Weekend Thought: Your wardrobe is more than a piece of furniture

The art of wardrobe building is not fast or haphazard; instead it is developed and nurtured over time. A mans wardrobe may rather eloquently tell the story of his life less ordinary. E. Tautz

During an afternoon of procrastination last week TheSundayBest gave me a new blog to sink my teeth in to after I was moaning about the internet cycle I had got myself in. I needed something new to both pass the hours after lunch and inspire, Daring Fireball delivered with a post on Complex systems and the success of Apple. John Gruber begins the post with an extract from Gall's Law and applies it to my favourite technology brand.

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.” Gall's law.

If there is a formula to Apple’s success over the past ten years, it is to start with something simple and build it, grow it, improve it, steadily over time. Evolve it. As I find it quite difficult now to think of anything other than men's fashion and style (seriously, I need help...what happened to me?) I was reminded with the art of wardrobe building post. For me, the wardrobe is a complex system which requires a simple base which is then added to slowly over time. EJ will be the first to tell you that I am quite an impatient fellow but it is all about making measured, (mostly) calculated decisions.- of course from time to time we all need an impulse buy or two, some of which we might regret a few months down the line but mostly these buys fit quite nicely and add to the story of a wardrobe. When we met up with Patrick Grant he reminded us that there is something very charming about building a collection of clothes, every piece having a position in the wardrobe. When one of their longest clients at Nortons died last year (after being a customer since 1945!) an extraordinary wardrobe was left. The chap was far from an extravagant man but bought wisely and his wardrobe certainly told a story. It is something of a lost art that a lot of people just don't consider anymore. We think it is about time that people considered this art once more.

So, regardless of your brain's hemispheric dominance we think it is about time that you see your wardrobe as more than a piece of furniture. If your scientifically minded, just think of Gall's Law and see your wardrobe is a complex system and if you are a little more visual, your wardrobe is a story telling piece of art.