Microdosing Color (baby steps, people)

Plus a January sartorial recap, my February shopping plan, and a funny phrase borrowed from my Dad

Well guys, I did it. A year after logging my closet into Indyx, I finally used it as a daily tracker and I logged every day this month (extra credit, I followed along with Angie Uh’s extremely fun January challenge) … and I have some thoughts. What else is new?

A) I need more color variety* in my wardrobe. Like, literally, I am CRAVING it. And it makes sense! Look at this sea of navy, black, white, brown, and denim.

B) I would like some lighter boots to add more depth to my all black outfits while I slowly but surely add more color to my clothing assortment (more thoughts on that below).

C) Believe it or not, every outfit below is made from just 30 items. Most worn? My Lexi Pistola jeans at 19 wears (that tracks) and two of my new shirts - the COS white long sleeve at 9 wears and the Buck Mason navy sweatshirt at 12 (side note, if I wear it like a scarf, I put it upside down on the flat lay). I think this really proves I was desperate to wear something new after a year of buying only two shirts. The above count does not include coats, shoes, or jewelry, BTW.

Angie’s January challenge definitely helped me to push beyond my go-to outfits- here are a few favorites from this month:

I bought this jacket over a decade ago after I stopped to browse in Theory and just had to have it. I couldn’t afford it, but I threw caution to the wind (as a 25 year old does sometimes) and I’m SO glad I did, because man, I love this piece.

I believe the challenge this day was to wear something you hadn’t worn in a long time, which for me was hard because I have such a small wardrobe and I wear it all. It was freezing and I really wanted to wear a sweater, so I added this slip from my honeymoon (sorry if you’re reading this, Mom) underneath for a sort of Row inspired vibe. I felt so fun all day! I don’t think I would wear this out of the house without a winter jacket over it, but it jazzed up my day and mood for sure. The sweater is a men’s JCrew cotton one and jeans are Pistola Lexi (lol of course they are). Boots are the Caty from Matisse and they are fantastic. Three years old and barely any visible wear!

This day was “wear something that makes you feel confident” so I HAD to go for a short skirt! When in Rome, baby. Jacket is old Club Monaco and skirt is COS. Boots are Madewell!

Science Center bound (can you tell this pic was taken on the weekend and not while my kids are at school? Haha I’m such a neat freak ugh. Why do I even feel the need to call this out!!!) Iro jacket via TRR, old Gap denim shirt, and CoH Ayla. May I also humbly suggest the JCrew field sneaker as a nice non-branded basic sneaker? Mine are well loved, clearly!

*I’ll be honest, I feel a little intimidated on how to even begin adding color back into my wardrobe. So I came up with the first baby step: microdosing color. By this, I mean- jewelry with color, new nail polish colors besides my one go-to red, and shirts in non-color colors (think: grey, khaki, olive green, and shades of blue). I think when I adjust to the above and it starts to feel more natural than the black/navy uniform I’m used to, I will be able to take the next step with more color and maybe, MAYBE, pattern.

To help guide my choices, I pulled together the following moodboards;

Clockwise; button down, muscle tank, clutch, grey sweater, sunglasses, beige sweater, boots

Clockwise; cream shirt, grey shirt, necklace, boots, button down, nail polish set, navy blazer, green bag

Before we move on, I want to talk for a second about what I did NOT wear this month. Mainly, these two dresses:

Denim dress (old) from COS and black sleeveless wrap dress (very very old) from Everlane, worn over my beloved Dissh (old) sheer shirt.

I REALLY love this denim dress, but struggle to wear it in winter because I don’t love it with a black boot, and that’s all I have. Another staple I love is this black wrap dress, but again, black boots feel so uninspired with it. Then I saw these images from Rachel Comey and was like THAT! I want that!

I mean… more interesting, right:

Aren’t these mockups so fun? Well, making them is actually my idea of fun haha. If that tells you anything about me…

I promised in the title of this newsletter that I was going to share a funny phrase from my dad, and this brings us to it. Growing up, my dad (who is hilarious) had a funny term for food like rice, grits, bread, etc- he called them “Butter Delivery Vehicles.” Those foods were, to him, a tool to consume as much butter as possible. Because who doesn’t love butter?? Well, I’m here to say that in my Rule of Five year, one of my biggest takeaways was using shoes, bags, and jewelry as “Butter Delivery Vehicles” to get more bang for my buck out of a limited wardrobe. It’s basically just a really weird and long winded way to say, accessories (aka delivery vehicles) are a tool to maximize how much wear you can get out of your existing wardrobe (aka butter). Because isn’t it more fun to be weird and long winded? So! I think a lighter boot, or a snakeskin boot (!), could be the butter delivery vehicle I need to start wearing some neglected, but well loved, pieces again.

Which leads us to my February shopping plan. First of all, I am holding myself to this promise: in-person shopping. I have a plan, but am holding space for a surprise love-at-first-try-on experience. Open minds, open hearts.

With that being said, this is my goal framework:

Tops -

• Button up (blue)

• Light crewneck sweater (tight waistband, not loose)

Boots -

• Ankle boot (light)

• Knee high boot (light)

Jewelry -

• Earring with color (green?)

Before I buy ANYTHING I always test each item (or something similar at the very least) out in Indyx first to make sure it can play well with my other clothes. Here is an example of some mock outfits with the addition of a button down, a crewneck, a lighter ankle boot, a lighter knee high boot, and a pair of green earrings (those are on the top row- bottom row are examples of outfits I really wore this month, for comparison):

The bottom row is not broken! I still love these outfits! But the top row expands on them, stretching them a little bit further and giving me more variety. This is going to sound very stage-five clinger to mention her AGAIN, but I switched to a paid subscription for Angie’s substack and her recent post about the importance of breadth in your wardrobe is GOLD. It’s something I’m putting a lot of emphasis on this year, so stay tuned!

Until next time, and thank you for reading!

Emily

P.S. I thought it would be interesting to share a picture of my closet from 2010 … I’ve changed, huh? Look at all that color!!!! Pattern! Stripes!

K bye!