DIY Friday: How To Remix The Same Dress Five Times

Remixing, or wearing the same items of clothing in a variety of different ways, is a favourite sport of mine. It's way to combine my love of creative dressing, with my desire to stop buying so many clothing items & be thriftier. In my wardrobe I always notice that there are particular items that I come back to, over and over again. Remixing isn't hard - it just takes a little imagination & creativity to get you started. If you're having trouble getting the remixing ball going, here are a few ways to make it easier:

Acessorise Like A Maniac. An outfit, or an item of clothing can be completely changed if you wear it with different accessories. My favourite floral dress (pictured above) has probably been worn with every different accessory I own. I wear it belted at the waist, with scarves tied around it, with no belt, with leggings & tights, or bare legged, with Doc Martens, with sandals, with knee-high boots, with ankle boots, with long necklaces, short necklaces, no necklaces, with black, with brown, with red, with yellow, and over jeans as a tunic top. Get crazy with your accessories, and you can have a completely different look every time you wear an item of clothing.

Layers, Layers, Layers. Layers change the look of a piece of clothing in an instant. Try looking at your favourite t-shirt in the mirror with different types of vests, jackets, cardigans or knits over the top. Layer up shorts with funky tights or leggings. Dresses can even be layered! Whack a skirt over a short dress & you've got a whole new top. Put a top on over a maxi-dress, and everyone will wonder where you got your new maxi-skirt. Wear your jeans & pants with boots over the top, and underneath, or with varying lengths of tops for a different look. Just pile your shit on, and see how it turns out. I promise, you'll find a look you like!

Identify & Shop For Workhorses. Whether you're a thrifter, or a chain store queen, there are always items waiting to be found that will slot perfectly into your wardrobe. First you need to think about the things that you feel are missing from your wardrobe. Do you always think your outfits would be better with a blazer, but you don't have one? Do you constantly bemoan not having a pair of fire-engine red tights? These are the things that it is a good idea to spend your money on, because you are obviously going to remix them! When I put on some extra weight around my hips recently, I noticed that I was really mourning having a pair of jeans that fit me nicely. It took me a few months to find a really good pair, but I kept on looking. Now I only need to have two pairs of jeans in my wardrobe - a pair of skinnies, and a pair of boyfriend jeans - because they work so well with everything else that I own. Once upon a time I had trouble culling my jeans down to the paltry amount of 10, because each pair worked so well with particular things, and looked terrible with everything else.

Remixing doesn't have to be boring. Articles about remixing often tell you to invest in lots of basics, in neutral colours - black t-shirt, a white button-up, black dress pants etc. - so that everything you have matches. I don't think clothing items need to be neutral to be remixed. The most remixed items in my closet are a thrifted owl print blouse (pictured above), a polka-dot dress (pictured above), colourful pants, and a floral bow-back dress (pictured at top). Items with personality, and a bit of a "wow" factor are still totally remixable. Once again, you just need to get creative. Try these items in combination with lots of different things - things that you don't even think will look good together, because sometimes they work even more splendidly than what your mind immediately jumps too. Put together colours that "don't work", mix up those patterns & get totally wild up in there!

Forget "Occasions". If you have it set in your mind that a certain clothing item is only appropriate for a certain occasion then you won't wear it as often as you could! Here's a story to illustrate my point: Jane bought a beautiful dress to wear to a wedding. Everyone at the wedding loved the dress, and it made Jane feel fabulous. But Jane felt like she could only wear a dress that special to a wedding, so she kept it hidden in her wardrobe waiting in vain for more friends to get married. When someone else finally did get hitched, she went looking for her perfect dress & found that it had been eaten by radioactive mice living in the back of her wardrobe. The end. You don't want that to happen to you, do you?

How do you feel about remixing? Would you rather have new clothes for every day of the week, or do you like the challenge of crafting new outfits from the same pieces? If you do love to remix, tell me all about it!

Until next time, xo.