Starting Style From Scratch… A Style Series for 2025
Happy New Year! I took off a couple of weeks to decompress, collect my thoughts, and find inspiration. During those weeks, I spent time with friends, family, and a few new-to-me folks who learned that I am a content creator focusing on fashion and style for grown-ass women. And so many of them asked for a variation of the same thing: what to do if you are starting style from scratch. What basics should go in our closet?
20 Years of Writing About Style
This year marks 20 years of writing here at Wardrobe Oxygen. Before I began Wardrobe Oxygen, I spent several years as a visual merchandiser, window dresser, personal shopper, stylist, and apparel retail trainer. I have helped dress women aged 18 to 80 with a range of clothing sizes and body types.
Wardrobe Oxygen began in 2005 from a list of staples I believed every woman needs in her wardrobe. Fun fact: “What Every Woman Needs in her Wardrobe” was the first name of Wardrobe Oxygen. Writing a blog consumed by hundreds of thousands in over a dozen countries has exposed me to women of different cultures, religions, bodies, lifestyles, abilities, climates, and careers. That exposure taught me there is no perfect formula for every woman's closet.
There is No Perfect Formula for Every Woman's Closet
Wardrobe Oxygen moved on from formulaic lists of must-haves for your wardrobe to content that could help guide one on their personal style journey, wanting just that – style that is personal.
However, People Change and So Should Our Style
Wardrobe Oxygen isn't the same site it was 20 years ago, and I am not the same woman I was in 2005. And my friend, you are not the same person you were back then either. Has your closet grown and changed along with you at the same pace? If not, you may be like the beautiful women in my life looking to start from scratch with a closet fitting who you are now, not struggle with an ill-fitting wardrobe, style, or existence.
Because, let's face it, clothing is emotional. We can try to go minimalistic, basic, and utilitarian, but it's still a wrapping for our bodies, a bookjacket for our novel, a fitted sheet that we don't want creeping up on the corner or causing us night sweats. And our bodies… there's a lot of emotional stuff going on there. What covers, adorns, camouflages, protects, highlights, and comforts us matters in a multitude of ways.
Whatever the reason, if you're starting style from scratch or close to it, this series is for you. My grown-ass woman friend, let's have our closets fit the amazing people we are here and now.
Starting Style from Scratch: A Series
This week, each post will be about starting style from scratch:
- Tuesday: The list of basics for the closet of most women in midlife
- Wednesday: Tools and tips to keep these basics in tip-top shape and lasting for years (the goal is to reduce spending and increase style)
- Thursday: Dressing for everyday situations using these closet basics
- Friday: Answering your questions
Friday means I look forward to your comments, emails, and DMs regarding this series. I know this list and my advice won't work for all, but I hope it will help many of you get the ball rolling. Your feedback will be used for Friday's Q&A and future posts in this Starting Style from Scratch series. Because you know I won't leave you blowing in the breeze with a basic-ass closet for the rest of 2025.
I will have a minimum of one post a month that is part of the Starting Style from Scratch series, helping navigate seasons, adding personality to the closet, knowing when to let go and when to keep clothes you already own, creating more style with fewer things in your closet, and gaining confidence with getting dressed on the daily.
And for those who subscribe to my newsletter, monthly exclusive content will continue this discussion.
I struggled with what to do in the new year with Wardrobe Oxygen, what would be fresh but also useful. Shopping willy-nilly is exhausting, expensive, and terrible for our world. I feel for many, 2025 will be a year of change. Let us embrace change and be armed for the future with the proper attire.
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I’m so glad I found your blog (or maybe it found me) … perhaps a year or so ago. Ever since Covid, the workplace has become much more casual. I plan on retiring in about a year and a half, so I’m trying to incorporate less dressy clothes into my wardrobe. However, I still want to look stylish and put together. This series will definitely help!
Twenty years—wow! Congratulations! I love WO so much. This series sounds good, & I’m glad you’re going to spread it out over the year & in the newsletter. That will help me from not feeling overwhelmed. I really need to clean out my closet, stop buying so much, and get a more organized wardrobe. It’s hard to do though.
I would definitely appreciate some updated tips on comfortable but nice clothes to wear for dressier occasions. I’m at a point in life where I don’t dress up much, rarely wear dresses (stopped going to church during Covid times & dresses just became way less needed & uncomfortable to me) but still have times where I’m unsure of what to wear—thinking theater, graduations, symphony/concerts, funerals, etc. I really don’t want to feel that urge to run out & buy something new—but I also don’t care to follow the old advice about always keeping a “black” dress in the closet. And, perimenopause is wreaking havoc on my body right now, so I feel like everything looks awful.
Would you ever consider doing some type of question/answer post with us? I don’t mean a live q & a but let readers send in questions and then you could answer them in a separate post. I always enjoy reading comments here & I think it would be helpful to see different perspectives from others (& your answers, of course!).
This series is so timely! I have been WFH exclusively since 2020, and haven’t been going to industry events, but I really need to restart. It feels like the professional world has skewed back to more traditional dressing, and I am lost!
I went to an event recently where the other women were all in heels, and I was in (nice, dark-wash) jeans and white sneakers. I felt out of place, but am not sure what to get so that I have something for events like these, esp. since they aren’t something I go to all that often (probably every other month this year, is my plan).
Thanks, Alison!
Would love it if you could include an ongoing series of capsules, maybe in your monthly updates, each using Tuesday’s basics as the jumping off point. Visual demonstrations of the ways we can take this shared starting point and, using your creative approach, develop it for changing lifestyle and seasonal needs.
Per usual…you are coming in with the content I need right this minute of my life. I’ve recently began helping out at a locally owned jewelry store (a third generation jeweler/family that’s been here for 70 years) for fun. It gives me something to do with my time. But I’m realizing that my wardrobe no longer has any real “work clothes”. When I was volunteering as Choir/School mom, I could wear whatever I wanted. Now, I need to dress a bit more professional. And I know I’m missing some of the basics I had 12 years ago when I left corporate life. Not to mention I no longer look the same as I did then. This couldn’t come at a better time and I’m so excited for this series.
I love your blog !
This series will be invaluable to all of us. I retired 10 years ago and I’m still drawn to the type of clothing I wore to work for 35 years. Suits, blazers, dress pants, and dresses, but they just are appropriate for my retired life. I always have a black pant suit in my closet for “special” events. But I need help with the rest. My weight fluctuates so when I’m my heaviest, which I am now, I’m not happy with any of my outfits.
Thank you, I am really looking forward to this series !
Beth
Hey, just wanted to extend congratulations on building a body of work over 20 years. That’s remarkable in any medium, but especially online. What’s been a real joy is watching how your brand has retained its essential you-ness while remaining dynamic and responsive to the times.
Alison as others have said…such a prescient topic, I am really looking forward to this series. Before Covid I was really happy with my closet – I had clothes for going to the office several times a week, casual errands/outings on the weekends, plus activewear and loungewear capsules. Since Covid I’ve been working from home, I’ve been through menopause, and I’ve moved to a state with a different climate and style. Everything has been scrambled and I’ve struggled with how to dress and even where to shop. I don’t need the same types of clothes that I needed before, but I still want to look pulled together for what is now an extremely casual lifestyle with a different body than I had five years ago.
Just what I need right now! I retired early in 2020 to become the family caregiver (think ages 2 months to 88 years). It involves plenty of physical
activity, driving, and a fair amount of mess. In the beginning I just wore my limited supply of “weekend clothes” until they wore out. Then I started wearing my old work clothes, an uncomfortable option but I already had them. Then some days my housecleaning clothes – caregiving really changes your values but I went too far in the other direction and I looked awful!!! I’ve started buying new things but need direction.
I retired almost two years ago now, quite a bit earlier than I’d planned, and I’m still trying to figure out my wardrobe. The pieces I’m drawn to, that I’m used to wearing for the 32 years I was employed, just don’t make sense for a life of volunteer work (some of which entails packing & delivering food), taking classes, and meeting friends for bocce, book club, or a fun field trip. I don’t want to look sloppy so the athleisure trend as a set piece isn’t for me but there are aspects of it that I know would make good components of a new daily wardrobe for me.
All of that to say that I’m looking forward to the series!
Yay! This series will be exactly what I was thinking this weekend that I needed. I have lost weight and found myself replacing exactly what I had instead of looking at other options to change up my closet.
I’d love to see you do a TED talk on this very topic — and be sure to include the great line, clothing is “a book jacket for our novel.”
I look forward to this new series and would love to see a chapter (from our novels, LOL) on retirement. I worked in a very conservative field for more than 40 years — now, I’m retired. I’m drawn to beautiful silk blouses and fitted suits, yet my reality is more along the lines of leggings and oversized sweatshirts. I need a mental shift, as well as a physical one.
I am chuckling because I glanced at the first graphic for closet staples from 2005 (not reading the caption that it was FROM 2005!) and thought “wow all my favorites are in style now!” LOL. In other words 2005 was the last time I had a sense of my own style – it was before marriage and kids, it was when I last worked in an office. And of course my now-perimenopausal body was 20 years younger. I wouldn’t look good in that aesthetic if it WAS in style now. Even though I’m still not working in an office (I’m actually back in school for occupational therapy so I spend my days in scrubs) I look forward to this series.
This series really speaks to me and I’m looking forward to your posts. I receive emails from clothing retailers that I love, then, depending on my mood, find myself looking for something that I MUST have. I am retired, live a very sedate life and don’t need a closet full of cashmere and silk. That said, I’m not a pastel athleisure suit kind of gal, either. As I write this, I have a bag of items barely worn for the consignment store where I will receive a fraction of what I paid for them. This cycle has to stop! It’s not good for the planet, my pocketbook and, honestly, my mental health. I’m looking forward to your series for some guidance, because I certainly “don’t have anything to wear”, rather “too much to choose from”.
This sounds EXACTLY like me!!
Looking forward to this series. I’m hoping you will spend some time on shopping our closets and restyling what we already have. I have transitioned to shopping more intentionally, looking for good quality pieces to fill a hole in my wardrobe or to replace well-loved pieces. I started reading your blog years ago when I was looking for ideas on how to pack for work-related travel. I’m retired now and though my travel style has changed, I still want to look put together with minimal luggage for wherever I’m going.
What a great direction for a series. I always value your honest and inspirational advice and look forward to these posts. Thank you!
Alison, your timing is outstanding. 2024 was a year of seismic changes in my life as I said goodbye to a marriage of 26 years.
As I look at my closet, I see things that are perfect, things that are just there and a maddening middle ground.
Inspiration for how to think about the sorting is most welcome.
Excited to follow this new series.
& forget who we were in 2005. We’re not who we were in 2020.
And every year some of us are transitioning stages of life. For ex, I retire this summer. Whenever I see workwear/dressier stuff I like I have to remind myself that I probably won’t have anywhere to wear it once I retire.