CLASSIC WARDROBE WORKSHEET While writing the Base Wardrobe Building e-book, I realized that a worksheet would be most valuable to work with while you were going through you own closet determining what would work and what wouldn t. This is such an invaluable assistance in helping you not only remove what isn t working and keeping what is working but also to help you add to your wardrobe in a way that keeps your wardrobe current, classic, cost-effective (not cheap 1 ) and most of all fun and enjoyable for you. Having done this for so many of my clients, it s hard to start this process, but once you do, it becomes easier and easier to keep your closet organized and workable for you. I broke this down into 3 sections Style Shapes Colors Each section has worksheets that have been designed to help you work through you own wardrobe to see exactly what you need and what you don t need as well as removing what doesn t work and keeping what does. Instructions: This worksheet is divided into three parts. You will notice that within those parts are different sections. This is to help you put together the worksheet that you will need considering your lifestyle, color scheme and needs. This means that if you have an apple shape, and a business lifestyle with primarily fill-in needs, you can use the pages that best fit your needs, lifestyle and shape. Even though there are a lot of pages, you will eventually only need three pages. Here s a brief Index: Color Schemes (pick one) Style of your life (pick one) Shapes (learn how to better show off your strengths) 1 Cheap clothes are poorly made with poor materials. Classic clothing doesn t have to be expensive, but it is not cheap.
COLOR SCHEMES There are four pages here of color schemes. These are by no means the only palettes available today, but these are the ones I used first. Some require more palettes, some less. It doesn t really matter, what does matter is that there are a set of colors that are good, best and worst for you, and it s important to know what those colors are. You probably already know them, but what is also nice to know is all the colors in your palette that will perform for you. The other reason this is important, is that this keeps your wardrobe focused on working for you; what s right for you. So remember that you may poo-poo this, or you re warm ruddy skin and auburn to red hair wants to do wear a navy cause you don t have it in your closet, DON T. It s not in your color palette. Just because a color isn t in your wardrobe is not a reason to buy it; it has to be in your palette. This is just another method to help you pare down to what s really going to be useful for you. After you ve established your wardrobe palette, then and only then can you veer off into the netherworld of colors not on your palette, and it should be something away from your face. But what you will notice when you do this, is not many things will go with that piece that s not in your palette. One of these palettes may jump out and you will just bond immediately. If not, then it s probably a good idea to call a consultant. I loved Carole Jackson s book for this reason. It easy to translate and determine your palette. As I mentioned before, you do not have to use Color Me Beautiful, however you are one palette and you do have certain colors that bring out the beauty of your hair, skin, complection, eyes and will really enhance your beauty. As a brief start to this, mostly people who have more red ruddy complections and skin color are in the Autumn Summer categories, and those who have more blue or porcelain in their skin coloring are Winter Spring categories. So here are the palettes which are courtesy of Color Me Beautiful and other sources. This is a place to start, and to make the point that it is important to consider color as an important component to your wardrobe. Each of these colors are on one page, so that you can print out or keep the page that is your palette.
AUTUMN Autumn is distinguished as being deep warm colors - on the warm side of the color wheel. This group s complexion is warm, ruddy and red with hair having the same deep warm hues. To me one o fo th tell-tale signs that you re an autumn is if you can wear that day-glow chartreuse. If you can, get the greens and tans out and wear em!
SPRING Springs are characterized by the light warm tones and again to me another tell-tale sign that you re a spring is if you look good in warm tones, but can wear some blues, but not cherry or blue reds.
SUMMER Summer is characterized by mostly cool colors and yet a few pastel warm tones...like those light tans and light yellow. But Summer is most on the cool side of the color wheel. Look at all the blues and blue greens that are in this palette.
WINTER Winter is straight forward on the cool side of the color wheel. My scanner may not do a good job here of representing these colors as being as cool as they are, but this is what this palette contains. Notice how much blue is in those reds and greens. Hopefully the scanning color brings that out, but this is one of the dead-on characteristics of this palette - strictly on the cool side.
