Speed up Your Style with Outfit Recipes

Happy day, dear reader!

It has been a wild few days. Two plane flights, multiple trains, a couple of subway rides, four museums, and a wedding shower. Whew. And I know I’m not the only woman who has crazy days, weeks, or months. It may seem self-serving, but today I’ll share a previously published blog for ways to make those days, weeks, or months just a little easier. Feeling put together in the crazy times can help us feel more in control, and one easy way to do that is to fall back on your…

Outfit Recipes

Have you ever felt bombarded at the grocery store checkout by the magazine covers? I often do! Quick and Easy Family Meals… 30 Minute Dinners… Shortcuts to Supper… (And have you ever noticed that for every diet/slim down article, there’s a Best Dessert Ever recipe? So unfair!) Literally millions of recipe ideas at our fingertips, but we frequently default to the family favorites we cook so often that we don’t even need to look at the measurements. The best recipes are those that have some wiggle room for adaptation. Maybe we are out of chicken, but it works with ground beef, too. Or, we have no taco seasoning, so we swap in Italian seasoning, and serve it over pasta instead of with tortillas. These are the best kind of recipes, endlessly adaptable, and never boring! Wouldn’t the same kind of recipes for your closet be fabulous?

What’s An Outfit Recipe?

An Outfit Recipe is a dressing shortcut. The best recipes are quick, easy, and adaptable, not the ones with ingredients you can’t pronounce, let alone find at the store (in your closet). I am not talking about the black pants with the pink blouse and heart necklace, that’s too specific and gets boring very quickly. I am talking about those flexible recipes, the ones that with a little spice can keep your wardrobe feeling full of variety. Everyone has their own favorites. Mine change with the seasons, and with my activities for the day. When I was teaching in the classroom, my winter default recipe was Dress + Boots + Cardigan + Scarf. With just 3 dresses, 3 cardigans, 3 boots, and 3 scarves, you could go on for quite a while before repeating! (If they all mix and match, you’d have 81 outfits. That’s 4 months worth of work outfits!)

My Recent Recipes

This month (September 2017) I have been doing a daily picture challenge. Reviewing a week’s photos startled me. I wore almost the same outfit all week long, but it didn’t feel like it. My recipe that week was Column of Color + Scarf or Necklace for contrast. Some days the column was blue, other days it was white. It could be an inner column (shirt and trouser) or an outer column (trouser and jacket) but CoC + SoN 4 Contrast it was! (Maybe these should be Wardrobe Equations instead of recipes!) My apologies for the selfie… I don’t have an Instagram Husband!

As our tastes change, so do our recipes. This past summer during the #100outfits100days challenge, I found a few new favorite recipes. One was Dress + Cropped Trousers + Colored Shoe + Statement Necklace. Every time I put this recipe on, I felt put together and sassy. I’ll take some sass on a busy day! Another favorite recipe was Shorts + Blouse + Ballet Flats. How about White Column (Top and Bottom) + Colored Shoe + Colored Jewelry? (I wore this same one with a denim column over and over, too!)

Some Recipe Ideas to Try

Simple Dress + Bold Necklace + Jean Jacket + Shoes/Boots (appropriate for the season)

Slim Cropped Trouser/Jeans + Loose/Flowy Shirt + Layered Thin Necklaces + Ballet Flats

Wide Trouser/Jeans + Slim Fitting Top + Bold Necklace + Wedges

Column of Color (top and bottom of the same color) + Scarf/Necklace and Shoes (of a second color)

The great thing about recipes is their flexibility. Don’t wear trousers? Sub in skirts instead! Can’t stand necklaces? Sub in bracelets and earrings for interest. Scarves are too complicated? Try the necklace option! Too hot for trousers? Sub in shorts!

How about you? Do you have an Outfit Recipe that you return to again and again? Let’s start a conversation in the comments below!

Stylishly yours,