Style Workshop Week 6: Assess Your Assets

We often view more expensive purchases like a Chanel flap bag or Burberry trench as “investments”. But what if we told you your Madewell jeans, Aritzia blazer and even your Zara sweater are also investments? These examples are undoubtedly *smaller* investments, but investments nonetheless. After all, you spent your hard-earned money to buy them and you expect to get some sort of return from them in terms of use or enjoyment, right? 

If we want to move away from disposable fashion, then we absolutely need to start thinking about *all* of our clothes as an investment. No matter what they are or where you bought them, your pieces have value - whether that be financial, utility, or emotional value. And, shifting your perspective to view your wardrobe as a “portfolio” can be enormously helpful in starting to make more rational decisions that help you maximize the value your wardrobe is providing, however you define that for you. 

This week is about assessing your wardrobe assets in a similar manner as you (hopefully!) do your financial assets. The faster we switch our thinking to this mindset, the more informed and rational decisions you’ll be making. 

We have already conveniently digitized your wardrobe, so now we can quickly assess each clothing item or “asset” and see if it’s still worth your investment. And if an asset is no longer providing value, then it’s time to liquidate and reinvest. 

If you have been planning a good closet cleanout, then this is your opportunity. But, if you tend to identify more with the lovely folks on A&E’s Hoarders, we will walk you through a set of criteria to help determine what to keep and what to let go of, particularly through the lens of your newly defined style.

The Lesson

We at Indyx don’t define ourselves by any one label: we’re a fashion company, a tech startup, a resale marketplace, and as you’ll find out today, part fintech platform! The difference? We help you manage your fashion investments. And today's lesson is a crash course.

We need to assess our fashion assets on a regular basis for the same reason financial advisors urge us to check our financial portfolio regularly: to ensure your investments are still working optimally for your needs. And, since we have just gained a better understanding of our style needs from the prior phase, now is a great time to re-evaluate. 

For many of us, finding renewed style inspiration has a very predictable outcome: to go out shopping! If I had a certain style before, and now I have figured out how I want it to change, surely that means I need to rush out to add a bunch of new pieces, right?

Not necessarily. Whenever you’re feeling like your wardrobe no longer matches your style, that should be a nudge to first sit with your existing wardrobe and seek to understand that feeling more. Do these pieces really not work with my style, or am I simply bored? I must have liked *something* about these items when I bought them - can I find that spark again, and style them in a new way that better fits my three words?

Of course, you will very likely find some pieces that are no longer delivering the ROI you intended. We will be walking through some specific criteria to evaluate each item in this week’s Homework. But what happens if an item is no longer providing its desired return? Well, we always have two basic options:

1. Increase its utility

We can work to find ways to make the item more useful for us. This usually comes in the form of re-styling. If you feel that an item has potential to be re-styled to fit your criteria, then set it aside. Virtually, in the Indyx app of course! The Collections tool within the app is perfect for this. Once you make it through this audit, find time to build new outfits with it in the Indyx app. Or even better, engage our professional stylists to help you find new ways to wear it.

You may also notice that the utility of an item could be greatly increased if only you had another complimentary item. For example:

“Right now the only shoes that work with these black trousers are a certain pair of heels, but I would wear them a lot more if I had, say, a pair of boots and loafers that also paired well”.

This is a great insight! That is exactly how we want to approach adding new pieces to our wardrobe, rather than walking in and being sold whatever is being pushed. This might mean you should hold on to that item (and, that idea!) as we move into the final phase of the workshop where we will build a roadmap of pieces to add to your wardrobe. 

If the issue with utility is more about fit or the item’s condition then it’s time to take it to a tailor or cobbler. It is common to love the idea of an item, but not reach for it often because it doesn’t *quite* fit in the way you wanted it to. You’ve already done 90% of the hard work of finding and procuring the item, so it only makes sense to go the final 10% to have a piece that you love and fits you perfectly. It’s amazing what a few small tweaks can do to make an item look & feel incredible.

