Okay, I’m at it again. Have you read about Project 333 – Be More With Less? Project 333 is “the minimalist fashion challenge that invites you to dress with 33 items or less for 3 months” (Courtney Carver: Project 333 blog)Fairly simple. This core wardrobe/minimalist wardrobe is wearing only 33 items and every 3 months you trade/switch up to a different 33 items.
You can read all the details of Courtney’s plan and its origins here. The 33 items in her plan include shoes, clothing items AND accessories. My plan is a bit different because separating myself from that much of my clothing, shoes and accessories was too stressful to think about. My modified plan is as follows.
- 33 clothing items, not including basic T-shirts, work out wear, underwear, socks etc..
- No shoes or accessories are included in my core list. Not yet.
I took a before photo of my closet and an after photo. The new closet with T-shirts has 38 items including a pair of jeans in my dresser.
I started this on July 21 and I thought I would take a photo of what I wear ( I will try to do this regularly, modeling/photography is not my strong suit). I’ll use these photos as a record that I can refer to, to see if I like how it looks. And, I would love to know what you think. If you think the outfit doesn’t do me any favors, I sure would like to know! I’ll do these in a weekly or monthly round up.
The timeline is to switch up in 3 months, which will be about the time of our weather change into fall/winter. October 21 I should be thinking about switching up my wardrobe for another 33/40 items. The second stage will also include winter items because the time period will fall right into winter weather.
I think I’m going to like this idea/plan. My closet before was such that I could barely push the hangers aside in order to see or pull something out of the closet. The clothes that I picked I tried to pick items that were solid in color (don’t have many of those) that I could mix and match with. We’ll see how this all goes, but I’m rather excited about it.
Also, I’m not giving/donating anything yet. All the items in the ‘before’ closet are sitting in a large Home Depot garden bag. I may use those items for the next 3 months or donate them or wait until the next spring/summer cycle to make a decision.
The other great thing that happens, is say you think you’re in love with a particular item but after wearing and experimenting with if for 3 months you find that it’s not that versatile or that well made or whatever, you can get rid of it and if need be dig into your unused clothing and pull something out if you really need to.
I’m really looking forward to being creative about my dressing again and making my daily wardrobe fun and different.
When you follow the plan you obviously choose items based on your lifestyle. I work in an office where I often dress up. I have zero social life so I tend to take out my frustration in choosing fun outfits to wear to the office. I dress as if I’m the editor of Harper’s Bazaar and go out for cocktails after work. Full length brocade skirt is an option for my 9-5 life, but sadly not my 6-9 life.
Plus, my fabric buying is, dare I say getting me down. I spend way to much money on fabric, and then I’m kind of blase about the finished garment. I pick colors and fabrics based on sentimental reasons or completely impulsive. I mean, lilac crepe rayon? Really Jill?
I want to sew really fabulous garments with exquisite fabric and feel really joyous when I wear them. Truthfully, I only have a small handful of items that meet that criteria, and the lilac dress I made, well it just doesn’t do it for me along with so many others.
I strongly feel that this plan has legs. The ‘sew my own core wardrobe’ was doomed to fail for me. I just can’t produce enough, fast enough. That and I shouldn’t have just sewn with one color in mind. Anyhoo, enough about what didn’t work. I’m ready to move on.
What do you think about Project 333?
Sources:
- Courtney Carver Project 333: Be More With Less
Denver Sewing Collective 
[…] is a selection of some of the 38 items that I pulled for my first 3 months of the Project 333. I started July 21 . For whatever reason the thumbnail grid won’t keep in chronological […]
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Your closet looks great in the after photo! Just getting your closet to look like would be good enough for me. Actually if I wanted to get down to 33 items all I’d have to do is take out all the items that are currently too small 😦
Looking forward to seeing your outfit photos!
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Wow, Jill, I admire you. I could never do this project. I have way too many made-by-me dresses to even contemplate removing them from the closet. Of course I am very lucky to have a huge walk-in closet.
And I can so relate to the “I work in an office where I often dress up. I have zero social life so I tend to take out my frustration in choosing fun outfits to wear to the office. I dress as if I’m the editor of Harper’s Bazaar and go out for cocktails after work. Full length brocade skirt is an option for my 9-5 life, but sadly not my 6-9 life.” Preach it girl!! Amen.
And I love your statement: I want to sew really fabulous garments with exquisite fabric and feel really joyous when I wear them. This should be your mission statement. In fact, I may steal it.
Good luck with this endeavor. Will you be posting your photos? Or just a private diary?
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I will be posting my wears, for sure. I’m over trying to have some professional photos of myself appear all effortlessly. I’m thinking weekly or bi, maybe a slide show in the post. Good idea on the mission statement. Let’s do it!
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Jill I think your pretty dress is much better without the t shirt beneath it. Maybe try a scarf or cardigan if you want more coverage. And how about nude scrappy sandals or pumps? Black seems to pull the color out of you and the dress. There…the requested critique!
Keep up with the rotation of your closet items. Has helped me to edit with less anxiety about chucking something I could restyle with a new garment. Eventually I try selling items in good condition on Craigslist if they stay in the back of the off-season closet too long.
Thanks!
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That’s a good idea, the neckline is kind of low, so maybe a scarf will be just the thing. And, thanks for the critique! I’ve often wondered about black and experimenting with color for a change.
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I tried it and limiting my wardrobe to a specific number of items doesn’t work for me.
BUT, what I did take from it is rotating my closet. I have a ton of closet space so most everything was there year round. So now I rotate spring/summer and fall/winter. We don’t have a clear division between the 4 seasons (a week ago the high was 69 and today it’s going to be 97) but separating between cool/cold and warm/hot really made my wardrobe more wearable. It’s not bogged down with stuff and I don’t see, for example, dark heavy items in summer and then feel “I have nothing to wear”.
And I love this: I dress as if I’m the editor of Harper’s Bazaar and go out for cocktails after work.
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That’s the problem I was having: too much stuff in the closet and I can’t see it all much less wear it all. I think just having less in there is going to be good. I’m not sure about the number either. But, just having less has been a positive move for me. Time will tell.Thanks so much for commenting. It’s quite helpful hearing from everyone.
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How exciting. What a great idea. I have been going through “wardrobe pains”, these last few months, boring is a better explanation.
I will begin this week, with my plan.
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Would like to hear!
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