The Everyday Icon Style Podcast

Episode 158: Applying the 80-20 Rule to Elevate Your Personal Style

• Tiffany Howard

Share episode

Ready to revolutionize your corporate wardrobe? Imagine transforming your closet using a principle from a 19th-century economist! Join me, as we explore the 80-20 rule and its surprising application to your daily attire. By conducting a thorough closet audit, you’ll uncover the wardrobe workhorses—the essential pieces you wear most often. We'll discuss how to categorize your clothes, ask critical questions about each item, and focus on quality over quantity to ensure versatility and durability in your wardrobe essentials.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

10 Steps To A Stylish, Organized Wardrobe: https://bit.ly/3LeeB7Z


Stay Connected!

Instagram: https://bit.ly/3VwhNlB

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3IyGFSl



Speaker 1:

Ignite your style with the Everyday Icon Style Podcast. I'm Tiffany, your style navigator and confidant here to lead women in corporate America on the quest to discover their timeless style. Let's revolutionize your wardrobe, empower your confidence and embrace your inner icon. Are you ready to redefine your corporate chic? Then let's get started. Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed by your wardrobe? I've got just the thing for you. Download my free guide Stylish, organized Wardrobe Made Easy, and discover 10 simple steps to declutter, identify key pieces and create a style that's uniquely yours. Head to the description box of this episode to grab your copy to start your journey towards a more stylish, elevated and organized you.

Speaker 1:

Have you ever heard of the 80-20 rule? Was talking about it as it pertains to relationships, as you only get 80% of a person and the other 20% is for this individual self. Well, today we're going to flip it and we're going to talk about it, but how it deals with your closet and your wardrobe. So it will actually help you identify key pieces and actually wear and build a more efficient wardrobe around them. So let's get ahead and just start and dive right in. So first, let's understand what the 80-20 rule is. So it is also known as and I'm probably butchering this the Pietro Principle, and it was first observed by an Italian economist in the 19th century, and he noticed that roughly 80% of Italy's land was owned by 20% of the population. So this principle has been applied to various fields, including business, economics, personal productivity, relationships, and now we're going to do it in the context of our wardrobes. So, with the 80-20 rule, it suggests that we tend to wear about 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. So this means that a significant or large portion of our wardrobe often goes unused or underutilized or not even worn at all. So to understand the principles and how it can help us make more intentional choices about our clothing, which will help us, hopefully, to a more efficient and satisfying wardrobe, and it will also encourage us to focus on the items that truly serve us well and to be more mindful about our purchasing decisions, because the one thing we want to do is that we want to be more mindful of what we wear and what we buy and how we dress. So now that we understand a little bit about the 80-20 rule, let's talk about the rest of it and how it can actually help us.

Speaker 1:

So how this works is identifying your wardrobe workhorses. So your workhorses are the ones that you wear all the time, not necessarily capsule, but your, what do you? When you go into your closet? What are the five to ten pieces that you always, always wear all the time, no matter what, and these should actually be a more, the items that can pretty much go with everything. So if we were to apply this rule to our wardrobe, we would need to start with a very thorough closet audit. Unfortunately, there, there is no way around this, and, in my opinion, it is the first thing that you should actually do before you go shopping. Try to figure out what your style is. The whole nine yards. So what does this mean? You have to empty everything out, all of your clothes out of the drawers, out of the closet, everything.

Speaker 1:

Next, we want to go ahead and we want to begin to sort them into categories. So your tops, your bottoms, your dresses, blazers, skirts, t-shirts, jeans you want to see exactly what you have, because what's going to happen is you're going to actually see, too, what you have more of, what you need, what you have less of and things that you probably don't have at all. Now, once you do this, I want you to ask yourself a few simple questions when was the last time you wore this? How often do you wear it and do you feel good when you wear it? I want you to ask those questions as you're going through each pile. So next we want to begin to create some form of tracking system.