STYLE OF YOUR LIFE By this I mean the daily routine of your life - your lifestyle, with some of the peripheral activities counted as well. If you run carpool every day, go to church, do a luncheon every once in a while, take a business trip with your husband, that s one lifestyle. If you are recently retired, and travel in the RV to various national parks throughout the country, that s another lifestyle. If you are working at your home office, attend special events with your company or work, and take vacations to wonderful resorts, that s another. Our lifestyles change as we go through the periods of our life. So to keep your wardrobe working for you, divide up the amount of time you spend on your activities, interests and work, and that s how much your closet should reflect. And remember you lifestyle will change through your life. For example: If you are self-employed, working out of your shop, 9-5 and need to look dressed up, then you will require an lot of suits, and outfits that will fit that need. On the weekends you like to do hiking, so you will require some clothes for that, but the bulk of your wardrobe will be for work. If you are recently retired, and you and your partner like to go RV-ing to nature sites, but like to do luncheon with your friends when you are in town, then the bulk of your wardrobe should reflect this...mostly casual outdoor gear, with some suits or luncheon outfits thrown in for occasional use. For our purposes here, try to narrow down the majority of your wardrobe to that one major need you have - work, recreation, and what I call functions - this is where you have to attend something for someone else, your children or husband or family or friends. Once you have this major need categorized, then that s where your focus for your base wardrobe will begin. Keeping on top of the changes as well as the needs in your closet is important so that your wardrobe works for you. Here s a worksheet to help you through determining your lifestyle, but I ll bet you already know where you are. There are different worksheets for different lifestyles, and one at the end for you to fill out if the templates I ve provided don t work for you. Each of us has our own lifestyle, and you want your closet to reflect that style and serve you. You do not have to fill in each category. They are only listed here to remind you of what s in your wardrobe. Also if there s a category that s not mentioned, list it as well. And this is not a order of what should or ought to be in your wardrobe. This is YOUR wardrobe, YOUR lifestyle, and YOUR needs, not mine or anyone else s! There is a blank template at the end if none of the other templates work for you particular style.
SHAPE OK - this can be a sensitive area for any of us, but the good news here is that once you learn your shape, you can learn to dress for it, and to accentuate that positive part of your body. When I do measurements, it always includes Favorite part of body and Least Favorite part of body. The reason is cause we all have this in our bodies - Princess Diana hated that she didn t have a waist, but learned to dress for that and once she did, looked WOW every where she went. Going through the different shape styles, remember that you may not fit exactly into one shape or another, but generally. These are some general guidelines to help you get started toward fitting yourself. PLEASE NOTE: I consider my main function in writing this book to be an advisor. In my design business it was not my job to tell my clients what they wanted, it was up to them to tell me that, and it was my job to advise them on what was traditional or typical for a certain circumstance or event. I feel very much the same way here. It is not my job to tell you what your needs are, it s my job to facilitate that...to make it easier for you to determine what you want. This is a little like going to the shrink and saying, Doc, just tell me what s the matter with me, and how to fix it, and then I ll do that and I can get on with my life! It s not like setting a broken arm where the doc says, your arm s broken and we ll set it and in 6 weeks take off the cast. This is more of a discovery - a process. I know, it s not as easy as someone laying it out for you, but this also allows you all to have some creativity. This allows this to be the wardrobe for the style and shape that you are, not what someone else thinks you need or what they think you want.
