How to Create a Functional Wardrobe from Just Ten Items

It’s Saturday and I’m wearing my cream cashmere v-neck today. I was thinking about how often I wear it.

NOTE: There are some things I don’t wear as often as I like because sharing my daily outfits with the internet compels me to create as many different outfits as I can. Honestly, left to my own devices (ie, I’m the last person on earth), there are like three outfits I would wear in rotation, always and forever. But that would make for pretty boring content, so…I try to maintain a good wardrobe remix practice. I like to think it’s an exercise for my right brain strength. All that to say, I WOULD wear this particular sweater multiple times a week…if no one was watching.

Which got me to thinking about the other items I wear the MOST. And to narrow it down to The Ten Items I actually wear the most throughout the year. And REALLY to narrow it down to “if I could only keep ten items, what would they be.”

This isn’t a “favorites” list. This is a list of the things I actually have been wearing the most…and are the most useful.

1. White Tee
2. Black and White Striped Tee
3. White Buttondown
4. Blue Chambray Buttondown
5. Cream Cashmere V-Neck Sweater
6. Black Cotton Cashmere Turtleneck Sweater
7. Grey Grandpa Cardigan
8. Black Straightleg Jeans
9. Medium Wash Straight Leg Jeans
10. Black Converse Shoreline Slipon Sneakers

And what it turned into was actually a neat little capsule wardrobe. I did some (oh god) math and came up with 46 different outfits from these 10 items.

In the warmer months, I could swap out the black turtleneck, the grey cardigan, the black jeans, and the black Converse for the Junarose dress, the cream longline Old Navy cardigan, a pair of black linen slacks, and white canvas sneakers. Without counting up again (it was like advanced calculus doing it the first time) I’m thinking that would keep the outfit count ABOUT the same.

I realize this sort of list isn’t for everyone (I can just hear Jodie asking WHERES THE COLOR??). But it was an interesting practice to me…to think about how far down I could boil my 100ish items…and still have enough different looks to not be repeating outfits at a recognizable level. And by that I mean…I feel like the more “statementy” something is, the less you can wear it without people recognizing it and being like “hasn’t she already worn that this week?” Remember the experiment I did with The Invisible Black Dress? No one notices a plain black dress (or black pants)…so you can wear it repeatedly, combined with different items and no one really notices.

Do we really want to live with JUST ten pieces of clothing? I’ll say that for most of us, the answer is no. Clothes are fun. They’re a creative outlet and a means of expression. They help tell the world who we are before we get a chance to SHOW who we are through our beliefs or actions.

But it is nice sometimes to clear through the weeds and see what the foundation looks like…it can help re-focus our priorities. Now that I see what items I actually wear the most…it seems wise when purchasing new things to be sure they go with any of the items on the list. For example, this spring I added the lilac v-neck pullover. That can go over both pairs of jeans, over both tee shirts, and over both button-downs. That one additional item is adding 10 additional outfits to my wardrobe. That’s some bang for the buck!

If you had to pick just 10 items to wear…what would those be?

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