We Shop for Items, But Live Life in Outfits

It’s a seemingly unbreakable fashion maxim that the piece you love the most is the one that you’re *about* to add to your closet. It doesn’t even need to be a sparkly, impractical confection for this to be true - in all likelihood, the piece you’re currently coveting is something you think is actually quite practical. The mere idea of it is tantalizing: “this is the blazer that will fix all my style problems!”.

You bring it home, and inevitably it loses its shine almost as soon as the tags come off. 

And sure, part of it is simple human nature. Newness produces a dopamine hit that quickly fades away. But there’s something more here. We hear a common refrain over and over again:

“I thought that I’d wear it all the time! Nothing is *wrong* with it. It fits my style, it fits my body….but I just don’t reach for it”. 

This disconnect you’re feeling? It stems from the simple fact that we all shop for items, but live life in outfits. 

We scroll Instagram and click a (sponsored) link to the item your favorite influencer is wearing. We visit stores and certain items catch our eye. We go into a dressing room and decide if that item fits properly.

But in real life, your clothes don’t live in isolation from each other. You don’t walk out the door in a really cool jacket. You walk out the door in a really cool jacket that plays nicely with a top, pants, shoes, and a bag. An item could work for you in theory…but if it just isn’t easy to make outfits within the context of the rest of your wardrobe then despite the best of intentions it will sit at the back of your closet. 

Brands recognize this issue and try their self-interested best to help by presenting “shop the look” or “how to wear it” sections at the bottom of every product page, merchandising the item in outfits with…other items they’re currently selling. But, they of course have no idea what is already in your closet. In practice, it’s simply a tool to prompt you to go “oh wow, look at how many things this *could* go with. It’s so versatile!” and add-to-cart without thinking too hard about it. 

The point is: if you want to break out of this maddening cycle that wastes your time and money, you need to start thinking hard about it. And yes, this is absolutely something that can be learned!

This is also a huge part of the reason we founded Indyx in the first place. We’re all just slinging items at each other, without a tool to bring together the full wardrobe. We are here to help you consider how all these items fit into the bigger picture and fit together in outfits, which is how you actually experience your wardrobe day-to-day.

But let’s get to some practical advice - how do we start to shop through the lens of outfitting?

First, it’s key to know that an item’s outfitting potential is completely particular to you - to your style, unique sensibilities, and what you already have in your closet. An item that has incredible outfitting potential for one person may be completely useless to another. As always, style is personal and there isn’t any one-size-fits-all solution. If you need reminding, please don’t shop using any “must-haves” or “essentials” checklists.

With that in mind, these are the questions I use to evaluate any item for outfitting before plunking down my hard-earned coin:

Would I wear it for Work, Weekend and Dinner?

And yes, dinner is an occasion. To me, these are the three big scenarios I am dressing for. Work is obvious. Weekend is what I live most of my non-work life in: errands, brunch with friends, farmer’s market, dog walks, etc. Dinner is something in the evening, and a little more “dressed up”. What else are you doing? That’s everything.

It has to work for at least two out of those three occasions for me to even consider it. But, ideally I can imagine styling the piece differently for all three. 

As an example, I recently ordered and returned this Reformation top. It suits my style, I loved the fit on me, and I could even imagine it in multiple different outfits….but they were all only for dinner. I couldn’t imagine ever wearing it for work or the weekend. And so, I couldn’t justify its place in my closet. I didn’t love it enough to only be a one-occasion top, because I knew that I’d only get the opportunity to wear it one or two times before the sheen wore off and I inevitably found and fell in love with a new one-occasion top. 

In order for an item to work well in outfitting in your closet - and really get worn - it needs to work across multiple occasions in your life. Full stop. 

Does it fit my three words? 

Said another way, does it sit well on vibes with everything else in your closet? If it’s not resonating on some common wavelength as everything else, you are almost certainly going to struggle to outfit with it. 

This doesn’t mean that you need to confine yourself entirely to a stereotype of a certain aesthetic style, like “classic” or “edgy” for your stuff to work together. Friction and irony are good tools when outfitting, like pairing a tailored trouser with a cool relaxed sneaker. But understanding the feeling that you want to embody when wearing clothes (i.e., in your overall outfit) is crucial in understanding if a certain item fits into that picture. 

So, if you don’t have a handle on your three words, I would highly recommend starting there. Right now, my working version is “cool, classic, playful” - and so, I want to see at least one of those qualities (ideally, all three!) in every piece that I add.

To help test this, I simply upload any new item I’m considering into my digital wardrobe and visually see it sitting next to everything else I own. I scroll. I sit with it. I close my app and open it again later. Is the item already feeling like a natural part of the collection? Or is it sticking out like a sore thumb?

Can I make outfits?

Hint: this is THE most important step!

The best way to predict whether an item fits into your life via outfits is to…actually outfit it! The previous two questions were quick filters, but this is the real test. 

If you’re already standing in front of a mirror with the item in hand, I find the easiest thing to do is to just play with your closet. But if you’re agonizing over an online purchase, then Indyx is the perfect tool to experiment. 

Hold yourself to creating at least 3 outfits you’re excited about wearing with any item before buying it. If the item is truly a good purchase for you, this shouldn’t feel like a chore. On the contrary, it should feel inspiring and affirming.

You know you’ve really got something good if the new piece feels like it’s solving a problem for you. Like you’ve been making it work without a hammer in your toolkit, but suddenly you’ve been handed a shiny new hammer and driving nails is 1000% easier. 

If you find yourself lacking time or imagination, the The Feed subscription styling service is an incredible tool to use here. If you followed my advice above, then the item is already in your digital wardrobe. Simply submit an Item Request for that item, and your stylist will give you two fresh ideas of how it could style into your wardrobe. I do it all the time!

I have a striped sweater in my closet that passed my first two tests, but should have failed this one. Alas, I thought it was such an obvious buy for me that I failed to follow my own advice and skipped this step - but I won’t be doing it again! 

I could imagine wearing it across all three occasions. It has elements of all three of my words - the fact that it was a striped sweater makes it classic. It’s relaxed, easy shape makes it cool. The exaggerated sleeves with a slight flare adds a playful element to it. Check, check, check. 

But now that it’s in my closet, I find it actually isn’t very helpful in outfitting. It’s so thick and oversized that you can’t really layer anything under or over it. It works with pants, but I don’t love it with my skirts. So, in practice it’s really only a question of whether I’m wearing it with classic denim or white denim…or maybe I pull out my white trousers if I’m feeling fancy. But it’s still *basically* just one outfit - at least, for me. It’s not a total fail, but I find myself not wearing it as much as I thought I would, and especially not enough to justify the high-for-me price tag.

But if I had challenged myself to style with it before buying, then I probably would have discovered this quite quickly. 

At the end of the day, items get our heart racing but outfits are what really matter. A collection of beautiful things may look nice in your closet, but is endlessly frustrating if you struggle to put them together. It makes you feel bad, and you don’t know why. But hopefully now you do. And when you get both right - a special piece that sparks joy and makes getting dressed easier - it feels really good. 

Devon is a co-founder of Indyx and currently leads Growth for the company from San Francisco. She enjoys admiring other people’s gardens and sleeping in with her French Bulldog, Reggie.

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