Speaker 1:

Now, what this could look like is is, once you take something off the hanger and you maybe hang it back up, you'll turn the hanger the opposite way, because that lets you know that you've worn it, so that way, you can see exactly. You can. Now you're getting a visual of what you're wearing in real time and what you're not wearing, and you'll be able to gauge it by the end of the week. You could also use a wardrobe app if you have time to log out outfits for the month, or you can place stickers on items as you wear them. The most easiest way is to all turn the hangers. If it's facing the wall, you want to take them and put them the opposite way, because that will give you real time of what it is you're actually wearing Now. You're going to do this over 30, 60 days, and once that happens, you'll begin to see a pattern and you'll likely notice that certain items are in consistent rotation, while others haven't been touched at all.

Speaker 1:

So these frequently worn pieces, these are going to be your wardrobe workhorses. Now, if you already know your wardrobe workhorses, that is great, because you definitely want to be mindful of them. Key tip if you know what your wardrobe workhorses are, take a look at them and ask yourself do they need to be updated or changed? How long have you had them? If you've had them for an extended period of time, it might be time to update them. And when you go update them, you want to make sure that you're buying quality so that they can last a little bit longer. And your ward, the workhorses they, nine times out of ten are your quality pieces. If they're not, they should be.

Speaker 1:

So now we want to talk about what are the characteristics of these workhorses. They typically, nine times out of ten, share several key characteristics. One their versatility, so these pieces can be styled in multiple ways and work for various occasions. So, for example, a white button-down shirt can be dressed up for work or down for casual outings. Comfort you can reach for these items often because they feel good to wear. They fit well and don't require constant adjusting throughout the day.

Speaker 1:

Now, when we're talking about comfort, I'm not talking about at leisure wear. I'm talking about clothes that are comfortable when you go to work. So if you have a pair of trousers that you like, you like them because they're comfortable, because you don't have to pull on them, you don't have to make any necessary alterations throughout the day as far as pulling on them, making sure that they're tugging at them in the in the hip area. They're just a comfortable, easy fit. So that's what we're referring to when we're talking about comfort.

Speaker 1:

My personal favorite quality they tend to be well made and can withstand frequent wear and washing and they maintain their shape and appearance over time. So these are always tend to be your more quality pieces. So definitely, the white button down blazer, the white button down shirt, your blazers, your pants, certain dresses, even shoes all of these. They're very good quality made and if you've had them, I would say probably anything over two to three years that you wear and they're in constant rotation nine times out of ten. They're good quality, personal style alignment. Now, these pieces truly reflect your personal style and make you feel like yourself when you're wearing them. They're not trendy items and you bought them on a and you items you they're not, you're not, they're not trendy items that you bought them on a and you items you they're not, you're not, they're not trendy items that you purchased on a whim but never felt quite right wearing them. So trendy pieces are the pieces that you buy. It's like oh you know what that's cute, let me go buy that. No, when we're talking about the personal style alignment, these are pieces that you probably took the time to look for and invested in, and something that you may have took maybe 30 days to buy it, but not impulse buying it when you're actually at the store or if you're browsing online and you buy something and you may wear it once, maybe wear it twice because it just doesn't feel comfortable to you. So, making sure that they align with your style alignment Color compatibility Often the workhorses are in neutral colors or shades that easily coordinate with other items in your closet, for example, black, gray, navy, brown, creams, beiges, those type of colors.

Speaker 1:

I like to call those your base colors. So when you're creating and building a color palette, you're looking at your base colors. So it would be black, navy, gray. I would even throw brown in there as well that go with everything else, with the neutral colors that you have and with your accent colors that you have. It's sort of like a triangle. The same way we have our wardrobe triangle, we also have a color palette triangle as well. So how do we go about building an efficient wardrobe?

Speaker 1:

So, now that we've identified your workhorses, you want to use them as the foundation for a more efficient closet. So you want to focus on your 20%. Analyze what makes them, these pieces, work so well for you. Is it the fit, the fabric, the color? You want to take these into consideration because you're going to use them when you go out and you make additional purchases.

