(Modern) Wardrobe Inventory & Musings

Have you ever inventoried your closet?

I was so intrigued by Alyssa’s post about wardrobe statistics on her blog What Would Nancy Drew Wear? that I recently decided inventory my own modern closet.

I was most curious to see how my wardrobe breaks down in terms of when my garments were obtained, the specific quantities of some types of garments (cardigans, for example–I have a lot of them), how many garments are me-made, and how my shoes fit into the picture (both modern and historical!).

Aside from counting historical shoes, this is about my modern wardrobe. Historical is a completely separate beast that I have no plans to tackle in this way. Although, now that I say that… it would be interesting to graph what years were most productive and what historical eras I have the most clothes for… I can guess at some of those, at least for the last question. I’m pretty sure that 1810s, 1860s, and 1920s are the eras I have the most clothes for… but I digress!

To illustrate my findings about my modern wardrobe, I’ve made colorful charts and graphs!

Here is the breakdown of total garments in my wardrobe. Of these, 5% are ‘me-made’, 1% are thrifted, and 96% are purchased new.

Did I have any preconceived notions about what my wardrobe contained before taking this inventory?
1-Well, I was pretty sure I have a lot of dresses, cardigans, and shoes (especially crocs).
2-I know there are some shoes I’m holding on to that I really don’t have the desire to wear anymore and should gift away, but I still included those in my total. I could (and should…) move on with those items and lower my shoe count a bit.
3-I also know that most of my wardrobe is purchased new. I try to buy garments that are well made and will last for many years. I’ve been trying to make more modern garments in the last few years, but I didn’t have a clear idea about how much of my wardrobe is made up of those items.

Ready for a few more charts?

Let’s start with this graph of my dresses-by-type.

In the last few years, I’ve started wearing dresses much more often for year-round everyday wear, but I was still surprised to see my accumulation. This is one of the categories of clothing that includes ‘me-made’ at 21%. That leaves 79% of dresses that are purchased new.

Next, a graph of my tops-by-type.

There are a lot of cardigans! I do so enjoy seeing a beautiful rainbow in my closet (and the same with my dresses!). A rainbow to choose from makes getting dressed much more enjoyable and also helps me change up a dress or skirt with different color combos. And I love a comfy, long sweater for long days at work or lounging around, so there are a number of those as well.

The knit sleeveless and knit short sleeve categories contain layering tanks and unisex tee shirts that inflate the numbers but aren’t worn as a top layer on a regular basis, so there’s that to consider.

Here are my bottoms by type.

It makes sense that I have far fewer bottoms than tops, since I tend to express myself in my tops if I’m not wearing a dress and it can be hard to find bottoms that fit my backside to waist ratio (another reason for wearing lots of dresses and skirts!).

Let’s look a little closer at the skirts, since that is the highest quantity in the bottoms category.

In addition to skirting (haha, bad pun!) the issue of bottoms fitting my backside to waist ratio, having a high number of skirts as opposed to other bottoms makes sense, as my skirts are often suited to particular seasons (unlike jeans, for example, as I wear those most of the year except when it’s very hot in the summer). So that means I need winter skirts, summer skirts, and fall/spring skirts. This is the category with the most ‘me-made’ garments, at 31%. Of the remainder, 13% are thrifted and 56% are purchased new.

Now let’s look at my shoe collection.

This includes my modern shoes divided by category and my historical/vintage shoes as one lump. Of these, 3% are ‘me-made’ (my 1914 Vernet shoes and 1920s bathing boots, if you’re curious!), 4% are thrifted, and 93% are purchased new.

Here is another way to look at my shoe types.

I’m amused that my modern and historical/vintage shoe counts are so similar! And, I have more shoes that aren’t worn regularly than I probably should have. That includes really worn out old crocs that just about have holes worn through under the ball of the foot (still useful as painting shoes, but not much else…) and shoes I’ve had for over 10 years that are styles I’m just not inclined to wear anymore but that are quality brands and in good shape, so I feel like I should want to wear them again someday…

This last graph shows how many garments were obtained in each year.

Anything I have from 2003 and earlier is lumped together. I’m pleased to see how many garments I still have in this category. For the most part, these are pretty sad in terms of wear-and-tear as well as fit, but they are still useful for around-the-house and yard work clothes and I appreciate that I am wearing them for as long as I can.

I have one final question to consider.

Was I surprised by any of my findings?
1-I was surprised by how many tops I have, but that’s partly because that includes everything from knit tank tops to layer under other tops to all lengths of sleeves for different seasons, including sweaters and coats. It’s a big category of items, so the large quantity makes sense.
2-I was amused by how evenly my types of shoes split up into the categories of modern, historical, and not-worn-often (there are more of these than I thought!).
3-There is a pretty big spike in clothes obtained since 2015. When I stop to think about this, it makes sense as my size changed around that time and many of the garments I had from the ten years prior no longer fit, so I had to update my wardrobe pretty substantially, for bottoms, dresses, and tops, especially.

Final thoughts

Thanks for sticking through my musings about my wardrobe!

Being thoughtful about my wardrobe brings joy when I can choose from a well organized rainbow for my outfit each day and contentment when I know I’m able to wear garments for a good long time.

While you may not take the time to fully inventory your wardrobe and make charts with the data (a completely reasonable decision!), I wonder if you ever consider these types of ideas?

Do you focus on thrifting, as opposed to buying new garments? Do you have a sense of what types of garments you own the most of or how long you’ve had those garments? Do you keep items that you no longer wear, or are you good about passing them on?