We’ve all seen the warnings on Insta: “make use of this time”, “use this pause wisely”, “find your will in this standstill”. And, although they might come off a little bit sanctimonious, they’re also right. We might never have a window like this again. During the course of normal life, when we’re urged to stay home, have quiet time, reflect, tidy, and reorganize, we don’t really wanna. FOMO gets in the way. But now, everybody’s home— no one’s having a sunset spritz in Capri or boating in St. Barth’s while you’re home streamlining your bathroom shelves.
And, to our credit, we are making use of this time. The past few weeks, we’re optimizing every second and have become living-room yogis, hobbyists, nutritionists, Zoom-call experts and skincare enthusiasts - all from “the comfort” of home. With the seasons changing, you’re probably about to start reorganizing your wardrobe. Sometimes, this experience can be jarring. We end up feeling torn about clothes because of all sorts of reasons. Knowing what to keep and what to get rid of can be murky.
To help make the process easier, this exercise will bring clarity for those interested in the DNA of their closet, because, much like actual DNA, your sartorial choices tell a story of who you are and shape your being. We call this method “realigning” because we ought to be evaluating clothing on the basis of whether or not the piece is aligned with the truth of who we are.
Akin to organizing consultant Marie Kondo’s widely adopted ideas about only keeping belongings that ‘spark joy’, the only antidote to this current level of overconsumption, and need for throwaway fashion, is self-knowledge: Knowing which clothes make you feel electric and denying the rest.
We all want the pandemic to end and get back to normal life , but we are feeling enlightened by the perspective this pause has given us, so there’s never been a better time to get your personal style re-aligned.
Step 1: Take the Big 5 Test
Objective: Get a detailed map of your personality.
An example of Big 5 test results.
Help us help you. By taking the personality test on PSYKHE, we can help guide you in the direction of which clothing is best aligned with your baseline psychological makeup. We use the Big 5 framework, also called OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism), which has been proven as a method within the field of psychology to analyze one’s core personality traits. In turn, you learn about which aesthetic mirrors your psyche while heightening your sense self through the data-based results on your personal style. These traits are present at birth, stay stable throughout your life, and are strongly correlated with personal style preferences.
Say you score high on the trait of Conscientiousness. On a typical day you show up to your morning meeting ten minutes early and with the attendees’ names memorized. Your outfit says ‘orderly’: a pastel blue pantsuit with a matching blazer from Ralph Lauren and a beige turtleneck underneath. Or maybe you score low on conscientiousness… In which case you’d show up ten minutes late to the meeting with your laptop on low battery, because you simply couldn’t be pulled off of the dance floor the night before. You’ve tucked your night slip into pants and secured it with a belt, then threw an Alexander McQueen coat on while walking out of the door – ready to impress your colleagues with your out-of-the-box ideas conceived that very morning. If you scored in the middle, you probably still didn’t quite make it to bed on time, managed to charge your laptop to 30%, which may just last through the morning, and walked into the meeting right on time with some “rough notes”.
Knowing your score helps you align your wardrobe with who you are. If you’re a high scorer, then keeping all those turtlenecks makes sense, and you’ll probably never wear that studded leather jacket you bought at a sample sale in attempts to look ‘cooler’. If you’re a low scorer, you may not want to keep the corporate-looking pencil skirt your mom made you buy to look smart for a job interview, it will never feel right. If you score in the middle, then you might need more closet space, as you’re likely to enjoy mixing it up to reflect your own personal contrasts.
Of course, these are just extreme representations of just one of the personality traits. To see the full scope of your personality chart and the styles that correspond to your psyche, follow the link to the test on below.
Step 2: Take a Trip Down Memory Lane
Objective: Separate the real self and false self.
The truth of past experiences can be a powerful window. Photo: acmehouseco.com
You might want to grab your journal or pull up your iPhone notes for this, because we’re going back into our memories of when we felt most at peace, at our happiest, and when we felt we were being most ourselves. Think back to that once in a lifetime vacation, or the night you set the town on fire with your besties, and try to remember what stood out in particular. Going through your iPhone gallery can help. Reviving a wealth of positive memories in your head is a good place to start before tackling some of the more difficult ones; of a day that went wrong where you might have dropped the ball on an important project, or acted out in a way that isn’t really reflective of your best self. The purpose here isn’t to punish yourself, but to create an accurate, fair and useful narrative of who you are for yourself.
And, be truly honest with yourself: there may have been an “amazing” girls trip to Palm Springs, that was fun on paper, in theory felt kind of fabulous, and jazzed up the ‘gram, but if you’re honest, you felt like you were performing the entire time and looking for excuses to take solo walks. It may be that you just don’t like big group things and it’s time to own that now. Perhaps it was the value system of this particular group of girls. Perhaps knowing that you scored 45% on Extroversion was one telling data point, and this memory is another.
