In the interest of keeping it realistic, this third and last “silhouette” for this winter is also pants-based — I’ll save learning how to wear skirts and dresses (and finding time to make them) for spring. So there were the skinny pants and the wide-cropped pants, and here we have the pants in between: a narrower shape that’s still a bit cropped but straight in the lower leg. This includes the made-in-L.A. Point Sur/J.Crew jeans I mentioned in the last post as well as a pair of awesome tobacco-colored men’s chinos from the unworn pile in my closet, which I’m having altered. I often buy men’s pants because they fit me better in the rise and lower leg than narrow-cut women’s pants, which seem to be made for people with no calves. However, men’s pants are generally too wide in the thigh. In high school, I was in the habit of reshaping the legs myself, as well as hemming them, but the fact is I hate hemming and would way rather pay someone to do it. If it costs me fifteen or twenty bucks to take these pants from never-worn to always-worn, so be it! (But before this year is out, I’m vowing to attempt to sew a pair of pants for myself.)

Here’s the amazing thing I’ve discovered: this whole wardrobe planning thing works! Thinking it through like this, I zeroed in on a few very high-impact pants decisions — buying a new pair of jeans (the right pair!) to replace the two failing pair, buying the wide-cropped pants I’ve been yearning for that give a whole different look to things, and altering the unworn chinos, which are another welcome alternative to jeans. And by thinking through the tops and narrowing it down to things that really work in combination with each other, I landed on these three pieces that really are amazing building blocks. You can take any of the top combos from all three of these winter silhouette posts and put them with any of the pants — the only exception being the boxy pullovers on their own, which isn’t an option with the skinny pants. But basically now the pieces I own and the few pieces I’m making add up to an incredible number of possible outfits, whereas before it was all missed connections.

I finished the first version of the woven pullover over the weekend and will post details on that soon, and have gotten Bob’s sweater to the point where I can imagine reaching the end of it, at which point I’ll cast on my quick little black sweater. And in the meantime, there will be tunics. But already, it’s way easier to get dressed in the morning.

It occurs to me I also apparently mean to only wear one pair of boots this winter: I drew every one of these outfits with the same combat boots. But for a lot of these looks, all that’s needed when transitional season comes is a change of footwear.

So almost two years after tearing it all up (gawd, I just reread that post — wow) I finally feel like I’m getting the upper hand over my closet again.

.

PREVIOUSLY in Wardrobe Planning: Winter silhouette 2: Boxy over wide-cropped

In a moment of weakness (hypocrisy, really) and desperation for some pants to wear this winter, I broke down and bought a pair of wide-cropped black jeans from J.Crew.* While I’m not happy about their unspecified origins — and can only hope against hope that they were made in a respectable factory — I’m extremely relieved to have them. Other than those black skinny pants from winter silhouette 1, I’m basically down to just two pairs of disturbingly threadbare jeans. (Every time I leave the house in either one of them, I think “today’s the day the crotch rips open in public.”)  So not only were these needed, they are sliding right into my wardrobe the way a hardworking garment should.

As previously discussed, what looks modern to me with regard to this pants shape is a cropped, boxy top layer — either on its own or over a tunic-length top — but I’m also really loving a tucked-in top for the first time in a long while, and that could be a tee or a woven top. So these examples are easy outfits built from the same pieces you’ve seen before — those already in my closet or my current queue: the tunic(s), the woven pullover, the black lopi raglan. Of which, all I’ve accomplished so far is working on a muslin for the woven pullover, which underwent some design changes in the process. More on that front soon!

.

(Indispensable Fashionary Panels via Fringe Supply Co., as usual.)

*I also invested in a pair of Point Sur jeans — J.Crew’s new line of jeans made in Los Angeles. I’m thrilled that they’re doing this and want to support it. And while I’ve never spent anywhere near that kind of money on jeans before, I understand the cost and also think it’s a reasonable expenditure, since I’ll wear them a thousand times.

.

PREVIOUSLY in Wardrobe Planning: Winter silhouette 1: Short over long over skinny