I reset my entire wardrobe using three very strict rules. Here's how it went.

I'm going to be straight up with you: I am not a fashion girlie.

I have always loved shopping, researched fashion, been mildly addicted to styling TV shows and even worked for fashion magazines. Right now, I work at Mamamia, which means I am surrounded by a lifestyle team who know their clothes.

While I have a few good outfits to my name, I'm certainly not known for my fashion sense. In fact, I'm more likely best known for outfit repeating those good few outfits far too often and then panicking for big events where I need to at least seem like I've made an effort.

But now it's 2023, I want to shake things up and retire my chaotic method of buying things I think I need to wear and then banishing them to the back of my closet. I want to revamp my style and actually develop a signature look. I want to reset my entire wardrobe.

The thought of just burning the lot to the ground and starting new, while sounding liberating at first, actually makes my brain shudder with overwhelm. So instead, I turned to my colleagues and my old faithful pal TikTok. Between office convos and deep scrolling, I kept hearing some 'fashion rules' that really spoke to me.

Ones that allowed you to revamp your sense of style without betraying your personality. Because let's be honest, while the sleek, chic, corporate gal-about-town look is stunning, it doesn't really match my bumbly, sitting-on-the-couch lifestyle. So, I selected my three favourite rules and got to work. 

And work it was.

You see, trying to rewire the way your brain thinks about fashion, shopping, and style is tricky. And it takes more time and devotion than I anticipated. 

But now I've arrived at a place I didn't think I was allowed to exist in: Fashion satisfaction.

I feel stronger, more at ease, and like my actual self in my clothes now. 

So you can come and join me in this style nirvana, I've mapped out the three very specific (and rather strict) rules I followed to get to my current glorious wardrobe. So, go on, grab a pen, and start taking notes. We're about to get seriously fashionable. 

1. Establish and stick with your three style words.

If you've waddled into the same corner of TikTok that I exist in, then you'll have seen lots of people declaring their 'style words'. But if you haven't, let me explain.

Style words are a collection of single words that you use to define your style, your fashion vibe, and your overall look. This can be inspirational and aspirational or realistic and, to be quite honest, humbling – especially when you ask your friends to describe your style in three words.

I do not recommend doing this if you have brutally honest pals.

Most people will pick two category labels and one un-fashion-ish word, brewing them together to make one big style vibe. I did not do this when asked by the What Are You Wearing? podcast team at Mamamia. Instead, I visualised my current wardrobe and panicked, blurting out the words:

Confused.

Comfortable.

Marshmallow.

...Marshmallow?! What the actual pomp, Katie. 

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But I really was doing a sort of say-what-you-see test. And while I still aggressively resonate with words two and three, ever since recording that embarrassing video, I've wanted to address the first word.

Confused.

I don't want to be confused about my own clothes. I want to feel at least a little deliberate with my choices and have some kind of direction to be heading towards – even if it feels like I'm clumsily stumbling on the way there. 

So I've changed my first word. It's still not as directional or chic as most I've seen on TikTok, but it fits for me, so I'm rolling with it. The word I've chosen is: Happy.

That choice was a sneaky one, so I can have a few meanings stuffed within its five-letter frame. Because, to me, 'happy' refers to the colour palette, fun clothes in general, and how they make me feel. I never want to put something on my body and feel unhappy – I want to feel joy in what I'm wearing. So 'happy' it is!

And before you ask, yes. I am keeping 'marshmallow'. I love it and it's creepily accurate. 

2. Work out your cost-per-wear to invest in the right areas.

This one is a rule I really should have committed to years ago. Particularly through my early twenties when I would chuck $80 at a flammable dress for a questionable night out on the town, and wear it for one night before it inevitably had sticky cocktail remnants thrown down it on the dancefloor.

Then, on the flip side, I'd refuse to spend more than $3 on a t-shirt that I would wear for 160 hours a week.

Bad sartorial maths, I know. 

