my summer wardrobe challenge – project 333

I love clothes and I love feeling good in my clothes and I have found that as I have reduced my wardrobe and really focused on what makes me feel good I have loved getting dressed in the morning even more.

I have done a few 10×10 challenges in the past year, pairing down my closet to only 10 items for 10 days and while I love what they have done for figuring out new outfits and challenging myself I wanted to try something else, which brings us to this summer and Project 333.

What is Project 333? Project 333 is a minimalist fashion challenge that challenges you to only wear 33 items of clothing or less for 3 months. Different people take this to include different things including shoes, accessories, jewelry, and outerwear.

How am I going to do it?

• Time: 3 months; June, July, and August
• Items included: Clothing, shoes, outerwear
• Items not included: jewelry, other accessories, workout clothes, home lounge wear, dress for weddings in the summer
• Break: One week where I am going to live at camp I will not include as I will need completely different clothing

Prep: I started the prep for this challenge over a month in advance as I knew this was something that if I wanted to succeed in I couldn’t just throw it together and hope it worked. I started by creating a list in a notebook of all of the categories of clothing and the approximate number of items I wanted to include from each section. The categories I chose were:

• Bottoms
• Tops
• Dresses
• Jackets/Sweaters
• Shoes
• Tank Tops
• Purse
• Jumpsuits

I then took a look into my closet and started pulling out my absolute favourite pieces that I knew I wanted to wear this summer and started making sure that things I liked fit together and could mix and match. I then wrote everything down (in pencil so it could be easily change) and let those choices sit for a while. I also took this change to take a look at the items I didn’t chose and see if I wanted to get rid of them from my closet which I did for a few of them.

A few days before May ended I took a look at my list again and made a few changes, making sure that the 33 items were what I really wanted to spend my summer wearing and packed everything else up under the bed for a few months from now. I spent the last few days wearing the non chosen clothes for the last time and then said goodbye to them.

Here is what I will be wearing this summer:

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Bottoms: 7

1. Striped loose pants – Eco Vibe
2. Mint Jeans – old Old Navy
3. Coral Capri’s – thrifted
4. Black paper bag pants – old Forever 21
5. White Shorts – thrifted
6. Blue Jeans – thrifted
7. Mustard Skirt – thrifted

Tops: 8

1. Checked shirt – thrifted
2. Blue floral shirt – thrifted
3. Mustard shirt – Target
4. Purple floral blouse – thrifted
5. Striped button up shirt – Eco Vibe
6. White floral shirt – Dynamite
7. Grey polka dot t-shirt – thrifted
8. White striped t-shirt – thrifted

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Sleeveless Tops: 4

1. White button shirt – thrifted
2. Blue floral tank – thrifted
3. Teal tank top – thrifted
4. Grey Pacific North West – local Portland artist

Dresses: 4

1. White patterned – thrifted
2. Blue and yellow dress – thrifted
3. Striped t-shirt dress – thrifted
4. Larger striped dress – old Old Navy

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Outerwear: 4

1. Disney sweater – Disney
2. White cardigan – thrifted
3. Green jacket – thrifted
4. Black blazer – old H&M

Purse: 1

1. Black – PixieMood

Shoes: 5

1. Navy polka dot – thrifted
2. Yellow lace ups – Toms
3. Black toms – Toms
4. Beige loafers – thrifted
5. White sneakers – Toms

Well here we go on this new adventure, wish me luck as I pare down my wardrobe and find ways to wear just 33 items for 3 months.