Wardrobe Planning Math

When I give corporate presentations and discuss wardrobe planning, I often suggest that you do some math. If you live in a warm climate like Southern California, and you were building a jacket or suit wardrobe you would need mainly transitional weight garments. That is, fabrics that can be worn most of the year. Therefore if you had 5 jackets, 3 should be transitional, 1 should be for cool weather, and 1 for hot weather. That's a proportion of 3:1:1. This formula would change according to the climate you live in. It should also help when you are doing a closet audit and deciding what to eliminate or add.

The jacket illustrated is a good transitional piece. With a white scoop neck tank, white pants and open toe shoes, it would be a great summer look. With a navy turtleneck, navy skirt, tights and boots, it would now be a great winter look. As pictured here with the navy pants or with a navy skirt and pumps instead of sandals, it's a perfect year round business look.