#Spring10x10 — just seria

Hello!

I hope this blog post finds you well.. That's something I say in work emails to show that I care.

So, I won't play around with your time. Let's get down to business. I wouldn't consider myself much of a fashionista for several reasons. Two reasons are - 1. I'm lazy. 2. I don't have the natural talent to just pull something together effortlessly and have it look great on my body. Sometimes I try, but most times I don't. I'm getting better.

However! One thing I do want to accomplish is finding my style and pairing down my closet to reflect that. FUN FACT: I get slight anxiety when I feel like my closet is too full OR we have too many things in our house. I'm a future minimalist (but probably not for real). Because of that, me and the hubs actually donate to Goodwill and/or sell a lot of our clothes to second hand shops several times throughout the year. We have a Goodwill pile in our office room that we add to leisurely.

I'm super frugal but also enjoy the hunt when shopping at thrift stores. I would say about 75% of my clothes are second hand. I love it! Upon connecting with Kelly from The Good Wear, I'm coming to learn a little bit more about how my thrifting ways can be used for the power of good!

Kelly dives into fashion from a unique perspective, one that I think is becoming more and more important in today's world where we have more information at our finger tips, people are more concerned about Mother Nature, and more invested in the well being of other humans in general. She explores the fashion world from an ethical and sustainable standpoint. This focuses on how consumers can make better buying decisions that don't negatively affect the environment and that support ethical and humane working conditions for those making our clothes. Lots of good stuff over there that I know lots of us don't probably think about.

Anywho, she did a Spring 10x10 challenge (originally created by Lee Vosburgh of Style Bee) and invited me along for the ride. Essentially, you choose 10 items from your closet and only use those 10 items for 10 days to encourage you to get more creative with your closet, and perhaps get you out of any fashion ruts. You know the whole, "I have nothing to wear!" argument, and yet there's 10 pair of jeans, 15 tops, 5 dresses, and 20+ shoes in your closet staring back at you. :Insert judgemental stare here:

I enjoyed it and then kind of didn't. Here's why:

PROS

My outfit was already decided each morning = more sleep &/or out the house on time!
There was no room for laziness. I actually dressed myself every day for work for 2 weeks!
It was cool to see that I don't need many clothes at all. Now I can get rid of more stuff.

CONS

Toward week 2, I started itching to wear other things in my closet.
The weather threw a curve ball, and my 10 pieces weren't super warm.
I wear lots of neutrals. My pieces weren't very diverse.
I ran into wearing the same tops pretty close together in the week due to poor planning.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed this exercise. However, I wish I would have focused more on the accessories I could have worn to really diversify my outfits.
If I could wear 10 pieces for 10 days (excluding weekends), imagine how far I could stretch my closet with only 15 or 20 pieces.

Take a look at my 10 pieces:

floral maxi dress (Forever21)
dark wash skinny jeans (Anne Taylor from Goodwill)
black stretch pencil pants (Jones NY from TJ Maxx)
natural oversized cardigan (gifted from H&M)
tan closed-toe flats (gifted by mom)
black jeweled flat sandals (stolen/gifted by mom) ;)
striped pencil skirt (Old Navy)
dark heather grey graphic t-shirt (Bonfire)
green racer back tank (Old Navy)
classic chambray button-up long sleeve (Old Navy)

Here are my outfits:

So, that's that! I encourage you to give it a try, tweak it as you need to. Make it your own so you're more likely to finish it. It really will test your creativity and shake up your routine a bit. Let me know how it goes for you! Good luck, and I'll see you back here soon! ;)

-seria