TYPICAL BODY SHAPES These are the typical shapes of bodies. You may have parts of some or another, but you will have one major overall shape and that s what we re concerned with here. Here s a description of these shapes: Regular (Whatever that is! Don t get me start on regular shapes cause it s really the smallest sized category out there!). Actually this is just the template that I started with to show you how the others are shaped. I over exaggerated all the other shapes just to make the point of what they were. Apple - this is characterized by larger below the waist than above the waist. You may or may not have a small waist with this body type. Hourglass - this is the very small waist with larger hips and bust. V - this is the inverted triangle with the largeness of the body in the chest, shoulder and often upper waist areas. Most body types like this have small hips and thicker waists. Column - this is the shape with little or no waist indentation. Pear - this shape is mostly large hip or below the waist. Now let s take a look at each shape separately. This is to help you determine not only what shape you are, but give you some ideas about what are the best clothes to wear to accentuate your positive areas and disguise your liabilities. The purpose here is to make your clothes wearable and work for you. If everything in your closet is geared for your shape, then you are going to be more likely to wear those ensembles. I m not going to discuss the regular shape, as if this is your figure type, you really don t have any issues other than fit, so you are in the clear on this section of your wardrobe building. One of the most important things to remember while dressing for your body shape is that white and lighter colors project (and make an area look larger) while black and darker colors recede (or make an area look smaller).
APPLE SHAPE The apple shape is characterized by large middle area- around the waist and hip area. Most apple shapes either don t have much of a waist or very little indentation for the waist. What I like to do for my clients who have this figure shape is accentuate their hip area and shoulder area. Most often these body shapes should not wear bright white tops as it further accentuates and projects that upper part of your body which you don t want to show off. Wear tight pants and boot cut are a great look for this shape. Dark tops are really nice and V necks look really great for this shape. Another nice feature is when you are making something for this figure type is to create a small dip and flip at the waist and just below the waistline. A shorter top and jacket are nice for this shape, and at the side seam and back seam it is nice to nip the waist about ¼" and then bring out the area just below the waist about 3 / 8 ". This flip gives the illusion of a waist and fuller hip.
HOURGLASS The hourglass figure really doesn t have a flaw other than the waist is probably too small and not in proportion to the rest of the body. As a result of this distortion, the waist makes the hips and bust look too big. Most often I find that it s just that the waist is out of proportion. The best thing to do for this figure is not to accentuate that waist so much. This means nothing should hug it. If you wear pants or skirt, it s really nice to put a top that does not hug the waist over that waistline, and that makes everything back into proportion. For my clients with this shape the biggest challenge they have is fitting their waist and hips at the same time. When they fit their waist, the hips are entirely too small, and when they fit their hips, their waist is huge. As far as dark and light up and down, there s not really a rule for this. The big thing to remember is to stay away from waist-hugging styles. Pants that hang on the hip or have not waistline (even though they fit at the waist) are the best styles for this. And I like to see a top, shirt, blouse that is not tucked in, so that there is nothing showing how small the waist is in comparison to the bust and hips.
V SHAPED FIGURE The V-Shaped figure type is characterized by the majority of weight carried in the chest and bust area, and above the waist. I ve sort of contorted this figure type, but it s to make a point of the shape. This shape can also be characterized by a thicker waist, or very little indentation at the waist. And almost always thin or smaller hips than the bust and shoulder area. The most important thing to remember about this body shape is you should almost never wear light colors above the waist, and do not wear dark colors below the waist. Now, once you know the rule you can break it, but of course you can wear dark pants, but just don t wear a white top with the dark pant...try to keep your tops always dark or in darker colors.
COLUMN SHAPE The most important characteristic of this shape is the lack of indentation at the waist. The hips and shoulder and bust area aren t particularly large, but the lack of indentation of no waist, may make the body shape appear large in the hip. The number one rule here is do not try and make yourself have a waist by some basque waistline, or criss-cross waistline affect. Just go with it. Keep your designs so that your hips and bust are accentuated and do not bother about the waist of the garment. There will be a challenge here in fitting the waist and the hip, so that when one fits, the other may not. This probably means that you may not even require any darts at all on your pants or skirts, and there is nothing wrong with this. We are after the fit. As far as darks and lights, you are free to wear whatever you like. Just stay away from wrap arounds and other designs that purposely favor or accentuate the waist. All these will do is make your waist look even larger.
