A Percentage Breakdown Of My Winter Wardrobe by Brand
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Hair Ribbon- Urban Outfitters
I’ve been spending lots of time over the past couple of months thinking about the pieces in my wardrobe. It’s definitely been inspired by learning more about capsule wardrobes and although I don’t think a wardrobe that is limited to 37 pieces (or whatever the amount is) is for me, I’m trying to ensure my wardrobe is filled with pieces that spark joy, as Marie Kondo would say, and make me excited to get dressed in the morning!
After thinking so much about my wardrobe over the past couple of months, I thought it would be interesting to divide it up into brands and calculate the percentage of space different brands take up in my wardrobe. This is probably the most maths-y thing I’ve done since my GCSEs, so excuse me if there are some errors. But I thought this might be something interesting to see for other people too, as it not only allows you have a nose around my wardrobe but it means I can share my favourite brands (they’re nothing out of the ordinary) with you all!
So, before I started this deep dive into my wardrobe, I made some estimations based on what I thought my wardrobe would look like in percentages. Oh and I didn’t include shoes (as most of my shoes are by specific shoe brands), only pieces of clothing, bags and scarves. I’ve also excluded loungewear and sportswear as, again, they’re mostly by specific loungewear/sportswear brands. Here are my estimations anyway…
20% Topshop
15% ASOS
15% Second Hand
15% Zara
10% & Other Stories
10% New Look
15% Other
So I wasn’t totally off with my guessed but I definitely wasn’t 100% accurate. To do the actual ‘calculations’, I put all of the items by one brand onto a rail, counted them and photographed them (I’ve linked to any of the items that are still available). Here are my actual results, starting with the top 5 most featured brands in my wardrobe…
(DISCLAIMER: some of my clothes are at Uni but I couldn’t really justify bringing them all home for one blog post. But I’d say the clothes in this wardrobe are the ones that make up my winter wardrobe, because I haven’t missed anything that’s been at Uni for the last two months.)
Rust t-shirt* (gifted), Light Wash Kick Flare Jeans*, Black Straight Leg Jeans*, Black Kick Flare Jeans*, Navy Coat* (I used my gifted Topshop voucher to pay for some of this coat, the rest I paid for with my own money)
1.Topshop - 17%
Unsurprisingly, Topshop is the number one most featured brand in my wardrobe and Topshop pieces make up 17% of all of my clothes. I wasn’t surprised about this one, only that the percentage wasn’t higher! Topshop has always been my go-to high street brand since I started buying clothes for myself and I feel as though I can always rely on them for trendy pieces that will, mostly, stand the test of time. Plus, I’ve been partnered up with them for the past couple of months so a few of the pieces I own by them are gifted, boosting the percentage a little.
As you might be able to tell, I love Topshop denim. Four out of my six pairs of winter jeans are from Topshop (the other two are second hand). Not only is their jeans sizing accurate but they have a wide array of styles, all of which have a little bit of stretch to them, which I like as comfort is always my number one priority. I also love Topshop outerwear and I have two faux leather pieces, a blazer and a proper winter coat from Topshop, all of which I get a lot of wear out of!
I was surprised that only one of my knitwear pieces was from Topshop, although I do absolutely love this cream knit, so maybe I have been neglecting Topshop’s knitwear? Let me know what you think of their knitwear if you’ve tried it!
2/3. In joint second/third place is Zara! Again, I was kind of expecting this one. I don’t feel as though I can rely on Zara as much as I can with Topshop. But when I do have a good root around one of their chaotic stores, I always find a gem.
Clearly I’m a big fan of their neutral colour palettes, which I wasn’t really aware of until putting all of my Zara pieces onto a rail. But I also really love their t-shirts, which is something I definitely knew beforehand. Zara t-shirts are usually always 100% cotton so they last for ages and fit so well. Plus they’re so well-priced, it’s kind of ridiculous! I also love Zara scarves as they stock them in great, on-trend prints, plus, they’re usually so big that they can double up as blankets.
2/3. Sharing second and third place with Zara is my selection of second hand clothes. Some of these are vintage pieces, some of them I’ve found in charity shops and others I’ve picked up on Depop. There isn’t as much of a theme with the second-hand pieces, for obvious reasons. Although I do love vintage jeans and the two pairs featured here are some of my favourites ever.
This rail is perhaps the one I look at most fondly, as all of these pieces have memories attached to them. That’s one of the best things about second-hand shopping. I’d really like to make the second hand section of my wardrobe a bigger one, not only to make my wardrobe a little bit more sustainable, but because of how much I love all these pieces and the way they make me feel!
4. I’m kind of surprised ASOS wasn’t higher up on this list! I really get my use out of their premium yearly Next Day Delivery and I’d say most of my purchases are made from ASOS. But I realised I buy a lot of branded clothing items from ASOS (many of which make up my ‘other’ category) so my clothing items by ASOS’ own brand aren’t so extensive.
These two bags are my absolute favourite bags and if ASOS does bring them out in another colour, I will 100% be picking them up! They’re a great size and just look super chic in my opinion. I also really like ASOS knitwear for affordable options as, although their shapes and styles aren’t always the most interesting, they create really good basics that are super comfortable.
5. And finally, in fifth place, we have & Other Stories. If I had the money, my entire wardrobe would be made up of Stories pieces. But, alas I do not! So 7% of my wardrobe will have to do for now. I’m kind of surprised that it’s such a low percentage but I think it’s just because I get so much wear out of these pieces that I feel like I have more Stories pieces in my wardrobe than I actually do.
& Other Stories’ knitwear is actually fairly affordable, compared to some of their other items, and it’s such good quality and fits brilliantly. I’d really like to invest in some of their outerwear as it’s just so beautiful and of a really high quality but, sadly, I don’t have the funds for that at the moment. Maybe next year! Or when I’m no longer a student…
So those are the top 5 brands that make up most of my wardrobe but I thought I would just quickly go through some other brands that are part of my wardrobe, but feature less heavily…
6% Urban Outfitters
5% Pull & Bear
4% H&M
3% New Look (again, I must just be getting a lot of wear out of my New Look pieces as I thought this would be higher)
3% Warehouse (I was surprised about this one as I don’t think I’ve ever stepped into a Warehouse store- I think most of it has been ordered from ASOS)
2% Mango
2% COS
20% ‘Other’ (mostly brands that I only have one or two pieces from such as Uniqlo, Primark, random brands that I’ve discovered on ASOS, Nobody’s Child, Miss Selfridge)
So there we have it! My winter wardrobe in percentages, by brands. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, not least because it took me about 2 hours to go through my wardrobe like this! But, in all seriousness, I really enjoyed making this post and going through my wardrobe in this way, so let me know if you’d like to see some similar posts!
I’m thinking I could divide up all of my seasonal wardrobes in this way (although the UK doesn’t really have autumn or spring so maybe I can just do it with winter and summer) and maybe even divide my wardrobe into percentages based on the different pieces I own (e.g. t-shirts, blazers, knitwear etc.) Please do let me know if this is something you’d like to see!
Like I said, I’m never going to have a capsule wardrobe but being aware of what’s in your wardrobe is a great way of ensuring you make more responsible choices when it comes to buying new clothes. How aware are you of your wardrobe? Do you think you could accurately guess the space that different brands take up in your wardrobe? Let me know in the comments or on social media!
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