Thank you all for participating in our Coach Shoe Giveaway and our Online Warehouse Sale. You can still take 20% off your entire order at The Recessionista Shop when you use the code WAREHOUSE at checkout. Only three more days left to take advantage of the sale!

Without further delay, Monday’s fashion lesson…updating your wardrobe on a dime
(ok maybe a little more than a dime, but we’re doing it Recessionista-style, we promise)

Buy a few classic items that fit perfectly or have your favorite items tailored – When we posted about jeans last week, we mentioned how they need to fit your perfectly. This goes for all of your clothing. You look better and feel better when your pants, shirts and dresses fits. If you have any of the classic items we’ve mentioned below, pull them out of your closet and try them on. If you don’t feel comfortable in them, assess the situation. Can they be tailored to fit you? Are they too out of style? While we’d love to tear through your closet a la Stacy London from What Not to Wear, you’re going to have to make the executive decision as to what stays and what goes. We worked really hard to narrow down our list of must-haves to the absolute bare essentials and here is what we came up with:

We’ve stayed away from bright colors. You can always bring color to your wardrobe with accessories (we’ll get to that in a second). Lucky for us, this Fall blacks, browns and blues are in the fashion forecast. Using neutrals and classic colors will ensure that you can mix and match your wardrobe to create several different outfits (we’ll get to that too!).

Accessorize – A necklace, a scarf and/or a hat can transform one outfit into another. Accessories are less expensive than going out and purchasing a new wardrobe. We are not recommending that you spend the money you’ve been saving for new shirts on jewelry instead. There needs to be balance. But when you’re looking for a quick way to update an outfit and your wallet has plans (that don’t include buying a new outfit), a new scarf or necklace might give you just what you need. (And your wallet can keep doing what it has to do!) With Fall arriving, it’s the perfect time to invest in some scarves. They are a personal favorite of ours. You can really go in any direction you’d like with a scarf, frilly and feminine or modern metropolitan…the possibilities are endless. And for even more options, you can tie them differently. Check out this iVillage article that has 7 different ways to tie a scarf!

Mix and match – With as much as I adore dresses, if you’re trying to expand your wardrobe, they do not allow diversity. When you’re a recessionista, you need to be able to mix and match–it makes 2 outfits look like four, and no one can argue that this is a bad thing. When you’re purchasing your absolute-bare-essential-must-haves, thing about how interchangeable they are. While you are going for diversity, they can’t be so diverse that they look tacky together.Your essentials should be very similar in style so that they are interchangeable. If you already have plenty of clothing that fits you, but you still feel like you can’t find anything to wear, it’s time for some Fall cleaning. Organize your clothing first by style (e.g. casual, semi-casual, semi-formal, formal, business), then by color. It will help you visualize exactly what can be worn with what– you may have more clothing options than you think.

Now excuse me while I go take my own advice…

Last, but certainly not least, the winner of the Coach shoes is…

#85 Ayo G

Please send us your shoe size and shipping information to recessionistaparty(at)gmail.com, no later than midnight today to claim your shoes!

Do you have any essentials that you think need to be added to the list? Share the advice, fellow recessionistas!