Yep. I love stripes. I love dresses. And that is why I have more than one striped dress in my newly extremely-pared-down closet. I have reduced my clothing items by at least 50%! and it let me tell you, it makes getting dressed in the morning incredibly easy and actually enjoyable. I can now highly recommend selling or giving away a lot of clothing and only keeping the stuff you absolutely love. So what if I’ll be wearing a lot of the same outfits over and over again. If they are outfits I love, I’ll feel better wearing them, and frankly I don’t care if anyone smirks, that dress again???
So now that I have significantly less clothing, I have noticed a real pattern in this wardrobe: lots of neutrals and not much color, but big on patterns and simple pieces that can be mixed and matched quite easily. I’m hoping to keep it that way by not buying anything unless is it high-quality and will survive many years of waxing and waning trends. In other words, if I can picture myself wearing something 5 years from now, I will save for it. If not, I don’t need it. Also, sticking to a strict weekly budget has helped me avoid impulse-buying. I have a couple of things I have been saving up for, and if I come across something else, I always have in the back of my mind, do I love this item more than the Hudson Tie-Back Ankle Boots I have been saving up for over the past 2 months? And you know what? The answer is always, always, no.
Hat: thrifted; Striped Songbird Dress: Madewell; over-the-knee socks: JCrew; boots: Anthropologie (3 years ago– but if you are in the market for some round-toe gray boots, these are cute!)
Enjoy your Wednesday!
Adorable outfit, as always!
Oh, I need to reduce my closet by AT LEAST 50% as getting dressed is sometimes overwhelming! And, when I do re-organize or clean out my closet I’m like “OH YA! I forgot about that shirt/dress/pants” because it was tucked behind a bunch of other things I don’t often wear.
And, oh! How I am guilty of the impulse buy. I might try the “In 5 years” approach!
Looking awesome as always. I am officially jealous of your boot collection. I only have one pair of leather boots that weren’t great to begin with and are so beat up now. We have so much snow and salt on the roads here during the winter that it kills all my nice leather shoes and I end up in snow boots or wellies, but I’m thinking about getting one great pair of boots and just trying to treat them right.
I am the opposite of an impulse buyer when it comes to clothes for myself, I go back and forth so much that I end up passing on stuff that I wish I had gotten. My impulse purchases are usually in the overpriced chocolate and cheese categories 🙂
Wow. I’m pretty impressed with your fall clean up! Good job. That dress is so sweet, I can just see myself pining for its awesome simpleness and never achieving it. Just not a minimalist I guess. Your stylings, of course, look good on you. I love how you can pair bear legs with more fall-ish outfit of boots and scarves and frocks. Lovely. I guess it’s as good to get your more minimalistic wardrobe kicks through a stylish mama on the internets 😉
Happy Fall!
Only you could rock those thigh highs!
Hey Lauren- since your closet has some room… I was perusing Etsy and came across a fabulous B’MORE
t-shirt & thought of The girl from Baltimore!
It’s on SmashTransit site.
Happy days… !
Adorable. Love the socks especially. I have been contemplating socks with boots so am glad to see how you pulled it off!
I’m so inspired by your ultra pared down wardrobe. I just went through my closet and sold a lot to a local consignment shop but I have a feeling that I could get rid of a LOT more.
Love your stripes and boots!
xo
cortnie
Looking gorgeous as ever. You inspired me: I bought your “other” striped dress after reading your post about it. Have not worn yet but can’t wait.
Completely agree about paring down and buying pieces that you love that will last.
Am currently coveting these boots. What do you think? (With striped dress?)
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/miz-mooz-bloom-boot/3109004?origin=keywordsearch&contextualcategoryid=0&fashionColor=Red&resultback=0
Miss you tons.
xoxox
Your outfits are always so great. And I am really in love with the pairing of boots with dresses.
You look great! And great idea and approach. I’m too guilty of the impulse purchase. I also go to shop with an event in mind and that’s a mistake too. Not good. Don’t know if you read or heard anything about the Vanity Fair article about President Obama, but it was fascinating on a lot of levels…bear with me here! We were stuck in traffic for five hours coming back from Callum’s cross country meet a few weeks ago, and I read it out loud to my guys. A part that Neel loved is that Obama only has black or gray suits. He has too many other decisions to make to worry about what to wear! My husband LOVED that. Loved it! It reminded me of your post. And my plans today already were to clean out my closet!
Dude I want that dress and there’s a size 4 on ebay, but on the website said it runs small… Does it? Thanks Lauren!
Lauren, I think it runs true to size, but if you wash it, be careful. I think it would shrink in the wash. I wear it all the time, though, and get loads of compliments! I say go for it!