My Wardrobe Organization

We survived the record snow depths of winter… Spring is finally upon us… and I personally couldn’t be happier. It is finally time to put away your trendy arctic survival gear, pack up your polar bear repellant prints, and let your spring wardrobe bloom! What better way to celebrate than a little organization?

This is my first spring living in my gorgeous new apartment as I moved in last September. Look at this amazing view of our third floor living room once we settled in this past fall! It's officially called a penthouse by the way ;-)

Since I’ve moved in and unpacked into my room on the second floor, I’ve been working to organize my wardrobe. With the season of spring cleaning underway, I thought I’d share how I’ve arranged my wardrobe. Hopefully it’ll give some of you ideas or at the very least some inspiration to get organized yourself. I’ll start off by saying… I have a lot of clothes, and was elated to find an apartment with ample storage space. The downside is that my wardrobe is slowly expanding to fill every last inch (ok, maybe not so slowly)… but that is fine, I plan on moving into a mansion or castle next, so I don’t anticipate any problems ;-) 

My goal throughout all my organization is to make everything visible and accessible as much as possible... if I can see it, I'm much more likely to wear it or remember that it is the perfect piece to complete an outfit. Some of my favorite combinations have come from something catching my eye and trying it out to be pleasantly surprised. 

I have a full, double closet with built-in shelves on either side. Originally, I’m assuming this master bedroom was designed to accommodate the clothing of two people. Since I’m currently single, I seized the opportunity to fill the whole thing myself!

Though it is difficult to tell from the pictures, I’ve organized the hanging clothes in my closet roughly by color, and/or style. I’ve separated out tops from dresses and skirts, and tried to keep similar items (like sweater dresses for example) together. Using the slim velvety hangers you can find at any department store, I was able to fit as much as possible. My goal was simply to make things easy to find when I needed them.  I use the built-in shelves for items that are a bit more of a pain to hang. On the right side I have pants and jeans, and on the left I have my dance clothes, t-shirts, and some activewear.

I have 2 smaller dressers which keep the rest of the non-hanging clothes, nothing too special about them. I do adore styles using leggings and hosiery so in order to organize my collection put two shoeboxes into a drawer and then rolled each pair of tights/leggings so I could see everything easily and grab what I want without having to rummage. Leggings on the right, tights/pantyhose on the left.

My room had one wall of shelving a bit out of the way by the door so I decided that would be a fabulous location for my shoes as I would never have enough other items to fill the shelves otherwise. It’s worked out great and seriously… who doesn’t need a wall of shoes? I use cut up “pool noodles” to help keep my boots upright and in shape. They’re a super cheap solution and work great. I also use this space for hats and gloves, and other accessories like scarves that I grab on my way out since its by the door.

I keep all my jewelry on top of my dresser or hanging on the wall. For my necklaces, I bought a pretty curtain rod and use that to keep everything neat and orderly as well as make a lovely decorative touch. Why let pretty things go to waste hidden away! A few decorative trays from the “decorative bathroom” collections you see around to keep my rings and bracelets organized. Voila, accessible and decorative jewelry storage. I also have several little Mason jars strategically placed (like in the shadow box) which have hair elastics and ties in them so I can just have them when I need them.

Last but certainly not least, I keep all my makeup and supplies in a lovely vanity that my mother gave me for Christmas this past year. Brushes are within reach on the top and with some kitchen drawer organizer bins on the inside, all my products are pretty neatly accessible. The mirror folds down and I have some desk space if I need it as well.

There is another double closet in the hallway outside my room which I use to store all my coats and outerwear that I can grab as I leave the apartment. It is truly a blessing to have space to spread out.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my lovely apartment and my organization scheme! If you have any great organization ideas or tricks please feel free to share them in the comments.

I’m glad to be back blogging and if you enjoy the blog be sure share the love with a like on facebook as well.

Cheers!

Tips for Putting Together Outfits

As you may have heard on my new Youtube channel, last weekend I had an amazing time at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, GA. The weather was gorgeous, there were tons of educational seminars on all things Trans, and I met amazing women from all over the world. I had a blast!

We spend a lot of time talking about fundamental ideas on how to dress in ways that flatter our bodies, as well as basic "theories" behind style. While I feel these lessons are a great place to start getting our minds thinking the right way about clothing and style choices, it is sometimes difficult to take that next leap into apply those lessons to our everyday look. To help you start to think along the right lines I'd like to show you an outfits I wore during the conference and just describe what was going through my mind when I picked it out. As I start in full-time (soooo soon now!), I'll try to do this kind of thing (an "outfit of the day") more often to not only showcase my fabulous style (hey! at least I think so, and thats all that matters :-P) , but also give insights in how and why I make certain style choices. Always keeping in mind, there is no right or wrong way to do this! This is just MY way of approaching things. I also highly recommend going back and re-reading the post on "6 Keys to Creating a "Put-Together Look" or at least keeping it open alongside as you read, because I will refer to it throughout this post. Here they are for a quick overview, again, if you want more description, please check out that post:

1. Create a Wardrobe that Fits and is Flattering
2. Ask Yourself the Important Questions About Dressing Appropriately
3. Chose What to Feature in an Outfit
4. Use Color Intentionally
5. Coordinate elements of an outfit
6. Respect the Intangibles of Quality Style and Design

As I'm sure you've noticed from the blog, my style is feminine, but contemporary. I lean towards more edgy looks for nighttime... thats when I let my inner "rock star" come out a bit more. We'll just look at a daytime look today.

