10x10 Round-Up
10 looks with 10 items? Deal.
My friend, Emily from Brave Girl Spirit, invited her following to join her on the 10x10 Winter Challenge. For 10 business days in a row, you wear only 10 pieces (accessories not included) from your closet. I did get weirdly semi-sick and was out of commission for a few days . I took liberty and decided to take those days off. This lady isn't gonna wear jeans if I'm lounging around at home all day long, hah.
A friend asked, "What's the point?" For me, it was a fun game and opportunity for creativity when it comes to styling pieces. And the challenge to wear only select pieces from my closet - sure, why not! We all know that we basically wear only 20% of our closet's consistently anyways.
Today, I'm sharing the looks and what I learned through the process.
The looks:
I went for more neutral pieces with subtle pops of color - typically how I style anyways. Only this time with far fewer options.
What I learned:
1. Picking out only 10 pieces to wear is likely harder but also easier in the winter.
With the colder weather, cardigans and other "outer pieces" are a definite must, which adds to the number of pieces rather quickly. Coats didn't count, btw. The nice thing is that skirts and dresses are already kind of a no-go for me in the winter. So two pairs of jeans and the rest is open for tops.
2. Having liberty with accessories makes all the difference.
Beyond the creativity of styling the pieces, it was great to have the freedom to choose any of the shoes, scarves or jewelry in my closet, which allowed for even more diversity between each look. I was talking with Emily and for even more of a challenge next time, we were thinking that it would be interesting to try 10 clothing pieces and only 10 different accessories too.
3. The more versatile the item, the better.
I've been on a minimal/essential kick lately. Anything that doesn't bring me joy or feel essential - buhbye. When it comes to building a smaller closet (yes, I realize that sound contradictory but it is something that is intentionally done), you can have more quality in each piece but it's a must for the pieces to also be versatile and have the ability to be styled for lots of looks. AKA, probably lots of black involved.
3.1. A solid denim/chambray dress shirt is THE best thing for your closet.
Seriously. It took me a long time to find the perfect one because I was being picky about it. Now, I know why. It's my absolute favorite thing in my closet and my go-to for travel because it is multi-purposeful (although I didn't wear it a lot throughout the challenge). Wear just it (tucked in or out), open with a shirt underneath or with a cute little twist in the front.
4. This is a great practice for travel.
I knew I was gonna be traveling for a portion of the challenge. When I travel, I bring minimal clothing and I like to get creative with my looks. Suitcase space, ya know. I thought this challenge would be great to participate because I was kind of already doing it. It helped me to get even more intentional about what I was bringing on the trip. Happily, the 10 I chose went super far - I likely had 5 more distinct looks left all together.
All in all, I'm super happy that I challenged myself to use less of my closet, just to see how it went. TBH, it's inspiring me to remove even more from my closet than I already have in the last year ... We'll see about that.
Thanks for reading :) Let me know what you think about a challenge like this! I'm intrigued to hear if you've done anything like this yourself and what you might've learned!
