Do you feel frumpy and uninspired by the clothes in your closet? Is mom life too busy to even thinking about what needs to change? Do you feel overwhelmed by the task of rehauling your wardrobe after the changes your body experienced postpartum?
Today I’m unveiling the process I take my students through in Frumpy to Fabulous Mom Wardrobe. YUP! You get the inside scoop on the framework that I use inside the course.
These steps build on each other, helping you create a solid foundation of understanding about everything from your unique style likes to your body shape and lifestyle needs. This foundation will help you avoid a cycle of unsatisfying shopping sprees and frustration over the lack of variety in your closet.
Familiar with my Elastic Wardrobe concept? This post expands on those steps with more detail!
To make these steps easy for you to complete on your own time, I’ve created a worksheet that you can print out (or fill out on your computer). Download it with the button below.
Let’s jump in!
The 7 Steps to a Mom Wardrobe You Love Wearing
Use this free worksheet to complete the 7 steps below.
Step 1. Identify your unique barriers to fighting the frump.
To solve a problem, you need to identify it first. Here is a list of the most common frustrations moms talk about:
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Weight fluctuations or post-partum body changes
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Tight budget
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Messiness of mom life & need for comfortable clothes
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Not knowing what types of clothes look good on your body type
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Not knowing what colors look good for your color type
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Lack of motivation/fatigue
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Trouble shopping (tied down with kids or not knowing what to buy)
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No fashion sense
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Clothes that don’t mix and match
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Hording clothes/wardrobe clutter
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No time
Did I miss any? Use the worksheet to enter yours.
Identifying your unique barriers will help you narrow down what needs attention: your answers become your goals!
Step 2. Understand your body type and style
Your body changes after pregnancy and weight fluctuations are normal. In order to love what you wear, you need to know what flatters your current body shape as well as what styles make your heart happy. This breaks down into three parts:
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Your color type: At the very least, it’s important to know whether you have warm or cool undertones. Then you’ll know which side of the color wheel you should stick to. It’s also key to know whether you should wear the dark or light versions of those colors. Figuring out your color type isn’t easy! In Frumpy to Fabulous, I provide a step-by-step video and worksheet that helps you identify the colors you should wear to look your best.
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Your body shape: Knowing this helps you identify which parts of your body you need to balance with your clothing choices. All women fall within one of these categories: Pear, Apple, Carrot, Curvy/Hourglass, Straight. Frumpy to Fabulous contains a worksheet all about this with charts that help you identify which types of clothing you should look for.
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Your style personality: Think about the types of clothes that make you happy. Identify three words that describe your style. One of my favorite tutorials/worksheets to create for Frumpy to Fabulous was the “Find Your Style Type.” It’ll walk you through reaching a deep understanding of your style likes and dislikes… from cuts to patterns to colors!
Step 3. Get familiar with trends.
This is a crucial step! While I recommend being true to your own style preferences, If you don’t know what’s “in style” you’ll never know how to make your personal style look relevant to today–and thus avoid the boring, frumpy look. Make sense?
Staying in the know is as simple as getting in a flow of inspiration. One easy way to do that? Subscribe to this blog!
In Frumpy to Fabulous I share my tips for getting in a passive stream of
fashion inspiration–cause we’re busy mamas without the time to flip through fashion magazines!
Step 4. Choose a color palette.
The biggest key to a wardrobe that mixes and matches into several outfits is having a unified color scheme.
To create the perfect color palette for your wardrobe, you want to bring together:
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colors that look good on you (based on your color type),
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your favorite colors,
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and colors that complement each other (i.e. that don’t clash!)
The worksheet gives you a space to choose colors in three categories:
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Neutrals: Colors like Black, White, Brown, Navy, Beige, Gray.
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Main: Colors other than neutrals that play a major role in your wardrobe.
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Accent: Main colors or patterns that only play a minor role in your wardrobe.
Frumpy to Fabulous not only walks you through finding the right colors for your complexion, but also choosing a palette that allows mixing and matching while working with what you have!
Step 5. Map out your ideal wardrobe.
This step gets me all jittery with excitement! I love doing this with my readers and students of Frumpy to Fabulous.
For this step, you’re taking what you know about your body type, style preferences, and color palette to come up with the clothing pieces you want to have in your closet.
When writing your clothing list, remember to cover each of these categories so that your WHOLE wardrobe gets a new vision:
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Tops
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Bottoms
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Dresses
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Completer Pieces (i.e. cardigans, vests, jackets)
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Accessories
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Shoes
The point of this step is to write up a list of your DREAM wardrobe. We’ll apply it to what you already own in the next step.
Frumpy to Fabulous has you covered here too! I include a super detailed video tutorial and worksheet that shows you how to decide how big you want your final wardrobe to be, what kinds of clothes to write down, how many of them should be pattern and color versus solid and neutral, and much more! There’s even a bonus cheatsheet with over 10 pages of inspiration for clothing pieces to consider for your ideal wardrobe.
Step 6. Apply your ideal wardrobe list to your closet: Closet clean out!
So you have a list of the clothes you want in your ideal wardrobe. Now it’s time to shop your closet! Use the steps in the free worksheet to complete this step.
Lots more help on this step provided in Frumpy to Fabulous.
Step 7. Set a clothing budget and prep yourself to shop.
Your closet is pared down, and you have a shopping list.
But if you’re like me, you also have a family with clothing needs of their own and that means budget constraints! Fill out Step 7 in your worksheet to have an action plan so that those financial constraints don’t become barriers to updating your wardrobe periodically.
Yup, even set a shopping date on the calendar 😉
In Frumpy to Fabulous we dedicate a whole week to learning how to set a healthy budget for clothes, save money when you shop, and even MAKE money towards wardrobe updates.
Download the Free Worksheet to Work Through These Steps
Use this free worksheet to complete the 7 steps above.
Advanced Training for Completing Each Step
If you would like extra training and support for completing these steps, please join me in the Frumpy to Fabulous program! It’s designed for mamas just like you. I’ll see you there 🙂
Was it helpful to have the steps broken down like that? Are you excited to dive into the steps in detail in Frumpy to Fabulous?
Click here to leave your response.