← Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
236 | A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Multiple Outfits from One Piece
00:17:33
Hey friend, welcome back to HER Style Podcast! Today we’re tackling a myth that I love to bust: You don’t need more clothes. You just need more ways to wear what you already own. I know—it’s so tempting to scroll, shop, and think that...
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, friend. Welcome back to Her Style Podcast. Today we're tackling a myth that I love to bust. You don't need more clothes. You just need more ways to wear what you already own. I know it's so tempting to scroll, shop and think that this next piece will solve all of your outfit problems, but what if the solution is already hanging in your closet? In this episode, I'm walking you through a super simple step by step process to help you unlock multiple outfits from just one piece. Whether it's a dress, a blazer, or that cute top you bought and barely wear. I'll help you rethink how to style it so you can stretch your wardrobe without stretching your budget. This is the exact kind of practical, personal styling approach I use with clients, and I promise you'll walk away with fresh outfit ideas you actually want to wear. Grab that one piece you've been neglecting and wearing the same way on repeat. And let's dive in.
- [00:58]
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Welcome to her Style podcast, where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host, Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist, ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started.
- [01:25]
A
Let me just start out by saying there is no shame in thinking that you can shop your way to a wardrobe you love. I know when you're bored with what's in your closet and when your pieces are feeling really dated and when you feel like you're in a rut with what you have and what you've been wearing, the easiest solution is to go out and buy something new. But this quick fix isn't always the best long term solution. So that's what I wanna walk you through today. And I know this firsthand because it was the pattern that I followed in my early adulthood. I didn't just shop all the time because I love clothes, which I. I shopped all the time because I really didn't understand how to maximize what I had or the time, money and effort that it would save me to do so. If I had an event coming up, I wanted something new. I never thought about how I could rework what I'd already invested in and we could call it impulsivity or maybe a little bit of immaturity. But the word budget was not even in my vocabulary at the time. And needless to say, my shopping addiction became a very costly habit. Now, you might be in a similar boat right now, buying more than you want, or maybe you're just tired of wearing your pieces in the same ways and defaulting to a handful of go to outfits. Maybe you have totally separate wardrobes for each area of your life. And then the idea of mixing everything together as I encouraged you in our last episode, feels kind of like a foreign language. No matter where you are, there's a better way. And today I'm going to break down a simple five step guide to creating multiple outfits from one piece. You to be able to rinse and repeat these steps with your entire wardrobe to create an infinite number of new outfits with zero shopping required. So let's dive right in. Step number one, of course, is to choose your starting piece. We've got to know what we're working from here. And it could be maybe something you love but you don't wear very often, like that midi skirt you only wore once because you're not sure what to pair it with. Or it could be a standout. Or inside her style collective. We call these our star pieces. Kind of those statement items in your closet, like the abstract print blouse that feels really tough to pair with anything other than your classic black trousers. Or it could even be a staple item that you do wear often, but you really want to style in some fresh new ways. Whatever you want to start with is totally fine. You can take it easy and give yourself something simple to pair up at first or maybe go with a challenge and grab that piece that you always have trouble putting new outfits together together with. If you are able to go through these steps right now in real time with me as you're listening to this episode, then feel free to grab that piece, pull it out, lay it on your bed, or just picture it in your mind as we walk through these next few steps. So step number two is to consider the context before we style anything. I want you to get clear on where you actually want to wear it, because we've got to figure out how it's going to fit into your life. And this might take some creativity. I want you to remember the question that I suggested to you in the last episode. How else could I wear this item? Yep, we're picking right back up where we left off. I want you to think about what parts of your life this piece could fit into. Is it work appropriate? Could it be adapted for your weekend? Would you want to wear it on a date or a coffee run or maybe to brunch with your girlfriends? The key here is to connect your style choices to your real everyday life, not just some aspirational Pinterest board of ideas. If it doesn't align with how you live your life, it's not going to get worn, even if it's super cute. So we have to start this process by getting creative about when and how else you can wear it. For example, if you have a blouse that feels too dressy for your everyday life, let's figure out how to dress it down, maybe with basic jeans and flats. Or you could take your casual joggers and elevate them with a blazer for your work from home days. This step, step number two, considering the context, is about adapting the piece that you're working with to suit your routine. So take a look at your starting piece and brainstorm an actual list. I want you to write it down of all of the places and the activities that you could potentially wear it if you need help. If