2021 Wardrobe Plan and Intentions

I put together a wardrobe plan to guide my sartorial purchasing decisions in 2018, 2019, and 2020. As we all experienced, there was a shift in my wardrobe and outfits in 2020, driven primarily by my new work from home situation. I relied heavily on loungewear and activewear to get me through the year/pandemic in general.

Here’s what was on my 2020 wardrobe plan:

• Focus on fit and comfort
  This was easy to do last year, even if it didn’t end up being quite what I had intended when I wrote the post! I bought many new comfy things to wear to WFH and spend time at home. I did discover that I had to size up in jeans (silly me, buying jeans), but I decided life is too short to stuff myself into jeans that are too tight to sit in comfortably. If that means sizing up to accommodate my pandemic body, then so be it! Comfort > a number.

• Try new styles
  I didn’t really do much of this; I kept to basics and things that I knew I’d wear. With the lack of socialization and traveling, there wasn’t really an opportunity to try new styles. I suppose if bike shorts count, that was one new style I tried and adopted, haha!

• Don’t overthink summer
  I definitely didn’t overthink summer style in 2020, haha! I basically lived in various sweatshirt or tee and lounge or bike short combos. I found my holy grail comfy lounge shorts that I’m excited to pull back out this summer if for some reason I’m still WFH. If not, at least I’ll have them for the other hours of the day!

• Trust my gut
  I feel like I succeeded at this one—I returned items that didn’t for me, and overall there were a bunch of items I loved and only two I didn’t as seen in my best and worst purchases post!

• Shop small and secondhand
  This 100% happened! I discovered so many new brands and retailers in 2020, many of them small, and I was introduced to a number of amazing Black-owned brands. I added new clothes from eight new-to-me brands and am looking forward to discovering more in 2021!

• Take care of the clothes I have
  Admittedly, I haven’t been doing a good job at this. I write this as I have an actual heap of clothes on the bed after shooting the photos for this and another post. Instead of putting them away, I keep piling them on my clothing rack (when not needed for photos). I don’t know why but my closet organization is seriously lacking right now. It doesn’t feel like I’ve added many items to my wardrobe but suddenly it doesn’t all fit. And I’ve been putting off hand washing my sweaters (trying to avoid the dry cleaners for environmental/pandemic reasons). UGH. I have so little motivation for much of anything right now and one of those things is hand washing.

I think my WFH situation is slated to end sometime this year as the vaccine continues to roll out, so it’s hard for me to think ahead to what might change once I need to go back into the office. (I’m not really looking forward to it, TBH!) Because of the uncertainty, I’m not making any big wardrobe goals for 2021, but I did want to outline a few intentions. I used past years as inspiration!

2021 Wardrobe Plan and Intentions

• KISS (keep it simple, stupid)
  This seems fairly self-explanatory, haha! For me personally, simple and easy outfits are always better, and that’s generally what I wear already. No overthinking it. So, I plan to stay the course and keep buying and wearing things that are simple and easy! Simple can mean different things (focus on my very favorite items, buy basics, wear neutral color combinations, etc.) and doesn’t have to mean less interesting or no layering.

• Shop small, Black-owned, and secondhand
  I’m keeping this intention going for 2021 but adding Black-owned brands and retailers! I’m excited to discover new brands this year, browse for more new-to-me gems on Poshmark, and maybe even check out a few local boutiques (fingers crossed!).

• Pay full price for the right items
  This ties into the intention above—I’m so conditioned to paying sale prices that I cannot fathom ever paying full price at retailers like J.Crew, Madewell, etc. I do want to support more smaller brands, which usually means paying full-price. It’s still hard for me to swallow paying full price for clothes, but it’s necessary and I can afford it now because I’m no longer living on a grad school salary.

• Limit impulse purchases
  On a similar vein, don’t buy something—whether it’s at full price or on sale—just to buy something. I felt a stronger urge to impulse shop coming back in 2020 with the lack of spending on travel and other things. Putting things in my cart and then abandoning it really has been helping me realize what I definitely want to add to my wardrobe and what I don’t really need (if I keep thinking about something, probably should give it a shot).

• Buy easy-care fabrics
  I’ve slowly been whittling down my items that cannot be easily cared for. I still have a death grip on my cashmere sweaters even though they require more delicate care (see hand-washing situation referenced above), but I’m done buying silk that cannot be washed or 100% rayon because it shrinks in the wash. It’s too much work and I’m too lazy to baby all of my clothes.

• Audit my closet prior to heading back into the office
  I plan to go through my things and figure out if there are any holes that need filled, i.e. what basics do I need to repurchase in a new size. I’ve purchased a couple of new pairs of jeans in my new pandemic size that will definitely come in handy when I have to go back into the office.

There are some things I’ve done every year, namely budget my purchases and track what I wear, and you can expect that to continue this year. I don’t think I’ll be adjusting my quarterly budget but I might make exceptions if I find items I love from smaller businesses!

Did you set any wardrobe goals or intentions for 2021? Let me know what’s on your list!

ITEMS FEATURED

Naadam essential $75 cashmere sweater / Marine Layer Manchester bomber jacket / Madewell Deville cardigan sweater (old) / Amour Vert Daria pompom sweater (old) / Madewell Cali demi-boot jeans (old; similar) / Everlane curvy authentic stretch high-rise skinny jeans / Earth Uptown Uma snakeskin-print mules (old; similar by Madewell) / Marc Fisher Yommi chelsea boot (old; similar) / Songmics bamboo garment rack (old; similar from Amazon)