My Spring 33: Project 333

Spring has officially arrived, though temperatures here in Spain have been a bit up and down.  On Saturday we went to the Semana Santa wine fair with friends: I only needed a light jacket, even though we were outside for several hours.  On Sunday I was wearing a winter coat, gloves and scarf for a brisk walk round town. No matter what the weather is doing, it is time to think of my 33 items of clothing for the next 3 months, which is almost impossible when you live in Spain.  I am still wearing jeans, long-sleeved tops and a coat or jacket, however I know that over the next couple of months it will become too hot to wear them.

For any new readers, the idea of Project 333 is that you cut down your wardrobe to just 33 items of clothing that you will wear over 3 months.  This should include bags, shoes and accessories, but that would be a step too far for me at the moment, so I have bent the rules slightly!  You don't have to include exercise clothes (if you only wear them for work outs), underwear, lounge wear or sleep wear. I may keep some of my winter 33 items to begin with, however by the time June arrives they will be consigned to the boxes under my bed, and the rest of my summer clothes will be hanging up in my wardrobe.

I have included two dresses, as I will be going to my niece's wedding at the beginning of June, plus a couple of evening events later in the month, and hopefully more invitations will be forthcoming.  The dresses will replace the winter coat and thick jacket that will remain in my wardrobe until temperatures start rising!  The long-sleeved tops, cardigans and other warm items will hopefully have been put away by the end of May and replaced by summer clothes.

For those of you who may think I won't have enough variety with just 33 items, I have worked out that my 18 tops will go with at least 4 different bottoms, creating a minimum of 72 different outfits.  If you add the two long-sleeved cardigans, one short-sleeved cardigan and the waistcoat into the equation (and I haven't even mentioned the dresses, trouser suit and two jackets), it is clear that I will be able to wear a different outfit every day over the next three months. As I have craftily excluded accessories, I will be able to add other touches to make each outfit unique.

The black in my wardrobe has now been replaced by navy, grey and dark brown, which are more flattering neutrals for most of us who are over 60 - supermodels excepted!  I have been trying to create a more structured wardrobe, with no more than six accent colours.  If you look at my selection above you will see that, apart from my neutrals, the colours are coral, green, blue, yellow, deep pink and red.  I think I'm slowly getting there!