Tame Your Closet (Part II) with the PM Pro App for iPad

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share the second part of my system that I used to overhaul my own closest, get rid of stuff, and figure out a personal style.  In the last video, I shared some tips that I got from reading the book The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees.  In this one, I will cover the wardrobe system I developed using an app called PM Pro. 

Here's where we left off.  I had taken a billion full length selfies of all of the outfits in my closet.  I wanted a better way to sort and categorize these photos on my iPad or iPhone, so I went looking for something that met my criteria and found the 

PM Pro App. That stands for Photo Manager Pro. So, here are the things that I like about this app:

• Stores photos locally - rather than just being another app lens through which to view the pictures already on my Camera Roll, this actually makes a local copy of the photos and stores them inside the app itself. Meaning I could delete the photos from my Camera Roll, which I was thrilled to do. I mean, I might be super gung ho about this project, but it’s a little embarrassing to have to explain the scores of full length selfie photos to anyone else who happens to get a glimpse of my phone!  Having them all stored in a different app was the perfect answer.  
• Create folders - PM Pro lets me create a bunch of folders to catagorize my photos. You can also do this in the Photos app, but they get alphabetized in with all of your other Albums, plus again -- the photos still stay on your Camera Roll, which I wanted to avoid. I wanted to break the photos into four different groups: Winter/Fall, Spring/Summer, Dressy, and Workout.  Then I also wanted a folder called “Don’t Like” to house all of the outfits that I was getting rid of.  PM Pro also creates a default folder called Private Zone, which you can’t edit or get rid of.
• Change Order by Drag and Drop - this was crucial for me. I wanted to be able to manually change the order of the photos.  Most photo apps sort automatically by date or file name, but very few let you drag and drop to change the order manually.  I just wanted to be comparing apples to apples, so within my Spring/Summer folder, I wanted to group together all of my outfits that were more casual (like T-shirt’s and shorts), then group all of the summer casual dresses, and then everything else.  I can make better judgments if I can see similar outfits right next to each other.  To use this, just hit Select and then drag the photos into a new order. 
• Compare - I haven't used this feature much, but say I have two looks that I’m trying to chose between.  I can flip back and forth between them, or I can select them both and pick Compare to see them side by side. Then I can also save this comparison screen for later. 
• Move to Don’t Like Folder - now that I have my outfits all sorted, I can flip through and the outfits that are not flattering kind of JUMP out at me. I would be like, fine, fine, fine, AUGH!!!!  Okay, this one needs to move to the Don’t Like folder.  So, I hit Select, then what is usually the Share Icon (I think they are using it in the wrong context here, but anyway), I pick Move to and then choose the Don’t Like folder, which has a helpful folder cover photo.  I try to be pretty ruthless here.  It’s amazing how obvious it is if something isn’t flattering if you are comparing it to everything else you own.  I can do this whole judging process from the comfort of my sofa.  Then I go to my closet, and take all of the items of clothing showcased in this Don’t Like folder and put it right directly into a bag to Donate. I keep a bag like this permanently in my closet to weed out things that don’t look right or feel uncomfortable.  Okay — now that you have done all of that, it’s time to 

Evaluate

Okay — now that you have gathered all of that data about what you have in your closet, and gotten rid of a bunch of stuff -- you should be able to evaluate what shapes, colors, and styles look good, what doesn’t, and why. In other words, you can start to construct some basic rules and begin to formulate a style for yourself.  

So, let me use myself as an example.  Here are some rules that I came up with as I was evaluating my photos:

• Absolutely no ankle boots outside the pant.  Inside the pant leg boots were okay, outside were not. It doesn’t matter what the current fashion is, outside the pants ankle boots look terrible on me. 
• Tall boots with skinny pants look the best.
• No apple shaped tops. Tops should either be fitted, or have some hourglass flare to them. 
• In my wardrobe, the tops make the statement, so pants should just fit well and be in basic colors — black, tan, denim. 

Now based on these rules and what I liked, I came up with a couple of outfit templates per season.  For example, for Spring/Summer, I have three different templates: fitted T-shirt and Jean shorts, long sleeveless shirt with leggings, and sleeveless above the knee dress.  I like all three of these templates for Spring/Summer.  I did the same for my other categories. 

Your style guide shouldn’t be seen as overly restrictive, but it should help to direct your attention to your favorite looks. By all means, try new things — after all you can have more than 3 looks per season, but do put them through this photo examination process to make sure this new style holds up against your tried and true templates. 

I am now much pickier about what I will let into my closet.  I have also discovered some looks that are more flattering than I originally thought and have gone looking for more clothes that fit  that template.  The biggest thing is that i am far more purposeful and less haphazard.  

I'd love to know what you think.  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!