There are advantages to knowing exactly what to wear at all times. Not because it was imposed upon you, but because you know your mind. There are advantages to knowing what to shop for, on a yearly basis. There are advantages to knowing how much you need. There are advantages to not having to make decisions about clothing on an everyday basis. There are advantages to not worrying about creating an outfit for the sake of an onlooker. There is an advantage to not wearing a different avatar based on the occasion or depending on who is present in the room. Imagine a mind space where the trends come and go but your mind is unwavering. Imagine a mind space where there is reduced temptation for stuff. Imagine a more peaceful state of mind because you have figured a few things out and can divert more energy towards what ever it is that you are trying to solve. Uniform dressing is all this. It’s available for everyone to try. We see some highly productive humans : President Obama, Steve Jobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Bill Cunningham, Andrew Ng, … adopting a uniform of their choosing. Adopting a uniform is not the cause of their success but the correlation is hard to ignore. There is so much to figure out everyday that having some essentials figured out isn’t such a bad idea after all ?

Ways to do uniforms :

  1. Having a strong sense of personal style is a form of uniform dressing. Instead of wearing everything that the fashion industry makes and owning a diverse closet, you narrow your choice to a set of preferences. You cultivate a certain taste and stick to it. You have a choice of fabrics, a color palette and a preference for silhouettes.
  2. Having a capsule wardrobe is a form of uniform dressing. You have a smaller subset of clothes to work with. Everything mixes and matches. It reduces the amount of decision making. You have done all the calculations at the time of purchase of the garment and don’t need to do any more once it’s in the closet.
  3. Minimalism in the closet is a form of uniform dressing. Own a small set of clothes and rotate through them. Ariana from Paris to Go has 20 garments. Folks around her are bound to see her in the same clothes week after week. I have friends who have dedicated outfits for each day of the week. On any given Monday, my friend Yiran wears a blue shirt with black trousers. On Tuesday, it’s a white shirt with black stripes. … Instead of wearing the same garment, she wears the same set of garments. She does this to shop less and spend less time in the morning before she heads to work. She saves her favorite shirt for the Monday to cheer herself up on the start of a work week. She designed her uniform given her unique life constraints.
  4. Pick one outfit. Wear it on repeat. We see religious institutions encourage their monks and nuns to adopt prescribed attires. Schools require children to wear a uniform to create an environment free of sartorial distractions and to not have socio economic divides be evident. The military has a uniform for its soldiers. Some enterprises require their employees to adopt the worker wear of their profession. I see more and more individuals adopt uniforms of their choosing on a voluntary basis. Steve jobs wore blue jeans and a black turtleneck. Mark Zuckerberg wears a gray T-shirt and a hoodie.
  5. Some communities require their men and women to dress a certain way to make their standing in the society known. When I was younger, the widows in our family wore white. The married women wore certain accessories. The sikhs wore a turban and sported long beards. The public servants in India dress in white khadi as tokenism for embracing simplicity.
  6. Some cities inspire it’s citizens to wear a certain set of colors. Parisians are known to wear a lot of black. Silicon Valley sees a lot of blue denim and gray t-shirts. Women in my village wear a lot of yellow. The men in my village only wear white and beige.

My Personal Uniform

I never wanted a uniform or set out to find one. My wardrobe shaped a certain way because I am picky and lazy at the same time. Mine is a case of elimination than an act of carefully designing a personal brand image. I dislike too many colors and shapes. I have my take on ideal body shape for my frame and was picking out silhouettes that fit this idea of flattering. At this stage in life, I am disillusioned with the temporary high fashion provides. I can’t go through another hoard-cull cycle after buying experimental items. It’s not worth the effort. My come hither phase has long past. I dress for myself and don’t care about pleasing anybody. As I started narrowing down the choices, the benefits seemed lucrative enough to get deeper into it. I was having trouble meeting my sustainability goals for my closet. I was shopping too much. Adopting a uniform felt like a way out. I made a list of some pros and cons from what I understood about the concept.

