Today marks the end of my 1 Year 1 Outfit endeavour. 365 days ago I set out to wear the most minimal wardrobe I could conceive of, while still being relatively comfortable in all four seasons, and now here we are a full year later and I’ve survived to tell my tale.
My wardrobe consisted of ten core items:
- one pair of pants: Outlier 60/30 Chinos
- one t-shirt: Outlier Merino Crew Neck
- one button-down collared shirt: Outlier Merino/Co Pivot Shirt
- one pair of boots: Viberg Service Boots
along with my workout gear:
- a second t-shirt: Outlier Merino V-Neck
- one pair shorts that doubled as swim trunks: Outlier New Way Shorts
- one pair of running shoes: Strike Mvmt Interval Runners
and my outerwear:
- a sweatshirt: Strike Gold Loopwheeled Sweatshirt
- a light jacket: Apolis Chore Jacket
- and a raincoat: American Trench Jacket
Extras
I also had a small cadre of extras that consisted of my 7 pairs of Outlier socks and pullWool underwear, a Hollows Leather belt, an Archival Clothing hat, a toque, gloves, sleeping pants, and slippers. Save for some extraordinary circumstances, namely being part of a wedding party and dressing up for halloween, these were the only clothes I wore. (Minor disclaimer part here: I spent over nine months of the year on parental leave, but once I returned to work I was required to wear specific clothes for safety during work hours)
Throughout the year I lived my life and conducted myself as I normally do, not letting my tiny wardrobe dictate what I did or how I did it. Instead, I carefully chose versatile clothing that would work well for my various surroundings and all the activities and events that I was likely to encounter.
Challenge 1: keep it together, man
I had a few concerns going into this challenge, namely what would I do in the event of a catastrophic garment failure such as a destroyed gaping hole seam or some devastating stainage, especially on one of my trips outside the country. Also, I expected some wear and tear, but I was a little weary that I might end up in tatters by the end of the challenge with patched up pants and holey shirts.
Other than a torn seam from my sunglasses and a couple popped buttons early on, all of my clothes far surpassed my expectations. My Outlier chinos and merino t-shirt specifically got pretty close to daily wear; it would take 3+ years for the average person to put this kind of wear on their clothes so it blows my mind that they held up so well.
Challenge 2: being that weird guy
I was also worried about the social implications of wearing the exact same thing everyday. You might think that friend of yours that wears grey pants and a black shirt everyday is just a little strange (though billionaires do it), but what about that guy that always wears the same green shirt and navy shorts to the gym, ew? I’m sure people wondered and whispered behind my back, hopefully once they realized I was washing my clothes regularly they calmed down.
I was never confronted directly by anyone asking about me wearing the same clothes. I think it helped immensely that I chose fairly muted colors. I also varied my look through different layers as dictated by the weather.
Sometimes I would stack my pants, sometimes I would cuff, roll/unroll my sleeves, or wear my shirt unbuttoned just to vary my look ever so slightly, even doing those minor things helped change the feel and projection of my clothes.
Challenge 3: the weather
The biggest reason that we humans wear clothes, aside from basic humility, is to comfortably live in the various climates we face. There are certainly places here on earth where having 10 items of clothing would be easier and I’m sure there are also locations where only having 10 items would be near impossible.
Living in Canada, spending time on both coasts, and travelling down south gave me a pretty wide range of weather to deal with. I built my wardrobe specifically to deal with the warmer, wetter climate of the west coast, once I was facing sub -20°C (-4°F) and even below -30°C (-22°F) temperatures my clothes were clearly inadequate. I spent a few uncomfortable days in Manitoba in the middle of winter wearing almost every piece of clothing I had along with a couple layers of socks.
I also faced some challenging weather when travelling in the Caribbean and on my trip to Costa Rica. Hot weather means you need less clothing, true, but it also means you sweat a lot more. I had to alternate between my two shirts and wash them at night in the sink in order to stay fresh.
On the bright side, my Outlier shorts and Strike Movement runners performed admirably. I never felt like I was missing flip-flops as the Interval runners were so light and breathable and the shorts dried so quickly that doing double-duty as my swim trunks was never an issue.
Life with Less
I learned a lot over the past year through having a tiny wardrobe. I learned about the versatility of clothes, the durability of well-made items, travelling light, and getting by just fine without spares.
I used to frequently use the term need when referring to material things that I thought were missing in my closet or my life in general. I need brown shoes to go with my navy suit, I need more white t-shirts, I need a casual blazer; there were holes in my wardrobe and those holes needed to be filled.
