Spending money on clothes right now is a bit confusing. On the one hand, there are a lot of very good deals. On the other hand, it seems even more useless than ever, because I am basically living in Marks and Spencers elastic waist trousers and a muji t-shirt. However, I still have a plan to try to have my luxury wardrobe done by this year and so I compromised and bought a bunch of luxury items preloved from Oxfam. This means that I got to buy luxury items but that all the proceeds went to charity. So, this put together with my last ‘haul’ in March means that I now have more or less a functioning luxury wardrobe based on the items and silhouettes that I said that I wanted. These include items from Luxury Brands such as Joseph, Theory,  Armani, Levis, Eileen Fischer, and Cos. No item was over 125 pounds. Many were much cheaper (Joseph trousers for 18 pounds for example).

I remind you of the silhouette. Silhouettes are really important, I am learning, especially for a short curvy girl. Ideally, you want to try to create some kind of hourglass figure and try to draw attention up to your top/eyes/face if you are heavy on the bottom like me. What is new with my peri-menopausal body is my expanding midsection. So I now have to think about how things fit around my waist and cover my waist (like no more low ride jeans, for example). The easiest way to draw attention to your face is to wear something lighter on top than on the bottom. Also you can use accessories. I don’t wear jewelry but I do wear scarves. You can use these items as well to bring attention up to your face.

So basically I think that you need 12 items and a steamer to have a fantastic work wardrobe. That is it. Even if you buy everything new, I think this is affordable. Now, you might not want to stop at 12 items. I have more than 12 items, however, I am going to try to not buy anymore items (shopping ban) now that I have this list. Wish me luck with this.

My 12 Item Work Wardrobe:

4 bottoms:  black jeans, 2 two pairs of work trousers, one pencil skirt

1 dress: A sweater dress (I have other “conference dresses” that I am not including here, which are more formal)

2 jackets/blazers: A wool/cashmere coat and a blazer (I wont get into different outerwear but I basically have a trench coat, peacoat, this new cashmere wool wrap, and a (UK) winter coat).

5 tops:  white t-shirt, black long sleeve shirt, black silk dress shirt, chunky sweater, grey cashmere sweater.

Everything more or less goes together and I can mix and match. I spent less than 800 pounds for everything and I split it up over a few (5) months. I expect that it is going to last for years to come (I hope three at least). I have some other items in my closet, so I am def not trying to tell you that this is all I have, but at the moment, this is the basis of my main luxury wardrobe.