I’m super intrigued you guys.
Why?
The French Five.
Anyone heard of it?
From what I’ve gathered from my research, the French Five is similar to a capsule wardrobe in that you keep your closet to a minimum and focus on high quality pieces instead of saturating your wardrobe with cheap, low quality clothing.
The difference lies in the blue print of your wardrobe.
In other words, you build your closet around basics that will stay in your closet year round.
When you do shop, you only add seasonal items to your wardrobe twice a year, much like how things used to be done before fast fashion infiltrated our shopping habits.
Like I said: intriguing.
So here is how it works:
- Fill your closet with high quality basics that will give you a ton of mileage.
- Twice a year (spring/summer, fall/winter) purchase five new high quality statement pieces that are stylish, but not necessarily trendy.
- Spend MORE on stylish pieces and LESS on trendy pieces.
As you can see, the French Five still encourages slow decision making when curating your wardrobe, just like a capsule wardrobe does.
But what I think I like about this method a little better is that it has a strong emphasis on the long term. It also gives you a workable plan for how to build a wardrobe that will last.
In other words, each item you add to your wardrobe is something that should be planning on having a long term relationship with.
You know what I love about that?
It is so vastly different than mindlessly consuming fast fashion.
As Debra Ollivier puts it:
Pay attention to quality, not quantity. Buy thoughtfully, never indulge in the impulse buy – unless you know it’s truly you. Throw out or give away every single item of clothing you don’t wear (that’s everything except for exceptional party clothes and things with great sentimental value) and rebuild your wardrobe slowly, piece by piece. Create a streamlined, I-love-everything-I-own collection of clothing and accessories. Avoid outfits and matching clothes. Invest in colors and textures you love. Avoid trends or ‘dressing for success.’
And this, folks, is why French women are so dang stylish.
I’ve been really thinking about what I would like my wardrobe to eventually look like and I came up with a rough draft that I thought I would share with you (I stress that this is a rough draft because I’m still doing research and figuring out what should be included in my own version. K?):
This is just a working list for now, but I REALLY think this is the direction I want to go in my journey towards a more minimal wardrobe.
The thing is, I know that it is going to take time.
But you know what? I’m okay with that.
My plan at this point is to integrate this method a little at a time and do a bit of a hybrid of the French Five mixed with a Capsule Wardrobe until I have a solid foundation of basics built up.
What do you think? Have you ever heard of the French Five? Would you try it?
Until next time,
The blogs I looked at for inspiration for this post:
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