How To Edit Your Closet

Self-confessed fashion magpie Katherine Ormerod learns to dress more sustainably

I’ve been working in fashion for more than 15 years and along the way, I’ve collected my shiny prizes. But having lots of pretty things has never helped me get dressed. At one point, I had close to 250 dresses in my closet, layered three to a hanger and stuffed so tightly together, you risked a hernia removing them. And yet, I was sure I had nothing to wear.

So I decided to use my Style searching in The Devil Wears Prada professional skills to edit myself for a change. I started by trying on everything I owned. It took about five hours to zip, button and shimmy my way through my wardrobe. I soon realised that I really didn’t like a lot of it. Sure, I loved the stories behind how I’d inveigled each item— the bag I bought with my first pay cheque, the shoesI unearthed at an outlet. But actually wearing some of them again? No chance.