Since the time I was a little girl, fall has been my favorite time of year. Not only is the weather here in the PNW absolute perfection, but fall also means back-to-school! Even though I’ve been out of school for ages and my little ones aren’t quite in school yet, there’s just something about this time of year that always signals wardrobe reinvention. Fall is right around the corner and as such, I have been bitten by this familiar bug that drives me to clean-out, organize and restock our closets. So, I was pretty excited when Hanna Andersson asked if I’d be interested in teaming up on this very thing – a post about cleaning-out, organizing and restocking Fern’s closet for back-to-school! Such perfect timing and even better that Hanna Andersson happens to be one of our favorite places to shop these days. They have been absolutely killing it with their styles the past few seasons! All the heart eyes. OK, sorry. I digress…
When it comes to buying clothes for my kids, I’m not very organized in my approach. To be honest, I purchase most clothing on a whim. I see something super adorable in a tiny size and suddenly become powerless to the cute. There isn’t much thought about how the items will work together with the rest of the clothes already in the closet. This often leads to things not being worn very often, which is stupid and wasteful. I know. Ridiculous. Working on it.
This project was the perfect excuse to change my ways by creating a closet that was more cohesive and wearable. Step 1: Closet clean out.
Classiest hangers in all the land right there. Anyway, moving on…
As you can see, my love for neutrals is clear, but there’s still a lot of mish-mash hodge-podge going on in there. There’s also no method to the madness of organizing. There are sweaters mixed in with sundresses and scarves mixed in with tank tops. This doesn’t make getting dressed a very streamlined process – especially when you’re dressing a three-and-a-half year old with a whole lot of opinions. I’m really hopeful that taking away the overwhelming amount of options and making everything easy to be mixed and matched will help with the morning getting dressed drama.
First up…shoe sorting. My child has an embarrassing amount of shoes. Time to pick favorites…
I recruited Fern to help me sort shoes, which was actually really helpful and she was so excited to join in! She lined all the shoes and then set aside the ones that didn’t fit. I then went through and weeded out the ones that don’t get worn often.
Here’s our inner circle. The best of the best. The majority of the shoes in the “get rid of pile” didn’t even fit anymore and were just taking up valuable closet space. A couple of these shoes are summery, but since we’re transitioning seasons, I kept them around.
Then I moved on to the clothes. In organizing Fern’s closet, I kept coming back to the idea of a capsule wardrobe which is really popular right now, and I thought it would be great to create one for Fern. I use the term “capsule wardrobe” a bit loosely, because I didn’t limit myself to a certain number of items, but tried to pare it down quite a bit and stuck to items that could be mixed and matched easily.
I started by clearing out all of the items that were ultra-summery or distinctly patterned and that I knew wouldn’t work cohesively with the rest of her closet. See you later sun dresses and rompers! These will be set aside to hand-down to some of Fern’s smaller friends and some of the larger items will be saved for her to wear next summer.
These are the keepers. A lot of great neutrals and classic pieces. Sweaters, skirts, jeans, leggings and button-ups, t-shirts and the like. A few of our favorite Hanna Andersson summer sundresses and skirts made the cut to be restyled come fall. Now comes the fun part…adding in a few new pieces!
These are the new Hanna items that I added into Fern’s closet. I love that everything is perfectly mix-and-match, but still adds a much needed pop of fun and color to Fern’s fairly neutral wardrobe. So many fun patterns, colors and textures to keep things fresh, but still cohesive. These pieces are great transitional pieces that will fit right into Fern’s current rotation and can be worn both now and later once the weather turns cooler.
I then went through the items that were left and played around, quickly mixing and matching pieces together and I was really impressed at how easily things worked together! I decided to create 31 different looks – perfect for transitioning from summer to fall. Getting dressed is going to be a breeze from now on, and Fern can wear a different ensemble every day for a month!
After I plotted out Fern’s new closet, we had a little mini photo shoot, to share some easy ways to wear your Hanna NOW and LATER.
How to wear your Hanna NOW…
Pair the skirt with a tank top and sandals. Add some fun accessories and you’re ready for a sunny summer day!