PEAR SHAPE The obvious characteristic here are the large hips or the area just below the waist. And the very most important thing to remember here is to keep dark colors below the waist and light colors above the waist. Although most of the pear shapes do have a smaller waist, you don t have to have this small waist to be a pear shaped person. But mostly likely you will have problems fitting the hips and the waist at the same time. Do not be afraid to place 3 or 4 darts in each side (or quarter) of the pants or skirt to make the bottom fit from hip to waist. It is much better to place more darts, than to have one or two that have a definite pointy end to them. When you do this, your darts closer to center back and center front should be the longest, while the darts closest to the side seam should be the shortest.
OTHER FIGURE CONSIDERATIONS Some other shapes to take in mind are in different areas of the body after you have figured out your figure shape. UPPER ARMS - If this is a particular feature to your body, you more than likely have a V shape, and you will need to be concerned about garments fitting tightly around your arms. The best solution here is to ready to drop your armhole. This amazing technique will make a lot more room through your bicep area that will allow you enough ease to make this area very comfortable. THICK CALVES OR THICK ANKLES - This can be particularly difficult in figuring out a hem length. What I like to do for my clients with this feature is to look carefully at an area of their leg, usually just below the knee area, where the leg indents to meet the knee. It happens on ever leg and body shape. I like to put the hem right there on that part, so that there is a hint of the leg going in...it gives the leg shape. While doing this, I do not like to make the hem above or at mid knee. That s too high. For the illustration at the right, you can see three gals... 1. - Puhlease...wear clothes that are age appropriate and if you have leg problems, don t wear something this short. 2. Too long - this looks like something the lady who sat on the front row in my church in the 50's would wear. We are NOT trying to out-frump each other! 3. As Goldilocks would say... Just Right. Lower than mid knee and see the indentation of the knee is just below the hem. This may sound a little too detailed, or fussy, but believe me this little technique is a life-saver and works.
LONG-WAISTED/SHORT-WAISTED - The most important thing to remember here are some basic optical illusions...for the long-waisted, keep your belts and waistbands the same color as the top. For the short-waisted the exact opposite, keep your belts and waistbands the same color as your bottoms, pants, skirts. You can do the same with your dresses by either using an insert around the waist for the appropriate color for your body type. For Short-Waisted. See when you place the indentation of the waist a little lower than the actual waist, how it makes you look longer-waisted. You can do this on blouses, jackets, tops, dresses, coats. But this is a nice technique to give the illusion of a longer waist. For long-waisted...the exact opposite is true. Make your waistline a little higher than your natural waist, and you will give the illusion of having a shorter waist position. LINK Please NOTE: I often will recommend that you make your clothes using this technique of placing your waist a little higher than what it normally is, (please see Apex Points in SewingArtistry Library). I still recommend this, however you can make short adjustments according to where your actual waist is. If you need to lengthen that waistline to prevent you from looking short-waisted, then you can modify this rule a little.
Other Figure Considerations such as Sway back S-shape (which for me is another name for sway back, very sway back) Dowager s hump (or large rounded back) Large Stomach/Large fanny, no hips Longer arms Longer Legs Broad shoulders Dwarf/Midget Scolioses all require alterations to your pattern and sloper and mannequin, but after you make these alterations, you have fitted yourself. Once you have done that, you will be amazed at how neat and good you look in your clothes. Since these are different parts of the body and not concerning the whole body type, there is not over all prescription to making these different body parts more accentuated or disguised. My experience has been, in fitting the myriad of shapes I ve fitted for my clients, that the better the fit of the shape, no matter what shape, the better the client looks. Because there are wrinkles that speak of ill-fitting are everywhere, and some actually accentuate the part of the shape we are wanting to hide. When those wrinkles don t appear, suddenly the garment looks very good and you not only feel better, you look better. Your garment has the ease you need as well as the look you need.
