How Many Colors Do You Have In Your Wardrobe?
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I'm curious: how many colors do you have in your wardrobe, either for work or play? Do you tend to stick to a few colors either for minimalism, vanity, or preference – or do you strive to have every color represented?
I was just thinking about our old discussion on “shopping moratoriums” — I had been telling myself I needed to stop buying fuschia tops for work because I already had four, and that seemed like a lot. But fast forward a few years (cough) and now I generally only buy a handful of colors, period.
I wear black, all shades of blue, and jewel tones of purple, red, and occasionally fuschia and dark green or teal. I also will wear gray pants or white pants, but I generally don't like to wear gray close to my face. (And yes, I buy duplicates of items I like, although mostly in black.)
This enables me to generally keep a minimal wardrobe, though not quite a capsule wardrobe — but in general I know that things will match. It also helps me with layering — I recently bought a few lighter colored sweaters on sale and trying to find something lighter colored to layer beneath them has been a pain.
This also allows me to narrow search results — when I'm shopping online I frequently will limit by size and then “my” colors.
I'm not saying this is a good thing, per se — but it just works for me.
I started wondering how many women do this. The whole idea of “color seasons” has become popular lately (here is Elizabeth's review when she and her mom tried a few online color analysis services), and I know far more women who shop online than in store.
(Stock photo aside, I don't know many women who only wear one color — it's rare enough that I still remember an old New York magazine article on New Yorkers who only wear one color (by Jo from Cup of Jo, by the by).
Readers, what are your thoughts? Do you have minimal colors in your wardrobe that make it easy to repeat? Are you even stricter about it than I am? Or do you just tend to buy whatever strikes your fancy when you see it?
For work I go with black and whatever other dark neutral is currently available in suiting. Sometimes that is grey, or navy, or like last Fall brown. I pair it with cream tops and a lot of mid tone colors. Whatever I can find on sale. Currently mid tone yellow. They always mix and match well with my neutrals.
I recently purged a bunch of items from my closet because I realized they were in colors that fought against my natural tones. It is so much easier to choose my outfits now because my whole closet is coherent, color-wise. I also feel better about how I look and enjoy more compliments when I wear colors that work with me rather than against me.
I’m a high-contrast winter and my taste leans artsy/ “french ninja,” so black is the foundation of my wardrobe. I also wear navy, charcoal, some shades of green/teal/turquoise, some purples and burgundies, less red than I used to because of hot flashes and a little rosacea, and for light colors lean to pure white and silver grey. My wardrobe is pretty minimal, and most things coordinate with each other. Even prints are mostly in my preferred colors, with maybe a small accent outside the range.
There’s a woman in my neighborhood who wears all purple, all the time. I should look to see if she’s in the article!
update: purple woman is not in the article
After maternity leave I embraced the idea of a self imposed “work uniform” and only purchased black pants and skirts with white, black, or white and black patterned tops for every season. So basically every top goes with every bottom and my mornings started off with a lot fewer decisions. Seven years later, now my hair is nearly all white/silver, so I’m starting to incorporate more colored tops – white hair with a white top just feels like too much of the same thing. All the new tops still coordinate with the black bottoms though, so I can keep the decisions minimal!