This despite the fact that I don’t take pictures of myself and in fact don’t have the ability to do so – no full-length mirror, roommate is still in bed when I leave for work.

So there aren’t going to be daily outfit posts, and there probably won’t be daily posts, but I’ll be posting throughout the month about the challenges of dealing with only 30 items of clothing, and trying to compose 30 different outfits from that.  I don’t think it’s going to be that much of a challenge to live with a smaller wardrobe – I picked out 30 items in 20 minutes last night, and I didn’t really have to think much about it – but where I will be challenged is coming up with 30 different outfits. I repeat stuff a lot; not every week, but there are outfits I wear several times a month.

Here’s what we’re working with:

Dresses:

- Black cap sleeved cowl-neck black shift dress

- Brown sleeveless thick jersey fit-and-flare dress

- Teal wool jersey fit-and-flare dress

Skirts

- Denim pencil skirt

- Brown tweed pencil skirt

- Orange corduroy a-line skirt

- Black and white tweed miniskirt

Pants

- Distressed straight-leg jeans

- Pale gray wide-leg flannel trousers

- Camel herringbone straight-leg wool trousers

Jackets

- Black blazer

- Navy pinstripe blazer

Tops:

- Blue and white striped boyfriend buttondown

- Gray long sleeve tee

- Purple long sleeve tee

- Pink henley tee

- Dark blue heathered v-neck tee

Sweaters

- Magenta short-sleeved cashmere sweater

- Green cowl-neck short-sleeved sweater

- Teal cowl-neck dolman-sleeved sweater

- Cerise turtleneck sweater

- Brown cardigan with black elbow patches

Shoes

- Red patent wedge heels

- Black leather wedge heels with patent details

- Purple Pumas

- Black croco knee boots

- Brown knee boots

- Brown Frye Harness 12R

Accessories – belts, scarves, tights, jewelry, bags – are unlimited, so I’ll be filling out this list of mostly basics with those. I’m hoping that this will help me get rid of some clothes I don’t need, and figure out new ways of wearing the ones I have. Mostly, I’m hoping this will help me buy a few less pounds of disposable clothing and move towards a closet of fewer but better quality clothing. I think I’m pretty wasteful of both my own money and the resources used to produce clothing, and I’d like to become more conscientious about that in the next 30 days. What do I really need, and what do I just want?

I plan to finish February with a better idea of that.

I was searching Piperlime for new black flats as mine are so stretched out that they slap against my feet like flip-flops, and instead of buying these Anne Klein shoes in the black patent, I got…dark pink.  This is on top of the green shoes I bought earlier this year, the purple ones I got last fall, and a pair of maroon ones.   In addition, Target has a pair of kitten heel Mary Janes coming out that I want in red.  Or blue.  When I finally pick out a pair of flat sandals for the summer, I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t get either brown/tan or black, but green or red.

And in the meantime? I still need a new pair of black flats.