Speaker 1:

So building your wardrobe is not going to be this overnight thing. You're going to go out one day and you're going to buy everything that you need. No, it's going to take time and it's going to be something that it is more of a marathon, especially because you're doing a quality type role. It's not necessarily it's going to be something that it is more of a marathon, especially because you're doing a quality type role. It's not necessarily it's going to be a marathon, but it's not going to be a sprint. But you are going to buy it, sometimes in between pieces here and there. So you want to add complementary pieces to these workhorses, so you want to choose new items that pair well with your existing workhorses, and this expands your outfit options without cluttering your closet. This is also, I would like to say, the building of your core wardrobe, because you do want to take into account your colors, what silhouettes you like, and you're going to buy pieces that are going you can easily integrate into what you already have as your base or as, as I like, the base or the workhorse items that you already have.

Speaker 1:

We want to remove rarely worn items. You can do this at the very beginning, when you take everything out of your closet to do at least a once through, and then, once you put everything back in in, you're going to actually redo this again, because you have to be honest about the clothes you don't wear and I am actually having to come to that realization as well with my own closet because you have to consider donating them. I highly recommend selling them if you can, or repurposing them to a free or physical, or repurposing them to free up space. Selling them are a great option because now you can bring in extra income. You can sell them and that way you can begin to use the money that you sell those clothes, that you receive from that to go on ahead and buy and add new pieces to your wardrobe. And, as always, we want to always remember when we're doing this.

Speaker 1:

We want to invest in quality pieces, because quality pieces always look good, you will always look very chic, you will always look very elevated and it will always give you that clean look that you it gives you that. If you've ever seen anybody that has this, they look just effortlessly elevated. It's because they have good quality pieces and it's the color combinations that they utilize as well. So keep that in mind. The quality and color combinations work effortlessly with that.

Speaker 1:

So, last but not least, I wanna talk to you about the benefits of an 80-20 wardrobe. So once you're adopting the 80-20 rule for your wardrobe, it offers several advantages. It reduces decision fatigue, so you're not spending 30 and 40 minutes trying to figure out what the hell you want to wear. Everything in your closet goes, so everything that you pull out, you will always have an outfit option. It's a more sustainable approach. What this is is by focusing on fewer I hate the word fewer but by focusing on clothes that you love, because to me, we don't. I don't want you to go out saying, okay, you know what, I can only buy 48 pieces. You can buy a hundred pieces if you want to, right, but you're utilizing it and it's something that is sustainable enough that you could have outfits for days and never see you wearing the same outfit twice.

Speaker 1:

Increase confidence by wearing clothes that you know look good on you and align with your personal style. It will actually boost your confidence and it will actually boost your productivity as well. It's a better return on your investment. We're all looking for ways to stretch our money these days, so you get more wear out of each item, making your clothing budget a little more efficient, and you're not going out every five months, every six weeks, trying to buy something to put into your closet or to wear. Because guess what, if you keep doing that all the time with your closet, guess what's going to happen? You're going to be out money and you're going to be back at the beginning with 50-11 clothes in your closet and half of them, or majority of them, you don't wear because they're more impulse, not intentional, and they're probably trendy.

Speaker 1:

Another personal favorite of mine space saving. So with having this wardrobe and having a streamline, making a streamline. It takes up less physical space and, whether you believe it or not, all the stuff that you have actually weighs on you and kind of contributes to your mental well-being as well. So, having a clear space when you open up your closet it should sort of like sing to you every morning and it should feel like you're going to your own personal boutique every single day. And, last but not least, you have a clearer personal style.

Speaker 1:

So as you begin to focus on your most worn items, your unique personal style becomes more defined and refined. Most of our styles are actually in our closet. We just have to dig for them and starting, I think, with our workhorses, will be able to help you build upon that and you're able to experiment with other things that you don't wear to kind of breathe a new life into your style. That way, you can figure out what works and what doesn't work and, again, it's also cost effective as well, before you go out making all these purchases on clothes that you'll probably never wear and being intentional about it. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode and if you have any questions, be sure to come over and follow me on Instagram and let me know your thoughts of today's episode. So, with all of that being said, I hope you guys have an amazing rest of your week, stay healthy, stay safe, and I will talk to you guys next week in the next episode.