055/ What I'm Wearing: Weeks 38 & 39

My go-to minimal effort outfit formula + moving towards a non-bifurcated closet

What I’m Wearing is a series where I share all of the outfits I’ve worn over a given week (or two), along with styling notes, links and related thoughts. If you see an outfit you like on my Instagram, you’ll find it here.

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Before I jump into What I’m Wearing, some housekeeping: I’ll be hosting a second live Ask Me Anything chat for paying subscribers on Tuesday, October 10 at 11am (EST). Just click on this link at that time and ask me anything! If you missed the last one, all the questions and answers are saved here.

In my last WIW, I bid you arrivederci from Sardegna, on my way back to Paris…

Bikini by Mimi a la Mer

…where I stayed for one more day before saying adieu and heading home to Toronto.

While putting together this edition of WIW, I noticed I stuck to the same outfit formula for most of the past three weeks, and that formula was: relaxed knit + bottom + shoe.

I further noticed that:

1. depending on the occasion, I was able to take the same formula from super casual to work to nights out, and

2. most the outfits fell within my definition of “minimal effort,” which I broke down in detail here, and, in short, means “throw on and go”.

With that in mind, I thought this newsletter would be a good opportunity to illustrate how I take a piece from my closet — in this case, a relaxed sweater — and wear it across the different areas of my life. An alternate title of this post could have been “Moving Towards A Non-Bifurcated Closet”.

I visualize this idea like a lever system: each element of your outfit is one force which moves it in a certain direction. An element could pull an outfit towards a certain aesthetic, and/or dictate its level of formality. The more forces there are, the more complex — and delicate — it becomes to balance the composition of an outfit as a whole.

Take the base outfit of, say, a sweater + straight leg jeans + tennis sneakers.

Adjusting one element: Regarding aesthetic, swapping the classic tennis sneaker for a trendier, chunky dad sneaker moves the outfit into a different stylistic direction.

Regarding formality, swapping the tennis sneakers for stiletto heels pulls the overall vibe towards dressier. You would get the same effect if you kept the sneakers, but swapped the jeans for a delicate silk skirt.

Adjusting two elements: Keeping the sweater, but swapping the jeans and sneakers for a delicate silk skirt and stiletto heels has a large net overall effect on the dressiness of the outfit.

Keeping the sweater, but swapping the jeans and sneakers for a sculptural maxi skirt and tabi block heels also has a large net overall effect on an outfit, this time on its stylistic direction.

Adjusting three (or more) elements: This is where the “third piece” (or more) comes in. Adding more elements to an outfit is a delicate balancing act and it’s trickier than it looks as there are more variables.

Now, let’s go through these concept using my real-life outfits from the last three weeks. Just to recap, these are the relevant outfits from last week:

Top left: Margiela off-the-shoulder sweater via VSP Consignment (get 10% off regular price site wide with code IRENEKIM10, some exclusions apply), Aritzia Sonnet skirt, Balenciaga glitter knife mules via Poshmark, APC Grace bag. Top right: Margiela sweater, Thursdays knit biker shorts, husband’s blue shirt, vintage Chanel bag via VSP Consignment, me Issey Miyake trunk pleats bag, Want Les Essentials Evers sneakers, H&M socks. Bottom left: Aritzia cropped sweatshirt, Aritzia shorts, H&M socks, Adidas Miss Stan sneakers, Zara bag. Bottom right: COS grey wool sweater (similar), Cecilie Bahnsen Nivi shorts, Tod’s square toe loafer (on sale, and I found a used pair in 36.5 here), APC Grace bag, H&M socks.

• Top left: relaxed sweater + satin lacy midi skirt + sparkly knife mules = chill party

This was the day I landed in Paris and I had just woken up from a nap. The occasion was a 40th birthday party in a friend’s flat. Although I am “dressed up” via the lacy skirt and sparkly mules, this is indeed a textbook minimal effort outfit. Nothing needed ironing even straight out of my suitcase; I just threw it on and rushed out of the house. Carrying my day purse versus, say, an evening clutch adds more weight to the chill side of the equation, thereby further toning down the dressiness of the skirt and shoes. On the other hand, wearing a fitted black satin top instead of the sweater would have taken the “chill” out of the equation.

To drill down on my outfit formula further, a go-to combination for me is: relaxed sweater + midi length skirt + shoes, which I turned to multiple times in this post. It’s easy to put together, flexible in terms of formality and aesthetic, and I feel really good in it.

