Shopping like a French Girl: 5 pieces per season

A while ago I decided that I had enough of my increasingly excessive spending habits and buying so many clothes that I hardly wear. Also I'm continuously dreaming of creating an ideal wardrobe consisting of about 30 pieces that I can endlessly combine and that are forever stylish. That of course is a bit Utopian, but a girl can dream. Anyway now I think found a way to realise that dream- well almost- in three simple steps.

Mucking out my Closet > Restructuring my Wardrobe > Shopping like a French Girl

You might have read about the first to steps before in recent posts, if so scroll down for the bit about Shopping like a French Girl. A refreshing way of shopping, that I'm super into lately!!!

Mucking out my Closet:

From now on I will sort out my closet every year. All things I haven't worn for the past year, if ever, I donate to charity. Clothes that have become to young looking for me get donated as well. Not to the H&M "I just want to buy more clothes here"-charity but a proper one, because most things can definitely make someone else happy.

Restructuring my Wardrobe:

First I'll divide my wardrobe in two. Work and Play.

Work

I'm slowly building up a work-wardrobe. Classic, professional looking pieces that I don't need to many of to look good every day with outfits such as you can see below. These will be quality pieces that will last a few years. This might mean I have to spent more money at first, but will save me money in the long run.

Play

The play part will consist of clothes that I can wear at home and on social occasions other than work. This part will be 3 layered. The first two layers will be Classics and Basics. Basics speaks for it self really. These are items like camisoles, leggings and plain white t's. Classics are items that never (as in "probably not during our lifetime") go out of fashion, like the Trench coat, the Breton stripe, etc.
If you acquire a sufficient amount of basics and classics you'll only need to add on trendy pieces and dress up with your favourite statement accessories to make an endless combination of outfits and you'll always have something to wear. If you buy good quality basic and classic items this will reduce the number of clothes you need to buy each season and you can spend more money on the trendy items and statement pieces.

Here's my favourite Classics and Basics:

So on to the interesting bit about SHOPPING!!! :)

Shopping like a French Girl:

Inspired by one of my favourite bloggers Sabrina Meijer from afterDRK I recently got sucked into the world of Shopping like a French Girl 

 the Idea

The idea is simple but very effective: only buy FIVE new items each season. Don't be to shocked, basics don't count, nor do essential items that need replacing (as in "they are so worn or ruined they need to be thrown out", don't cheat yourself!). For me only work wardrobe and classic items fall into that category. OK and maybe the odd favourite too. Shoes, bags and accessories don't count either. When they are designer or just overly expensive I feel they should count as one, however. Originally there are two seasons Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. But I feel that if you live in a country where the weather is so all over the place as in Holland you should be allowed to divide the seasons in four (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). To compensate I'll be more strict on the things I count as one of my French Five. For example a black blazer is quite the basic piece, but if it’s one with a heavy price tag, it will count as one of the five. Less shocked now? See it's not so bad ey?

the Real World

I'm afraid it's not going to be so easy as I think though. A complete change of my shopping philosophy is needed to pull this off. Even Sabrina claims to have failed the first time. Since, you have only 5 items you can buy (each season!) you really have to think about what is worth buying, what will last for a few seasons and what goes well with your existing collection. At the moment I'm still creating my wardrobe's basis of Classic and Basics and buying clothes that I'll only wear to work. So, sticking to my French Five is easy for now, but I fear the coming Winter or Spring will be really hard!

the Bright Side

There is some good that'll come out of this too, that I feel will after a while become my a big motivator to continue shopping this way. I will save a sh*t load of money from not impulse buying and buying less clothes overall. The clothes I will buy will probably be of better quality and will go well with the clothes I already have. Chances are that most of my French Fives will become treasured favourites, or so I keep telling myself!


The first of my French Five for Autumn 2013 is this Cape from H&M. I'll keep you guys posted on the other items for this season soon!