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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

How-To: 90 Days of Outfits

Ever heard of the 30 for 30 challenge? Well, it's a closet remix challenge where you take 30 items from your closet and remix only those items into 30 different stylish outfits. This is quite a feat and kudos to all those creative ladies for taking the challenge! I'm certainly not quite up to it myself. But one day...when I grow another set of hands.

Until then, I thought it was very interesting indeed that Lucky magazine (March 2011 issue - I highly recommend picking this up) did a "how-to" using 26 items, costing less than $500 in its entirety, and styled them into 90 days of outfits!! Wowsa! Clearly $500 for 90 days of outfits (or ~$5/day) is super budget friendly. But you know what? I'd rather save my pennies for a rainy Burberry boot day. 

So instead, I broke down the article and applied their thinking to my existing overflowing (but I've still got nothing to wear) closet. Takeaway #1: You only need ONE dress and 

8 tops
2 pants, 2 skirts, 1 shorts
3 jackets 
3 shoes 
4 belts, 1 scarf, and 1 necklace.

Seriously? Seriously? What's all that other stuff doing in my closet? I am shamed. And ashamed.

Takeaway #2: Limit your color palette (sorry Kileen - the Color Brigade is for those with generous closets it seems!) The outfits in the article were limited to these colors:

black
gray
white
cream
brown
camel
safari green
red
denim
silver
turquoise
dark muted floral print (containing black)

I have all these colors!!! Don't you? I'm feeling encouraged, but still ashamed.

Takeaway #3: Take inspiration from the pros and fellow fashion bloggers! At last, this is what I've always wanted - the article provides 6 pages of fully styled outfit ideas with the exact pieces needed to create them. At long long last - inspiration for the lazy! And yes, that is also why I read fashion blogs. To be inspired out of my PJs and hard-earned cash!

Now here are the 26 items broken down by category.  

Tops:

1. Black tank top
2. Gray tank top
3. Floral tank
4. White long-sleeve cotton top
5. Red and white striped long-sleeve top
6. White button-down long-sleeve shirt
7. Cream-colored tunic
8. Camel short-sleeve sweater 

Bottoms:

Pants: 
1. Cream-colored cropped trousers
2. Skinny jeans

Skirts:
1. Light gray pencil skirt (matches the blazer)
2. Black pencil skirt

Shorts:
1. Black drapey shorts

Dress:
1. Sleeveless denim dress

Jackets:
1. Light gray blazer
2. Army green cotton jacket
3. Black leather biker jacket

Shoes:
1. Black and white striped sandals
2. Black suede pumps
3. White lace-up flats 

Belts:
1. Brown and cream woven leather belt
2. Black leather belt
3. Silver-colored leather belt
4. Black braided belt

Scarf:
1. Purple patterned scarf

Necklace:
1. Turquoise and silver bead necklace

Although I don't have these exact pieces, it'll be lots of fun to pull 26 similar things from my own closet and see if I can recreate some of the looks. You know, one day. After I do a 30 for 30. And climb Mt. Everest. 

How do you put together your outfits?

10 comments:

  1. Great post! I love this idea and although I don't have all those items, I know that there's so much you can do with a smaller closet.

    There's nothing wrong with outfit repeats and sometimes, it just takes a change of accessories or shoes to make the same outfit look totally different! =)

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  2. 26 items WITH accessories included? Wow, that is one incredible feat. I don't think I can do it... I have maybe half of the things on their list. Thanks for letting us know about this article. It's time for me to pick up a copy for myself.

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  3. I am really impressed - but I can't do it. It's hard for me to be perfectly happy with my outfits even with an overstuffed closet like the one I currently have. I do admire people's remixing abilities though and wish i can replicate those results myself.

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  4. I admire those who are doing the 30 x 30 challenge!!! I spend too much time in my closet thinking of an outfit..some days I love what I come up with- other days..I ask what was I thinking? LOL

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  5. Great post - thanks for breaking it down! I'll have to check out that feature, I have the magazine on my sofa table but just haven't flipped through it. I do think the list is generally of items you would already have so it makes it easy on the wallet for sure to recreate the looks.

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  6. How interesting... I always loved looking at those kinds of features but hadn't considered that I can pull it off with the things I already have in my closet... but I definitely should start thinking that way!

    Off topic but I love your nude Jimmy Choos btw! I really need to find a good pair of nude pumps too but haven't done much research yet. It's going on my list of to-try's!

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  7. I'm exhausted just reading that! But its a good way to think about scaling down our closets to the things that we would actually wear, instead of just taking up space.

    Amber Lena Fashion Bargainista.com
    outfits for sale from $10!

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  8. I'm a late comer to your blog, but I did want to comment on this post--I actually managed to reproduce all 26 items (shopping my closet, picking up some inexpensive fill-ins and modifying the looks for my personal taste and lifestyle.) This little wardrobe has carried me through late spring, early summer. I plan on translating the idea into colder weather wear. To be honest I added a little more color and a dressy dress for a wedding but all in all it's so doable that I don't know why I hadn't tried this on my own.

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  9. @Anonymous Wow! That's so great that you were able to reproduce the outfits! It's good to know that it's do-able. Thanks for sharing!

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