• Top right: relaxed sweater + knit biker shorts + chunky sneakers + blue shirt = elevated casual

Because of the addition of my husband’s blue shirt (a “third piece”), this outfit required a bit more thought and thus I wouldn’t consider it “minimal effort”. Either way, with or without the shirt, by pairing the sweater with biker shorts and sneakers, I have now moved the knit (that I had just worn with sparkly shoes) into casual daywear. As an opposing force, the addition of the feminine, chain strap on my purse helps elevate the look.

• Bottom left: relaxed sweater + cotton shorts + tennis sneakers = very casual

My travel outfit. I didn’t take pictures of my outfits in Sardegna, but I wore this cropped sweatshirt everyday with my Donni nylon cargo shorts or the black lace skirt and also used it as a pillow. *thumbs up*

• Bottom right: relaxed sweater + textured shorts + white loafers = polished casual

I wore this fairly casual outfit to dinner with a friend. With the substantial loafer and dressier, textured shorts, it’s more polished than the biker shorts and sneaker look. At the same time, it’s still more casual than the black lace skirt look because the loafer doesn’t pull as hard towards “dressy” as the glitter mules, nor do the shorts pull as hard in that direction as the lace skirt. Arguably, the socks here act as a “third piece” which requires a wee bit more consideration than purely “minimal effort”.

COS grey wool sweater (similar), thrifted Aritzia silk skirt, me Issey Miyake trunk pleats bag, APC Grace bag, Adidas Miss Stan sneakers, Valentino tweed jacket via Monogram.

• Right: relaxed sweater + lace silk midi skirt + tennis sneakers = elevated casual

I walked 20km around Paris in this outfit on one of the days I was scoping out resale shops. Despite wearing a pink, silky lace skirt, this outfit is 100% throw on-and-go minimal effort, and one I wear regularly, only switching out the shoes depending on the vibe I’m going for.

If I swapped the skirt out with the yellow shorts or the Aritzia cotton shorts above, the outfit would feel much more casual, i.e. this skirt is pulling a lot of weight to elevate this look.

At the end of the day, before heading to dinner, I took a selfie with one of my resale finds of the day: this sporty, tweed Valentino jacket!

COS grey wool sweater (similar), Valentino tweed jacket via Monogram, Nike socks, New Balance sneakers (my actual running shoes), Zara bag.

• relaxed sweater + knit biker shorts + running shoes [+ tweed jacket] = casual [elevated casual]

An unplanned outfit. I had to wear the Valentino jacket on the plane to keep my luggage under the weight limit, but the underlying plane outfit is minimal effort casual. Note the impact of fabrication: if the sweater was cotton and the shorts were Lycra, the outfit would feel quite different.

Zara mens 100% wool jacket, Uniqlo cashmere sweater, Tibi boiled wool skirt, Chanel slingback flats via VSP Consignment, APC Eva bag (similar Grace bag).

An outlier outfit this week. I was experimenting per

Jess Graves

’ short skirt/long jacket post but didn’t quite land where I intended. Regardless, this outfit felt good, and off I went with my day.

White + Warren sweater, Zara jeans, APC Grace bag, Adidas Miss Stan sneakers.

• relaxed sweater + wide-leg jeans + sneakers = casual

Minimal effort casual all the way. I threw this on at 8am and hurried out the door. I ended up wearing this White + Warren sweater for the three days in a row. It’s not up on the website yet, but should be soon.

White + Warren sweater, Junya Watanabe pleated trench skirt, Toteme Sharp slingback.

• relaxed sweater + pleated midi skirt + pointed slingbacks = work

I was running late and threw on the same sweater from the day before, this time with a pleated skirt and pointed slingbacks in a look that’s appropriate (read: polished and conservative enough) for work, but could also be worn for a dinner or other occasion.

If I had more time, I could have easily added more dimension to this look via jewellery, socks and/or a bag (or two). But, that’s okay! The beauty of “minimal effort” dressing is I can quickly put together an outfit that I feel good about in a short period of time. Is it the most creative outfit that I’ve ever put together? No, but that’s the reality of my life, and I’m fine with that.

White + Warren sweater, Pucci sequin skirt, Neous Tanev sandal (similar Toteme sandal, The Attico 8:30pm suede clutch via CornerLuxe

• relaxed sweater + sequin mid skirt + strappy kitten heel sandal = chill occasion dressing

For a night out at the opera, I turned to the formula again for another minimal effort outfit, but for the choice of bag which took a little bit of thought (is this a dreaded “two” in Tibi parlance? I concluded “no”, or “maybe, but I don’t care”). The same sweater + an old Pucci circa Peter Dundas skirt + minimal strappy sandals elevated this sweater into “night out” territory.

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And that’s it from me!

Love and gratitude,
Irene