The Color of Closets

Have you ever noticed that the pictures of closets on magazine covers feature all matching clothes?

 It's brilliant.

Italian sociologist, Vilfredo Pareto observed that we get 80 percent of our results from 20 percent of our efforts. This 80/20 rule carries throughout numerous situations and has inspired many books and references over the last few years. It also applies to your closet.

You wear 20 percent of your clothes 80 percent of the time. We all have our favorites. Clothes can be a favorite for many reasons, cut, comfort, style, sentiment, but today I want to talk about color. You are choosing certain colors over and over again because they make you look and feel your very best.

Personally I love white, cream, pinks and yellow. These are the main colors in my wardrobe. All of my purses, shoes and accessories compliment these colors. I can interchange multiple shirts with various pants and skirts, and each pair of shoes compliments at least three other complete outfits. I have one cream coat that goes with everything. This eliminates my need to buy one pair of shoes for that random purple shirt that doesn't go with anything else I own. I call this interchangeable effect my "rule of three", everything in my closet can find a place with at least three other outfits to complete the ensemble.

Narrowing my clothes down to my favorites like this allows me to pass by fads that wouldn't look good on me anyway and would end up a complete waste of money. I spend a lot less on clothing because I'm not distracted by every sale or fashion whim designers throw my way.

You want the closet of your dreams? Start with the clothes of your dreams. Organize everything by color and instantly your clothes will look so much more appealing. If you are afraid of letting go of the complete rainbow packed in your closet, just put your least favorite colors or the colors you seldom wear, in a box and put it away for a month. If you really must have that burnt orange sweater that goes with nothing else you can always dig it out of the box at the end of the month. Most likely, however, you will find that you are happier not having to force your way through a packed closet in order to get to your "makes me feel like a super model awesome pink shirt."


What is your favorite color to wear?