My Monthly Wardrobe Alchemy Exercise

Some nuts are hard to crack. This is a little story about a random kitchen incident that got me thinking about the beauty of a little advance preparation when it comes to cooking AND everyday dressing. I’d run out of my usual stash of nuts for breakfast porridge when I remembered I have a massive bowl of almonds harvested from our garden here in Mallorca. Only problem was they weren’t ready prepped, so amidst all the usual morning chaos of getting kids ready for school and bags packed I start into cracking these nuts. Nuts from our own tree! This is one of those simple pleasures that in other circumstances would feel so lovely and nourishing, but right now, with shells flying everywhere and nuts that just refuse to crack, it’s just an added stress. Prepping anything from scratch is time consuming. And the same goes for outfits. You need to wear clothes every day, just like you need to eat breakfast every day, but it can take time to put an outfit together, to come up with fresh looks that keep your style evolving, just as you are evolving. If you neglect to spend time once in a while, creating new outfit options, pretty soon you’re going to start feeling uninspired and stuck in a rut.

The idea is not to try and reinvent the wheel in a mad panic when you need to leave the house, but to regularly spend a little time playing with your clothes, trying things in new combinations, mixing it up and creating new looks from what you already have. Doing this as playful self love once a month, with no urgent deadline is a helluva lot more fun than panic styling! It makes dressing way more easy & inspired for the other 30 days of the month. It also nurtures your Creative Muse, sparks new ideas, a new sense of self and possibility, rediscovers items that have been out of rotation and can give you a lovely sense of accomplishment when you do crack a particularly hard nut and come up with the perfect way to wear something that has stumped you for a while. I did this recently with an awkward shaped vintage Balenciaga top that I love, but has had me stumped for years until I had the idea to wear it as a casual piece with a striped base layer & maxi skirt and now it’s my new favourite look! This exercise also helps identify wardrobe gaps so you’re more focussed when it comes to shopping and basically breathes fresh energy into your wardrobe and your style.

Try doing this Wardrobe Alchemy exercise once a month. I call it Wardrobe Alchemy, because it really is magic. Take selfies of your favourite new looks in a full length mirror and stick them up inside your wardrobe for easy reference when you’re getting dressed in the morning. No more stress. No more clothes strewn all over the bedroom in a panic dressing meltdown. If you’d like to get inspired and get accountable, join in the monthly Wardrobe Alchemy activity in my free Facebook community ‘Rediscover Your True Style‘.

Some nuts are hard to crack. You know those pieces in your wardrobe that don’t get worn because it’s not obvious what they go with and you have to work a bit harder. Maybe you’ve got a top that you really like and it never seems to work because you can’t figure out the right bottoms to go with it or you don’t have the right shoes. Some items take a bit of time, but the ones that are the hardest to crack can be the most rewarding when you finally do crack it, because they’ve forced you to be more creative, to think outside the box a little, and it’s like, “I would never have thought this before, but I love it! And it’s kind of unusual. And that makes me really happy!” So I just wanted to share that. A little bit of Wardrobe Alchemy once a month will save you a lot of prep time day to day 😉

Big Love,

Leesa ✨