How to Rebuild Your Wardrobe When You Have to Start Again

Reader Question: I’m am at a weird place in life where I get to ‘start over’ with my wardrobe after kids and losing almost everything due to black mold exposure. I am trying to have a plan for how to start on a wardrobe that better reflects the real ‘me’ to the world.

I am a mom, but also a lead singer/songwriter and web designer. I have sung as a lead singer for rock bands, but I am not much into the skulls and crossbones/snakeskin stuff. I love natural materials (cotton, wool) and my coloring is medium in value.

My question is: how do you dress more Rebellious when black all over is a little overpowering for your coloring? Do I stick with black on the bottom and grays up top? I still love rock band T-shirts, leather stuff, metals, etc. but I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard. I also have elements of Creative, Natural personality styles and am a hopeless romantic. I am a hodgepodge!

You Don’t Have to Be in a Rock Band

No matter what your personality or activities, so many women have to rebuild their wardrobes from scratch or close to it at some point in their lives. This is why these tips work for everyone, no matter your style!

Watch the Video to Find Out More

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Who Are You Now and What do YOU Love?

There is more to the rebellious spirit than just the colour black! It’s about design and details as well as fabrics (leather and studs) and patterns as well. And if you are a reader who is not a rebel, you can think about these same questions for yourself as well.

Given that you have to rebuild from the ground up – it’s worth thinking about:

What you have most enjoyed wearing (and are saddest about throwing out)

What have you owned in the past, that you’ve had to dispose of for any reason (it wore, out, no longer fits, it’s gotten dated) but you loved it and got lots of wear from it. It made you feel good in some way or other.

What was it, what did you love about it? The fabric, fit, design details, colour, pattern …. go into detail here on what it is you really loved about it.

How did that garment make you FEEL when you were wearing it? Find a few adjectives to describe how you felt wearing it.

What you have least enjoyed wearing

Yes, there have probably been some garments in your wardrobe you’ve had no issue getting rid of. You weren’t wearing them anyway, or anytime you wore them you didn’t feel great in them. Let’s now look at what it was about them that made them losers for you.

Again, think about fabric, fit, design details, colours, patterns and anything else.

I’ve always loved this teal and turquoise kimono – it’s so versatile and I love the drape and how it feels – it dresses up simple outfits

Let’s compare these two lists – your love and loathe lists.

What are the differences?

What do you want more of?

What do you need to avoid?

What’s Your Personal Brand?

Identifying HOW you want to be perceived, aka, what you want people to think about you when you’re not in the room will help you get a clearer picture of what you want in your wardrobe.

What do you want people to know about you at first glance? Is there something that you’d love people to think about you, your personality, what you stand for?

The more you can identify with adjectives and create a style recipe from this, the easier it will be to then move onto the next stage which is to turn these words that you want into search terms and start curating images that are a visual representation.

Create a Personal Brand Image Pinterest Board

Then start curating pinterest boards (or the like) which items that speak to your aesthetic and your style recipe. Collect 20 or 30 (or more) images that speak to your aesthetic and desired personal brand style. With each image ask yourself “does this say (INSERT YOUR STYLE RECIPE HERE) to me? If the answer is yes it goes on your Personal Brand board – if not, ask why not? What does it say instead?

Start Rebuilding Your Wardrobe

Of course, you want to know what suits your body today (make sure you know your body shape guidelines – if you’re not sure do my free quiz here) and your current colouring, as having a colour palette makes building a cohesive wardrobe where all the colours go together, making it versatile and easy to mix and match, will save you so much time, money and energy in the long run. If you’d love to have my professional opinion on your shape and colouring – you can get this all in my 7 Steps to Style program.

When you have identified what you love, what you want, and what works, start searching shopping websites – don’t head into the stores, do online research first as you’ll find you can much more easily narrow down where to shop to find what you’re after.