Creative constraints Vs hard styling rules

Does the secret to creative dressing lie in constraints? The biggest takeaway from my '365 no buy' so far

All photos by Drew Blackwell

At the time of writing this i’m currently on day 212 of my 365 no buy wardrobe challenge. There are so many lessons i’m learning, but one that I haven’t been able to shake, especially as someone who is very much anti hard styling rules (eg this is wrong this is right, this is good/this bad) is how much creativity has come from the constraints of this challenge.

It’s not just myself who’s noticed the creativity i’m experiencing, my good friend

Gina Knox

who’s about to start her own no buy challenge was saying how she has mostly been inspired by my level of creativity in working with what I have. We were chatting about the evidence that constraints correlate to higher levels of creativity, especially when it comes to how we wear our own clothes, and express ourselves through this medium.

I started thinking about creative constraints and how they can push us to think differently, especially when they are coming from a place of curiosity and an open mind.

Take for instance the national treasure of a cooking show that was ‘Ready, Steady Cook’, where two professional chefs were each presented with a bag of ingredients chosen by members of the public, within a certain budget. They are then given twenty minutes to create a meal using those ingredients. Then the audience decides who wins. I remember as a child how exciting it was to see what people had chosen, and how funny it was when you could tell the ingredients intentionally chosen were random AF, pushing the chefs to think outside the box and get creative. Every week I was so impressed with what they created, I always left inspired at how much you could do using less, and how the challenge was what made the show fun, for the chefs and the audience watching at home.

Another of my favorite TV shows growing up was ‘She’s Gotta have It’ which was designed to show that you could look fabulous at any level of income. From what I remember each week there were 3 contestants, the one who very rarely spent any money on clothes was given the biggest budget, and the person who spent the most on clothes was given the smallest budget, leaving the person in the middle, with, well the middle budget. Each week there was a theme, and each woman had to create an outfit using their budget. More weeks than not, I remember thinking the person with the smallest budget usually looked the best. Every week I couldn’t wait to see what outfits they would create. I’m sure if they were allowed to buy anything they wanted, the show wouldn’t have been as exciting to watch. The constraints of the theme and the budget is what created the magic.

Constraints offer up a chance to problem solve, and to get resourceful. The constraints provide the creativity vs taking it away. That’s exactly what my no buy 365 challenge has given me.

It makes a lot of sense especially when for many of us, our attention is already at capacity. Making decisions, and the back and forth many of us deal with in our day to day lives has left us experiencing decision fatigue. Standing in front of a closet full of clothes (most of which you never wear) is comparable to going to a restaurant with an obscene amount of items on the menu. You’re starving but you have no idea what to order.

We tell ourselves that more choice is the answer, vs approaching the root problem. We need to ask ourselves why are we not wearing the pieces we do have?

To be clear, I think play is such an important part of personal style, but without the creativity offered up via limitations, we are likely to find ourselves buying more and more, while wearing less and less. Especially if exploring your personal style feels overwhelming, or you’ve felt stuck for a long time with regards to finding clothes that you feel great in, creative constraints I believe help slow you down, and not get caught up buying something every time someone you follow shares a haul.

Even stylists and those who see getting dressed as an art form can benefit from the creativity on offer as the result of a creative constraint. My wonderful friend

Hey Mrs. Solomon on Style

is a great example of this. She often will choose a word each week or a theme to aid her creativity in getting dressed. These words are not rules, but they do offer a constraint of sorts that maximizes her creativity.

Hard rules, like ‘don’t wear horizontal stripes if you’re curvy’, or ‘only wear X with Y’, are in my opinion very different to constraints. Rules are pushed on us as right or wrong, good or bad. They do not allow room to experiment, to play. I think the most important thing to remember with creative constraints is that you get to choose them. You get to decide: what would help me reduce the overwhelm? What would make me more creative with what I already have? From a place of curiosity and play always, not punishment.

Creative constraints come in many forms. Whether it’s a budget, a theme or even a no buy, the possibilities are endless. The only reason it doesn’t work if it’s something you feel dead set against. For example, for someone a helpful creative constraint could be: for one week i’m going to wear something colorful every day, but if you know you have no desire to wear color, that’s ok, you don’t need to force yourself to do anything you already know you don’t want to do. Constraints also aren’t something you need to do forever, they are not finite.

In my opinion these constraints can help us get to know ourselves better. They show us how incredibly resourceful we truly have the power to be, and that are capable of surprising ourselves. If you would have told me at the beginning of this challenge how much more I would have loved my wardrobe, I would have thought it possible, albeit with great amounts of fomo, or feeling like I was white knuckling it the whole time. What I hadn’t anticipated (beyond saving money and shopping less) was how creative I’d become with what I do have. I genuinely look at things differently when it comes to my personal style and getting dressed. I can hand on heart say, it is infinitely more fun now than when I could buy anything I wanted.

In truth i’m nervous about this challenge ending, I know it doesn’t have to, but I feel somewhat protective over my new found creativity and the mental space i’ve been given thanks to slowing down, and as such can see just how beneficial creative constraints have been in my own life. They have made my world feel bigger, not smaller.

I’m genuinely fascinated to hear what you think about this, and if you’ve found this to be your experience too, or maybe you experienced the opposite? Can’t wait to chat it out in the comments.

Thanks for reading

Harry x