What are the tools and strategies for how to create an ideal and rational wardrobe? Wading through the thousands of fashion resources populating the internet these days, have you thought about what your ideal wardrobe looks like at its bare bones core?

1. Your personality and individuality

This is the first filter that any potential clothing article or accessory goes through in order to land a sweet spot in your wardrobe. Your unique qualities are composed of many aspects: your colour palette, your body shape and natural lines, your personal style, etc. Each piece passes through multiple professional image filters before earning the right to be in your wardrobe.

In other words, there is no such thing as a piece that suits every single person! What suits you can make another woman less attractive and even spoil the first impression she creates. Therefore, the first principle is knowledge of your personal image identity, your Personal Beauty Code™!

2. Universal base wardrobe

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A key benefit to having a base wardrobe is that it binds all the individual pieces in your wardrobe into an endless variety of potential outfits! How do you build your base wardrobe?

Of course, a lot depends on your unique features, but the main feature of the base wardrobe is its versatility. In addition to a neutral colour palette, there are certain types and quantities of required clothing articles (skirts, pants, blouses, blazers, etc.), and classic year-round garment cuts. This is what makes it possible to build an infinite number of outfits. Once you have your base pieces in order, you will be one step closer towards your rational wardrobe.

3. A purchase plan for wardrobe additions

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Spontaneous purchases often lead to money flushed down the toilet. How many times have you purchased a really cute and unique piece that doesn't work with anything in your wardrobe? Well-displayed goods, the right music playing in the store, good lighting – the appeal of impulsive purchases is what the retail world knows how to do best! I suggest creating a plan of upcoming purchases, which are arranged in order of priority, so that you will never fall off course.

4. The ability to match clothes

So, you know your Beauty Code and you have a list of desired pieces that you're ready to purchase. If you are buying each piece separately over a period of time, it is important to make sure that each new piece connects with the rest of your wardrobe so that you can easily create outfits. When all your pieces match well with each other, your wardrobe effectively becomes a versatile puzzle, from which you can create a new image every day. You will be able to do this easily once you master the secrets of matching your clothes and accessories together.

5. Use of accessories

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The ability to effectively place accents in your outfit, linking together a few pieces of clothing, is largely due to a well thought out approach in using accessories. What do you think creates a more rational wardrobe: one in which 80% of the pieces are accessories or one in which 20% of the pieces are accessories? If you thought 80%, you guessed right. When you have a sufficient number of accessories (that are appropriate for your archetype or your body shape, line character and style), you can create a large number of interesting outfits that will be easily diversified.

6. Planning your bargain-hunting in advance

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When you get that highly awaited email that your favourite store is having a big sale, you obviously write it into your schedule and indulge in new purchases at the earliest opportunity, am I right? But are you sticking to your shopping list that you wrote back in point #3? Shopping sales racks isn't about how much money you saved, but rather how many pieces you purchased from your shopping list. The more you develop your ability to filter through unnecessary clothes and find the ones that fit your archetype or body shape and fill wardrobe gaps, the greater the reward during the highly anticipated sale.

7. Realistic approach to fashion trends

There are two basic approaches to fashion trends. Fashion can either dominate your wardrobe or become a complementary component. Knowing how fleeting fashion trends are, you can imagine how impractical it is to try to stay on top of every trend. The season comes to an end, and suddenly you need to change your entire wardrobe because it's outdated.

The second approach falls into our rational wardrobe strategy: you develop a base wardrobe, which remains classic and timeless, and you supplement with fashion accessories, which can be updated as fashion trends change. Following fashion trends with your smaller accent pieces is not only kinder to your wallet but also less wasteful when things become outdated.

What happens when your wardrobe becomes rational and you follow the criteria above? Your style starts to look effortless and authentic, in harmony with your appearance, because you balance fashion trends with classic pieces vetted through your unique personal characteristics. Isn't this what you have always wanted?