you're kind of getting stuck on how you could adapt this to work for the different areas of your life, definitely take a few minutes to do a quick search on Pinterest or Google for outfit ideas with that specific piece in mind. So, for example, if you're struggling to restyle a button down blouse for different activities, go online and type in button down blouse for a casual brunch outfit or button down blouse for date night and just see what ideas come up. This is really gonna help to get your creative juices flowing. Okay, so let's keep moving on. Step number three is to play with various pairings. And here's where we're really gonna start to experiment and test out this list that you just came up with. Don't worry, I'm gonna guide. Let's take that one piece and brainstorm three outfit pairings to start. This doesn't have to take all day. It doesn't need to be a whole huge project. Just challenge yourself to come up with three new outfit pairings. The first one, you could try a casual look. And this means casual for you in whatever way and to whatever degree resonates with your personal style. This might mean sneakers, denim, cozy cardigans, basic T shirts, things like that. Or it might mean an outfit that feels really dramatic or maybe alluring that you can still wear to the grocery store. Okay, so whatever casual looks like for you, that's where we could start with this exercise. And you're just basically going to go for something that's easy and effortless for this one. The second outfit that you could try pairing up is a dressier look. And with this, the goal is going to be to see how you can adapt the piece to Work for a more formal occasion. It could be anything from date night to church to your nephew's upcoming graduation party. Maybe you're going to swap in some heels and add a really cute handbag and put on some elevated accessories. You're just looking for ways to make this piece work beyond what you came up with in the first option, which was for a casual wear outfit. All right. And lastly, the third outfit that I want you to create is an unexpected combination. The goal isn't to come up with some wild, outlandish outfit unless you have a creative and dramatic personal style. And then please, have at it. But the goal here is to see what unexpected pairings actually work together to make an outfit you love and would have never thought possible before you took some time to play around. It might look like combining something edgy with one of your more feminine pieces. Or maybe you're going to try a bold shoe with your classic suit. Or it could also be as simple as pairing two colors you never tried before. Maybe adding a layering piece with your usual go to look. Or breaking out some accessories that haven't seen the light of day in a while. Of course, I have to keep saying this. You always want to keep your style preferences in mind because even though you're playing dress up right now, you don't want to feel like you're playing dress up when you leave the house. So whatever combinations you try, we still want them to reflect your personal tastes in an authentic way. Now, for the purposes of this experiment, I just want you to have fun. I want you to try layering a button down blouse under a sleeveless dress, or maybe tucking a structured top into your sweatpants. I don't know. Just have fun and try things that you never thought to pair up before. This is really your chance to play and take one small baby step outside of your usual comfort zone or your style box that maybe you've put yourself in. And remember, it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even have to work. The goal is just to experiment, to try new combinations, be open to possibilities, and to get a little more creative with what you already own. And I will say too, if you have some extra time, if you're starting to really get into this process, I want you to keep going. You don't have to stop with these three outfit pairings. Maybe you're going to try on all of the bottoms in your closet to see what actually works with that pretty floral print top. Or you could take out all of your blouses and T shirts and try them on with your favorite denim skirt. You can do this in small batches of time here and there, or you could block out a few hours this weekend and get really playful and creative and see how many things you can come up with. But keep going if you feel like you're on a roll and you're having a lot of fun and you're having some success. All right, and step number four is to cater everything to your body shape and coloring. And I have to be honest, this might be the most essential step, so I really don't want you to skip this one. You could come up with all the crazy and classic and cool outfit ideas that you want, but if they don't bring out your best or make you feel your best, then they're missing the mark. As you start exploring new possibilities in your closet, remember to choose flattering cuts and silhouettes for your body type, to pick colors and color pairings that complement your features and definitely feel like you, and to layer and accessorize intentionally so that you can direct the eye where you want it to go. Remember, I've talked about this before. Styling outfits is all about creating the right optical illusions with your clothes clothing to create the effect that you want. So let me just give you a couple of simple questions that you can use as a benchmark. And the goal of this is not to overwhelm you or to have you over analyze your outfits, but just to help you troubleshoot if something feels a little bit off. These are good questions to come back to to see if you can pinpoint and then correct the problem. So the first one to consider is whether the proportions feel well balanced. For example, do your legs look like they're getting cut off by your hemline or by your shoes? You might want to make some adjustments there. Would it look more flattering to add some length through your waist? I want you to play around with tucking, belting, and cuffing as needed until you get the perfect proportional