I Want To Be A Roitfeld

As the season changes, do you find yourself craving a whole new wardrobe? Kate Ringo Suzuki, our editor-at-large in New York, is here to tell you how to feel as if you have a fabulous new array of clothing and accessories without spending a dime — organize your closet! Many women that are noted for their style, including Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Giovanna Battaglia, rejoice in organizing their closets regularly. You may be pleasantly surprised at the treasures you unearth…

Roitfeld Style Tip: Organize Your Closet
By Kate Ringo Suzuki

Everyday Glamour Chicks, it is with pleasure that I present to you my first official guest post in my new role as New York editor-at-large for the ever chic and sophisticated blog, I Want To Be A Roitfeld. You may remember my first guest post for Ms. Kellina de Boer's cult site happened in April of 2010, Everyday Glamour Book Review: Classy by Derek Blasberg. But now I'm very official and important and my head is getting bigger by the minute. So here it goes...

Is your closet a dark abyss containing a jumble of shoes and old clothes languishing in disarray on the floor? Do you repeat the same outfits day in and day out even though you have an inkling that you just might have an impressive trove lurking somewhere in there? Do you leave the house with your hair still wet?? If so, then you may be in need of a little closet organization. Everyday Glamour Chicks, or E.G.C.s, love to get down and dirty and organize their closets. One such E.G.C. is the reigning face of Lancôme, Ms. Julia Restoin-Roitfeld. Julia is young, beautiful, and has fashion and style coursing through her veins. Her mother just happens to be the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, muse to Tom Ford, and genius fashion stylist, Carine Roitfeld. Julia grew up with one fierce maman.

When Julia's hot beau, Robert Konjic (aka Mr. Perfect), wanted to do something special for her, he called her on their anniversary and said, "Look inside your wardrobe." According to Julia, "He'd hidden a present in it before he left — a stingray leather jewelry box." Imagine if your man tried hiding a present in your gloomy mess of a closet. You might never find it. Julia adds, "He was lucky I hadn't already found it, because I organize my wardrobe weekly." She organizes her closet WEEKLY, folks. See what I mean? E.G.C.s never whine about having to organize their closet. They organize with glee, with a glimmer in their eyes. They rub their hands together and whisper to themselves, "I can't wait to organize my closet!”

You may wonder what's so great about organizing your closet. Why bother? The main reason is to remind yourself of all the special pieces you already own. In short, organizing increases the chances that you actually wear what you have. Not just in your fantasy life, in which you are always seen at cool city hot spots or at cocktail parties, but in your real life, in which you spend your time eating Cheetos and Facebook flirting.

Vintage cabaret dress from GaneshaWhen organizing, it is important to keep only what you love. Julia does this. Take for example her description of one of her beloved dresses: "I bought this cabaret dress at Ganesha in Ibiza in the summer of 2006. I saw it in the window, tried it on and it fit me perfectly! It was meant to be. I've only worn it once and it was photographed a lot. It's one of those pieces I can wear at home, for my own pleasure, or I could just frame and hang on the wall." Julia shows us that if you love a piece of clothing but haven't worn it much, it's best to figure out how to wear it, save it for another time, or you could hang it on a wall. Forget organizing "experts" that say if you have not worn something in a year that you should give it away. Quelle horreur ! Those organizers have never owned a purple vintage Gaultier dress purchased for a song in an East Village boutique from a sales girl that was the spitting image of Betty Page. (Well, if Betty Page had a nose ring.)

Sometimes you don't need to hang your clothing on the wall. Sometimes all you need to do is Norma Kamali bathing suitfigure out how to wear that beloved piece, how to pull it together. Julia is an expert at making it work: "This is a Norma Kamali bathing suit I bought at Resurrection. I've never worn it. I almost did this winter in Paris, with tights and a belt but was too cold. I am waiting for that special summer day." Of course Lady Gaga would wear that outfit in the snow with a fierce pair of wooly Chanel mukluks, cold be damned! But Julia is more practical.

E.G.C.s are a pragmatic lot. They understand that when it comes to clothing and accessories, "The less you have the more you enjoy,” as Carine is fond of saying. YSL "Shakira" dressOrganizing your closet can be like shopping in a way — you are likely to discover pieces that you forgot. When you focus on how to work with what you already have, you start to get creative. Here is a glimpse into Julia's creative mind: "This Yves Saint Laurent dress is actually lingerie, which they don't make anymore now. I bought it at New York Vintage on 25th Street. I call it my Shakira dress!" I can relate to this because I have a Victoria's Secret dress that is actually a slip and it was on sale. I bought it on 34th Street. I call it my "Lucky Strike" dress. My point is that organizing helps you realize that it is best to slow down with the shopping for a moment and get creative with what you have.

What about the little lost orphan clothes that you love but simply cannot pull together into any semblance of an outfit? E.G.C.s remedy the Little Orphan Annie syndrome by shopping for fill-in pieces to make the wardrobe cohesive. AHA!! So this is when you can shop! But wait! You may have so many lost orphans that shopping for fill-in pieces would put you on the street. What to do?

Develop your own mini-collection. Pull your absolute favorite seven tops and four bottoms for the season. From there you can work on pulling together outfits from these favorites, accessories included. Out comes a pen and paper at this point, because you will be formulating a list of fill-in shopping. Go ahead, shop for the fill-ins, then put your mini-collection front and center in your closet. Do this twice a year, and you will come out a winner. And don't worry, I promise that you won't have to organize your closet weekly.