How to wear your Hanna LATER…
Add a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater and some cozy knee-high socks to keep the brisk autumn weather at bay.
{Find these Hanna items: long-sleeved shirt, sweater, skirt, knee-high socks, hair bow, necklace}
How to wear your Hanna NOW…
Pair those lightweight pants with a t-shirt, some cute flats, and a fun necklace. Go prance in a flowery garden to get the full warm weather effect.
How to wear your Hanna LATER…
Add an cute and cozy, quilted sweatshirt and some more weather-resistant kicks and those lightweight pants are instantly transitioned to fall!
{Find these Hanna items: quilted sweatshirt, pants, necklace}
We had so much fun getting ready for fall (OK, maybe not so much the part where I had to clean and organize the closet with a baby and a toddler crawling on me, but still…) and hopefully it’ll inspire you to do the same!
Also…here’s a coupon to sweeten the deal if you decide to do a little in-store Hanna shopping yourself!
Happy back-to-school!
xo
Lauren (& Fern!)
{This blog post is a collaboration with Hanna Andersson and we did receive a few new items to facilitate this post. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own and Hanna Andersson’s clothes truly are some of my favorites!}
Love that yellow sweater so much! And love the idea of a capsule wardrobe for littles!
What a great idea, I might have to do capsule wardrobes for both me and my little girl. Fern looked like she enjoyed that photoshoot too!
I am in love with that yellow cardi! I get a little sweaty just thinking about cleaning out my toddlers’ closets…
Her outfits are SO cute! Almost gives me baby fever (ALMOST) – or the urge to redo my own closet (that’s less terrifying).
I have always loved your daughter’s outfits! Like, seriously the cutest style. I don’t know if you watch parks and rec but the clothes totally remind me of April Ludgate’s :]
@Hillary – Haha! I’ll take that as a compliment, because I seriously LOVE April!
Love so many of these items! Curious, where did you get the checked tunic? And the lace open cardi? Love those pieces, and couldn’t find them on Hanna Anderson’s site (plus I see a few Gap things sprinkled, so I’m assuming it’s not all HA) Thank you!
@Kate – the lace kimono was from Target in the big girl’s section earlier this summer and the checkered tunic was from Cater’s last spring.
Hey Lauren
I really really love the outfits! 🙂
But I always find it really hard to find matching comfortable shoes for my daughter (she’s 20 months old). Do you have some favourite brands? (I can see Converse, Vans, Hunter and Saltwaters). I don’t have any clue what to buy for fall/winter.
On a older picture from Fern I think I saw some Bobux-boots. Would that be correct and are they any good? 🙂
Thanks 🙂
@Savina – Fern pretty much LIVES in Hunter boots all winter long. Otherwise, I did love the Bobux boots and basically everything at Nordstrom is good quality. Honestly, I also like to scour Target and Old Navy. It can be hit or miss, but we got these adorable (COMFY!) black booties there last year for Fern and she wore them ALL. THE. TIME. Good luck!!
Let me first say, LOVE the capsule items you chose for her, and the colors gave me the inspo I needed for ours! I started doing capsule wardrobes for myself and my daughter this summer and it’s totally changed our world! I’ve been trying to find a good pair of boots for this winter, can you tell me what brand the black ankle boots are in the “Inner Circle” photo? 😉 Thanks!
@Kate – the boots are Old Navy boys from last winter and they barely fit now so I’ll need to replace them soon and I am kicking myself for not buying extras! I’ve been on the hunt for ones that aren’t super expensive, but mostly just a style exactly like that to no avail. So far Zara is the front runner. They also have some cute black biker boots at Gap right now that I have my eye on. They’re a little taller, but still cute.
Love the idea of creating outfits and taking pictures. I’m a weirdo that does that anytime I travel because it helps me pack more efficiently and not have to think about what to wear when we get there. I will have to start doing this for my daughter. I always thought it seemed impossible to remember what all she had once it was stuffed into her drawers, even though I KNEW she had a ton of really cute outfits when I first took the tags off 🙂
Where did you find that green vest?