Description
One year. A whole new perspective on style, spending and self-image.
Have you ever stared at a wardrobe full of clothes thinking 'I have nothing to wear'? You're not alone. Millions of women are stuck in the frustrating cycle of shopping for the perfect outfit, only to find themselves overwhelmed and confused as to why no matter what they buy, they never look the way they want to. This expensive obsession drains our wallets and leaves us feeling empty, especially when we face new cost-of-living pressures.
Emma Edwards, financial behaviour specialist and founder of The Broke Generation, broke free from this cycle with a radical experiment: one full year without buying any clothes. No new clothes, no second-hand finds, not even rentals. In The Wardrobe Project, Emma shares her raw, honest journey of stepping away from what she calls the 'hamster wheel' of spending. She confronts our culture of consumption and the impossible standards women are forced to chase — and reveals the empowering transformation that followed.
What you'll discover:
- How to understand your buying habits and ways you might be outsourcing your identity to consumption
- Real-world strategies for surviving weddings, work events, and ‘nothing to wear’ days — all without buying something new
- The link between body image and fashion consumption, through Emma's raw month-by-month insights into changing the way she saw herself
- The unexpected power that lies within your existing wardrobe and how wearing what you can have can change everything
- Practical techniques for saying no to impulse buying, whether you're in the store or shopping online
- Ways to find confidence beyond the perfect outfit and rediscover what brings you joy
The Wardrobe Project is your guide to gently shifting your spending habits and finding confidence within yourself instead of searching for it on a rack. It might even tempt you to take on the no-buy challenge as you discover your inner brilliance, without the need to add to cart.
Table of Contents
‘Your parcel will be delivered today’ xi
The chokehold of clothes xvii
Creating the Project xxvii
Preparation 1
Wishlist items 2
The rules 3
January: The beginning 11
To embrace or withdraw? 13
The urge to purge 15
Cataloguing my clothes 16
The stories hanging in our wardrobes 18
Chapter summary 23
February: The mirror to myself 25
Meeting my ‘fantasy self’ 27
The outfit in my head vs on my body 29
Signs your fantasy self is tapping your card 30
The ‘almost’ trap 31
Chapter summary 42
March: The steer into the skid 43
The allure of looking ‘polished’ 47
You’re not going to look like the picture 49
Whipped cream: An alternative to chasing polish 53
Chapter summary 58
April: The resistance 59
The perils of a change of season 59
The curious case of trends 61
It’s okay to just look … okay 63
The clutter factor 69
Chapter summary 71
May: The classroom of my mistakes 73
Buying mistakes I’d been stuck in 75
The outcome? A wardrobe that doesn’t work 80
Excuses we make to buy things 83
Lessons from items I’ve loved 86
The capsule wardrobe fallacy 87
Chapter summary 94
June: The shift 95
The unfamiliar territory of not wanting anything 97
Urgency as an indicator of mindless buying 99
The human behaviour element of fast and slow fashion 102
Slowness fosters creativity 103
Chapter summary 108
July: The breakthrough 109
From beige iced latte to punchy espresso 110
Having enough and being enough 113
Finding confidence outside of buying 116
The therapy of spending 119
Chapter summary 131
August: The holiday and the three-year-old bikini 133
Spending runways 134
There’s so much more to life and money than clothes 136
Liking doesn’t have to mean buying 137
Values-based spending 140
Adding more variety to your spending 142
The ‘yes, and?’ method 143
Understanding your buying decisions 144
Slowing down your purchase decisions 148
Chapter summary 153
September: The rebellion 155
The default option: Buy something new 157
Body acceptance, is that you?! 158
The ‘flattering’ lie 160
Ten ways to dress for resistance 163
The weight of weight 164
Weight-fluctuation-proofing your wardrobe 167
Chapter summary 172
October: The outfit repeater 173
You don’t need a new outfit for every single event 174
Outfit repeating is cool 178
Embracing style formulas 180
Chapter summary 181
November: The clear out 183
My top five most worn items and what they taught me 188
Chapter summary 191
December: The end 193
My mindful buying toolkit 196
The Rule of Three 199
My beliefs about clothes pre- and post-Project 201
Chapter summary 210
The emergence 211
The key shifts I never expected 212
Not buying clothes freed me up to do so much more 214
Buying again 216
And then I hired a stylist 219
How to be your own personal shopper 221
Dressing differently 225
Style formulas 225
Wardrobe optimisation 228
Moving forward 229
I am forever changed 233
Epilogue: The integration 241
Advice for your own Wardrobe Project 244
Four mindset anchors to take into your Project 247
Let’s keep in touch 249
Acknowledgements 251