2. Liquidate & re-invest

If you don’t see a good path to increasing your ROI (i.e., wear) on an item, then it is time to move on. This can sometimes be difficult to swallow, but let us reframe your thinking. 

An item you don’t love and aren’t wearing isn’t doing you any good sitting you in your closet. In fact, it can be a drain! Every time you open your closet, it’s a reminder of the money, time, or energy you spent on something that isn’t working for you. It’s common to hold onto something because you’ve already invested in it and letting it go can feel like a waste. But this is the sunk cost fallacy. Don’t fall into it! 

Remember: while that item isn’t returning for you right now, it is an asset that could be valued more highly by someone else. By letting it go, you are likely *increasing* the total utility of that item. And, if you choose to resell it (“liquidate”), then you can use that money to effectively transform it (“reinvest”) into a different item that is of higher value to you. Again, once you start viewing your wardrobe as semi-fungible assets that can be exchanged, the faster you will start to optimize towards a curated closet that you truly love.

If during this process you find that letting go of an item is hard, that’s only natural. Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw would have rather cut off her foot than given away her shoes. But Carrie is far from a financial role model. Ultimately what is a good investment for you may not be a good investment for someone else and vice versa. And some investments aren’t good for any of us (that’s looking at you, Shein).

The Homework

The work we’ve done in the past few weeks will really start to come together this week. We will use your defined style – from your inspiration board and your three words to assess your cataloged wardrobe. The best part of it all is that you can do it on the Indyx app, no need to make messy keep, sell, and donate piles on your floor. 

We like to use the Collections tool to create customized lists of items to Keep, Sell, Repair, and Donate. Head to Wardrobe > Collections to set these up however work best for you. Then you can use these to evaluate each piece one-by-one, adding it directly to one of these collections.

We recommend you evaluate each item through the lens of four criteria: 

Style: You’ve already done the hard work in carefully selecting your three words. Understanding if each item fits these three words should be as easy as check, check, check, right? Well, it does get tricky when some of your items only have one or two checks. And that’s totally okay because we don’t wear items by themselves - we wear them in outfits. So, when an item doesn’t check all three words, think about how you would style it with other pieces that would complete an outfit that aligns with all of your  words. If you can’t, then it’s not a keeper. 

Function: Does this item realistically fit with your lifestyle? Do you have a glittery floor length dress that you’ve worn once or twice, without another occasion in sight? The situation might also be a little more subtle, say, a business formal, dry-clean only silk shirt that you never reach for now that you’re working from home. Ask yourself if you’ve worn the item in the last year and if you will be wearing it in the next year. If the answer to both is no, it might be time to free up space. Even if you love something and it fits your style, if you’re not going to wear it, why not sell and re-invest in something you will wear?

Comfort & Fit: This is both physical and emotional. Does it feel amazing to wear? Does it fit your body in the manner you prefer? If you answer no to either of these, is there anything you can do to make the item more comfortable or fit you better? If not, it’s time to pass it on to someone else.

Redundancy: Check your closet for repeat items. All of us tend to have our “thing” that we buy way too much. Maybe for you, it’s white tees or black trousers. But unless you’re getting good use out of all of them (i.e. low cost per wear across the board) there is no reason you should clutter up your space with repeat items - especially if you can re-invest in items that will give you more variation and versatility.

How do you decide whether you should resell or donate something? We find that any items from designer or contemporary brands in good condition are almost always worth your time to sell. Especially since Indyx makes it so easy to do so! Other items in good condition can be donated if you choose, but please do not donate any items with holes, stains, or significant stretching or warping. As a rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t be proud to give it to your friend, then you shouldn’t donate it either.

The result of your homework is a set of items that you are removing from your wardrobe, with a plan for each on how you will do it!

And, before we move on, note that this is a great opportunity to sharpen our shopping skills. Ask yourself which criteria knocked out most of your clothes. This is a good insight to keep in mind when you’re shopping, so you know your own tendencies and what to avoid.

The Indyx Team’s Homework

Below is this week’s homework as completed by the Indyx Team.

Until next week…

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