Now I've taken proper stock of what I actually wear day in and day out, I've calculated what budget percentage I need to allocate to which corners of my wardrobe. Here's what it looks like for me:

• 40 per cent of the time I'm working from home or chilling on the couch, meaning... loungewear.
• 15 per cent of the time I'm at gym classes and on walks, meaning... activewear.
• 25 per cent of the time I'm in the Mamamia office, meaning... casual workwear
• 15 per cent of the time I'm at casual social events, meaning... cute looks.
• Less than five per cent of the time I'm at fancy events, meaning... formal looks. 

This means I need to be dedicating more cash to my loungewear than anything else, as that's what I spend most of my time in. And the smallest fraction to going out formal looks. Obviously stretchy pants usually cost a bit less than a ball gown, so this doesn't mean I'm going to be blowing millions on loungewear – but it certainly gives me a bit of mental permission to spend a smidge more on the clothes I'm living in. (Even if 'living' refers to me being a big old couch potato.)

So, to kick start the wardrobe reset, here are some of the boujie loungewear items I'm adding to my cart.

Image: Supplied. 

Waffle Shorts by Lullaby Club, $41.97. // Glass Half Full T-Shirt by Dazie via The Iconic, $49.99. // Rue Knit Tee by Lullaby Club, $35.97. // Adventure Jacket by Nimble Activewear, $70. // Straight Dress by H&M, $24.99.

And the casual office looks stuffed with basics that I'm planning on stocking up on for the Mamamia office. It's important to remember that the Mamamia office is not traditional in the corporate sense, so jeans, funky t-shirts and Birkenstocks are very much considered a-okay. 

Image: Supplied.

Assure Smock Dress by Sovere via The Iconic, $132. // Zoe Denim Shorts by Lullaby Club, $89.95. // Gianni in Butter by Billini via The Iconic, $89.95. // Pattern Wrap Dress by H&M, $49.99. // Organic Cotton Relaxed Jumper by AERE via The Iconic, $84.00.

3. Your 'neutrals' might not be blacks and beiges. Establish your colour palette and LEAN IN.

Whenever I think of a 'capsule wardrobe', my mind flies back to those classic TV shows like What Not To Wear and Gok's Fashion Fix, where every host would try to conjure up a capsule wardrobe. It would always feature midi-skirts, a sharp blazer and usually a whole lot of black and brown tones. While that's a great palette for some, dark, moody, earthy colours aren't really my jam.

I mean, one of my style words is 'marshmallow', so unless I've been dipped in chocolate or over-toasted at a campfire, brown and black ain't gonna be in my colour wheel. 

And that's okay. 

Capsule wardrobes don't have to be built on traditional neutral tones – in fact, I think that the term 'neutral' can be redefined completely from person to person. 

My base neutral is without a doubt white. I tried to make it black for years – investing in sensible black boots and a reliable black winter coat – but it never felt like me and it never went with my favourite items of clothing. Once I switched my attention to white staples, everything made more sense. I got myself a pair of silly little bright white boots, hooked myself with a white winter coat and bought some pale blue and white pairs of jeans to sit as the base of most of my outfits. 

It just... worked. Well, at least for me.

Now I see my 'neutrals' as white, pale blue, lemon yellow, lilac and baby pink. They are my most worn shades and kinda go with each other, so I can rotate them around. I also now exclusively buy accessories in white – white sunnies, white handbags, white shoes. They're massively impractical in a muddy setting, but they make getting dressed in the morning much, much easier. 

To show the palette in action, here's a snapshot of some of my most highly rotated looks:

Image: Supplied.

And that's the lot! Those are the three rules I used to implement my wardrobe reset – and I magically got a whole new style mindset to match. 

If you're on your own fashion journey, I'd love to hear what rules helped or hindered you. Please do let me know in the comments below so we can have a good ol' fash chat. 

Feature Image: Supplied/Mamamia.