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I am terrible at determining what looks good on me. I have always been bad and always make mistake mix/matching because I just can't tell what looks good vs. what doesn't. One method that I found useful was looking at my own picture gave me a different reflection of me vs. staring in mirror. For some reason when I look at photo I am more critical of myself & can identify when an outfit just isn't right for me.
I did this exercise once before few years ago where I took picture of myself every morning & later evaluated my outfit & determine what stays and what goes & what not to mix. Ex. I look like an elephant when I wear white pant with white top (I look huge, I never noticed it in mirror but photo made me vow never to wear those together unless its a full dress). I also found from photo that I have been wearing a pant 2 size too small and had visual crotch on my pant but I never noticed it in mirror.
But this photo everyday process takes a while. I was wondering for those hopeless like me in fashion department how do you clean out your closet and identify good mix/match items.
I'm a guy, so the process might be a little different, but maybe I can offer a few bits. As someone edging towards 40, and realizing that my clothes fell way short of the "adult wardrobe" I felt like someone of my age should have, I did a HUGE purge, tearing things down to about a third of the clothes I had before, and I now have begun slowly building it back up into something better.
The first thing I would do is go buy this book by Tim Gunn (it's available used for under a dollar) and read the whole thing, but especially the chapter on paring down your wardrobe.
In my process, one thing I did was take out every single item of clothing (minus underwear and socks, but I went through those separately) and lay it all out on the bed. Everything (except two items I had strong attachments to as keepsakes) that I just hardly ever (or never) found myself wearing got tossed/donated. Then I went through every shirt, pair of pants, jacket... tried it on, and asked "does this fit well, regardless of whether or not I like the item itself?" If the answer was "no"... tossed/donated.
I also took a hard look at what colors looked good on me and read up on the color wheel:
Some understanding of it will really help you get some ideas on how to combine colors. And don't forget that gray, black, and white are useful as well.
Did I mention "if it doesn't fit, toss it"? Yeah I did... but I'm mentioning it again. Get rid of those things, for real.
I really understand you and I do the exact same thing about pictures. I can tell better for some reason and also know how it feels to have little fashion sense. I clean my closet out about every 6 months or so. Mainly go through and remove anything I havent worn. Items im unsure of ill try on again and try to decide. Taking your pic in them may help like you said on certain peices. I will ask my husband to what he thinks to.
First thing is just see if its to tight or loose in wrong places. With tops, I may try on several different bottoms to see how it looks together with other peices.
Did I mention "if it doesn't fit, toss it"? Yeah I did... but I'm mentioning it again. Get rid of those things, for real.
I have a problem with the "if it doesn't fit, toss it". I am the type of girl that bounces between 2 size all year around: M & L but sometimes I gain even more weight and move up a size but that is only for few months before I go back to my usual self. So I have to keep at least 2 size in my closet.
I gained over 10+lb last year and none of my clothes were fitting me. I told myself I will lose weight no point in buying new clothes until I gave in December/Jan and went shopping for bigger clothes. It felt really good to fit in but now in July those are all too big for me. I always tell myself I will get them alter but haven't found any cheap alteration place.
I use to keep unfit (larger/smaller size) in storage along with out of season clothes. But I have been slacking off last year. Its really hard to keep up
Items im unsure of ill try on again and try to decide.
Its time consuming, least for me.
So this is another issue I have seen. There are items that in past I have written off & didn't like wearing. I put them in my toss pile but never got around to donate/throw them out. A year or 2 down the road I try it on & now its my favorite piece. My fashion sense/preference changes time to time & what I deep unfit one year might be my favorite piece next year. This makes me reluctant to get ride of clothes until I know for sure I hate it.
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