The Everyday Icon Style Podcast

Episode 196: Why Wardrobe Essentials Are Not Basics

• Tiffany Howard

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Your closet can be full and still fail you. We unpack the hidden difference between basics and essentials, and why confusing the two leads to overstuffed racks, decision fatigue, and outfits that never feel quite right. It’s time to reframe essentials as pieces that earn their place by solving daily problems, mixing easily, and supporting how you actually move through work and life.

We walk through a smarter structure: basics as a neutral foundation, essentials as your personal, purpose-driven layer. You’ll hear concrete ways to define essentials by use rather than category, from tracking high-frequency items to stress-testing comfort and relevance across your calendar. We explore how lifestyle fit beats labels, why a “must-have” trouser may be wrong for your role or body comfort, and how non-clothing anchors like a dependable tote, signature jewelry, or fragrance can streamline your routine and shape a clear style identity.

This conversation is a reset for the modern, career-driven woman who wants ease without giving up style. 

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SPEAKER_00:

This is the Everyday Icon Style Podcast, the space for style-conscious, career-driven women who are ready to look like the next level version of themselves. Each episode helps you build a wardrobe that reflects not only your executive presence, but your real life. With a little bit of guidance, intentional edits, and no full-blown transformation required. Let's elevate your style and your authenticity one outfit at a time. I'm Tiffany, your style coach. Let's get started. So over the past few months, I've been doing some research, and my research has brought me to a conclusion that wardrobe essentials are not basics. Now I want you to follow me because I'm sure we've all been guilty of this. I know I have as a style coach, and you have been have seen these over the internet and as lead magnets from stylists throughout for as long as many of us can remember. Because when we ask for wardrobe essentials, what we usually provide you is a list of basics. And that wardrobe essentials and basics are actually two completely different things. That has been my conclusion after doing some research on what to provide as a service, and just going through seeing what other personal stylists offer as far as lead magnets, services, and where they always tend to start first. Now, when you see about basics or your essentials, this is what you'll get when they talk about essentials: white button-down, black trousers, neutral blazer, sensible shoes, a camel-colored trench coat. The list goes on and on, and these lists could be 12 items to 100 items. Now, on the surface, this sounds great, wonderful, easy, great way to get you started and get you going with creating and building your wardrobe again. But there's a slight issue that these two concepts are not interchangeable. Basics and essentials are not the same thing. And confusing them is one of the biggest issues and reasons why you end up with full closets that still don't work for you. Because a wardrobe can be full of so-called right pieces and still feel disconnected, un you would say, say uninspiring, frustrated, and overly complicated. And that usually starts with this simple understanding, misunderstanding, that many of us do not think about or consider because we're throwing these checklists down our throats and in our faces as an easy way to get us started. So let's start with this. Basics are neutrals, essentials are purposeful. Basics, now they exist in theory, and for me, I believe they can work. That's what I would call your capsule wardrobe, as you would say, as you will, is this would be to me your basics or your foundation. And then essentials would come on top of that. You would build on top of that. But we'll kind of break this down throughout. So a basic item is neutral and generic, and they're designed to appeal to the widest possible audience. So the black trouser, the blazer, the button-down, the t-shirts. So it doesn't actually account for your life because essentials, in theory, should be different from woman to woman, person to person. They should never really be the same because what I find as essential, you're going to find or think of something else as an essential. And this you want to take into account your scheduling, environment, and how often you truly actually reach for it and wear it. Now, when it comes to essentials, they earn its place in your closet. And it shows up over and over and over again because it actually truly solves a real problem. It supports how you move throughout your day. It reduces friction. It makes getting dressed easier, not harder. When you go in there and get dressed in the morning, you should be able to just reach in there, pull things out, everything kind of goes, and you're able to walk out the door effortlessly and flawlessly. So if a piece doesn't reduce effort or increase your consistency, it isn't essential. No matter how often it appears on someone's checklist or even Pinterest board or Instagram. Essentials aren't about what you're supposed to earn, they're about what reliability works for you. So this essentials at the end of the day are pieces that work for you. So those two-piece knit sets that everybody's