This post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.
A couple of years ago, I had a Great Closet Clean-Out. My clothing racks and drawers were overflowing at the time, and some of it still had price tags. Hoping to accomplish that European knack for owning less and looking better, I donated, consigned, and gave away about 75 percent of my wardrobe. Today it’s 100 times more functional.
These are the best tips I picked up while going through the process, gleaned from fashion gurus, designers, and style bloggers. These tips are applicable to women and men, whether you’re a high-power attorney or a stay-at-home parent.
1. Make four piles.
The Great Closet Clean-Out is your first step. Tim “Make It Work” Gunn, fashion guru and author of A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style, advises you to divide your clothes into four piles: throw out, give away, repair, and soul-stirring. Get rid of clothes in the first two [...]

This is a guest post from Carrie at It’s Frugal Being Green. My own “fashion” is limited to Costco and Goodwill, so it’s difficult for me to offer advice for those who want to dress for success. Carrie has some tips for those who need to be fashionable and still save on clothes.
The spring clothes-shopping season is rapidly approaching, and I’m ready. I have my calendar marked twice a year — once in early February and once in early August — to clean, inventory, and organize my closet. That way, I’m fully prepared to shop wisely when the major spring and fall collections hit the stores.
My strategy
Shopping at sales isn’t effective for me because the low prices lead me to buy things I don’t really like or which don’t fit right. I’d rather pay full price for things I actually love.
I allot 5% of my take home pay for clothes. Five percent each month doesn’t [...]

If the national media is any indication, more people are embracing the notion of buying used clothing from thrift stores and consignment shops. Last week, USA Today ran a story describing how secondhand stores are reaping the benefits of recession:

As Americans look for ways to cut spending, they are scooping up bargain clothes, accessories, toys and furniture once owned by someone else.
“We’re sorry about the economic situation, … but it is a good time for our industry,” says Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops. Three-fourths of resale stores said they had higher sales in September and October, compared with the same period last year, according to the trade group. The average sales increase was about 35%.

According to the article, 70% of adults surveyed last summer say that buying used is now more socially acceptable than it was a decade ago. Buying used has always been socially acceptable to [...]

This is a guest post from The Frugal Duchess, Sharon Harvey Rosenberg. Rosenberg writes a column for the Miami Herald about saving money. Her new book is The Frugal Duchess: How to Live Well and Save Money.
 
Almost every year for Rosh Hashanah — the New Year according to the Hebrew calendar — my family buys new clothes. With a few new tags, we make symbolic and fashion statements. And the same message is delivered during the fall back-to-school shopping season:  Our new clothes represent a fresh start for a new year.
 
But this year was different, and not just for me. For example, at a gathering of family and friends, old clothes provided the newest fashion statement.  Here are the trends I spotted at recent parties, family dinners and other celebrations:

Closet vintage clothing: My friend Ellen recently stepped out in a navy Alfred Nipon suit — a classic — purchased for a family celebration in 2004. [...]

Tiffany wrote with a quick energy-saving tip:
I hang up my wet clothes inside during the day to let them dry. When I get home from work, I put them in the dryer for about five minutes to get rid of the wrinkles.  I don’t have a clothesline, but this works just as well.
I’m not familiar with hanging clothes to dry indoors, but I like the idea. Kris and I have actually begun experimenting with hanging our clothes outside. We had a failed attempt earlier in the year (line was too long, and it rains in Oregon). But now Kris has created a makeshift clothesline running from the maple tree to the raspberry arbor:

I’d like to install something more permanent. Some of our neighbors have real clotheslines, and maybe someday we will too. Fortunately, the internet is full of advice, so when the time comes to build one, it’ll be easy to do.
Here are some [...]

In yesterday’s discussion about how to live frugally without looking like a loser, a few people chided me for wearing frayed clothing. MissPinkKate wrote, “Wearing a frayed sweatshirt isn’t a sign you’re frugal — it’s a sign you’re too lazy to buy cheap clothes that look nice, which can be done.” And Shirley said:

J.D., I promise I am not picking on you, really, but I laughed out loud when I read your comment that you “might” try to get rid of your ratty clothes over the next year. Come on.
You are a man who erased all your debt in three years, right? I think you can purge your ratty clothes and replace them by tasteful thrift shop finds in a couple of weeks at most. You don’t need a ton of clothes. Seriously, most of us end up wearing the same few pieces over and over again even though we tend to have closets [...]