5 Tenets of Intentional Fashion

From this point on, I really struggle to use the term “minimalism”. If we really consider it, my wardrobe is not minimalist. In reality it is varied. I have several brands, fits, and forms; it’s very understandable for you to think I am no minimalist. But let me put my wardrobe this way, For the past 4 months, my current wardrobe has consisted of:

• 5 Black T-shirts
• 1 Grey T-shirt
• 1 White T-shirt
• 3 Blue T-shirts
• 2 Black Sweaters
• 1 Grey Hoodie
• 1 Faux Shearling Sweater
• 1 Flannel
• 4 Jackets (Chore Coat, Shirt Jacket, Windbreaker, Bomber)
• 1 pair of Light Blue Jeans
• 2 pairs of Black Jeans
• 1 pair of Raw selvedge jeans
• 2 pairs of khakis (brown and black)
• 1 pair of Navy pin-striped dress pants
• 1 Grey suit
• 2 Bad Weather Jackets (I live in the Pacific Northwest, it rains too much to not have these)
• 1 pair of Hiking pants
• 1 UV protective running jacket
• 1 beanie
• 1 Baseball cap

That’s 33 total items that I have consistently been wearing for the past 4 months. 33 is a specific number, inspired by Courtney Carver’s Project 333. Carver’s challenge is to select and wear only 33 items from your closet for 3 months as an exercise in minimalism. This worked really well for me, and the 33 items have since become my core wardrobe. I do stress that workout clothes do not count towards Project 333, so I also do not count those (Although my tenets still apply!). You can read more about the rules for Project 333 here. Now the only exception in this challenge is my footwear. I’m still trying to figure out a way to condense that, but I have gone from 50+ pairs of shoes during in college, to just under 30. Forgive me if that is, at the very least, not trying to be more intentional with my clothing.

Of the 33 items that I consistently wear, only 1 was purchased at retail price (I treated myself to a birthday gift), several pieces were thrifted, and the rest were purchased at at least 60% off retail price. Intentionalism does not have to take a traditional perspective. Throughout this journey, I have established five tenets or principles that drive my intentional consumerism. The first of these principles:

Tenet 1: Intentionalism has to fit in your life

To suffer is to miss the point of intentionalism. Intentionalism is a fluid concept, and we are very diverse in nature as human beings. Like river bending throughout the banks, intentionalism fits around the curvatures of the human spirit, and we are each a feature sticking out of the river bed. Intentionalism must mold to us. If we give up something for the sake of minimalism, knowing the value of it, then are we truly experiencing the enhanced benefits of minimalism, or just accepting another person’s definition of what we aim to be? Naysayers will continue to reject this idea, claiming I only need one shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of shoes, but for the past six years that I have been following streetwear I have not been able to shake the satisfaction of wearing pieces I love, so why should I follow what everyone else tells me intentionalism is? I have enjoyed the culture of streetwear, met some incredible local shop owners, and formed some remarkable friendships through it, so why give it up? Why not create my own rules, mixed in with core philosophies of this “traditional” intentionalism? The second core value of intentional fashion really irons some of the traditional values of minimalism.

Tenet 2: If there is no perceived value of a piece, consider recycling it

I was careful to use the word recycle in this tenet. In a world of sustainability (something I value in the clothing industry), we should all try to do our part to conserve where we can. This mindset does not blend well with fashion, which is ever changing and can outdate you in a matter of weeks (if you’re not careful!). The fashion world has revolutionized into a secondhand-heavy market. Resale markets have taken the fashion industry by storm, with platforms like Goat, TheRealReal, and Grailed offering high-end, vintage, avant-garde, and streetwear pieces at a multitude of price points, they are the perfect platform to recycle your unwanted fashion, used pieces, and pieces…that didn’t go as you planned. Now the value aspect of this tenet is perhaps the hardest to grasp (for me at least). How to deal with gifts that break a tenet, what counts as value, what if I want it after I get rid of it are all questions I have for evaluating a piece’s worth among my 33(or an expansion to my 33). I have pieces that friends have given me that have broken one of my tenets, but they remain in my closet because they are cherished for more than just the garment, but the thought (and all excuses aside, it’s a REALLY nice hoodie). In my journey to setting boundaries on this intentional fashion idea, this tenet has been the driver for many closet down-sizes, and many frustrating battles of “do I get rid of it?”. I can’t claim to know how to tell you how to value your pieces, as I have barely figured it out on my own, but in reality I think that is missing the point of this tenet. It’s not a rigid concept to lock and limit yourself, but more a tool; a piece of equipment to remind you to be intentional. This tenet extends past staring at your closet wondering what to get rid of, but also in the shop, you’ll begin to ask these intentional consumer-type questions: Why do I need it, What value does it bring to my current wardrobe, Will I feel confident wearing it in 5 years? Speaking of wearing things for multiple years…