Pros :

  1. Always knowing what to wear.
  2. Not having social anxiety. There are situations where dressing up is required to fit in or to belong. If I am a uniform dresser, I might be exempt from the charade.
  3. Knowing how to mix and match what you have. This is easier to master for something you repeat a lot.
  4. Shopping is easier. You can walk into a store, know exactly what to look for and might walk out with just that item. You don’t have to go through the piles of stuff that makes up the new arrivals section.
  5. You develop a signature style. People will identify you by it.
  6. Needing a smaller subset == a more sustainable lifestyle. You don’t have to consume garments and hoard them for the sake of occasional wear.
  7. You get to wear your favorites everyday.
  8. Less scope for mistakes, frivolous purchases, impulse purchases, emotional purchases, …
  9. Easier to stick to your budget.
  10. You can have your go-to brands for the items you wear and opt out of the browsing habit altogether. You could automate the replacement process after something wears out.
  11. Constraints breed creativity. You can figure out how to dress it up or down. You can figure out how to accessorize it.
  12. It’s easier to make investment purchases when you know what gets the most use and when you know your expected standards from each garment.
  13. I get to choose. Uniforms chosen by someone else and then imposed upon me would have been a no-no. That would have felt like the kind of oppression I would rebel against.
  14. Uniforms work when the minimalism is only at the surface level. You got to have a lot going on in your life so that you don’t feel empty when the stuff is taken away. I have enough to do.

Cons :

  1. Boredom. If the ‘uniform high’ only lasts for a year or two and will lead to a relapse, is it still worth the try ?
  2. Not getting to participate in fashion trends, getting dressed up for events, missing out on costume parties, … Dressing up has a social context that I would be missing out on.
  3. With time, womenswear is becoming more progressive. I want to experiment with the newer ideas. You got to invest in the world and have a say in the future.
  4. Excess consumption could be a problem. It’s easy to like something too much that you buy excess of it.
  5. It’s a privilege to be in a position to break the societal norms. Would walking into a seminar without a blazer when everyone else in the room is in a suit, do you good for your career ? Would the wedding party be comfortable if you are not wearing a dress ? Folks get judged by what they wear and classism is very prevalent. The traditional police exist in my life. Very few folks have the guts to break the norms. A certain amount of self confidence and apathy is required.
  6. There is a fear of your uniform being what people remember you by instead of by your other endearing characteristics.
  7. Constraints can impede creativity. I am no seamstress or fashion designer or a stylist. There is only so much I can do to update a garment I am bored of.

While this list is skewed to one side, I was never sure if I could go through with it. I know it’s good for me to adopt a uniform. But am I strong enough to implement it ? Can someone enjoy fashion while being dressed in a uniform ? The answer to that question came from the runway images I was browsing :

Phoebe Philo

Jil Sander

LeMaire

Margaret Howell

Yohji

Stella Mccartney

There is no way that I adore fashion more than these designers do. If that is the case, why is my relationship to the craft tied up with how I am dressed or what I buy ? Maybe I can stop using it as an excuse and find a way to live more sustainably ? Seeing images of these designers who actually love, live and breathe clothes but wear simple uniforms helped me identify a thin fine delicate veil between the love of clothes and consumption of these clothes. I don’t have to buy everything that looks pretty. I don’t have to be the one wearing it to enjoy it. “To achieve anti-fashion through fashion, is my core objective”, says Yohji. He is a philosopher, dress maker and a designer. He has an interesting take on the concept of ‘modern’. He doesn’t equate it to industrial lines and colors. He equates it with mobility. The world is becoming a smaller place and we now have the privilege of living where ever we want. Our belongings should be designed to help up pick up and travel as needed. Sustainability and climate change are the big problems of our times. Our belongings should be designed to make us consume less. Our minds should be tuned towards minimalism. This progressive definition of modern dressing came my way from a 75 years old Japanese artist. I love it when the world surprises me in a pleasant way.

“You have a uniform for whatever period you are going through in life. And you need a uniform to get your work done.”

– Charlotte Gainsbourg, writer, poet, singer, actor, style muse.

My Uniform

  1. Color : 80% of my clothes are in one color – navy. My accessories are pink or red. Everything mixes and matches.
  2. Shape : A-line dresses. Slim fit pants. Boyfriend shirting. Fitted t-shirts. A-line coats.
  3. Go-to Combinations : Navy silk shirt with black pants. Navy cashmere sweater with black pants. Navy cotton dress with black shoes.
  4. Day to night : Wear drop earrings. Wear block heels.
  5. Sleep/lounge wear : Vintage menswear inspired pajamas.
  6. Occasion wear : Maxi dresses.
  7. Where to shop : Vintage/second hand for accent pieces. Basics from Everlane-ish stores.
  8. Maintain a 80% basics + 20% accent pieces ratio in the closet.
  9. Use accessories to beat the boredom.
  10. Stick to this formulae for at-least a decade. Then, change it up.