balance. The next question you can ask is, are you hiding or highlighting your shape? That is a real honest question to ask yourself. You might be defaulting to clothes that are hiding your shape altogether, and instead we want to highlight your favorite features and think about bringing out the best in your body's natural shape. So if you're wearing an oversized top, are you balancing it with something that's more structured and fitted on the bottom so that you don't get completely lost in your clothing? Are you adding any visual weight where you don't want it, like large pockets or oversized Buttons and other embellishments are often common culprits that can do this. So think about where the eye is going when you look at your outfit in a full length mirror. And then of course, you always want to ask if the colors that you're wearing flatter your features. If not, think about how you might be able to adjust it with your accessories or maybe altering your makeup a little bit. Are you wearing a color combination that mimics your personal contrast levels or the difference in lightness and darkness between your features? I've talked about some of these points in other episodes, so you can certainly go back or we review all of this in depth and in a really personalized way inside Her Style Collective, which is my 90 day coaching program as well. So I will leave some resources and links in the show notes for you if you want to dive deeper into any of these questions. But you basically want to make sure that the colors that you're wearing and your overall outfit isn't overpowering you, but instead bringing the focus back to your face. And then also lastly, ask yourself, is there a way to style this look that feels more you, whether that's through changing up the neckline or maybe cuffing up the stitch sleeves or adding something a little bit offbeat or a little bit more put together? Again, I'm not trying to overwhelm you with all of these questions, especially if you're still learning the ropes of how to dress to flatter your figure. But when you pay attention to these little details and when you style your pieces in ways that align with your preferences and make you feel your best, you're going to actually want to wear them again. And that's the whole point. We're not just trying to make more outfits, we're trying to make more outfits that you're really excited to wear. Okay, this is going to bring us to the final step number five, which is to make it practical and repeatable. So once you've found two or three or maybe even five or ten outfits that you love from that one starting piece, I want you to do a couple of things. First, snap a photo. You could take a mirror selfie, or you could take everything off and lay out all the pieces on the floor and snap one photo of the combination. However you want to do it, that's totally fine. I also want you to write down what worked about this outfit, because we never want to be reinventing the wheel over and over. Is there a way that you could kind of come up with that basic outfit formula and then use other pieces in your closet to make similar combinations. So definitely pay attention to what you liked about that outfit and you'll start to see trends in your personal preferences as well. And then lastly, save it somewhere that you can find it again. You might want to start a new album on your phone that's for different outfit ideas. Or you could use a style app or a free resource like Pinterest. Or you could even keep a log of your outfits in a handheld style journal if you prefer. Keeping things old school. I do offer printable outfit styling worksheets inside Her Style Collective, so I totally recognize the beauty in that and I think that could be a really great keepsake and a functional resource to have available to you when you're going to get dressed. Okay. And then I want you to pick another starting piece next week or as soon as you can and repeat this whole process. You could even build a little mini capsule around your starting piece like a five piece mix and match set using that one item as the anchor. And the more you do this, the easier it'll become to spot versatility and to make quick and creative styling decisions on the fly. All right friend, are you up for the challenge again? I want you to choose one piece in your wardrobe. Challenge yourself to style it in three different ways. Maybe start with one casual, one dressy, and one unexpected. Keep going. If you have the time and the energy and this is feeling good for you. Remember to adapt everything to work for your figure and your personal coloring. And then be sure to snap a photo and jot down any combinations that you love so you can wear them again. It's definitely time to break out of your default mode, my dear. So if you find a combination that you're excited about, I really want you to head over to our free Facebook page community and share it with us. We would love to cheer you on and see what you came up with out of this episode. You can join us there@herstylellc.com community and if this episode gave you new ideas or helped you rethink something in your closet, would you please share it with a friend so she can do the same? I think we all deserve to feel stylish without over buying or overthinking it. All right friend, I will meet you right back here on Monday. And until then, keep getting dressed with thoughtfulness, creativity and joy.
- [16:46]
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Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own swoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz which you can find at.
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The link in the show Notes.
- [17:02]
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If you've enjoyed our time together, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to her style podcast so you never miss an episode. Finally, I invite you to make this a two way conversation and send me a DM over on Instagram eatherigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service. Until next time.