“Elegance is good taste plus a dash of daring” ~Carmel Snow
Today, we’re defining the accent pieces in your Confident Closet. Accent, or seasonal pieces, are more outspoken items compared to your essentials. They represent a lower percentage of your wardrobe, are less versatile, and are worn less frequently. However, accent pieces are still part of your Confident Closet because they add some sparkle to your outfit and wardrobe. These are the items that you love but don’t need as often. The thing you should be thinking about as we go through this process is: what do I want from my clothes?
The goal
In this blog post, I will talk about the tools to use and the questions to ask that will help you identify your accent pieces. The goal is to be aware of what our accent pieces are as an addition to the essentials. These items should reflect your lifestyle, and it helps you make smarter and quicker decisions when you go shopping. I will hand out tools and questions to help you define your accent pieces.
It would probably be noticed if you wore this item every day
Accent pieces in your Confident Closet
As mentioned earlier, you don’t really need your accent pieces, even though they still reflect your style. These items are highlights, more outspoken pieces. It would probably be noticed if you wore this item every day.
After decluttering your wardrobe, you only kept the items you love and those you need. You have analyzed your closet and defined your essentials and you probably have a better idea of which fabrics, colors, and silhouettes are part of your wardrobe. Your accent pieces probably stand out more in terms of one or all of these ingredients. Let’s take a closer look at this now.
Special occasions and rotating wardrobe
Accent pieces stand out more, are potentially more ‘fun’ and might be for special occasions, like Christmas or NYE. Or it’s items that are really on trend and could get a second life after one season. Instead of collecting dust in your closet after wearing this one-time-only, you can find it a second life by selling, swapping, or donating. Your accent pieces can be the rotating part of your closet – items go in and out, according to trends and fashion.
Analyze
Take a look at your closet with only items that you love and need. Can you identify the accent pieces in your closet? Take these items out and let’s have a closer look – why are these different from others? Is it the print, color, shape, fabric, or occasion? Look back at your closet – what does it look like without these garments? It could be that your wardrobe looks quite dull now because there are only a couple of similar colors. And that is a good sign because it means that these additional garments accentuate your personality.
Take a look at the balance between the essentials and the accents. Is the majority essential, or accent? Is there more color in your accent pieces compared to the essentials? Does the balance represent your lifestyle?
Accent fabrics in your Confident Closet
Fabrics are really important for a style. It gives the garments personality, and it’s one of the key reasons why you like to wear the garment, for how it feels. It could be that you have some items in your accent wardrobe that really stand out in fabrics. A soft velvet, for example. It’s not an easy fabric to wear on a daily basis, but it gives your closet and your outfit a little spark.
A personal example. I once purchased sequin leggings by Stella McCartney for a New Year’s Eve event. It was an eye-catcher, not for everyday wear – at least not for me. But it made me so happy to see it in my wardrobe – it really jazzed up the closet for a couple of years before I finally give them another life by selling the garment. Because I initially invested in a brand that has a good resale value, I was able to get an amount back that made the “renting” price for a couple of years more than worthwhile (I explain that theory in this post).
Do you have a specific fabric that you could define as an accent that makes you feel or look a bit different? When you know that your accent pieces have special fabric, it means that only a small number in your closet should represent these fabrics. When this fabric takes over, it might belong to the core.
Analyze your favorite garments that you pull out most
Accent color(s)
After analyzing your closet and defining your lifestyle, you listed five colors. Today, I’d like to challenge you to define the 3 primary accent colors, that are different from your essentials. Even when most of your accent garments contain allover prints, there is usually a main color that pops out. This doesn’t mean that the others are not allowed to stay, but it’s good to be aware of your main color palette.
Because my closet contains mostly whites, blues, and greys, the accent pieces are clearly defined by a different color. The 3 main accent colors in my wardrobe are:
- Fire Red
- Royal Blue
- Mint Green
Do you have trouble defining 3 main colors? Try some of the items on and decide. Which colors help you? Or, maybe you already have a preference for a couple of garments in this selection that you pull out more than others. Could it be that the color is the reason? Analyze your favorite garments that you pull out most.
Knowing your accent colors help you with future shopping. When you look for something special and different, you can directly search for similar tones. But if you’re looking for a garment that is versatile, then you should avoid these three accent colors.
Accent fits and shapes
After analyzing, is there a consistency in fit and shapes within your accents? Is it in line with your Style Kaleidoscope, or is it different? Shapes or fits are defined as slim, straight, and loose. Body lengths can be defined as cropped, normal, and long and in bottoms, you probably have a preference for waist height (think about what you feel most comfortable in).
The accent pieces in my wardrobe stand most out in color. The fits, however, correspond with the essentials – oversized, square, and round.
Your essentials might be composed of relaxed fits, but your accent pieces might include more form-fitting shapes. It makes shopping easier when you’re looking for something that stands out because you are aware that your accent fits and shapes are different from the core.
Accent accessories
It could also be that your accent pieces mainly consist of accessories. Think about jewelry, shoes, bags, scarves, etc. to spice things up. This is a great approach as well! Most likely, almost your whole closet contains essentials, and these are spiced up by adding something trendy. This is a smart way where you don’t have to splurge on expensive garments, and it’s easy to replace items next season with something else, after getting rid of it in a sustainable way.
What do I want from my clothes and is that represented?
Recap
Now you have dissected your accent pieces and you are aware of which elements attract you and spice up your wardrobe. You can see if this information is in line with your lifestyle. Think about your answer to the question I posed at the start of the post: what do I want from my clothes? And now ask yourself how your accent pieces support that purpose.
An example. You have a ton of unique dresses for going out, defined as accent pieces. In your Style Kaleidoscope, you mentioned you only go out once a month, so the number of dresses doesn’t align with your lifestyle. You might consider getting rid of some and renting unique dresses for going out in the future or swapping with friends.
Number of accent pieces
Earlier, we defined your essentials that include activities, fabric, color, and fit, and shapes. We touched upon the subject of a number of essentials, which vary greatly depending on how you live your life.
There is a classic wardrobe ratio, which is two-thirds core to one-third accents, or 70% core to 30% accents if that is more clear for you. Additionally, I believe there are different Style Personalities, which will inform the number of items we have and our style preferences. Some personalities have almost their whole wardrobe as essentials, and for others, it can mean that their closet is close to half of seasonal and accent pieces that rotate through the seasons.
Was it easy for you to define the accent pieces in your Confident Closet?
Thank you for reading.
We’re in this together.
~
