Shop Your Closet Challenge: Meghan Markel

In a world full of fast fashion clothing accumulation happens quickly and comes without warning.

My closet has taken on several lives, so to speak. When I moved from Tennessee to El Paso, Texas my closet gradually changed from covering 4 seasons to 1 specific (summer, all the time). When I went from El Paso, Texas to Ansbach, Germany the weather was the complete opposite. What was 80% sunshine warm weather and shorts turned into 80% snowy cold weather and warm coats.

To ensure I had space in my closet I would purge with every season change.

My thought process was a little Marie Kondo with a whole lot of weather survival for a girl who hated to be cold. The things I removed were mostly due to sticking out like a sore thumb, for safety reasons its not always good to look American, so I adopted the saying “When in Rome, Do as the Romans do”. I wasn’t just removing vast amounts of clothing not suited for the weather but also style and color came into play.

Those first two years I was shipping large quantities of clothing back to the states to friends who bought an item from my 2nd hand online closet or family who needed something for an event or occasion. I still struggled daily with FOMO shopping the first two years in Europe. It was so easy to get sucked into a social media influencers recommendation when you had bad consumption habits from being American in thought. More isn’t anything special, its just more and social media feels more like a sales pitch everyday. I started to resent content creators, so I slowed down and unsubscribed while I worked on my mental need for “Stuff”.

So that brings me to today and a new change to my closet. I have continued to follow the European way of life, always looking for classic pieces that will give me quality over quantity. However, once we moved back to the states I fell in love with an older home, with that comes some lifestyle changes due to using space differently during those times. I am in the middle of a project to remodel my closet in my 1950’s home (that post will come later). I am not willing to demolish the original integrity of the home by expanding the master room into the next bedroom so I am learning how to work with a closet that held smaller amounts of clothing and accessories because mass produced fashion didn’t exist.

Between us, I am ecstatic to take on this challenge of streamlining even more. Who needs 3 white t-shirts or 4 pairs of the same black adidas gym shoes? Another trendy dress that I never took the tags off? Not me. Not anymore.

That’s when I decided, instead of selling my readers on a new bag or a new outfit I was going to shop my own closet.
That is how the Shop Your Closet Challenge was born!

This first Shop Your Closet Challenge will pull inspiration from Meghan Markel as she walks into her yoga class in England. All of these pieces are incredibly classic and I’m pretty sure already sitting in your personal closets. That’s why I refuse to give you links to any new products, in the spirit of consuming less and forcing creativity.

Let’s break this outfit down…

What do I see? Military olive green coat, monochromatic olive green scarf, black shades, black “tote” bag, dark denim, and white fashion sneakers.

I modified this look to fit my favorite yoga studio who has very little in the way of changing space. I like the look Meghan has in this photo but want to be able to walk straight into class with my mat and know I could start participating quickly.

Keeping my yoga studio in mind I decided to trade the dark wash skinny jeans for some dark navy blue leggings. The white fashion sneakers can easily be changed out for an athletic pair. I changed out the leather “tote” sized bag for my favorite gym tote which can also convert into a backpack. I personally, love wearing a white tee to class so I added what I thought I would wear under my military jacket and of course a coordinating color sports bra and watch band is a fun monochromatic nod.

How would you recreate a look like this without buying a single new piece of clothing or accessory?
Would you wear this outfit to your next yoga class?