The Composition of My Closet

Coming at ya’ a little later than usual today! I’ve had such a busy week of projects and big assignments, so I’m hoping to crank out this blog post as a break from my schoolwork. Back in high school, probably at least once a week, one of my friends would say the following to me: “I love your [insert clothing item here] Grace, where’s it from? Oh, let me guess—Francesca’s!” My friends used to give me SO much crap because it seemed like everything I owned was from Francesca’s; I was basically a walking advertisement. Well, for today’s post, I decided to see if their teasing had any merit… and I did some investigating to find out the exact composition of my closet.

As you may or may not know, I keep a very detailed, very excessive cost per wear spreadsheet of all my clothing items, including accessories, shoes and purses (but excluding workout and lounge clothes). What can I say, I like to know if I’m getting my money’s worth out of my closet, and I think watching items’ cost per wear decrease over time is oh-so satisfying (you can learn how to make your own cost per wear spreadsheet in this post). So after spending the morning crunching some numbers in Excel, here are the top 10 places my clothes are from, including the percentage of clothes in my closet from each ‘store.’ Unfortunately, there are ties for spots #8, #9, and #10—not very esthetically pleasing for the purpose of this list, I know.

1. JCPenney: 20.1%
2. Hand-Me-Downs: 9.7%
3. DSW: 6.8%
4. Francesca’s: 6.1%
5. Nordstrom Rack: 5.4%
6. Thrift Stores: 3.2%
7. Charming Charlie: 2.9%
8. Two-Way Tie Between H&M and Cabi: 2.0%
9. Three-Way Tie Between Loft, Kohl’s, and Amazon: 1.6%
10. Three-Way Tie Between Old Navy, JCrew, and Homemade/Craft Fairs: 1.4%

(It’s important to note that 11.7% of my closet comes from an unknown source—sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? This is because the items were either gifts, therefore I don’t know where they’re from, or the items are so old that I don’t remember where I originally got them.)

I was not surprised to find that the biggest source of my clothing is JCPenney, which makes sense considering that Penney’s is where I always got my clothes when I was younger (and a lot of my closet has stayed the same since middle and high school). However, I was very surprised—and I’m sure my friends would be too—that only 6.1% of my clothes are from Francesca’s! It sure seems like I have a lot more than that. I was glad to find that hand-me-downs and thrift stores both made the top-10 list, but this exercise was still a good reminder for me to shop more second-hand in the future.

If you had to guess, where would you say most of your clothing is from? Are you pretty consistent in where you shop, or do you prefer to purchase from lots of different stores? It’s interesting because I’ve really only shopped at Francesca’s and DSW this whole year—I haven’t purchased things from the other stores on the list in a very long time.

Lastly, I want to talk about this outfit. My sweater is super old from Nordstrom Rack (#5 on the list) and my pants and purse are from Francesca’s (#4). As you may recall from over the summer, these pants are “the coolest pants EVER” according to my dad, and I can’t say I disagree. I was excited to take them out for a spin now that the weather is cooler, and I was pleasantly surprised by how this outfit turned out. While my chunky beige sweater is already cropped, it wasn’t quite cropped enough to show off the pants and to be most flattering. I decided to try out the whole “tuck a shirt into your bra” thing to make the sweater more cropped. What do you think?? While it’s an awesome idea, having this chunky sweater shoved into my bra wasn’t the most comfortable, and given it’s already cropped nature, the sweater kept untucking itself. Regardless, for a thinner or longer top, I think this bra-tuck trick is ingenious! Have you ever tried it before?

As always, thanks so much for stopping by today! Do let me know where you shop the most—I’m very interested to hear—and have a great rest of your Thursday.

Miles of smiles,

Grace

Beige Sweater: Nordstrom Rack, $18, last worn here | Palazzo Pants: Francesca’s, $15, last worn here | Beige Booties: Sam Edelman via DSW, $90, last worn here | Black Elephant Purse: Francesca’s, $20, last worn here