Makeover Your Wardrobe on a Budget
Fashion isn?t as superficial as it seems. In fact, making over your drab wardrobe into a fabulous collection can really make a difference in your daily life! It is a project that will change the way you feel each and every morning. You will open a closet door to a wardrobe of clothes you love, feel good about yourself when you look in the mirror, and walk through your days with confidence. To top it off, your man will be thrilled to see you looking and feeling beautiful, re-energizing your relationship with attraction and passion.
The most important part of your budget makeover will be pruning your existing wardrobe, dealing with the dust collectors and making room for what you really want. Then, you will find creative ways to revamp what you have left with some budget shopping.
Make sure you have plenty of time set aside, a weekend preferably. Clean your room spotless the day before so it is a feminine oasis for your makeover. The day of, prep yourself for a great day of girly fun. Shower, shave, tan, and do your hair and make-up. You want to feel your best. Create a playlist of fun female empowering songs to rock out to while you work. Have plenty of good snacks and drinks around as well so that nothing, not even hunger, will hinder your mission
Step One: Get Inspired
Look through fashion magazines to see which of the latest trends catch your eye. You always want to have a few up-to-the-minute pieces in your wardrobe. Focus on real street wear, though. Don?t let yourself become a fashion victim. Runway ensembles are artwork, not for real life, ladies.
Search online for a celebrity fashion body double. Think of stars that have your similar body shape (even if the size is different, look for similar proportions) to help you see new fashion possibilities. Keep the magazines and web addresses hand so you can refer back to your body double throughout the makeover process.
Step Two: Weeding the Closet
Get many boxes or shopping bags and arrange them near your closet.
Begin weeding your closet, filling your bags like so:
Box #1 Anything that you love, but has a stain, a tear, or is missing a button. Also in this box should be the items that don?t quite fit because they are too big, too long, or needs another sort of reduction alteration. Even if you wear these items as-is, throw them in the box ? it is makeover day! The last items that should go into this box are faded pieces, especially black clothes.
Bag #2 is your ?someday? bag. If you are working toward a physical goal, there is nothing wrong with hanging onto smaller sizes to wear when you reach your goal. If you are not actively working toward a goal, there is no reason to torture your self-esteem with them every day. Hopefully, most of these items will go into bags 3 and 4, but if you must keep them, box them up, label them, and stick them in the back of your closet.
Boxes #3 and #4 One box is for give away clothes and the other is for throw away. Weed out items that are too? anything, too short, too tight, too uncomfortable, too fashion risky. Also weed out anything that accentuates the part of your body you don?t want highlighted, like your love handles. If you haven?t worn the item more than a couple of ?trial? times in the last year, go ahead and toss it into your give away bag. If the piece embarrasses your family when you wear it, you change out of it when any company comes over, or you don?t feel pretty when you wear it, it has to go as well. This probably includes your very favorite sweats, jammies, and jeans that you bought new a decade ago. They must go now, but don?t be afraid, they will be replaced. Out of your discarded items, choose whether or not you think someone else would like it or whether it should be tossed. One is bag #3 and one is bag #4.
Box #5 Any specialty clothing items. Off-season garments like sundresses in winter, clothes you only wear on tropical vacations, snow gear, etc.
The only items left in your closet should be ones that you love, that you feel beautiful in, that your SO loves on you, or that you have a fashion ?vision? for.
Out of the items left in your closet, there are bound to be garments that you don?t wear because you don?t have the right coordinate, accessories, or shoes. These are the items that go into bag #6. Don?t worry, they aren?t leaving you. They are coming shopping with you!
Fashion Guidelines
Before moving on to filling up your scarce wardrobe, it is time to pause and go over basic fashion guidelines. Use them to comb through the clothes remaining in your closet for a final thinning according to these fashion guidelines.
Skirts: The general rule is that the hem line should never end at a [relative] wide place in your leg. It gives the impression that you are wider than you are. The most flattering skirt end at your tiniest places, depending on your body shape, it might be just under the knee, at the knee, or a few inches above. The expectations are layered, ruffled, or flare bottomed skirts that end mid-calf. As for the waistline, consider all sorts. You may have anywhere from a low rise to one of the new retro fitted waists that reach up near your ribcage for a trim lengthening effect.
Pants and Jeans: Skinny jeans are for the very slender, and only for the very slender. Most wearers of skinny jeans look more like they are being squished out the top of the jeans than having their bodies accentuated by the form fitting design. However, the next step up, slim stretch straight legged pants, look good on many body shapes and sizes. The safe and surely flattering choice will always be straight legged and boot cut pants on all body shapes. Flare and relaxed fits are absolute no-no?s. Not even your gardening pants are allowed to have either of those leg cuts.
Test the length of your pants. If you are standing barefoot, you should just be able to step back onto the end of the leg with your heel. With flat shoes, the pants should come close to grazing the floor behind your heel, no more than 1/3 inch off the floor. If you usually wear heels with your pants, then up to
