The Curated Closet: Discover Your Personal Style and Build Your Dream Wardrobe Paperback – February 23, 2017

This is a fantastic book that will help you create a wardrobe you love and wear.I've been a fan of the author's blog for a few years, and while some of the content is similar I found the exercises extremely valuable. There's a ton of useful information and guides that you can read through, but to get the most value you will probably want to do many of the exercises, so in a sense it's a bit of a workbook.The author's philosophy is very freeing and not one that you find in a lot of clothing guides. We are so inundated with the ideas of "fast fashion", and being strictly categorized and restricted to one particular style or body shape. It's very difficult to build a sense of personal style that we love with these rules and it's fantastic that Rees points out that you don't have to follow them! It's all about what works for you.The clean layout and design of the book was also enjoyable.

I love this book! I am a clothing, shoe and accessory nut, and while I was not seeking to minimalize my wardrobe, the ideas in this book have helped me to pare down the misfit items, and to find joy in all the rest. My life toggles from a very conservative job by day to a travel junkie (the capsule wardrobe section helps me pack in half the time and space!), to weekends dancing with friends and the occasional costume party/black tie event.Anuschka Rees has written a visually lovely book that feels good in your hands and will bring a big dose of happy to your wardrobe! Most of her advice just feels spot on, like something you knew all along, but could not quite articulate. All together, the book is thought provoking and larger than the sum of its parts... My favorite idea was to try something you love on others but thought you could never pull off by working it into a look you already love - woohoo, who knew I liked a little boho fringe!?! I bet the author would be a blast to shop with!Final note - I purchased several books on wardrobe organization/improvement, and this one was my favorite.

This is easily my favorite style guide. The title describes it perfextly. It's a book for curating your closet. It's not just for people who want to nail their capsule wardrobes. It has closet cleaning, shopping tips, how to find your own style, questionnaires, maintenance tips... It's pretty packed without being too specific to one type of lifestyle. I'd done a bit of work on my own, but this definitely helped me identify some categories for improvement and will come in handy. I love sewing because I can make clothes fit my body and my life regardless of what's in stores,, but I definitely clutter my wardrobe and pattern collection up every so often. I also found the pictures and formatting to be aesthetically pleasing. Quick tips and questions were in appropriately places and reframed and summed up the main text. Not a one felt like a redundant self-congratulatory blurb. I will say the fabric section keeps things very simple. Not too much about all the types. Just a few. Additionally, while fast fashion is called out, the environmental aspects of fashion are largely left out. I'm okay with that only because I think fast fashion is called out softly enough to not scare people away from making better choices. I think some environmental discussions can bring up guilt and this book is not here for that. The focus is on quality and I can definitely get behind that. Not to mention reminders of repairing and mending! Love that!In sum, if you're down to curate your wardrobe and keep it up, this is exactly the place to start. You'll get where you want to be with a little time and effort.

I've been doing capsule wardrobes and working on editing my closet for the last two years. Here's what I love about The Curated Closet, and why I think it's better than the other wardrobe overhaul methods I've tried:First of all, none of it is cookie-cutter; it's about what works for YOU. It starts with a look at your current outfits (as opposed to pieces in your wardrobe). She asks you to take pictures of your outfits for two weeks and then looks at your FAVORITE outfits, that you felt the best in, and helps you analyze them to figure out WHY you love them and then build your whole wardrobe around those elements. This is different from every other challenge I've looked at, which have you look at all the clothes you WORE and build your wardrobe around the pieces you wore, which is NOT the same as building it around your favorite outfits. For me, I had a lot of favorite pieces, mixed with filler pieces that I only felt "meh" about, and consequently only felt okay about the outfits, even though they had some of my favorite pieces. No more "meh"!!!Walking away from this book I am purging a good chunk of my wardrobe (again; I'm down to less than 40 items now) but now have a clear set of guidelines for building it back up. I have a color palette, a couple of go-to outfit formulas, and a very specific but concise shopping list, of what I want to add, in order of priority. I finally feel like I've reached an end-goal and don't need to purge anymore! All that's left is to find the few pieces on my shopping list, and enjoy finally having my ideal wardrobe. Thank you for writing this book Anuschka Reeves, and thank you to Caroline at the Un-Fancy blog for recommending it!!