Creating a Personal Uniform

Updated 09/22/2023

Do you have overflowing closets and stuffed drawers but still really have nothing to wear?

Solve that problem by creating a personal uniform.

A few years ago, I made a casual comment to a friend and co-worker regarding how nice she always looked.

She pointed out that, even though I had never noticed, the only color of dress pants she wore were black. Every wardrobe decision was based around whether an item would pair with her black pants.

When shopping for dress clothes, she only had to answer the question of; will it go with my black pants?

Dressing in the morning was a breeze because every item in her closet was purchased to go with the black dress pants.

Multiple pairs of dress shoes were unnecessary.

She had, in effect, created a personal uniform.

Would you like to simplify a small area of your life?

Create your own personal uniform.

Where do you begin when you are creating a personal uniform?

Think about what it makes to bake a cake.

Most of us use a recipe. We may tweak the recipe. There may be a secret ingredient. The recipe may be one you completely develop on your own. But when you finally bake the perfect cake, you repeatedly find yourself relying on that recipe as your go-to for cake baking.

Creating a personal uniform is a lot like that.

The ultimate goal is to come up with a fool-proof, individual, uniform recipe.

(Full disclosure: I do not bake cakes. Ever. I gave up trying many years ago. I stand in awe of those who have those skills 😊.)

Every single cake starts with a base

Likewise, every single personal uniform starts with some base pieces. These are the pieces around which every other wardrobe decision will be based.

The base pieces are the pants, shorts, or skirts around which you want to create a wardrobe. For my friend, her base was a single basic garment; black pants.

When I started building a personal uniform, I stuck to three colors of basic pants; black, navy, and khaki.

There is no right or wrong answer, it is simply a matter of personal choice.

The more base pieces you begin with, the more variety there will be in your wardrobe choices.

Of course, on the flip side, the more choices you create, the more clothes you have to purchase and keep in your closet.

Every cake has a flavor. It may be traditional white, chocolate, or even a mix.

Ditto for the base of your personal uniform. The “flavor” of a personal uniform comes from the style and color choices of the base pieces.

Next is the icing

After baking the cake and allowing it to cool, the next step is usually icing. (For my baker friends, there are probably many other options but I am sticking to simple here!)

The tops, blouses and shirts are the icing to your personal uniform. You can keep/buy/have as many or as few as you want.

Obviously, the more you have, the more unique creations you can create.

How long do you want to go before you duplicate a look?

That number is a good indicator of how many icing pieces should be in your closet.

The “pop” is in the decorations

In cake decorating, these are the pretty flowers, pictures and do-dads that are used to dress up the cake.

In creating a personal uniform, these are the accessories; the scarves, jewelry and fun things that will give a personal uniform a little pop.

Just like when baking a cake, these items are not necessary, just fun.

Personally, I don’t do a lot of accessorizing but I love the look on other people.

Once you have created a “recipe” for baking your own personal uniform, you will be unstoppable.

The recipe can be applied to not only your go-to-work uniform, but your stay-at-home, go shopping, go anywhere personal uniform.

A few years ago, I traveled to see my daughter for a brief 3 day stay. I was there for twenty days. I had packed for three days.

That is when I discovered that this “recipe” works for around the house clothes as well as go-to-work clothes.

There will be times you will want something other than cake.

There will be times you want to wear a trendy outfit.

Trendy shakes things up and makes things fun.

Having some trendy items is not only fine, it’s fun.

Summer tends to be when I enjoy more of these types of outfits.