I shop to build, not to keep up. The more I hone my personal style preferences, the less derailed I feel from my intention of approaching my wardrobe as a long-term investment. 

We all know how precious our attention is and that it can be captured in a heartbeat. I never mind stopping to admire something beautiful like a colorful collage, dreamy mood board, a thoughtfully layered room or new fashion silhouette. I see it as art and I appreciate how good it makes me feel. Is it the colors, the fabrics, the silhouettes, the novelty? How could these translate into my own life?

Style is a hobby and hobbies are supposed to feel spacious and joyful like this. But the pace of this one can be overwhelming if you don’t stay anchored to what’s important to you. 

On an average day, I probably skim emails from 20 brands, read 5 influencers newsletters or Substacks and browse new arrivals on Shopbop, The Real Real, Net-A-Porter and maybe Zara, Reformation or J.Crew. I also check my saved searches on Ebay and Vestiaire Collective daily. 

I like to stay in the know around things that are relevant- like trending denim fits, leather totes and bags, every day jewelry, sneakers, belts, easy knits and sweaters. The things I wear the most. And I also love the thrill of finding something you weren’t expecting here and there too.

I’m an item girl. Always have been, always will be. That’s how I shop. My gut just lights up when I see something I know is for me. Every piece stands for new possibilities and creative freedom. I love being the stylist of my own wardrobe, mixing and matching things in new ways- and often times surprising myself too! 

After Sweet & Spark closed, my closet was brimming with special items like puff sleeve sweaters, bell sleeve tops, polka dots, eyelet tops, lacey tanks, fuzzy jackets and sparkly sweaters. It was pink and frilly and girly, exactly how we imagined the brand to be. But as I had more time to play with my own clothes again, I realized I was missing core go-to items like denim, jackets, bags and shoes to balance out the sea of fashion.

I didn’t have a lot of money to invest all at once and it was really frustrating. I wanted to evolve my style as my identity was shifting and I felt stuck, like I couldn’t buy everything that I wanted.

So as an ex-merchandiser, I decided to study my own closet like I would an assortment to come up with a vision and strategy for building my own dream collection over time. 

I counted every single item in my closet. I owned a total of 400 pieces including outerwear, blazers, pants, jeans, shorts, tops, tanks, skirts, dresses, swim, workout wear, bags, shoes, belts, hats and sleep/lounge wear. The only categories not in here are jewelry and scarves because I have ridiculous amounts and it would throw the numbers off.

Then I went category by category and analyzed what I wear the most and why (you can read most of them here). I also took note of any holes I had or things I’d like to try in the future. In doing this exercise, I realized that I would love to eventually own a closet full of 600 pieces. 

That also seems to be the size that would fit beautifully into the pristine closets I see on Pinterest. The ones with two walls facing each other- one full of printed dresses, skirts and jackets and the other full of comfy classics like button downs, ribbed knits, v & crewneck sweaters, cashmere cardigans, new balance sneakers, blue and white jeans. And top shelves full of bags. I imagine I’d have plentiful options to effortlessly make daily outfits from with a closet like this. A girl can dream.

My vision isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s about having a closet that truly supports my life. One that would allow me to:

– Pull cute seasonal looks for Valentine’s Day, Christmas and New Year’s
– Easily pack for ski or beach trips
– Celebrate big events like milestone birthdays, presentations or weddings
– Have plentiful afterwork and weekend outfits that feel cute and comfy
– Feel luxe here and there in leather, suede and silk
– Have things I feel confident in for date nights
– Own special vintage accessories to personalize looks
– Have lots of jacket options for layering in San Francisco
– Feel put together when I’m working out or hiking
– Establish a print and color POV that feels like me
– Have plenty of special printed jackets, dresses, skirts and pants
– Feel comfortable, creative and confident

I’m about 200 pieces away from my 600 piece goal and currently in the process of getting there. This is how I’m thinking about it:

Ideally I’d love to invest more into each piece I own, setting an average budget of about $250 per item. Now obviously here and there I like a good Zara or H&M find, and also sometimes I splurge on a cashmere sweater,  jacket or vintage find when I know I’ll wear it a ton for many years to come. 

To get my estimated investment for this project then, let’s take the $250 and multiply it by the 200 items I’d like to increase my closet size by. It comes out to $50,000. That’s a lot! No wonder why it’s been so frustrating.

I decided to look at it from a financial perspective to understand what’s realistic. I googled how much a planner recommends you spend on clothing per year and it’s about 5% of your take home pay. I spend about 10% a year because I value it more than other things like travel and eating out. 

So let’s say, if you’re making $200,000 a year and allocate the 5% norm to clothing shopping, you’d have $10,000 to allocate to this project per year. So it would take you about 5 years to build your collection up to your ideal 600 pieces. That is, assuming you don’t get rid of anything along the process. This is the stage I’m in and I’m thinking of it as a learning phase, really getting to know my  preferences before moving on from things. 

Once the baseline of your collection is established, I’m thinking of closet maintenance and annual budgeting something like this:

Every January you clean out 10% of what you own, or about 60 pieces. Many of which you can re-sell on Poshmark, Depop or The Real Real for around 30% of the original price, especially as you invest in better brands and quality. That would generate about $4,500 towards your $10,000 annual budget, giving you about $15,000 to spend total that year.

It establishes a general shopping list for the year ahead too! So 60 items to shop for with a budget of $15,000 is about $1,250 a month and around 5 items. I’m not overly strict on my monthly spending but I do keep a running spreadsheet for the year of what I’ve purchased and what else I’m keeping my eyes out for. It helps me stay on track and feel confident with my spending.

This approach has made shopping fun again! Like it was in the old days when you spent an afternoon at the mall shopping with your girlfriends, buying a bunch of things at one time. I remember the high I’d be on the next week, getting to style them at school. Back then there was more time in between shopping excursions, probably because the mall was an hour drive away, which really forced you to appreciate what you already owned. You could try out new style preferences by sharing clothes with friends instead of buying new. 

I write this to slow down my own fashion consumption and ease the pressure I feel around my hobby as well as help you understand how you could think about your collection too. Only 12% of Americans make over $200k per year. The volume of new things we see in our inboxes and on our phones make us feel like we should be buying new things all the time but when you stop and do the math, nothing about it is realistic. Building our dream closet takes time and care.

The more intentional we are, the more we can enjoy all the inspiration around us!