saying is the great raid, and they want you to have it as part of your wardrobe. If it works for you, if a two-piece set doesn't work for you, then why is it in your closet? Because it's in your closet because someone told you, and not because it's something that actually needs to be there and has earned its place to be there. So here's how I also want you to look at essentials as well. They are defined by use and not category. Basics, caps, wardrobes, they're categories. Essentials are not. They sit in her closet collecting dust because she feels they're too stiff, they're too formal, or simply not aligned with how she actually works and lives. So trousers for her don't fit who she is essentially as a person that will go and flow with her lifestyle. Even though technically she should have them as a foundation, but as an essential, no. The difference isn't the item because the item is the same, it's the role that each item actually plays for each woman. Essentials aren't defined by category labels like workwear or basics. They're defined by frequency, comfort, and relevance. So if you're constantly, consistently adjusting it, avoiding it, or forgetting it exists back in that pile of clothes or back way back in the closet, it doesn't matter how classic or must-have it is, it's not essential to you. And you now have to figure out what exactly is essential to you. And I'm going to give this little tidbit when it comes to essentials. Essentials don't actually always have to be clothing, it just has to be something that is essential to you. It could be jewelry, it could be fragrance, it could be a handbag or your everyday tote bag that you carry. Those things are essentials to you. So you want to begin to figure out what are, I'll say, five or six items that are essential must-haves for you, and then begin to incorporate those and have those pieces in your wardrobe. Now, this may take some trial and error if you're not quite sure, but you want to begin to figure out what exactly your essentials are. And the most important thing behind essentials is they reduce mental overload and your mental load. We are sitting and standing in our closets 15, 20 minutes, some even an hour the night before, two days before, the weekend before, trying to figure out what we wear. That takes a lot of energy away from what it is we should be doing, whether it's in work, whether it's in personal life, it's taking away too much time and thought process. And then we wonder why when we come back, clothes are everywhere, or we're tired and we haven't even started the day yet. It's because everything starts and ends in your closet. So when we're looking at this, a well-built, a well-built set of essentials does not more than just make you look put together. It removes daily decision fatigue. So when you know it works, you stop second-guessing yourself and you start trusting yourself. Another tidbit. When you're dealing with your closet, you should be able to learn to trust yourself with your style choices and your essential choices that you decide that fit in your closet. You stop standing in front of your closet, negotiating with your clothes every day. Okay, so I'm gonna wear you today, I'm gonna wear you tomorrow, I'll get to you next week. No. You go in, you make a judgment of what you're gonna wear, you make the decision, and you wear it, and you walk out the door. And that clarity shows up in how you move, how you speak, and how you take up space. Our closet is an extension of who we are. So when we go out into the world and when our closet supports us for what it is that we want to do and how we want to show up, not just for ourselves but to the world, when our closet supports us, this is what happens and how it extends outward. Now, confidence doesn't come from having more options. We think or we've been thrown this idea that more is better. In reality, it's not. And over the past few months and past year, we're starting to see the I guess they were calling it the de-influence of things, of having too much, too many clothes, too many fragrances, too many body care products, and just bringing it down to the essentials of what's important. Where confidence really comes from is from fewer, better choices and options that we have. And these are going to be the pieces that consistently support you without requiring consistent thought. And this is the real power of essentials. They will create ease and not noise, and they will create clarity and confidence as you step outside for your day. So if you feel that this is something that you want me to dive deeper into, let me know. Actually, this will be a little bit of a series, but if you have any questions about essentials or my thought or concepts of them, let me know. You can shoot me a DM over on Instagram, of course. And before I leave, I do have an invitation for you to get and subscribe to the silent partner. Now, what the silent partner is, you get this when you become and sign up for my monthly newsletter. And right now, the silent partner is just five mini episodes that give you a little bit more in-depth groundwork on how you should begin to create and how your closet should support you. So, all the information for that is in the description of this episode below. So, with all of that being said, I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. Stay healthy, stay safe, and I will talk to you in the next episode.