GUYS, STOP SHOPPING FOR OUTFITS (AND DO THIS INSTEAD)

I often hear guys say they "just want to shop for a handful of good outfits," thinking that if they have all their closets paired off into little sections of outfits, their style woes will vanish.

Unfortunately, shopping for a complete outfit is one of the worst things you can do when developing your closet, and I see this mistake all the time.

When you shop for an outfit, your main concern is finding items that pair with one another within the outfit. You're trying to make sure the shirt goes with the pants, which go with the shoes, but that's as far as it goes.

When you shop for outfits, you're being short-sighted. You pay no attention to whether those items could go with other items in your closet.

All you've done when buying an outfit is put together a few puzzle pieces, but you've failed to look at the entire picture, and it's going to cost you.

When you're shopping for outfits, you're going to waste loads of money.

Let's say you want to shop for three outfits. Well, that will require three pairs of pants. Instead of buying those three pairs of pants, wouldn't it make more sense to buy one pair that could go with all three outfits?

This would also allow you to put more money into buying one higher-quality pair that will look better over time than the three you were originally going to purchase.

Both commission-based personal shoppers and subscription box services use this outfit trick all the time to get you to shell out more cash. You're purchasing a paired-together outfit rather than an item you need, so invariably, your closet will always end up overstuffed with things you never needed in the first place if you were to do it right the first time.

You should be shopping for specific items that will pair with the majority of things you own. Each item you buy should have "range": the ability to be paired with many of your other items; let's call it 70% just to put a number on it.

When constructing your style, you need to think about your wardrobe like a team. Think about it like you're employing members of a team who all need to get along and work well together. This requires a "top-down" view of your closet to see what team members you need to fill a specific position. Usually, you're missing a few key players who would really bring everyone together because they could work with anyone.

I was recently talking about this with a client of mine. After working with me, he was reflecting on the fact that shopping for targeted items is a much better approach than shopping for outfits.

He told me that in computer programing, they have a term for the approach we were discussing. They call it, Modularity.

Modularity: Modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a system into varying degrees of interdependence and independence.

Sound familiar?

Always remember that the goal should NOT be to create a closet filled with items that only go with one other item, sectioned off into little outfit combinations...

...But rather a functional closet that has interdependent pieces that, combined together, could create many outfits.

Figure out the handful of items you need that are actually missing from your closet, make sure they'll pair with around 70% of your items, and get them in the highest quality you can afford. That's it.

Save money. Stop overcomplicating it. Look better.

If you're thinking about working 1-on-1 with me, I've made you a little video here walking you through what the process looks like.