WARDROBE TRACKER | OCT-DEC 2019 UPDATE + TOP 5 AUTUMN OUTFITS

If you’re a medium or long term reader of this blog, you might remember that in 2018, I got a sudden urge to record every single thing I wore every single day for a year. I called it One Year Wardrobe Count project. And I did it! However, one year was not the end of it, I was hooked! I improved the original spreadsheet, and continued on, starting Year 2 on 1st October 2019.

I was really trying to do monthly blog post updates throughout the first year, but it proved quite unfeasible. Not the number crunching part as much as recording outfits and editing and posting pictures.

So for this second year, I decided to only do four updates per year, covering one quarter each, plus the overall yearly summary. As I started in October, each update will neatly cover a season (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer) You can read about Year 1 overall results in this post.

So, I’ve got numbers for you for October, November and December, or if you just fancy some autumn outfits inspo, scroll down.

WARDROBE TRACKER – AUTUMN NUMBERS

MY TOP 10 MOST WORN ITEMS

This time I excluded shoes and outerwear, because I tend to wear pretty much the same pieces day in and day out, so I wanted to see how my other types of clothes were performing.

My overall most worn items in the past quarter (and overall) remain the I Am Artemis Oversized colour block coat and my old suede ankle boots (which are currently at the cobbler’s to fix a hole in the sole, I wore them so much). Items underlined are made by me.

1	Black skinny jeans	17
2	Black knit turtleneck	9
3	Blue Rosalie sweatshirt	8
4	Dark blue skinny jeans	8
5	Medium blue skinny jeans	8
6	Black crepe culottes	6
7	Green Astoria jumper	6
8	Wool pinstripe culottes	6
9	Beige and black ponte dress	4
10	Beige sweatshirt	4

TOTAL UNIQUE ITEMS WORN IN Q1: 98, OUT OF WHICH SHOES: 15

MONTHLY AVERAGE: 54 ITEMS

TOTAL INDIVIDUAL ME-MADE ITEMS WORN: 31

ME-MADE: 37%; RTW: 61% ; REFASHIONED: 2%

NUMBER OF ITEMS WORN ONLY ONCE (ONE TIMERS): 38

NEWLY COUNTED VS PREVIOUS PERIOD: 23

MOST WORN BY CATEGORY:

CLOTHING	Top	18
	Jumper	12
	Dress	11
	Trousers	8
	Skirt	7
	Outerwear	6
	Jacket	5
	Jeans	5
	Shirt	5
	Cardigan	2
	T-shirt	2
	Jumpsuit	1
	Vest	1
Clothing Total		83
FOOTWEAR	Boots	4
	Flats	3
	Heels	3
	Ankle boots	2
	Trainers	2
	Lace-ups	1
Footwear Total		15
Grand Total		98

MOST WORN COLOURS:

Black	33%
Blue	18%
Beige	9%
Green	7%
Red	7%
Grey	5%
Multi	5%
White	5%
Stripes	4%
Purple	2%
Yellow	2%
Brown	1%

Movements

I’m adding a new category, looking at how many new items made it into my wardrobe this period and how many were taken out, for various reasons. I am really conscious that, even after years of not buying anything and constant purging, I still have 200+ items in my closet. So I decided to monitor ins and outs on a regular basis (included in my spreadsheet). To note that the ‘out’ category refers to items that I had already recorded in the spreadsheet (i.e. have been worn since Oct 2018). I do end up clearing loads of items that I haven’t worn in ages so they never made it in the count.

IN: 8, of which 4 sewn, 1 bought, 3 swapped

OUT: 6, of which 3 swapped, 3 to charity

WARDROBE TRACKER – AUTUMN INSIGHTS

TRACKING

The second year of wardrobe tracking started really well. I did not miss a single day in the past 3 months, as it has become part of my daily routine. Every morning, as I have my coffee, I login into my Google Sheets and type in what I am wearing (and on Mondays, what I wore over the weekend). Last year, I would let a week go by and then I’d have to struggle to remember what I wore the previous days.

I also think that my updated tracker works really well and helps to avoid duplicates, while also simplifying the wardrobe cataloguing. All in all, a win!

ACQUISITION

I know it looks like I added more items than I removed from the wardrobe, but I did donate or take to a Fashion Swap loads of items. Some of them I had not worn for a long time, so they never got a chance to be catalogued in the wardrobe, but nevertheless, they were there. At my first swap, I took more than 15 items and brought back 4. It felt like a good trade-off.

I also sewed only four items in this period, which was a bit of a break from my August madness (when I discovered Fibre Mood and I sewed almost evert pattern).

I bought a new thing for the first time in 5 years, a turtleneck thermal bodysuit. I know that I could have easily sewn it, but I wanted some true thermal fabric that is very difficult to find in fabric shops. It’s worth every penny, as it’s light, extremely warm and very versatile, both for layering and on its own. I absolutely love it and I know I will be wearing it for years and years.

WEARING

This period was transitional, with still a few warmer days and then some really cold ones. I think that accounts for the number of individual items worn. This is pretty much half the total number of items of last year. Quite a few of the autumn outfits are made up of items I wore across the year (see pink culottes).

In this period I wore 23 new items (8 new to the wardrobe). This is a new metric I’ve added, which should show the re-wear factor, i.e. wearing what I already have. The lower the number, the more I am wearing things I have worn before. Ideally, this should only mean the new items I sew every period, and no more than 3 each time (as my goal is to sew 12 new items for me each year, 1 per month).

At the same time, there were 118 items that were not worn vs the previous period. Some of them are seasonal, some could be classed as occasionwear, but there are still candidates among them that need to be donated. I am planning on monitoring this period on period, and if they do not get more wear, they will be purged.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, my conclusions are that I tend to spread my wears as thin as my wardrobe will allow. By which I mean that if I have say 4 jumpers, two will get a lot of wear, but even the two that don’t will end of being worn once or twice. But if I only had the two main ones, I will probably not miss the other ones. So I definitely need to be looking into pruning out the laggards and focusing on the core items.

Now, let’s show you some of the autumn outfits that I most enjoyed wearing in this period.

TOP 5 AUTUMN OUTFITS I WORE AND LOVED

Disclaimer:  I made or bought all the items included in this autumn outifts post, but it may contain affiliate links, marked with *. Please read my Reader Disclosure Policy for what that means exactly.

SAVE THIS FOR LATER ON PINTEREST

AUTUMN OUTFIT 1

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I’m wearing: DIY Wearologie Nivis crop top in faux fur; RTW black button-down shirt; DIY wool pinstriped culottes; RTW suede boots

Thoughts: When I first made this top, I just wanted to stroke the fabric all day long. Unfortunately, it did not get as much wear as it deserves, so I really wanted to create some more outfits around it. As it’s cropped, it feels like a sort of vest or overlayer than a top, so I love layering it. And for a cold autumn or winter day, you definitely need layers! Really liking the combo with the button-down shirt. Chic and warm too!

AUTUMN OUTFIT 2

I’m wearing: White scuba sweatshirt (RTW); DIY pink culottes; Sneakerkit DIY leather trainers; Handmade polymer clay earrings

Thoughts: I continue to be amazed at the versatility of these pink culottes. They are almost my most worn handmade item. I styled them in so many ways over the years (a few ideas in this 3 Way post). But when I got this awesome white scuba top in a fashion swap, I know they were meant to be. Yes, I know, bare ankles for autumn is a bit much, but let’s just say it was a nice day outside! And the sweatshirt is really thick and warm.

I mentioned in my previous post about my new found polymer clay earring passion. I have been pretty much making a pair to match all my favourite outfits, and here are the ones I made for the pink culottes. The colour is really a perfect match!

AUTUMN OUTFIT 3

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I’m wearing: DIY Oversized cardigan with pleather sleeves (Burda Style 10/2014); knitted asymmetric dress; metallic thread tights; Jones *suede block heel ankle boots;

Thoughts: This dress is another awesome find in the October Fashion Swap I helped at. I feel in love with it as soon as I saw it and could not understand why would someone give it away. When I got home, I realised that it had two big holes in the back, but I fixed them easily. I love that it’s so unique and funky and also so chuffed that I had the skills to save it from being thrown. Win-Win! As it’s sleeveless, I liked wearing it with this oversized cardigan that I made years ago from an Ikea blanket. Still going strong and keeping me warm. Plus the sparkly tights for a bit of bling!

AUTUMN OUTFIT 4

I’m wearing: RTW sand pencil skirt; DIY striped crop top (Seamwork Astoria, unblogged, pattern review here); nude court medium heel court shoes; DIY polymer clay earrings

Thoughts: I got this fabric as a gift and it was only about 1 yard of it, but only 0.5m wide. It’s a lovely viscose jacquard (the stripes are woven, not printed) and as soon as I took it home, I made into this top in one evening. It’s pieced together here and there, and there was literally nothing left when I cut everything out. Astoria is very cropped, so I always like to pair it up with a high waist skirt or trousers, to same my midriff from seeing the light of day too often. Also, beige and navy are one of my favourite combos, so I really enjoyed putting this outfit together.

And how awesome are these earrings? Made by me from polymer clay.

AUTUMN OUTFIT 5

I’m wearing: Scuba flounce sweatshirt (Fibre Mood Rosalie hack – unblogged); RTW cotton t-shirt; Refashioned cropped crepe culottes; DIY Sneaker kit leather trainers; DIY polymer clay earrings.

Thoughts: This is another unblogged make that I absolutely love (full review coming soon). I made it in late October last year and it already got almost 10 wears. It’s super comfy and easy to wear, dresses up and down and I can’t seem to run out of ideas on how to style it, in both autumn outfits or more wintery ones. It’s a bit low cut, so I need to wear it with an underlayer, a cami or a t-shirt or a thermal. I really liked this combo with the cropped culottes and trainers, very comfy and fun. Later in the season, I paired the culottes with some knee-high boots for warmth, but this is a nice transitional outfit as well. And I love that I found the perfect polymer clay colour that matches the top to a T.

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That’s it for the October-December round up, hope you enjoyed it and found inspiration. There will be a few follow-up posts with reviews and some more styling ideas for some of the handmade pieces I featured here, so stay posted.

P.S. If you’d like a pair of earrings like the ones featured, drop me an email. Happy to replicate any ones you fancy or make some customised ones. I am really into polymer clay at the moment and I can only wear so many earrings… So please make my husband happy and take some off my hands!

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WHICH ONE IS YOUR FAVOURITE OF MY AUTUMN OUTFITS? TELL ME IN COMMENTS!

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