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How to bring harmony into your wardrobe

Peace Dress

Written by Susie Taaffe

Are you sick of never finding anything to wear? Trying on outfit after outfit but nothing feels or looks, right? Do you dream of waking up for work and getting dressed effortlessly in every outfit you try on feeling and looking amazing? I am going to share with you my steps to bringing harmony into your wardrobe and outfit peace into your life. Now you might think I am going to teach you lots of fashion tips however they would only help you if you were me! Instead, I am going to show you some tricks to love and accept yourself as you are right now. Then we are going to ‘feel’ your way through your existing clothes, find some styles that feel great to you and then organise outfits and fill in the gaps. Soon you will be peacefully dressing whilst looking and feeling amazing each morning.

Accept Yourself Now

Ok, now this is a big one… Let me repeat, this is a HUGE one! Where are you at in life? Which stage are you in and are you living in the now or in the past or hopeful future??? Accepting where we are right now is so crucial to bringing peace into our lives. This should also be reflected in our wardrobe and might be part of the reason nothing feels right when you try it on. Have you just had a baby and are still trying to wear clothes from your younger or corporate days? Are you in your 30’s or 40’s but still dressing as you did a decade younger? We need to really sit with this. Who are you now??

A major conversation we also need to have is about your relationship with your body. Accepting and loving your body today, as you are. If half of your clothes do not fit you now because you are a bit bigger, then guess what? We need to get some new clothes! I have often heard women saying – oh there is no point buying new clothes until I have lost X kgs. Sound familiar? I want to tell you there is another way, without trying to change ourselves to a size where we think we will be happier. How many times have you looked back on photos of yourself and thought, wow I looked great and not as bad/big as I thought at the time? Don’t you wish the ‘you’ back then knew that and could stop the incessant worrying about her body and how she looks? Would you love to make peace with yourself today?

Meet Susie

I would like to introduce you to my 80-year-old self! She is now my number one companion whenever that little voice in my head questions or criticises me. What do you think your 80-year-old self would say? This is the question I would like you to get remarkably familiar with. She definitely does not sweat the small stuff – cellulite pfft! What about it? Look at how strong your legs and arms are to take you and do whatever you wish! Your 80-year-old self is also extremely compassionate and kind towards her younger self. Hindsight and love are what is important, and she wants to give her wisdom to you – all you need to do is listen! She will bring you the inner peace you crave.

Decluttered Wardrobe = Decluttered Mind.

The next step now that we have accepted ourselves as we are today is to organise your wardrobe! Whilst a big process if you are not used to doing it, I implore you to make this a seasonal ritual. Our bodies change as does our style – I have found myself continually evolving over time. Making peace with your changes and embracing them will help bring harmony into your life.

The first step is to pull it all out and try it all on! How does it make you feel? If the answer is not great, then it has got to go! Do this for EVERY item in your wardrobe. If you are unsure of an item, try on a whole outfit with it. How does that make you feel? Great or blah? Remember we are culling the blah out of our wardrobes in order to bring peace and harmony into our lives! Keeping a dress, you wore 15 years ago and 5-10kgs lighter, will not help you feel amazing when you see it in your wardrobe. Let it go! Start living in the now with a wardrobe full of outfits that make you happy,

I am a huge fan of circular fashion, so I donate all my clothes that are still great quality. Dress for Success is a fantastic charity that helps supply disadvantaged women with corporate clothing. I find when I am giving to a worthy cause it makes it much easier to let go of the piece of clothing – especially when it still has tags on it! Another option is swap groups or to give them to family or friends. Alternatively, you can sell your clothes on any of the reselling platforms Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, eBay etc.  

Rearrange the items you are keeping in your wardrobe however you like. I personally like to hang them grouped by type, skirts, tops, jackets, casual dresses, cocktail dresses and I am a self-professed dork so I like to colour code them too! Now we have organised what you have, let us coordinate some outfits that will feel amazing the second you out them on.

Style, Style, Style

Do you know what style you like? Knowing your body shape is crucial to helping you achieve looks you might see on others. Are you an apple, pear, rectangle, hourglass or inverted triangle? The internet has so many resources to find this out. Once you know your shape, I recommend searching again for styles to suit your shape – there is so much advice on social media. I have worked out what suits me by trying on 1000’s of garments over many years. Let someone else help you – this is the faster way! It will also help you to understand why a particular garment never looks quite right on you. For me, that item was hipster jeans. As a pear shape, they never work and they never will!!!!

Now we know what clothes we are working with and the style you like, lets organise some outfits! I like to turn up some music and have a bit of fun. Make sure you have a decent mirror for this. Try on different combinations of what you think you might like to wear together. You will feel if it makes you feel great or blah. Identify which part of the outfit is not working then change that part and repeat. I have some outfits that feel blah just because of boring colour combinations or they need a pattern to make them look better. When you find the combinations you love, take a mental note of them. Some people even take photos of themselves in an outfit they love so they can recreate it easily. Knowing what works will bring peace and harmony into your morning dressing ritual.

This process will also identify any gaps in your wardrobe that need filling. You might have a great skirt and top but not the right jacket to go with it. Keep trying on everything until there is either an outfit combination that looks great or an item is great, but it needs something new to go with it. Then when you go shopping, you know the items that you need to look for. This part of the process could also be done with a friend if you are still finding your unique look and wanted an extra opinion.

There might even be a whole new style you want to try. I was determined to find jeans that suited me after not wearing them for 15 years. I went to over six shops and tried on over forty pairs to find them. Luckily, larger chain stores always have very reasonably priced garments PLUS they always do so many different styles, so it is easy to dress any body shape. I am also a huge fan of doubling down if I find something I love and I buy it in multiple colours.

Peaceful Dressing

Ta da! You now should have a new beautifully organised wardrobe full of items and outfits that only make you feel amazing. I highly advise performing this process twice a year, at the beginning of Summer and Winter. This will bring you a whole season of peaceful dressing and eliminate the frustrations of not feeling amazing in your clothes. Want to feel harmony in your morning ritual? When you have invested the time and effort into creating a wardrobe that you love, peaceful dressing will follow.


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