My Minimalist Style and Wardrobe

Hi, Minimalist community peeps!

The countdown's over but I still want to write one for Week 2. Here's my entry:

For this challenge, I pick option 3:
How do you pick a minimalist style and maintain your minimalist wardrobe to stay stylish and fresh without the need to purchase new items?

Before answering this question, let me share with you my fashion background.

Stylish isn’t exactly something I can use to describe myself. I’m not really known as a fashionable dresser. In our schoolpaper (waaaaay way back in high school), I remember being described by the writer as “ever simple”. That for me some sums up my “style” when it comes to clothing. I like keeping things plain and simple.

In my teenage years, “plain and simple” means anything my aunts give me: their Christmas gifts and hand-me-downs, so I don’t have to think about what to wear. One of my aunts is a flight attendant with great taste on clothing, yet she has a different figure from me. So, I’d mostly be sporting stylish clothes that are awkwardly-fitting during my younger years.

But when I started working and buying my own clothes, that’s when I began finding my own style. Of course, the first pieces I bought were those that resemble the style of the aunt I admire–fancy, dark- and neutral-colored, and flattering to the body. The amateur shopper in me, though, purchased dresses that are difficult to match with my shoes, see-through blouses that gives a peek into my underwear, woolen pieces that are way too hot for the Philippine weather, and other clothing that makes me feel uncomfortable.

Over the years, though, I realized that comfort is something I wanted to prioritize in clothing. When I’m comfortable with what I’m wearing, I feel more confident. I don’t have to worry about my cleavage showing or I won’t be sweating like crazy.

Motherhood and the pandemic have also strongly-affected the way I choose my clothes. I no longer have to go to the office and wear stuffy business-casual attires. I’m mostly at home. This means, I’m free to wear my plain gray tees, comfy shorts, and jammies. When we go out, I wear the same tees with my favorite jeans. From the many clothes I bought and received, I’ve just been using those pieces–around 20 to 30 apparels–for the past two years.

(Here’s how my look now. Even the hair looks more comfy and minimalist)

After that comprehensive background on my fashion history, here's my answers for the challenge:

How do you pick a minimalist style without feeling the need to purchase new items?

Well, I consider my comfy plain gray tees and overused ripped jeans as minimalist. I love my gray shirts since they fit me well, I can move freely while wearing them, they’re easy to pair with my limited bag and footwear collection, and they accent the minimal curves I have. I feel beautiful and confident while wearing them. Right now, I have five pieces and they pretty much serve as my everyday uniform.

If I’m happy with them, I don’t see the need to buy new pieces. I have already tried a lot of clothes. None of them make me as happy and comfortable as my gray tees and ripped jeans. Why get more?

How do you maintain your minimalist wardrobe to stay stylish and fresh without feeling the need to purchase new items?

For me, a stylish and fresh minimalist wardrobe consists of only a few pieces I really use. These include my gray tees, a few whites, and stripes; jeans, shorts, and jammies; and comfy flattering dresses for special events.

To be honest, I can’t consider my wardrobe as minimalist right now. Although I have already given away 3 boxes of my work attires during the pandemic, my closet is still cluttered with pieces I hardly use. When I see these clothes, I can think of a myriad reasons why I can’t wear them. It makes me like a highschooler, I don’t have a matching shoes for it, and many more.

My goal is to trim my wardrobe down to the few pieces that truly “spark joy”.

Here are my criteria for the clothes I’m letting go:

• Ill-fitting
• Those that don’t match my style
• Those that are complicated to wear (see-through or knitted since I have to wear bands underneath)
• Those that make me sweat
• Some of my clothing that need special care in washing (I hardly wear them ‘coz washing them scare me)

Here’s my plan for letting go of them:

• Give my remaining business casual attires to job-seeking relatives and neighbors.
• Hand down my remaining university clothes to young ones.
• Sell the good ones that I can’t find a fitting owner that I know.
• Donate the remaining ones.

The goal is to find them an owner who would use them. Or else, they’d be stuck again in the closet.

Here’s to hoping that I find the time to do this. Keeping a minimalist wardrobe that matches my style, I know, will provide me a lot of benefits. I would have a cleaner-looking closet and I can easily find the clothes I want to wear.

Thank you @millycf1976 and the minimalist community. I enjoyed this challenge! I'd try my best to submit one for week 3 :)

I also want to thank @discoveringarni for inviting me to join this challenge. For some time, I’ve been meaning to join one of the contests from this community since a minimalist lifestyle is something I want to follow. Thank you for giving me the nudge to finally participate.