A wiser wardrobe: four steps to fashion enlightenment

It’s that time of the year. Everything stretches out before you. We are in the first few weeks of the year, when it’s possible to read a slew of articles about self-improvement without fighting the urge to sprain both eyeballs with strenuous rolling.

Do not give in to articles dispensing trite style advice and sartorial snake oil, tempting as it is. This is the ideal time to wise up where personal style is concerned.

When one thinks of wisdom, who better to learn from than the ancient Greek philosophers, those snowy-bearded men in togas. It may, at first glance, seem anathema to the vital activity of buying more coats than can be stuffed into a wardrobe, but the disparate relationship between wisdom and the acquisition of clothing is worthy of thorough Socratic questioning.

Socrates and the average trend-watcher have at least two things in common. The first is the love of a well-tended, free-flowing beard. The second is a complicated pursuit of enlightenment. While the philosopher wishes to think oneself to a satisfying conclusion, using logic and argument to solve moral conundrums, the shopper thinks that true satisfaction can be bought. For many, that unattainable, unaffordable pair of shoes represents the apex of happiness.

In ancient Greece, Plato, a student of Socrates, defined wisdom as one of the four cardinal virtues. Along with courage, restraint and a sense of fairness, wisdom represents one of the four inherently “good” human qualities.

But wisdom is a virtue that has practical applications in real life, whether in relationships, work or hanging on a rail in the wardrobe. Becoming truly wise in clothing is much more straightforward than grappling meaningfully with the big philosophical questions, and it is dependent on the following:

• 1 Knowledge. Know yourself and know the clothes you're wearing. Take into account your height, body type and vital statistics. If you don't already know, get a measuring tape and write it down. Buying clothes, especially online, will immediately become less stressful. Learning about fashion is also worthwhile; not just about trends but also about cut, colours, proportion and material. Find a good tailor and cobbler, and watch as the shelf life of your clothing is significantly extended. Know what materials are easiest to clean, are warmest, or are the most visually arresting, and tailor what you know to suit your clothing needs.

• 2 Time and experience. The point of life is to make mistakes under the delightfully misleading banner of "experimentation". What's the point in getting older if not stuffing as much life experience as possible under one's belt? The older a person gets, the more failed fashion experiments she will have been through. Whether it was flared trousers that were dragged in puddles or shoulder pads that threatened to engulf the wearer's head, every mistake made was a lesson well-learned.

• 3 Common sense. While a person might know everything there is to know about body types and might have spent a lifetime methodically cataloguing the wardrobe mistakes of celebrities and friends, she can also be loath to apply that knowledge and experience to her own life. We all know someone who dispenses fantastic advice to others but never manages to follow it herself. A wise person, however, does not have her head in the sand. That pair of vinyl trousers may look great on the model, but she probably never split her back seam while running to get a bus. Use your head: it's not just for hats and sunglasses.

• 4 Remember: wisest is she who knows that she knows nothing. A bit of humility never goes astray. Socrates said (and I paraphrase) that what made him the wisest man in Greece was the knowledge that he was incredibly foolish. Don't assume that you know all the answers and get stuck in a wardrobe rut. Too many women carry themselves in a uniform that no longer suits them after several decades of wearing and refuse to modify out of stubbornness. Accept that everything is a learning experience, even the simple act of buying clothes. The path of fashion enlightenment will stretch out over the horizon.