Now, obviously these things aren’t needs and that was clear to me before as well, but in changing the way I refer to things that I want or would like to have it has changed my entire mindset on purchasing. Rather than having an urgent necessity to buy something now I’ve learned to sit on it, think about it, consider it, maybe wait for it to come on sale, or just decide not to buy it after all.
I still bought plenty of stuff over the past year and I’m looking forward to getting a chance to finally wear it all, but I also got rid of even more stuff. I threw out, gave away, and sold (thanks Grailed!) a truck load worth of stuff that either wasn’t worth keeping or just wasn’t my style any more.
It feels so gratifying to get rid of all the extra clutter and it makes you think twice about buying in excess as you realize that some day you’ll need to go through the work of getting rid of it.
Next Year
What am I going to do going forward from this? No, I’m not going to choose another tiny wardrobe and live with the clothes on my back; I’m looking forward to wearing some new clothes and having some diversity in my life. My style has evolved over the year, even without ever changing my outfit, the looks that I liked last year are substantially different from the ones I like now and it will be fun to get a chance to experiment with fashion again.
I’m not going to enact any strict rules on what I can wear or the number of clothes I can own. However, the way I approach material goods has likely changed forever, I’m no longer interested in hoarding fast fashion or filling my drawers and cupboards with cheap trinkets. I’m going to continue downsizing my stuff, carefully considering my purchases, and ideally buying nothing at all.
Over the next while I’ll be writing up detailed reviews of each of the pieces I used throughout the year and how they fared with my accelerated wear. If there’s something you’d like to hear about sooner than later then let me know below and I’ll try to move it up the queue. Also, I’m happy to answer any questions you might have and I’d love to hear your thoughts on my little experiment.
Acknowledging Awesomeness
I need to give a huge thank you to all of the brands that pitched in to make this a success. I truly would not have attempted this without the overwhelming support that each of these small brands provided. If you take away anything from my year-long challenge it is that each of these companies make some seriously great products and if you do actually need a new pair of pants or a jacket I’d highly recommend checking them out:
Thank You: Outlier, American Trench, Apolis, Strike Movement, Hollows Leather, Archival Clothing, pullWool, Viberg Boot, and Strike Gold.
Free Stuff
1 year of wear on my Apolis Chore Coat
Finally, as a thanks to you – my readers and to celebrate finishing up my year I’ll be giving away a brand new Apolis Indigo Dyed Chore Coat. Please follow the link for details on how to enter the contest and get a chance to win this beautiful jacket.
Hi, I just discovered your challenge/blog through Reddit and read through just about all of it and found it really interesting.
If I may ask a few questions: Do you know how much the outfit cost altogether?
You’ve mentioned washing the t-shirts and some other items, but how often did you have to wash the chinos?
As someone who doesn’t spend a lot on clothes (and has never owned any merino wool items), is there one item of Outlier clothes you’d recommend splashing out on and giving a try?
Hey there, thanks for reading!
I think someone tallied up the cost on my original Reddit post and it was around $2000. This is a lot of money to spend on clothing and I would never recommend anyone spending beyond their disposable income in order to purchase any of these items.
What I have seen after spending a year in these clothes is that certain items can be both versatile and durable. If it is within someone’s financial means then they can buy less and afford higher quality; hopefully they will keep things longer, wear them more often, and appreciate them more.
I washed the chinos every couple of weeks or so, for the most part I could just wipe off dirt or spills with a damp cloth and they would be good to go.
Merino wool is a really great fabric, I love it for socks, underwear, and t-shirts. That said, the price for a single t-shirt can seem a bit daunting and even though Outlier makes a great tee, it is still just a t-shirt and you might feel a little underwhelmed if you’re not using merino to it’s full capabilities in an active outdoor role.
If you’re in the market for pants I would highly recommend either Outlier’s 60/30 Chinos (the ones I wore) or their Slim Dungarees. No one else makes pants quite like Outlier and they have an excellent balance between comfort, durability, and good looks. I would choose between the two based solely on whether you want a 5-pocket jean style or a slightly less casual chino. Their other pants are good too, but these would be where I would start.
Love this blog, and love this post. Would you have any brand suggestions for women’s clothing? After looking up your listed brands, I’d be thrilled to hear ideas for well made clothing for women. Thanks!!
This is awesome! Especially interesting to me that you did this with so few items – you must have had to do laundry constantly! Very inspiring as I try to simplify my own wardrobe.
Hi does the “her” have 365 days too? I was only able to find 2 posts. Thank you.
Our intention for the site was to have a male and female point of view on fashion, life, etc, but unfortunately my partner has been too busy to contribute to the writing. She didn’t do a 10 item wardrobe, though it was her closet cleaning that helped inspire me to do this in the first place. I’d love to see a female version of this done at some point.
