The Stalf Uniform

My tried and tested method for easy outfits...

The Stalf Uniform

As a general rule, I’m indulgent when I get dressed- I indulge in colour/print/texture/contrast, often all at the same time. It’s not that I’m a more-is-more gal, but I just really enjoy clothes, mixing garments, mashing different combinations together. It’s about the process as much as the outcome.

…but there are two months per year when I feel a craving for something all together more stripped back. January and September. Both are times I yearn for ease, and actually enjoy switching off the creative element of getting dressed. Both follow on from potentially carnage-y and out-of-sync times of year (the chaos of Christmas and the often rogue summer holiday weeks leave me dreaming of low-effort dressing whilst I ease myself back into normality.)

The same is true when I’m facing stress in life, when the unexpected calls, or when I‘m burnt out- I come back to my method- the key components I bring together to make an outfit that feels great with minimum exertion. This is also the method I resort to when I need to audit an outfit (as in, “this look is not working, but I can’t figure out why??”)

The method is divided into into three main elements, or steps:

Element One- Hard/tough. This is usually my base and starting point. Classic examples of the tough element are denim/jeans/ heavyweight bottoms/ dungarees. Less obvious examples might be adding a white/black crew neck under knitwear or floaty layers- it flips the whole look, and adds a hard, definite edge to what was otherwise soft and squishy or perhaps whimsical. It lends something steadfast to the whole that your eye can land on.

Your footwear counts here too. I’m often heavily-floaty in my outfits so my shoes tend to always offer a hard edge- blundstones, DM’s, even Converse could be the dependable and solid element of the outfit.

In short, step one encompasses anything that grounds the outfit, brings it back down to earth or gives it weight.

Element Two - Texture (as in, an abundance of.) For me this usually looks like layers of soft. Could be knitted, could be gauze, could be semi sheer or fuzzy or dainty in some way. Anything with a gather or drape sits in the soft department. I also usually feel like when my hair is curly and a little fuzzy, it adds in softness (as opposed to when I wear it pulled back or plaited, for instance.)

Element Three - Sprinkles. The sprinkles help your eye move around the outfit. They offer up unexpected nuggets of delight. Common sprinkle-y elements might include jewellery or anything that sparkles: brooches, embellishment of any kind, small pops of colour or contrasting texture. You can also consider buttons or coloured socks, for instance, sprinkles.

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The trick is to establish an ambience that works for your personal taste which also encompasses the three elements. You might be more of a minimalist, in which case you could go hard on the clean lines of the “tough” category and simply top with one soft element and a touch of sprinkle. Maximalists will be dousing themselves in all three. If you are a whimsical dresser, sprinkles and accessories might absolutely be enough to substantiate (or toughen) a soft outfit.

Here’s another way of looking at it- imagine you’re travelling up and down a scale as you layer on items.

You start at zero, in neutral. You are just you (except you don’t have your outfit yet.)

The tough element(s) bring you way up the scale, might even tip you a bit off-kilter. Then you need to add in soft/texture to cushion the whole look until you find your happy place on the scale. You might find you need to adjust the initial pieces you first pulled on as you move up and down.

Thinking of it this way helps me strike a balance with my outfit when my brain doesn't have the capacity to engage.

Then, once you have the tough vs. texture and hard vs. soft elements in a balance that feels right for you, last of all, you add in sprinkles to taste.

When it comes to this January in particular, I’m craving neutral. Just now, I’m looking for ease, I want everything to go with everything else- after the barrage of luxe during the festive season, I want basic.

Stuff to note:

• A linen or cotton shirt (with traditional collar and cuffs) falls somewhere in between Element 1 and Element 2.

  I’d argue that the more drapey the fabric, the more we get into soft territory.

  An example: Traditional collar and cuffs always make me want to allocate a garment to element 1- the tough, steadfast section. But if said garment is fabricated from old, well worn and well loved, tumbled linen, it slides more into soft/texture territory and it finds itself an element 2 garment.

  Our coat dress/wrapper jackets are similarly ambiguous, gathers and soft drape slide them towards element 2, but the crisp finish and solid corduroy fabric is classic element 1. Traditional tailoring pieces or waistcoats are the same, depending on how they’re realised.

• Consider the season and whether your main outfit components easily fit into the “seasonally appropriate” box. If they don't, you may need to compensate elsewhere. White linen trousers are all very well in Summer with a basic vest and little else, but for Winter, you might need to pair them with a wide leather belt and bouclé knit (see below.)

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Are you still with me? Perhaps we need some pictorial representation: