Fantasy Vs. Reality by inaglassforest featuring a boatneck dress

Do you dream of wearing princess gowns but find yourself wearing leggings as pants with baggy tees instead? These two can be brought closer together with a little work.

Step One: Track what you actually wear each day.

This should be a judgement-free exercise. If you don’t like what you’ve been wearing (which is likely if you’re reading this), don’t worry, because we’re going to improve everything. Identifying what you actually reach to wear will provide us with very important information about what is working for your current life.

Tops, bottoms, one pieces, shoes, outerwear, and accessories- write it all down for one week.

What do you wear to work? To workout? When you’re home during the week? On the weekends? To go out?

Step Two: Identify what you dream of wearing

For this exercise, let your mind roam entirely free of reality. Consider movies, magazines, runway. Think of your favorite celebrities and what they wear. Spend a few hours on pinterest. What would you wear if you could wear anything?

*Side note: If what you most what to wear is not a look that enhances you, we need to have a special talk.

Step Three: Working toward bridging the gap OR isolating the two categories

If you wear leggings all day and you dream of wearing leggings all day, kudos. You can just focus on your best colors and the best way of making the variations in line possibilities work for your living fantasy look.

For the rest of us, we have some merging or isolating to do. If you reality and fantasy aren't far apart, it is best to merge and blend the two. For merging: Starting with our reality wardrobe, how can we take a step toward our fantasy wardrobe? This can be done with each item (moving from a plain tee to an embellished tee with a flattering neckline), or it can be done as a percentage, letting fantasy items take up 10% of your wardrobe and if it goes well (i.e. if you actually end up wearing it regularly), swap another 10%. If you work with a Basic 10 capsule wardrobe, that means having one of your ten items be fantasy. If you do choose a purely fantasy item, try to consider how it will work with the rest of your wardrobe.

If reality and fantasy are too far apart, the goal is to accept and limit the functional wardrobe. If reality is that you're a yoga teacher, but your lines look rather bad in knits and you'd rather be in perky woven dresses- don't try to merge them- you'll only drive yourself mad and end up wasting money. Instead, accept that your knits, while unflattering, are a functional necessity of your working wardrobe, and do your best to limit them. Yes, you need a certain number of items, but not beyond, and when you're not teaching, put on something fabulous instead. Isolating means not letting functional creep into your life when they aren't absolutely required. You will feel better if you switch to flattering the moment that you're able to in your day or week. Because functional is, well, functional, you will need to devote a little of your time and money to it, but limit this to what you can. Focus the bulk of your time and wardrobe budget on the flattering items and live your fantasy.

How far apart are your reality and your fantasy? Can you bridge the gap or is it more useful to isolate them? At what ratio? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

If you're still struggling to improve your wardrobe, consider the style services available.