22 December 2010

The Sustainable Closet blog series


Accessories Montage


As I mentioned a while ago, I've been blogging for The S.W.A.P. Team every week or two. Lately, I've written a mini series called The Sustainable Closet:

The Sustainable Closet: A Guide to Decluttering your Wardrobe
The Sustainable Closet: My story of Decluttering
The Sustainable Closet: Accessorizing a Minimal Wardrobe

I had a lot of fun playing with different accessories for the most recent article. I'm actually finding that I'm really enjoying my minimal maternity wardrobe at the moment. Everything goes with everything else, and choosing what to wear is so quick when there's only a couple options.

For reference of anyone else planning a small wardrobe, here's the maternity pieces I have:
1 dress, 1 tunic top, 5 tops
1 pr jeans, 1 pr trousers, 1 pr leggings, 1 skirt

I also have a few other tops and a couple extra pairs of jeans that were hand-me-downs from a friend. Fortunately, I love wearing cardigans, so most of my regular sweaters are still wearable. The dress and several of the tops I purchased seem like they may well continue to work in my normal wardrobe just as more gathered or stretchier items.

I think one of the keys for me not minding this restricted set of choices is that everything fits my current style. So no matter what I put on, I feel cute and comfy. My regular wardrobe has a lot of older items that are "just okay" for whatever reason. I've learned a lot from reducing my clothing, both due to moving overseas and now due to maternity clothes. I think I'll try to keep this going when I'm back to my "normal" clothes. It might not be for everyone, but a small wardrobe is definitely for me.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

2 comments:

Barbara Prime said... Best Blogger Tips

Your wardrobe really is ideal! I get a lot of my clothes second-hand, which is great in many ways, but can make it difficult to coordinate pieces. I used to just buy whatever looked nice, but now I try to be more selective, and only pick up things I know will work with my other clothes. Sometimes I get a bit bored with such a limited maternity wardrobe, but maybe I need to try accessorizing more.

Allison said... Best Blogger Tips

Hi Barbara,

Secondhand can be great for unique items, but it's tricky to build a whole wardrobe in my experience. I have my best thrift store luck when I have no particular plan. If you specifically need, say, trousers, it may take a long time to come across a suitable pair. Then again, I'm pretty picky about colour/style/quality.

With regards to maternity clothing, I am lucky to have access to H&M's maternity line here in Amsterdam. I think it's harder to find nice, inexpensive maternity basics in Canada.