u/wildfirelandman

I keep coming across these style archetype quizzes and I'm curious how useful they actually are, especially for women over 45.

If you've taken one, what result did you get? Did it change anything about what you wear or even what you look for when shopping?

Or did it mostly just put a name to a style you already had?

For transparency, I'm gathering perspectives for a style research project, not promoting a quiz. Interested in hearing what worked and what didn't.

It's 7am and I'm standing in front of a closet that is completely full. and i've just said the words nothing to wear out loud, again, like the clothes are going to hear me and rearrange themselves into something wearable.

this happens every single morning. not once in a while. EVERY morning. and for the longest time i thought i just needed more clothes, or better clothes, or the one magic piece that would make everything else fall into place. so i kept buying. and the fuller the closet got, the longer i stood there staring at it.

Then it clicked that the problem was never the amount. I had plenty, too much if anything. the problem was that every morning i was starting from zero, looking at forty things and trying to invent an outfit from scratch while half asleep and already late. that is not a wardrobe problem, that is decision fatigue. a full closet with no system just hands you a hundred options and no way to pick between them.

So i finally did something instead of buying another jumper. I looked up how to organize your closet and started there, finally seeing what i owned instead of digging through a pile every day. that alone helped more than any purchase ever had, because half the paralysis was just not being able to see what was in front of me in the first place.

The real shift though was outfit formulas. I built a few go-to formulas from stuff i already owned, repeatable combinations that just work, so im not reinventing myself at 7am. wide trousers, a fitted top, the same two pairs of shoes. done. i stopped trying to be creative before coffee and just followed the formula, and stopped overthinking how to style an outfit while i was at it.

What actually got me there was Dressly. I'd started using it to shop a bit smarter, to see how a thing looks on me before buying instead of guessing my size and returning half of it. but the part that quietly fixed my mornings was that the same app doubles as an outfit planner app, so i could see everything i already own in one place and build a few looks straight from that. once it was all laid out in front of me, the formulas kind of built themselves.

https://preview.redd.it/lulw6ptucxhh1.png?width=942&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fe166aac8b1ac6ae3c107b6630f2a9099f1814a

Now getting dressed takes about five minutes. I'm not exaggerating when i say it used to eat twenty, sometimes thirty on a bad day, standing there in a towel getting colder and more annoyed by the second. the clothes did not change. the amount did not change. i just stopped asking my half awake brain to solve the same puzzle from scratch every morning.

The thing i wish someone had told me years ago is that nothing to wear is almost never about the clothes. it's about having no system, too many choices, and zero energy to bridge that gap at 7am. fix that one thing and the full closet you already have suddenly starts working. it honestly feels like i went shopping, except i spent nothing and just found everything i forgot i had.

the whole thing is a little embarassing in hindsight, ngl, all that money spent trying to fix a problem that a bit of order and a way to finally see my clothes would have solved from the start.

Is it just me, or does everyone have a stuffed closet and still spend twenty minutes in front of it like it owes them money? has anyone actually cracked the morning outfit thing for good?

I’m in my 40s and lately I’ve noticed how differently I think about getting dressed compared to when I was younger.

I used to care a lot more about whether my husband noticed a new outfit, liked a dress, or complimented something I put effort into. Not in a “dressing for him” way exactly, but his reaction definitely used to affect how confident I felt in certain clothes.

These days my wardrobe is much more about comfort, routine, and what actually works for my life. I have my usual outfit formulas, my safe pieces, and a lot less patience for clothes that look good but feel annoying by 2pm. But every once in a while he’ll randomly notice something I’m wearing, and I’m always surprised by how much it still lifts my mood.

Do partner compliments still affect how you feel about an outfit, or has your style become something you mostly do for yourself?