I’m still waiting for a reply on FB on how you made those sneakers last a year? Gorilla glue and duct tape or? Mine are trashed in 4 months :)
Hey sorry, I’ve been lax on keeping up with social media of late. My Strikes are still going strong without any repairs (other than removing the insoles), but that probably means you just work out a lot harder than I do.
Over the year I mostly wore my boots, unless I was running, working out, or wearing shorts and for the most part my work-outs consist of weight training rather than high energy sports or crossfit. I’d say good job in wearing out your sneaks in 4 months!
I would love to know if you know of any women bloggers who have tried a similar approach to a simplified wardrobe. If so, please share!
Hey Suzanne, to my knowledge there aren’t any female bloggers that have done this exact 10 item wardrobe for a year, but I’ve seen a number of similar minimalist approaches for women.
Here’s a girl that wears the same t-shirt and jeans for a year with different accessories and a couple dresses: Why I Wore the Same Outfit Everyday for a Year
Another good one to check out is Uniform Project, which is about wearing the same black dress for 365 days.
The Daily Connoisseur builds seasonal ten item wardrobes to keep her closet small.
And, Project 333 outlines how to have a minimalist 33 item wardrobe, 3 months at a time.
Hope that helps, let me know if you come across any others!
Hi Matt,
Do you have any other recommendations for underwear besides pullWool? It seems that they’re still updating things, but from their posts looks like they may not be doing things for a while. Any leads are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Yeah, unfortunately pullWool is still in the prototyping phase and they’re not quite ready for wide release as they have some issues with their seams.
My absolute favorite merino underwear are Smartwool’s microweight boxer briefs. They’re on the pricey side, but they’ve got the best fit for me, a very comfortable fabric, and minimal branding.
Dollar-for-dollar value you can’t really beat ExOfficio’s underwear; they aren’t as comfy as merino stuff, but I have pairs that have lasted 5+ years. They also work better for travel as they dry quicker if you’re doing sink laundry.
Gotcha. Thanks for the info. I’ve recently found Wickers, and they’re great. I’m like you where I try to keep purchases in the North America region.
How are you liking the Wickers? I checked out the site, but haven’t ordered a pair yet.
They’re great, Matt! I’ve had then for a few weeks, and couldn’t be happier. Definitely recommend.
I’ve sort of done this experiment without actually thinking about it – when I go on long distance backpacking trips (i.e. the Appalachian Trail), my wardrobe is pretty much what I’m wearing, plus one warm layer, and a rain jacket & silnylon kilt. When you have to carry everything you need on your back, including your food, water, and shelter, your clothing needs get stripped to the bare essentials…so to speak :-)
Exactly this. Before I even thought about trimming down my closet I had put a lot of energy into minimizing my backpacking load. I didn’t fully make the connection between the two until I was a few months into this experiment.
That carrying less on the trail and lightening your load meant that your day-to-day hiking could be faster and more enjoyable and that you could still be plenty comfortable living with less once you set up camp. I think this translates pretty well to everyday life, that having less stuff and cutting out the clutter gives you more time and energy to focus on the important things.
I would love to do the AT one of these days, nothing beats sleeping under the stars.
Thank you! What you did is an inspiration, and your comments are a dose of reality. Last year, I sold my house, plus 80% of what I owned, and gave away tons of clothes. I’m now in an apartment, with the goal to continue to edit my belongings. I still have too much. It is harder now to let go of my things, because I am down to the “much loved” of my stuff. On the other hand, I want to live freer. May, 2016 is my goal date, to have figured out how I will do this, and to have it done. Just want to give a thank you to you and the other folk who are actually doing this.
Wow that’s great, you’ve definitely taken it a good step further than I’ve been able to, I still have tons of downsizing to tackle. I know every time I get rid of something that I don’t love or need anymore it feels like a weight has been lifted, I’m sure you’re starting to feel nice and free.
I recently read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and while the author is a little extreme at times and maybe a bit hyperbolic on how much it can change your life she does have some great strategies on how to organize and minimize. If you haven’t already, it’s a good quick easy read on the topic. The author has some interesting points on getting rid of things, that once they’ve served their purpose in your life, you can thank those objects for their contribution and then set them free.
For women looking for a larger selection of Merino wool clothing, check out http://www.icebreaker.com. I haven’t bought anything – yet! But it all looks great.
bravo!!
wow. i have been wanting to do this for years but have been afraid people would think i was insane. well done ! I bow down.
Hey Matt,
Thanks so much for sharing your challenge, I really enjoyed reading it as it has made me think further about my wardrobe and ‘needs’.
I also really appreciate the sites you suggested for some of the women out there doing related challenges.
Cheers,
Ju