Keeping Your Wardrobe Up to Date

For most people, changing seasons means spring cleaning, mowing the lawn, planting flowers or prepping for beach vacations. For others, however, it’s all about getting the most recent seasonal look. It’s an opportunity to make sure your style is up to date with new trends, inspired by the runway, street style, or what friends are wearing.

Closet Makeover

The first step to making sure your wardrobe is modern and fresh isn’t throwing away everything in your closet. According to Youth Voices, fashion trends are currently cycling at “hyper speed,” with trends rising, reaching a crescendo and then dropping back into obscurity within a couple months. These trends come back around every few seasons, with the same colors and cuts blasting back into the popular scene every couple years. This is the biggest reason to hold onto your old wardrobe (provided it still fits), and the easiest way to stay up to date without buying all new clothes every three or four months.

The thing to do is a little trick called “closet spelunking,” an in-house fashion adventure that you can do in four easy steps:

1. Zero in on your favorite up and coming fashion trend. Figure out the cut, color, material, embellishments—whatever it is that makes this trend “unique.”
2. Figure out how long it’s been since this trend was last in fashion. If it’s been a couple years, you’ll want to skip the spelunking and go straight to buying, but if something similar hit the street within a year or two, proceed to step three.
3. Explore your closet! You should have the last two years’ wardrobe stored in the back or in boxes and hanging bags where you can, so go through these stored items and find that shirt from last year that matches the new look you’re going for.
4. Repeat as needed for all your favorite “new” trends!

Everyday Me recommends putting all your clothes in one place and going through them individually, but if you’ve been organized enough in your storage, you should know right where to look to find what you’re after. This is also the best time to flush out the old styles that haven’t come back. There’s nothing wrong with falling in love with a look that never really took off, but if you’re happy to see peplums go then there’s no reason to hold onto all those skirts from 2013.

Don’t feel the need to throw anything away unless it’s in poor condition. Instead, take the clothes you don’t love anymore to your nearest Goodwill or Salvation Army and donate it! It can count as a charitable donation, helping you out on your taxes, and passing it along to someone who might love it.

Buying New

While there may be plenty of clothes in your closet that work with today’s fashion trends, you should still pick out some new pieces to spice things up. It’s not always feasible to buy everything you want right at the start of the season, so make a detailed list of the trends you want to get in on. This will make it easier to budget, and saving money on top of the line fashion is one thing everyone can appreciate. You can check out Ebates for a Gap coupon to make your shopping experience a little easier on your wallet.

Once you know what you want, it’s time to figure out the easiest and most inexpensive way to make it yours. Shopping online is often cheaper than going into a store, both with the cost of clothing and with the money saved on fuel and time.

Prep for the Next Transition

Remember, you’re going to be repeating this process again next season! If you’re just starting to keep up with the trends, make sure that you have the storage space and the organizational skills to keep your old wardrobe for next season’s flashbacks. GarmentCare.info reports that storing your clothing correctly is the key to maintaining good condition, so make sure that your leather is all in a cool, ventilated space, rayon is kept flat, and anything shiny or metallic is rolled up with tissue paper in between to keep the metallic sheen from flaking off. Do the research to keep your clothes in the best shape possible so they look great when you bring them back.

Don’t put everything in your closet in storage every time you move from one season to the next, either. There’s nothing wrong with having your favorite comfy clothes in easy reach, no matter how long it’s been since they were in fashion.