Remember, it’s not always about what’s stereotypically positive or negative, it’s about what feels right. Breaking up with a toxic friend can be unpleasant, yet can still feel like the right thing to do. Upon reflection, moments can be grouped into:
Memories that feel right, which was when you felt like your true self; and
Memories in which on some level felt wrong; when you did not feel like your true self.
This part of the exercise will help you be more attuned to the sartorial equivalent of these selves. Your real self might be tough, strong and unapologetic in monochrome separates and neutrals, while your false self might cling on to floral frocks that she wears when she tries to be a feminine people-pleaser who avoids confrontation. Just an example! The reverse can be true for you.
Step 3: Practice Creative Visualization
Objective: Determine who you’re supposed to be in the next phase of your life.
If there was such thing as a crystal ball, the closest to it would be Shakti Gawain’s book, Creative Visualization, which focuses on the power of imagination to realize goals. It might seem new-agey to the point of obscure, but this book has been an enabler of many great women, least of all Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet. Admitting that she had imagined the revolutionary fashion e-commerce company before it came to reality, she told Business of Fashion: “Rather than imagining Net-a-Porter, I imagined that I would be involved in a media business. It was a big white space, with lots of light and lots of young people walking around, working, smiling.”
The basic steps of Creative Visualization are as follows:
1. Set your goal.
Decide on something you’d like to have, work toward, or create. It can be anything: a job, an apartment, a relationship, a change in yourself, increased cash flow, a calmer state of mind, improved health, beauty, a better physical condition, solving a problem in your family or social group, or whatever.
2. Create a clear picture.
Lie down, relax, and start visualizing. Create an idea, a mental picture, or a feeling of the object or situation exactly as you want it. You should think of it in the present tense as already existing the way you want it to be. Imagine yourself in the situation as you desire it, now. You can imagine yourself travelling, staying in a beautiful hotel suite, seeing your name published somewhere, living with someone, and how you’ll look and feel. Remember how you are dressed in these visions - this is key to understanding how clothes can help you become this person. Include as many details as you can. You may want to make a vision board from magazine cutouts or with online pics placed in Photoshop.
3. Focus on it often.
Bring your idea or mental picture to mind often, both in quiet meditation periods, and also casually throughout the day, when you happen to think of it. In this way it becomes an integrated part of your life, and it becomes more of a reality for you. Order the book here for more.
You’ll know you have a true visualization when it feels different than a regular daydream. There is a strong, visceral assuredness and certainty that underpins it.
Step 4: Create Your Future Self
Objective: Ascertain which items best help you get there.
After having an overview of your personality traits, mapping out your real and false self, and having a clearer vision of where you’re headed, it’s time to work with your wardrobe accordingly and create those piles. Most people start here and go right in without having gone through all the reflection and self-study from the last three steps, which leads to confusion and distress, but now, your ‘toss’ and ‘keep’ piles will be much clearer. You realize that, as a natural leader who loves a good debate, you’re too low on Agreeableness for pastels, which have always felt too sickly sweet, when prior, you could never understand why, as in theory, they’re nice colors. (Toss the baby pink hoodie.) You’ll toss the boho lace kaftan from Palm Springs. But you’ll keep the Alexander Wang black blazer from The Real Real that you got when you landed your first internship, because you live in that thing. When in doubt, try things on and see if there is that palpable sense of electricity running through your body.
And when we say ‘toss’, we mean donate, give away or recycle. Let’s keep fashion circular and avoid textile waste.
Step 5: Get Morbid. Ask Yourself, Are These the Clothes That I Want to Be Buried In?
Objective: Hand over the ‘maybe’ clothes that don’t align with who you are.
Finery founder Whitney Casey’s wardrobe on The Coveteur. (Photo: coveteur.com)
No matter how well you underwent the process, there will still be pieces that you’re unsure about. But when trying to create a wardrobe filled with purpose and personal meaning, you don’t want ‘unsure’. So here’s how to gain razor-sharp perspective.
Imagine something happened to you, and a team of investigators went to your home to examine your belongings to gauge clues as to who you were. Would these clothes be the truest reflection? Here, we ask you to consider your clothing’s ability to communicate who you are when you are unable to, because, in reality, this type of transaction happens every day. The sensorial cues that your clothing exudes not only communicate cues to others, but provide feedback back to you that shapes your moods, thoughts, and decisions.
There’s so many hangers-on in a typical closet that we save, because of fear of lack. Using this method distinguishes the “maybe, one day” clothing from the “yes”.
-The TPOF Team x
In the world of post-pandemic dressing, one word has taken social media by storm: cheugy (pronounced: chew-gee). In the worlds of fashion and lifestyle, cheugy describes a look, a thing or a person that’s considered out of date.