The Color Closet Audit: What to Keep and What to Let Go

“I have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear.”

I’ve heard those words from more clients than I can count, and I said them myself for years. When I worked at Bloomingdale’s in New York, I bought everything that was popular. I knew how to put together a great outfit. And I bought piece after piece I never wore, because they “didn’t feel quite right.”

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t own beautiful clothes. It was that my closet was full of half-formed images: pieces bought to make me look and feel a certain way, according to whatever image I wanted to project at the time, with no connection to who I actually was.

A color closet audit, color analysis for clothes applied to what you already own, fixes that. In this post I’ll walk you through how I help clients audit a closet: the questions to ask, the tests to run, and how to decide what stays and what goes.

Before You Start: Name Your Fashion Attitude

Before you touch a single hanger, look at the patterns behind what’s hanging there. In my book, Dress Your Essence, I describe twelve common “fashion attitudes,” ways of relating to clothing that we inherit or acquire to protect ourselves. A few you may recognize:

• The Resigned One has given up on finding a style and wears the same few pieces, mostly black, over and over.
• The Dutiful One wears a uniform, and dressing is a chore rather than a creative outlet.
• The Last in Line makes sure everyone in the family looks their best, but not herself.
• The Forever Teen dresses as she did years ago, unable to move on from that version of herself.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these. They served you once. But knowing yours tells you what to look for in your closet. And it lets you ask a better question: if you were free from expectations and fears, what would you choose?

Step 1: Pull Everything Into Natural Light

Store lighting, closet lighting and bathroom bulbs all change how colors look. Do your audit near a window, with a mirror, in daylight.

Then take each piece and hold it up to your face. Ask the questions from my book:

• Is this in balance with my face?
• Is it too dull? Is it too strong?
• Does it overwhelm me?
• Does it drag me down, or enliven me?

A color that’s yours makes you look lit from within. One that isn’t leaves you sallow, washed out or faded into the background.

If it feels right, keep it. If not, release it.

Step 2: Look for Borrowed Colors

This is the step most people miss.

I can’t tell you how often I find a husband’s colors in his wife’s closet, or the colors of a mother, a close friend or a colleague. We take on the colors of the people we love, often unconsciously, in an effort to feel connected to them.

I did it myself. As a girl, I wore my mother’s soft Spring pinks and gauzy greens. I was a Winter, wearing someone else’s light.

As you go through your closet, ask of each piece: whose colors are these? If the answer isn’t you, it may be time to let it go.

Step 3: Check the Rest of the Design

Some pieces are in your colors and still don’t work. That’s usually because of design, not color.

• Contrast: Is the piece too stark, or too blended, for the natural contrast of your hair, skin and eyes?
• Texture: Does the fabric match your natural texture, smooth, medium or rugged?
• Visual weight: Is it too heavy or too light for your hair, skin and features?
• Scale: Is the print or detail too large or too small for your features?

My client Sue spent years wearing bright, Spring-like colors that overpowered her muted Summer coloring. Her husband’s aunts, who had met her at family reunions for nearly twenty years, finally noticed her the year she wore her own skin tone, her hair color and the teal of her eyes. Her old clothes weren’t ugly. They just weren’t hers.

Step 4: Sort Into Three Piles

As you go, sort everything into three groups.

1. Keep: pieces that bring you forward when you hold them to your face, in your colors and your design.
2. Rework: pieces that are close, a neutral that’s almost right, a jacket that needs your metals or a scarf to come alive.
3. Release: pieces bought for an image, pieces in borrowed colors, pieces that make you fade.

Be honest, and be gentle. Releasing a piece isn’t a judgment of the woman who bought it. She was doing her best with what she knew.

Step 5: Rebuild From What’s Left

Once your closet holds only what’s yours, look at what you have.

• Do you have your three neutrals? A formal neutral (the darkest value your coloring supports), a semi-formal neutral and a casual neutral in your hair color.
• Do you have shoes, belts and a bag in your hair color? They ground every outfit.
• Do you have your eye color and skin tone? They bring energy and connection to neutral outfits.

Then try the simplest outfit there is: a column of one color, accessories in your hair color or metallic, and a colorful scarf or jacket on top. You’ll likely find you can make more outfits from fewer pieces than you could before.

What to Do Next

• Name your fashion attitude from the list above.
• Set aside an hour near a window with a mirror and start with the pieces you wear most.
• Ask “whose colors are these?” of every piece that doesn’t feel like you.
• Make your three piles, and note what’s missing for your next shopping trip.

Your first step today: pull the one piece you’ve owned longest and never worn. Ask why you bought it.

Keep What’s True

A color closet audit isn’t about owning less for its own sake. It’s about owning only what’s true. When everything in your closet brings you forward, you’ll stop standing in front of it wondering what to wear, because every choice will already be you.

My Your True Style guide includes a simple framework for knowing what to keep, what to wear and what no longer fits your life or your energy.

Get Your True Style Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I do a closet audit? Bring your clothes into natural light, hold each piece up to your face and ask whether it brings you forward or makes you fade. Sort everything into keep, rework and release, then rebuild around your neutrals.

Why do I have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear? Usually because the closet is full of pieces bought for an image, to look a certain way, rather than pieces connected to who you are. Pieces in your own colors and design work together; pieces bought for an image rarely do.

What should I get rid of in my closet? Pieces that make you look washed out or overpowered, pieces in someone else’s colors and pieces bought to project an image you no longer want. If a piece doesn’t feel right when you hold it to your face, release it.

Do I need to know my colors before a closet audit? It helps, but you can start without them. The mirror test in natural light will show you which pieces bring you forward, and those pieces will point you toward your colors.