3 Keys Thursday: Wardrobe Staples

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

One night last fall, as I was hanging up the $17 Target cardigan I wear at least once a week between April and October, I got to thinking about wardrobe staples. I used to love shopping for clothes but somewhere between my 20-somethings and my 50-somethings I lost interest. Maybe it was the changes in my body. Maybe it was the fact that shopping for my daughter took priority.  Maybe it was because it's become so much easier to order things online and try them on in the privacy of my own home, where I can mix and match instead of wondering whether or not the new item will fit into the existing wardrobe.

Or maybe it was a little bit of each of these.

In retrospect, I think a switch flipped the year I retired. For more than a year, I had no need to shop for work clothes; my existing wardrobe was more than sufficient for my new stay-at-home mom status. In addition, as I transitioned from a well-paying career to a smaller income, and I couldn't justify buying new clothes.

Though I've since transitioned into a new career, I've kept the ease of building on simple pieces. Here are my three key tops and bottoms:

Tops:

• Solid color tops in varying sleeve lengths (although the older I get, the fewer long sleeves I prefer since I use these primarily for layering)
• Cardigans. While my $17 Target cardigans (one in navy, two in black and one in white) are traditional button-downs, my favorites are a flowy, unstructured rayon blend that resist fading and wrinkling and can be dressed up or down.
• Solid sweaters, tunic length

Runner up: Print tops to dress up jeans or black pants

Bottoms:

• Jeans (of course) -- some of my dark wash jeans even work for work.
• Black pants -- nearly everything goes with jeans and nearly everything goes with black.
• Print slacks -- Five years ago, I had none of these in my closet. Now they're edging out some of the solid color khaki-cut slacks I swore by. Less boxy and made of softer fabrics, they are comfortable and easy to pair with a solid sweater. Most of mine are in prints that pair with a black top.

Runner up: It's a tie between leggings and khakis. Khakis would have made the cut (top 3) a few years back, but I'm finding it harder to find khakis that are comfortable and flattering.

nietjuh via Pixabay

If I had to, I could get dressed for months using only these items and a few pieces of jewelry. These
days, when I shop, I look for replacements or for pieces that will complement these basics, many of which I routinely have in duplicates or multiple colors.

Sometimes, I worry that I look the same every day but, when this starts to happen, I know it's time for a new accent piece or accessory. In addition, this concern is assuaged by the ease that these foundation pieces provide. If something in my wardrobe doesn't perform well with these basics, it's easy to let it go to a new home where someone will love it as much as I love my staples.

How about you? What are your wardrobe basics? Are they more basic than mine?