Tenet 3: A simple color scheme transcends any trend I’ve tried to follow

Monochromatic, dark earth tones, and blue. Those are the only shades I consider purchasing. The idea here was that through creating a wardrobe of just these colors, theoretically, any piece could be mixed with other pieces and make a half decent look. It has heavily eliminated the thought I put into my outfits, since I can really just throw something on. This also flies under the radar, I can wear the same things multiple days unnoticed. I’d like to remind you that this is NOT how you should do things. I spent years until I realized this is the path that fits my life the most. You may like other colors, and you are free to wear them! I own a single red flannel, and but that is the flannel I throw on for nearly every occasion and during every season. This is the methodology that works for me, and in conjunction with my Project 333*, has really solidified my core wardrobe.

This does not preclude you from following trends, and inevitably, there is a trend in the fashion world that tickles your fancy. This leads to tenet 4, which really pushes the bounds of intentionalism and doubles down on your ability to remain strong-willed.

Tenet 4: Allow yourself a budget to try new things

Are the 33 things I always wear the only thing in my closet? No. Of course not. Like I mentioned before, there’s always something that comes out that you’re wanting to try. The latest for me was a collaboration Nike did with Sacai on the Vapor Waffle. Encapsulated in the classic Nike Cortez colors, Sacai redefines the Nike Vapor Street and Waffle Trainer through their unique layering design language that permeates through all their collaborations with Nike. I was too curious. I had followed the collaboration for some months, learning about Sacai’s design philosophies, before ultimately deciding to jump on the hype-train and trying a pair out. It’s not going as expected, I’m finding I’m not wearing the shoes as much as I had thought, but the intent of this tenet is to allow myself some amount of forgiveness for wanting to try. Whether you limit it to the space available in your closet, or to a finite amount of pieces per year, this is entirely up to you. This is the most dangerous tenet, however, because this opens up the risk of scope creep (a term in the systems engineering role that describes how projects tend to grow and become unfocused). In this intentional fashion sense, we want to limit the amount that our wardrobe grows while still being allowed to accept new things, new releases, and adapt to the constant changing fashion landscape. What I do is I quite literally set a hard limit of ten pieces. So my wardrobe follows a 33+10 model (hence the asterisk on Project 33*). These ten pieces are changing, but never grow past ten. If I buy an eleventh, one has to go, OR, I trade pieces in. I am not perfect, I am still learning through this rule. A lot of pieces I own are things that I wear a lot still, urging the question of whether I should add it to my 33 instead of the +10. The issue that keeps me contemplating is:

Tenet 5: Forgive, but do not forget

You are allowed to mess up. You are allowed to find pieces you want to buy, purchase them, and wear them. Intentionalism is not meant to be punishing, we will all go shopping, we will all purchase things that put us in a difficult position. My core wardrobe will contain 2 black sweaters, but will it always? Is it impossible for me to own 3 black sweaters in my core wardrobe? It might be very difficult, but it’s most definitely not impossible. This tenet is meant to remind you throughout your considerations of intentionalism and the other four tenets, that it is okay to try something new, but it is not okay to let go of intentionalism just because you like something. Intentionalism should drive you to genuinely consider purchasing a piece, no matter if it is a $5 clearance shirt, or a $500 statement piece. This consideration should go far deeper than just a surface level of “does it look good on me”. It should drive you to consider whether you will find value, whether it abides by your color palette, or whether it will replace something in your core wardrobe (if you choose to develop one of those). There is a fine balance that you will need to strike of being able to shop around, look and try things on freely, without the risk of impulse buying, binge spending and forgetting the core tenets all because it is “just one more piece”.

Intentional fashion follows many rules depending on how much you choose to follow it. I chose to attempt to comprehensively capture the essence of intentional fashion through these five doctrines. I’d like to leave you with this: this is again not meant for you to copy verbatim (not saying you can’t!). It’s meant to help you find your footing. If you are struggling with buying too much clothes, or want to scale down and be more mindful of your wardrobe, these rules could help you begin that journey.