Pretty hyped in the blogosphere right now is the Five Piece French Wardrobe approach to dressing. In light of Fashion Revolution Day this week and making an effort to be a responsible buyer of investment pieces to wear over and over, I think it’s a great idea and one I’d like to implement…

As Fashion Revolution Day co-founder Orsola de Castro says, “‘If you only have £50 to spend, then make sure you are buying something which you really love” and at a recent V&A talk, journalist Lucy Siegle said “When you pick up an item of clothing, imagine yourself wearing it at least 30 times, then it is probably worth purchasing” – both of which tie  in perfectly with Five Piece dressing.

Inspired by the way French women dress (and always looks so put-together and chic), it’s about having a strong wardrobe of basics and only ever updating with five new pieces each season (ie. every six months). There are general rules which are, in short – basics, socks, underwear, workout gear and accessories (unless v expensive!) don’t count. Everything else does, including shoes. All informed by the maxim ‘quality over quantity’.

With your 10 pieces a year, the aim is to buy quality, but to use these pieces to follow trends and keep your wardrobe up to date and fresh. The first step is to have a good solid wardrobe of basics and since I am in the midst of a massive wardrobe clearout and springclean, I have put together a little table of my 24 basics in a drive to streamline my wardrobe further – never thought I’d see the day I’d do something so downright geeky but I long for a more minimalist lifestyle and needs must! Also please forgive my own trend-driven quirks – distressed denim and skate shoes – coming through in this, but these feel like basics to me right now!

I think the thing to note is that everyone’s basics will differ, so really you might need to do your own personalised list to make it work for you. As you can see I have some black heart holes and I’m thinking that a few of my t-shirt basics could be replaced with better quality pieces. A few of the ones I have have definitely seen better days…

So I have a few holes to fill and as I haven’t made any major purchases (apart from a couple of bags which have ended up fulfilling my longterm basics – hello Sophie Hulme & Loeffer Randall) this year I’m good to go with choosing five quality pieces for Spring/Summer. So my next post will be what I’ve decided on! Also check out the blogger afterDRK and her Five Piece French Wardrobe posts – gorgeous, informative and inspiring! One blogger I read even stated that her aim is to get her wardrobe down to a super-minimal 50 pieces. Achievable? We can but try.

What are you thoughts on this? Something worth trying?