Depth vs Breadth

How to find the blind spots in your wardrobe

Hi Readers,

I hope this Sunday newsletter finds you doing well ❤️

This is the last week of my month-long focus on styling and wardrobe-related topics that you can practice outside of the act of shopping. I find the beginning of the year a great time to reset, reflect, and re-ground ourselves to our personal style and goals. You can read more about setting your style intentions in this month’s High-Five newsletter.

My aim isn’t to have you avoid shopping all together — it’s to provide tools and ideas to help you become a more intentional shopper. To give yourself a moment to pause and reflect so you can appreciate what you already own and gather personal data points so you can make more informed, strategic shopping decisions in the new season. I want every new piece you bring into your wardrobe to solve problems, not create more.

So today, we’re taking it back to the basics!

I worked with a new client this month who shared the following challenges that ultimately made her decide to work with a stylist:

1. She had a closet full of clothes but felt there were only a few pieces in her wardrobe that she truly loved.

2. She hadn’t been able to fully utilize and style her clothes in different ways that felt fresh and inspiring…that helped her express how she wanted to feel which was comfortable, confident, and creative. This was even more important as she started to get back in front of clients while juggling two kids at home.

3. She was continuing to purchase new pieces that didn’t feel strategic and weren’t actually helping when she got dressed each day. She was spending a lot of time, money, and energy on making purchases that ultimately had little impact.

I shared her story on my IG stories and got so many DMs from women who responded with “Wait…this is ME!” and “omg, I feel like this everyday”.

I think my client’s story resonated with so many because honestly, life happens. We move through our days so quickly…spending time working, juggling priorities, and caring for others that we’re often the last ones we think about taking care of. So if you feel like months or years have gone by without you feeling like you wore outfits that truly helped you feel confident and express yourself, know that you aren’t alone.

All of my clients share similar pain points…some are further along in their style journey than others but in the end, they all want to feel like the best versions of themselves. They want their clothes to “catch up” and help express who they are today — modern, creative women leading multi-faceted lives.

Back to my client - through our session, I was able to share a couple key insights after reviewing what was in her closet:

1. She felt she was missing the “interesting” or “creative” aspect in her style so she was making purchases that felt like they were filling that hole by way of fun patterns and stripes and extra bells and whistles. This was adding to the noise and “stuff” she had to sift through to pick out an outfit. (Note: the way we express the creativity we crave is through styling, not shopping. Interesting style is always the sum of all the parts, never a singular item.)

2. The categories she was buying a lot of were Tops but she actually had more than enough statement pieces in this category and needed to round out with some staples to tie the looks together. She also was missing key gaps such as accessories and updated shoes. Even if her clothing felt good, she got stumped when she had to put on shoes so that was a roadblock we needed to solve for.

This is a common problem I see in clients wardrobes so today I want to discuss the topic of Depth vs Breadth.

For any readers who are, or have been in the retail industry - you may recognize these terms!

In my previous life designing apparel with my buying partners, this was a key focus in our assortment strategies.

The concept: Depth provides variety within a single type of product while breadth provides variety across a range of products.

If we wanted consumers to continue to buy from our brands, we needed to iterate on our best sellers and what was working. The risk was that if we leaned too far into this strategy (depth), our clients could get bored with our limited offering as things would start to look and feel the same. However, if we tried to offer too much newness (breadth) and differentiate from our brand DNA (ie: trends vs our authentic style), we risked the potential to confuse our clients and lose sales.

The same concept applies to our closets. We want to expand on our “best sellers” or continue to buy things that we love but if we are doing that impulsively or not strategically, it can often lead to boredom or confusion in getting dressed.

Some visual examples —

Two versions of depth, using real life client examples: Top Row// You love a sweater so you buy them in every color to offer you variety. (“Why fix it if it’s not broke” type of logic) Bottom Row// You love cozy grey sweaters so you buy in similar yarns and relaxed fits to offer you variety. Whenever you buy a new sweater, you naturally reach for a cozy fit in Grey. (I’ve also had clients with this buying pattern for navy sweaters or black sweaters!)

Let’s say your go-to outfit is jeans and a sweater. Taking that outfit formula, let’s apply it to the above examples -

Obviously you would have more iterations based on what else you own but want to keep this concept simple! There’s nothing wrong with any of these outfits and if you are someone who loves a uniform, this may be your ideal style - which is great! But for most of us, we crave being able to create a different look and feel when we wear our clothes. While technically each look is different, the end result feels the same.

And if your closet is full of color or patterns but you feel like you never have anything to wear…

While having a bunch of different patterns and colors in your wardrobe can feel like variety, it could possibly be leading to that “nothing to wear” feeling you experience because ultimately, they may all be serving the same end use and intent, especially if they are in similar fabrications and silhouettes.

