30×30 Wardrobe Challenge Recap

With my 30×30 wardrobe challenge now over, I thought I’d share with you a few thoughts on how I went, the third time around. Truthfully? it felt like a walk in the park. I put this mostly down to a careful selection of wardrobe favourites; not to mention that the colour palette I chose was fairly neutral which made getting dressed in the morning so easy.

Given that the weather was relatively mild to warm throughout the entire month (I’m not sure it dropped below 19 C), I ended up swapping out the J Brand skinny jeans for a hip-length cashmere cardigan instead. I also swapped out a black frill Karen Walker tee for a Dion Lee skirt, and the Ellery box cut jacket for a more casual weekend appropriate skirt from Karen Walker.

I’m glad I included… the Helmut Lang black blazer, Forever New evie 7/8 trousers, and the black suede Stuart Weitzman loafers. These three pieces proved indispensable, and I’d say I probably wore them more than anything else – the Helmut Lang blazer especially. Given I’ve had that blazer for almost 3 and a half years now, I’m tempted to track down a back-up as the style works with most outfits.

If I could start the challenge over… I’m not sure whether I would have included the Lover cherry lace skirt. While it is a lover-ly piece, the hem rides up quite high when I sit down, which means it isn’t overly work appropriate. However, it was useful to have for the Melbourne Cup at least, as I imagine I would have likely been in black or navy otherwise. I would probably also look to include my Nobody denim shorts. Luke and I spent some time at the beach every weekend, and it would have been nice to have a more ‘casual’ option to throw on.

I didn’t wear my Lover libra lace skirt anywhere near as much as I’d anticipated, and I partly put this down to the fact that it is unfortunately a little tight in the hip for me but a little loose in the waist. I’m hoping to change both those things over the Summer as it is such a lovely skirt to wear for work with either flats or a pair of high heels. I’ve got the same style skirt in black but for some reason the sizing is a little larger (perhaps too large) and I wish I’d chosen that one instead as I would have felt a lot more comfortable in it.

Another piece I didn’t wear as often as I thought I would was the Karen Walker navy jersey dress. I’d included this as a work appropriate dress, but what I found was that I preferred wearing separates a lot more so this only got worn once or twice over the entire month.

Any final thoughts? I do have to agree with the sentiment that a narrowly defined wardrobe offers you so much choice, and that you tend to feel better dressed as a result. I didn’t include anything to wear just for the sake of it, and it showed, as I felt comfortable in what I wore day in and day out.

If you are planning on living with a smaller wardrobe over an extended period of time (or even looking to do the 333 wardrobe challenge), I’d just keep in mind that your pieces will suffer a lot more wear and tear as there is less to choose from. You’ll also need to launder your clothing more frequently, which can be a bit of a hassle, particularly for garments which are ‘dryclean only’.

For those of you contemplating the challenge, I think it’s quite possible to do with an even smaller number of items. I found two weeks in that there were some pieces I still hadn’t even reached for, and that by the end of the month, I’d only worn once, despite being a favourite in my wardrobe. I think it also brings home (once again) how easy it is to live with a lot less. For me, I shunned about ¾ of my wardrobe (not counting shoes and bags here), and while there were some pieces that I was hanging out to wear again (like my Manning Cartell shorts or Equipment black sleeveless blouse), I could quite easily make do with what I had.

If you’d like to hear more of my thoughts on the 30×30 wardrobe challenge and see all the pieces I wore over the course of the month in action, I’ve put together a video on my Youtube channel which you can view here or below.

I’m still not quite brave enough to try the 333 challenge (there are just too many pieces I’d miss wearing over a three-month period), but if any of you have attempted it (successfully or not), I would love to hear your experiences in the comments below! x