A Deep Dive Into My 2023 Wardrobe Statistics

I bet you can guess my most-worn item this year...

At the time of writing this post, I have tracked every single item that I’ve worn in my wardrobe for a total of 394 days (a brief history - I began in summer 2022, fell off the wagon in winter 2022, but picked it up on Jan 1st 2023 and have logged my outfit on the Whering app every day since). It sounds intensive, but it’s simple once you have it set-up and when I’m up to date with it, it does the wonderful thing of stopping me feeling so ‘shoppy’.

@theannaeditReplying to @Nina Lewis Here’s how I digitalised my wardrobe and use the @Whering App #Whering #WardrobeReview #WardrobeStatistics

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One caveat is that I often make multiple outfit changes in day, sometimes due the fact that I’ve dropped the little one at childcare when it was sub-zero and now it’s sunny outside, or I’ve been filming a particular video - and on those days I log just the one ‘main’ outfit. Who has the time to do more?!?

And in terms of actually keeping it up, I suggest taking daily photos of your outfit just incase you get behind, then you always have a reference point (hey - you could always start a wardrobe diary Substack newsletter!?), and keep your indexing current with new things added immediately, or removing sold or donated items as and when. I usually log them into the app straight away after something has arrived and I’ve decided to keep it, so that way I don’t get a backlog.

And why do I do this task that a fair amount of people out there would find extremely bizarre!?! Well THE STATS!!! Give me alllll the analytics. And like I said, I find that when I’m actually consistent with this it makes me realise that I just quite frankly, need to chill my beans when it comes to spending money on clothing. Here’s the data that it churned out for 2023…

I’m pretty chuffed with that percentage - 87%!! Not bad! And certainly the highest it’s been for a while. However I know that this figure is skewed as I am a notorious reseller. Selling things on Vinted is ADDICTIVE to me, and even though I can scratch the itch by selling Ralph’s stuff that no longer fits, I’m always hunting down my next victim. So in reality if something is just sat in my wardrobe and not getting used, then there’s a high chance that it’s been and gone. Which isn’t a bad thing - it’s great that it goes to a better home! - but it does mean that I need to be more mindful when it comes to buying things in the first place.

Whatever state my wardrobe is in, it always floats around 150-ish items. I understand that for someone that figure might seem absolutely preposterous, and for others that might feel right for someone who deals with styling as part of their job. I flit between the two in all honesty. But I’ve noticed that whenever that figure starts to rise too much above 150 then that’s when I feel myself getting overwhelmed and slipping into an uncreative streak (and feeling the need for ‘more’ which is exactly what I don’t need!!).

In terms of what I track and don’t track; I don’t track accessories like sunglasses or necklaces, but I do track bags. I don’t track workout wear, but I do include my Lululemon leggings* on the list as sometimes I do wear them as part of a day-long outfit. I don’t track what I wear to bed, but I do have my tracksuits in my Whering wardrobe as like the leggings, they can creep into my daily outfit rotation - especially if I’m feeling under the weather. So those 158 items include all my daytime clothing, my shoes, my bags and a few additional bits like scarves, belts and those pyjama-like bits that are too comfy not to wear sometimes.

83% of the these items are brand-new, and 17% are preloved (I don’t track where they are from, but most are Vinted or Vestiaire Collective* and one or two are from The Real Real* or Curate & Rotate). All I hope for this statistic is for the preloved percentage to increase and for the brand-new percentage to decrease, which I think it has from this time last year (I think it sat at more of a 90:10 ratio then) - so we’re moving in the right direction!

Black equates for almost half of my wardrobe - HAHAHAHA. Tell me something I don’t know!!? In my defence, some pieces that I own are multi-coloured (don’t get too excited, I’m talking like a mix of brown and black!), and instead of logging them in the ‘multi-coloured’ category, I tag the respective elements of the pattern so a leopard print piece is tagged with black and brown, or maybe black and yellow depending on the tone. Hence why the percentage is so extremely high (at least that’s what I’m telling myself!!). It’s followed by beige (OF COURSE!), brown (see - my colour of the year right there), and then denim blue (I mean - dur).

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MY MOST-WORN ITEMS OF 2023:

This is perhaps my favourite feature of Whering, getting to create your own little Top of The Pops chart from your very own wardrobe. Are the results surprising? Absolutely not. But it’s just FUN. So in reverse order, here are my most worn items from the past 12 months…

#10 Celine Black Zipped Hobo Bag* - worn 28 times - £22.86 per wear.

#9 Birkenstock Beige Boston Clogs* - worn 31 times - £2.58 per wear.

#8 Andersons Black Leather Belt* - worn 36 times - £3.06 per wear (I feel like this statistic should be higher as I often forget to log it into outfits!)

#7 Levi’s Vintage 501’s - worn 48 times - £1.67 per wear.

#6 ARKET Men’s Grey Cashmere Jumper* - worn 49 times - £2.55 per wear.

#5 Birkenstock EVA Sandals* - worn 52 times - 77 per wear.

#4 Converse 70’s Trainers* - worn 54 times - £1.48 per wear.

#3 AGOLDE 90’s Pinch Waist Jeans* - worn 57 times - £5.09 per wear.

#2 Havaiana Black Slim Flip Flops* - worn 67 times - 30p per wear.

#1 Loewe Small Puzzle Bag in Midnight Navy* - worn 142 times - £14.08 per wear.

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I mean the number one winner comes as no surprise to me. I used to do the whole Marie Kondo ‘have a drawer to put all your handbag bits in’ and would decant the contents of my bag into my drawer each day and then repack back into whatever bag I was using the following morning. I found that this really worked for me at the time and I wasn’t married to any particular bag which meant I rotated them more. But these days it’s just easier for everything I carry around with me to live in my Loewe, so it’s good to grab and go and that’s EXACTLY what I do most days. The small size and cross-body nature just make it so darn practical.

You KNEW the AGOLDE’s would be on there and the shoes don’t shock me either. I wore the Birkenstocks loads in the spring (although have stepped back a bit from them now), I wore flip flops all summer and the Converse are what I reach for when I need something that’s functional - they are all flat and all shoes that I can easily round around after a toddler in.

I guess I’m interested to see if these stats will shift at all over the course of the next 12 months. I predict that the Loewe will still snag the top spot, and could see the denim, Converse, flip flops, belt and grey jumper hanging around (I really, really love that jumper), but I feel like there could be some movement. Maybe the addition of a coat? I have been wearing my COS one* A LOT, or maybe a ballet flat, or a boot? Give me another year and I’ll have the answer to that one.

I don’t have any HUGE ambitions to get my cost per wear for each item to under a particular amount (although that would be cool!), or any type of new to preloved ratio to hit - my main aim is to just continue with it. Don’t stop!! At my core I’m just a big ol’ nerd and I love raking through the data, especially at the end of a year (and when the new year starts on a MONDAY!? Heaven). Of course I’d love to buy less and be more mindful when it comes to what I add to my wardrobe as I’m really pretty happy with it right now and feel like it reflects my needs and wants and actually fits my body and accounts for fluctuations. I’m working out how to incorporate that with what I do and will report back soon, as it’s something I’ve been stewing on over the Christmas break. I’ll pop up a little 2024 style manifesto next week…