In the previous posts, we reviewed personal uniforms, including the different types of personal uniforms, and how to create your own work uniform. This post covers how you can also create your own everyday, formal, active, and lounge uniforms.
Personal uniforms are for those who:
Want to get dressed in the morning faster and more easily.
Want to declutter their closet and decrease the amount of time spent shopping.
Want to present themselves with intention and consistency.
As a reminder, a personal uniform is a standardized look that people create for themselves to simplify their daily routine. Many folks who create a personal uniform don’t struggle with figuring out what to wear everyday because they’ve created a standardized outfit to wear instead. You can read more about personal uniforms in this post.
If you’ve been following along to the weekly posts, at this point you should be able to:
Understand personal uniforms as a concept - If not, check out this post
Define your personal style - If not, check out this post
Describe your personal work uniform, if applicable - if not, check out this post
Like, the personal work uniform, the personal everyday, formal, active, and lounge uniforms consists of the following elements:
Base pieces
Accent pieces
Personal grooming choices. We’ll cover this in a future post.
The base is exactly what it sounds like. This will be the common set of pieces that make the majority of your uniform. Typically, base pieces should be restricted to neutrals. Black, white, gray, cream, navy blue are common base colors.
The base of my wardrobe is primarily black and white.
The accent is what brings your personality to the uniform and keeps things interesting. These could be clothing pieces, but also includes accessories. Like the base, the accent should be restricted to about 2-3 colors. Varying shades of blue, red, green, yellow, pink, orange are common accent colors.
My pink accent color
My light blue accent color
If you’ve heard of a ‘Capsule Wardrobe’ the concept of base and accent pieces should be familiar.
Restricting the colors of your wardrobe to a few colors makes it easy to mix and match pieces and ultimately get dressed faster. If there aren’t color guidelines in your wardrobe, you may waste time trying to find pieces that ‘go’ together. We’ll cover this more in a future post.
Aside from colors, it’s important to restrict your base to a few different clothing styles. I used to run into issues where I’d have a shirt and pants I’d want to wear, but the shirt would be too short and the pants too low rise, meaning I couldn’t wear those pieces together for work. It’s important to make decisions on what styles of clothes you feel most comfortable in, such as:
High rise vs. low rise pants and skirts
Pant cut styles
Neckline styles
The less variety you have in these clothing styles, the easier it will be to get dressed, have a consistent look, and shop for future pieces.
My everyday, active, formal, and lounge uniforms feature black and white loose pants and crop tops.
How to find your personal uniforms:
Unlike your work personal uniform, your everyday, formal, active, and lounge uniforms can have more flexibility and align closer to the style you’ve previously defined.
Make a note of your base and 2-3 accent colors.
Use Pinterest or other photo curating apps and the 2-3 fashion styles you picked from the ‘How to define your style’ post to get inspiration for your personal uniforms. Save any photo that you like and begin to look for themes.
My style is called Chic Adventura and is blend of polished and practical pieces with a sense of adventure and can be described as Minimal, Sporty, and Chic.
3. Go to your closet and pick out pieces that you love to wear today. Is there any overlap in what you’ve saved from your inspiration gathering? Build your base on the commonality between what your ideal personal uniforms looks like (I.e. saved inspiration photos) and what you already own and love.
These Nike sweatpants are one of the most commonly worn pants in my wardrobe as they are a base for my everyday, active, and lounge uniforms. Cropped tops are another staple for my uniform. I bought this cropped Nike jacket in 2018 to easily integrate into my personal uniforms.
4. Document in whatever way works best for you. Below is the template I’ve used with clients that works well, but you can also do this in your Notes app on your phone, in a journal or with photos.
This is a personal uniform guide I put together for a client from Chicago. We’ll cover ‘accent pieces’ in an upcoming post.
Coming up next:
How personal grooming contributes to your personal uniform
Unlock a clutter-free closet!
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