building a wardrobe

all from my pinboard here

This fall, I start student teaching, which is beyond-possible-words exciting. Except I need to be able to look like an adult five days a week. And for the past three years, I have grown to rely on the fact that A. people who see me on Tuesday don't see me on Friday (repeat outfits), B. I'm an adult and can keep myself fairly clean (unlike children who can and will spill who knows what on everything), and C. leggings with a long sweatshirt can form acceptable attire. Essentially, I can wear whatever I want, within reason of course. But in the classroom, I have to look like a professional teacher while wearing machine washable clothes, because I'm working with first graders. On top of that, most of my store-bought clothes are cheap/secondhand finds from before my freshman year of college, and they're falling apart at the seams.

My goal is to plan and make a wardrobe that is comfortable and clean and cleanable and professional. I looked at it from the perspective of trying to make capsule wardrobes: one for warm months, one for cold. 20 items each for some variety. Then I somewhat randomly assigned quotas for tops, bottoms, and dresses (which I love and will just pair with shorts to make them appropriate for the classroom). And then I realized just how big the holes are in my wardrobe. Example: I do not have a lightweight cardigan. I just don't. Which is frankly ridiculous, considering how much I love cardigans.

In true Internet fashion, I've started a pinboard to collect all my inspiration and ideas. More importantly, I've started a couple of projects this summer--including one that's already to show off to the internet!--but my main goal right now is still to nail down exactly what I'm looking for, style-wise and to fill the holes. Right now, I think I'm going to try some of the exercises in Colette's Wardrobe Architect to kinda solidify what I figured out from my first capsule wardrobe drafts. I want to be extremely intentional about how things work together, so that I have a wardrobe, not a closet full of individual pieces. I'm really excited about this challenge (and let's be honest--about the opportunity to make a lot of stuff)! I'm hoping to really get a lot out of looking at my closet and trying to figure out how to make it work better for me.