Project 333, Month of May! - My New 33 Items~!! :-) & How NOT to fall off the wagon twice!

Hi ladies~!

Well, May is upon us, and while the first two days were a lot warmer, getting me all giddy and excited to choose more 'Spring/Summery' short sleeved clothes, the recent 3~4 days have suddenly turned chilly again... 

...which ALMOST got me to 'fall off the wagon' one more time!

Thankfully, I remembered how that turned out two years ago, and I sat down to make remedies for it tonight.

My finalized 33 items for the month of May 2014.

• The number of tops remains the same as last month, which is 11 items total.
• I ended up having ALL 4 seasons' outer wear though! From winter coat to summer jacket!
• I added my Converse sneakers to aid with comfort this month...
• Because I was busy between the last day of April and 1st day of May, I ended up having 2 bags this month; black and magenta.
• I was going to include 2 skirts, then 1 skirt, and now, having spent the first 5 days just trying to keep warm/temperature adjusted, I ended up with 0 skirt.
• My jewelry selection includes a silver/pewter set this month! Not sure if that's going to be good or not, given how my bags are both gold metals. But will see how that feels.

Funny thing is, it's only 6th of May, but I have worn everything here except for 3 items; I haven't worn the orange Tshirt, the white loafers, and the silver stud earrings. Everything else, I've either listed up and worn, or I ended up just pulling it out to wear for the weekend and today, so they had to be accounted for.

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Thoughts & What I Am Learning

During the initial switch from April's 33 to May's 33, I had to go through a rather painstaking inventory of what clothes I could fit into and wear to work. Weight gain around my waistline meant, a lot of my shorter tank tops could NOT be worn with my jeggings/leggings. Sorting through what I could wear and not alone took such a long time, my legs were jelly by the time I tried it all on!

method b) outfit combos: 12 work outfits using 6 bottoms and 2 best tops for them

I got super excited during the initial switch over phase, that I sketched out and worked out the outfit combos I wanted. I tried 2 different methods too; a) trying to come up with a 'Signature Look' using only 2 key items that I loved that would anchor the entire wardrobe around one Look, and b) calculating how many unrepeated outfit combos I needed or wanted in one month's time, then trying to come up with 12 outfits using 6 bottoms and 2 tops that went best for each of the bottoms.

Well. Sadly. Neither of those planned worked out.

First method a) didn't work because after wearing my 'key item' which was a pair of sheeny faux leather leggings, I could see how wrinkled and 'worn' it looked, after only 1 day of wear at work! @_@~!! I absolutely hate pants with 'knee' wonkiness! I couldn't imagine wearing those every other day...

Well, b) also didn't work, as soon as the weather suddenly turned sharp over the weekend, where I also had to travel far by subway and express subway train. 

Another thing I learnt, aside from the two methods, is that during the exhausting inventory of what I can fit into, I realized that there was no denying that Autumn colors look the best on me. Being Asian, I have dark hair, dark eyes, and my skin tone reacts best to deep, vivid colors. But it doesn't always do best with Winter cool/deep colors as much. I can do the deep neutral colors fine, but warmth/richness brings out more of the glow.

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Closing Thoughts

1. Knowing which clothes currently fits you in your wardrobe is a 'game changer'; not knowing this will wreak havoc and end up giving you that feeling of 'I have nothing to wear' syndrome.

2. Depending on what type of bottom I choose to wear, the cut and length of the tops varied greatly. Which for me completely throws out the 'Dozen Formula' or most of the 'Capsule Wardrobe' ideas, because those systems rely on you having tops that can match both skirts and pants. Those rules totally don't work for me.

3. Even though, I wanted to go with the 'Signature Look' approach to express the mood and image I wanted to project, as the weather wasn't quite in sync with the pieces I had in mind, the plan got thrown sideways, over the weekend.

4. I'm going through multiple transitions, in terms of weight gain and figure shift, configuring and fine tuning my ideas on what colors suit me the most, what image I want to use as signature style, but climate changes happening, all these had to be considered.

Point 4 now leads me to believe that a) I am too tired to try out clothes every single month! Maybe I will have to phase out some items each month and replace them with something new, but not feel like I have to reinvent the whole wheel each month... I didn't realize how exhausting it was, and also, how fickle the weather was going to be.

Besides, changing my wardrobe around completely each month also looks a bit 'choppy' and less 'cohesive' I think. Which also supports the idea that replacing *some* items each month, with a framework of 3 months might work out best in my own interest.

With these thoughts, I close now with these inspiring words from Courtney Carver who founded this project! Thank you Ms. Carver! Your project has been a life changing agent for me, a catalyst that spills over into other areas of my life too! I've recently begun working on corralling my books and sentimental keepsakes and hobbies etc. too, having gained a lot of confidence from living with my 33 items last month~!!

xoxo Jessica