BONUS As a bonus for this worksheet, I m including a section on proportion. As an artist, I m always conscious of this and how shapes and sizes relate to the whole and part of my art work, and my garments. This is a very important part of your consideration for garment construction and design. One of the basic things we learn in art class is proportions in our designs and art works. We also learn that there are standard proportions in the human body. This isn t an art lesson, but here are some examples of what art students learn and why. First is the Vitruvian Man which you will recognize as being from Leonard da Vinci. This was created/discovered by da Vinci to show the correct proportions. I use that more in the math sense than any having to do with what modern-day designers think of as being perfect.
Here are the principles applied to our regularly shaped model of the Shape section. Notice the model on the left is the one we used. The model on the right is the correct proportions that we learn in art class. How do we get to this? This way: It s all done with circles. Each circle here is length of a head, with the entire body being the height of 8 heads, and certain parts at certain prescribed places. You can actually see the huge descrepancy between the left and right model, and it s easy to tell which one is right. BTW, neither one of them is fat, one is just proportionally more correct.
This is a very famous painting (just part), but even though there s some problems with it, our eye doesn t catch it because the proportions are correct. This is the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, and her neck is way too long, her shoulder is non-existent or very, very low at the least. But we don t notice it cause it s proportionally correct, her shoulder line is in the right place and it s as wide as it s supposed to be, her waist, knees, crotch are all in the right place, so she looks right. So what does this tell us about studying proportions? It tells us that even though we may have some figure flaws (not as severe as dear ol Venus above), that we can mask them if we give the illusion of our proportions being correct. So how do we correct some problems we may have. Always wanting to be of service...here we are. There s lots going on here: heels makes illusion of height bust is in right point waist is right height-illusion hip right width (in proportion to height) shoulders are right (they re at an angle in photo) So this is how you can use proportion to bring out the advantages of your body shape.
Now we re ready to start listing everything you re going to need to do your classic wardrobe building. The next template your closet inventory. If you can keep all this in your head, more power to you, I can t. I have to write it down. This also helps me keep everything organized in my head. The first thing you ll want to do is set up your Base Colors for each palette. Autumn & Spring: Greens, Dark Olives (almost black olive), Charcoal Brown, Oxblood Red (dark true warm red), Black (yes, that s black even though it isn t on your chart, black is a great base color and easily accessible), Dak Browns. Winter & Summer: Black, true Navy (very dark black navy), Maroon, Wine, Dark cool Pine Green. Now you will want to use your needs sheets and your color and shape sheets to help you formulate what you will need to add to your wardrobe (this is after you ve culled out all the nonuseable garments from your closet). After you ve filled out this final sheet, this is your go to sheet and reference that you can use to buy, add, or resist what will work for your wardrobe. This looks like a lot of work, but believe it or not you can do this in one day, probably one afternoon, and well-worth the effort. Think how handy and freeing it will be to know exactly what you need when you re out just window-shopping or find a bargain which is something that you really need at a great price (not just the later!!!) Additionally, when you do go out purposely to find something to fill in your closet, it s wonderful to have a list right with you. I like to message this list to me on my mobile, so that I can just bring up the message & it s all right there. Not only that, but you won t be buying multiple items of things you already have. And you will easily be able to assess what you do need. Having a shirt, pants, jacket and skirt in one of your basic colors is essential for making this classic wardrobe hum. How do you know classic?...look at it. Would you have worn this garment 5 years ago - if yes, it s classic.
FINALLY!!! You ve done a lot of work here, but it will pay off. And the first time through this, is a real exercise, but even the next time will be substantially shorter and easier, particularly as you begin to get the hang of this. You will grow to the point that resisting colors outside your color palette will be second-nature. Resisting faddish and trendy items will become more of how long will this last and how far can I make this go questions rather than if it s impulse buying. The big pay off will be opening your closet and seeing everything you want to wear. This makes you look great, but even better... It makes you feel great! This is the final pay off - it s all about you!