Using color choices for long term wardrobe

I was doing laundry this morning, got silly, started hanging matching earbands on scarves that were already hung to dry, just to share hanger space. And it made me think.


NONE of these were bought together. Some of these scarves and earbands were bought 20+ years and 1000+ miles apart.

How do I have a wardrobe that I can do this with?

I'm a thrift store shopper, upcycler  Upcycling clothes!  and I sew. But the trick to making all the weird things I do work is VERY EASY.

I only wear a limited number of exact shades of colors that look good on me. I know my colors, and that's how these match 20 years apart, they were my colors so I KNEW they would match when I paid 50 cents for them. Any prints I buy have at LEAST 2 of my colors in them, usually more.

I know exactly what styles, cut and fit I need, and I will sometimes buy something if it fits all my parameters except color and dye it to match.  

Because I have a limited palette, I can run amok within it and come up with a LOT of really interesting outfits. Geoff Lawton said "The more constraints placed on a design, the more eloquent the design, if the designer is equal to it." (I have that quote worded wrong, please PM me if you know it correctly.) So working within the constraints of my limited colors gives me a LOT of freedom to play with how items work together, and to find new patterns of what I can make work.

Do you limit your colors and styles? Does it help you have a long term wardrobe that all works well together?

They talk about things like this on the Netflix show "get organized with the home edit".  What caught my attention was their specialty of color organization, which I think appeals to most people.

It sounds like you're just selective with your colors

I definitely was picky with colour when I had a worky job, but not quite as good at it as Pearl Sutton clearly is.

I was happy to get 3 or 4 things that worked nicely and it drove up up the wall when a colour I could get one year seemed to be impossible to get for the next 10! Finding the precise shades/patterns/colours that suited my unique body type didn't help either.

However, a couple of years ago, my second hand corduroy pants died of old age. I really missed them. Buying pants has become increasingly frustrated, so I bought black corduroy fabric, found the pattern I used 30 years ago in the back of a drawer, figured out what I'd done back then to make it fit like the red pants I sewed and still wear (with a little help from my friends) and voila! New pair of comfy, nice looking, corduroy pants.

I was trying to decide what blouse to wear with the pants' debut when my DiL came by, so I asked her opinion. She thought the blouse I had chosen was gorgeous. I had sewn it 30 years ago!

Quality fabric in colours and patterns that suit the wearer are timeless!

This thread goes into more about making the combination of colour, style, adjustability (most people change shape as we age) and all the factors that go into what is called a  "Capsule Wardrobe."  Choosing a colour palette is key, but so is buying quality, timeless clothing.

Fast Fashion has a huge ecological footprint that flies in the face of everything I try to do in the name of permaculture on my land. Applying permaculture principles to my wardrobe is worth the time and effort.