When putting together an outfit, I typically start with a piece that I really want to wear and build from there. This speaks right to #3, the piece I want to feature. For this outfit, that piece is the periwinkle blue maxi skirt... It has a great color and texture (#6) and maxi's are "in" at the moment, plenty of reasons to feature it. It is tough to see,but the outer layer of skirt is sheer, with a shorter (mid thigh) opaque skirt underneath. This gives a touch of sex appeal while still maintaining a healthy dose of modesty appropriate for daytime outfits (#2). Save your crazy sexy looks for nighttime!

So what works about this skirt? Most importantly, it has a high waist. See how it comes all the way up to my natural waist? That makes my legs look longer and my torso shorter, both typically flattering things for trans body-types (#1). With a great piece to work off of picked out I then just set out to complete the rest of the outfit.

I paired the skirt with a basic, true white cami.... I apologize that my chest looks like the surface of the sun in the picture. I wanted to keep the outfit light and summery (#4), so I didn't pick a darker top. My poor little point and shoot camera couldn't quite keep up with the brilliant southern midday sun! I would say that this top is not the "perfect" choice for the outfit because it doesn't necessarily add any flattering effects. Bright colors highlight areas and make them look bigger (sorry, but my bust looks huge here!), so this is technically making my torso/bust bigger. So how am I getting away with it? For one, the skirt is doing the opposite super well, and secondly, despite how it looks in the picture, it doesn't cover over my shoulders, so they stay appearing exactly as big as they are, I'm OK with that. While outside was gorgeously sunny and warm, inside the hotel at the seminars in the AC was freeeeeezing, which is why I added a flowy (coordinating with the lines of the skirt), grey cardigan over this for most of the day (again #2).

As you can see, in addition to keeping me warm, the sweater also lessens the "enlarging" effects of the light color on top despite being fairly light colored itself. Especially in transitional seasons like Fall and Spring, it helps to have a layer like a sweater you can add or remove depending on the temperature as you change location. Look at your outfit with this outer layer both on and off, make sure its cute both ways. It stink to be "trapped" in a sweater when you're too hot because you can't take it off without looking silly (though I say be comfortable and look silly anyways, however if you can avoid that problem, do it!). 

Now that my outfit is complete with its basics (top, bottom, ready for whatever weather)... I then move into accessorizing to give the look the details that really bring everything together aesthetically. Can you pick out the theme to my coordination from my sweater, accessories, and shoes? If you said silver, you're correct... if you said something else, you're probably right too... after all, you're pretty smart ;-) Hey, coordination? isn't that one of the 6 keys? why yes... yes it is! Number 5 :-)

I've accessorized with a geometric pendant necklace, a silver belt (its reversible, white on the other side, wonderfully versatile), and one of my favorite bracelets, a navy/pink rope bracelet. Aside from being pretty and shiny, each accessory has a purpose. Granted, when I put outfits together I don't always plan a purpose for everything (I'm always happy to take unnecessary credit for it though haha), but analyzing things later its nice to see why they work. The belt serves to define my waist (#1) and helps offer a transition for the eye from the skirt to my top. More functionally, it also helps hide if things aren't tucked in just perfect, or bunching around there (keeps those love-handles squished in too haha). The necklace adds a bit of visual interest (#6), the geometric/angular shapes contrast the flowy, light lines of the rest of the outfit. This slight visual "tension" gives more of a contemporary feel (that is my own personal style). My bracelet breaks a bit from the silver trend, adds a new color or two, but offers a bit of my personality to things (#6)... I'm from Cape Cod, MA, the Cape is very nautically themed if you don't know, so for me, it helps express my region too. The fact I didn't chose a straight up silver bracelet was a conscious choice... too much coordination gets to be what people say as: "too matchy matchy" which creates more of a contrived look rather than fresh and stylish. Its ok to have some things not coordinate perfectly with the "theme" of an outfit.

Finally, I usually choose shoes last... not sure why, thats just how I roll, I spend most of my time barefoot at home, so it is sometimes an after thought to put shoes on for me. For this outfit I chose silver (again with the coordination), gladiator sandals.

They are flat and comfy, good for walking around all day at a conference (#2), while the straps do a fabulous job at breaking up the line of my foot, making my feet look smaller. The lovely wine red nail polish goes fabulously with the color of the skirt (and basically every other color too) and adds a nice attention to detail (#6) touch. If you are going to wear open to shoes, do your nails, make sure they look cute, it will help add to that "put-together" look we're after.

Hopefully this very detailed analysis proves helpful in thinking about putting together outfits. Don't feel like you have to go into deep thought every time you get dressed. There are enough things to worry about in life. Trust your eye... most of this thought happens instinctively. Things that follow these six guidelines will simply "look right" to you, things that don't simply will look a little off... you don't necessarily have to know why :-)

Have fun! 

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