept nagging away in my head:

Go clad your lower limbs with pants; 

Yours are the limbs, my sweeting. 

You look divine as you advance – 

Have you seen yourself retreating?

Once the thought’s in your head . . .

But I kept one pair (winter) and have some to wear with/under a dress (summer).

I wear a little blusher and lipstick, and I always wear earrings.

Oh – I have two pairs of PJs and a dressing gown (a warm winter one and a light summer one) and bedsocks. And I have a set of funeral/formal ceremony clothes (black jumper/pinafore-dress and shirt, black cardi, with black tights and black flat shoes winter or summer).

That’s it.

Here’s my winter wardrobe.

Here are the cheery scarves. 

The empty shelf above is where I keep my PJs, but one set is in the wash and I’m wearing the other right now. The small flat box on that shelf has my beeswax candles in – protects them from bright light and makes the clothes smell nice.

See the two big boxes under the wardrobe? One has all my shoes (I have big feet!) the other has my summer clothes.

This has all come together so brilliantly; I am delighted. The need to live with very few possessions is of great importance to me. Partly because of our slightly complex living arrangements – if I needed a large room to accommodate my belongings, the whole set-up would come unstitched. It’s also because, as a result of a series of big life events that made it essential I could manage in a tiny space with almost no storage, I gave up insisting on owning things and having the consequent space to put them in. I came to see that the possibilities open out in proportion to how few things I own. But, like other readers here, I do value books, so thank goodness for Kindle, eh?