Now let’s look at an example of breadth -

Top row is our previous “depth” example. Bottom row shows more breadth. They are still all sweaters but you have a mix of necklines, yarn weights, texture, proportions, and colors to offer variety and versatility.

And how the breadth compares to depth when paired back to the same jeans -

See how the bottom example shows a bit more range, even though they are all still sweaters? You can still apply the elements of what you feel most comfortable in while having differentiated choice to unlock more potential within your wardrobe.

I have another client who naturally gravitates towards mid-wash jeans. She thought she was creating variety in her denim range by focusing on different fits (straight, barrel, crop, and slightly wider leg). But those weren’t actually helping solve her wardrobe dilemma — which was that she never felt she could create interesting outfits that worked across her lifestyle needs.

A snapshot from my client’s wardrobe edit. She had a stack of jeans all in a very similar wash and one pair of black denim.

The variety she thought she had within denim, while great in theory, actually still led to the same end result because everything felt too similar when paired back to a similar denim wash.

After we identified this blind spot in the wardrobe, we edited out her least favorite of the blue jeans and filled in with a wider leg ecru and a slouchy tapered nylon trouser to introduce some color, texture, and shape. See how just swapping a couple pair of bottoms creates a different look and feel? And it unlocked even more options when combined with the other items in her closet. Sometimes it’s not about a full closet overhaul with all new pieces…it’s about strategic purchases that lead to high impact.

So how do we avoid too much depth vs breadth in our wardrobes?

A versatile, functional wardrobe that can also reflect our inner selves all comes down to balance.

I believe every wardrobe should have the foundation of the following components:

• Basics

• Staples

• Statements (or personality pieces)

I often compare our wardrobes to food analogies so let’s imagine our wardrobes are like our kitchen pantry. 🥬🥫🍳

All your clothes and accessories are ingredients. Combining different ingredients makes a recipe to create a meal (ie: outfit).

You wouldn’t go to the grocery store without a list and buy three random things like lettuce, pasta, and oranges and hope to make a composed nutritious meal, so why do we do that with our clothing and expect different results?

If we apply the components of Basics, Staples, and Statement pieces:

• Basics - Think foundational ingredients like olive oil, bread, or farmers market eggs. They will be used often but don’t steal the show. Yet, you couldn’t make a good meal without them. The higher the quality, the more luxe the ingredient feels and tastes!

• Staples - Think the pantry items you rely on to deliver your favorite meals on a consistent basis and offer some variety. Pasta shells, fruits, veggies.

• Statements - Think the little pantry items that take your dishes from basic to “wow”. Maldon salt, chili oil, preserved lemons, interesting seasonal ingredients like figs….all based on your personal taste (literally) and may change from season to season. They can make for a good snack but never make a complete meal.

If you have only basics, your dishes will feel flat and one-note. If all your staples are from the same veggie family (ie: different types of cucumbers), your dishes will taste too similar. If you only rely on statements, your dishes won’t truly feel complete.

Now for some visuals —

BASICS: Mainly neutral, easy to layer, no bells and whistles. Prioritize great fabrics and versatile fits. If you only wear basics, your looks will probably feel a bit boring and flat but they are essential in helping you tie all your components together (ie: the bread for your sandwich).

STAPLES: Mainly neutrals (but not necessarily), interesting by way of shapes and textures. Prioritize the pieces that will support your lifestyle. This will look different for everyone. Some may need a blazer, others may need a bomber jacket, and others may need a leather jacket. (Now your bread has the lettuce and veggies for your sandwich.)

STATEMENTS: These are the pieces that stop you in your shopping scroll. They tug at your heart strings and remind you why you love fashion. They can be as bold and colorful and “impractical” as you want BUT you have to be able to create multiple outfits with pieces you already own. Otherwise they veer on fantasy dressing, or require more thinking and spending $$ to make it work. Don’t sleep on accessories — they are low-effort, high impact and can add that certain je ne sais quoi to even the most basic of looks. (Your sandwich fulfills your craving once you add your artisanal ground mustard or fancy salt etc)

All together, these individual components provide you the versatility and flexibility you need to support your multi-faceted lifestyle. You can shift from WFH lounging to heading to a coffee date with a simple swap of a shoe or a pant. You can feel prepared to go from your casual everyday to packing for a work trip or vacation. You can finally feel like you have options when getting dressed for social occasions without having to last minute panic shop. (Driving this food analogy home lol - your pantry can now make sandwiches but also pasta and pizza and breakfast bowls etc).

So how do we troubleshoot this idea of depth vs breadth in our own wardrobes?

Here’s some action tips that can help you gather the data points needed to make more informed purchases this season: