Building a personal wardrobe

My thinking about the whole concept of putting together a personal wardrobe has advanced by leaps and bounds since the last time I posted in this subject. I have begun the process by thinking through my own wardrobe, and, more recently, that of a good woman friend. First of all, the whole idea of developing a personal wardrobe actually means changing one's wardrobe, since we all have a wardrobe we may have unconsciously constructed over years of time and choices. To focus consciously on our wardrobe is to recognize that we are in a prrocess of change. Part of this is about recognizing how our existing wardrobe was (unconsciously) designed - why we chose to wear the types of clothes we did, and what kind of new person we are becoming. The personal wardrobe we intend to create must act to enable and facilitate the emergence of the new person we are becoming, rather than be necessarily what we want (sometimes are desires are rooted in older ideas about the self and they may need to be challenged!).

For example, it has become clear to me that for years I have been wearing solid colors in my shirts and pants, often in quite dark shades, and that this represents both a kind of solidity and an invisibility. The kind of person I am becoming is much more forward moving, visible, engaging, and my clothes need to change to reflect that change.

Another consideration for designing a new core wardrobe is that the wardrobe needs to express a primary constellation of values related to the "new me", but that they may also serve to support several secondary constellations. Hence, for example, the primary set of values my new wardrobe is being focussed around is distinguished, assertive and engaged, but a secondary set includes a sense of edginess, and of exotism.

A third consideration which I also believe to be important, although it may sound odd, is that I think the wardrobe should include paying attention to underwear, not so much as a statement aimed at other people, as with regard to a recognition of how I view myself. Although we may share our underwear with one (or more?) significant others, ultimately, our underwear reflects our own relationship with our body and self image. Therefore, if we are moving towards developing a new personal wardrobe, underwear is an important component in such a move. In a sense, how we act in the world and how other people perceive us is based on only on our outer appearance, but also our choices regarding hidden aspects of who we are.

I'm not saying anything at all about what choices one should make - I think these will vary from one individual to another. But I do think we need to be aware of these choices.

Wardrobe versus Collection

I've thought through the issue of making a collection and have worked out what I plan to do. I have written before about the fact that I'm not at ease with the traditional notion of a collection. A collection is really a group of garments with a common theme produced by a single designer and used as source material to develop lines of ready made garments. Since I have decided that doing and selling ready-made garments is not what I want to do, a collection from this perspective makes little sense.

Instead, I enjoy making custom-fitted garments, for myself and others. And I want to make groups of garments. So I'm focussing on the idea of developing a "wardrobe" rather than a "collection". My idea of a wardrobe is a set of matched clothes of different styles and uses - outfits for home and casual use, for work, for sports and for evening events. The ability to combine these differently for different situations should be built into the design, hence the notion of "matching", but matching that doesn't necessarily make for an overly "kit-like" look. The wardrobe will therefore have an "integral" feel without being homogeneous.

I am currently developing two types of wardrobe. The first is a men's core wardrobe. The basic idea is to provide a variety of styles and looks, all smart and contemporary, for trendy men who want to dress outside the traditional "business look". I have been developing such a wardrobe for myself, and I plan to organize the idea and then make it available as a business offering.

The second wardrobe idea is a women's under-wardrobe, focusing on a set of lingerie for different contexts and situations. Both of these wardrobes would be offered via custom fitting arrangements, that is, for individuals with their particular measurements. I am also thinking through the issues involved in making custom-fitted garments in a more streamlined way, to bring the costs down somewhat.

On Collections

I've been thinking about collections in fashion. A collection is really an aggregate that makes sense in relation to the designer, but not to the user or client. What the client would like is not a collection, which will contain several garments with somewhat similar concepts reflected throughout, but a group of garments that has utility in their (our) lives. This might be a set of moods, a series of events, a group of contexts in which fashion statements or identity are important... or even a combination of these. A person is looking for a "wardrobe", but, of course, this word is already in use for "all the clothes one owns" - still, it might be used here too. But other ideas come to mind. Maybe what one wants is a "semaine" - that is, a group of clothes that responds to the varied needs one might have over a week's time. Or an "event portfolio", to cover the different kinds of events one typically encounters.

Here are some possible names, therefore, for a set of garments a user might like to purchase : a wardrobe, an event portfolio, a mood suite, a semaine, a paradigm, etc. Now we will need to think about what particular mix of garments and styles would go into each of these subtly different groupings...

One would also like a very modular approach. Clothes are already modular, but clothing styles or not always so modular. One would want to design groups of clothes so they can be mixed with another designer's clothes, not just individual clothes.