How I Completely Transformed My Own Wardrobe

Sometimes, even the pros need a reset.

Like many of our personal styling clients, I’ve recently undergone a bit of a body transformation. After 8 months of consistent mid-day gym workouts, I’ve gained close to 15 pounds of (mostly) muscle.

Suddenly, I realized a large chunk of my wardrobe doesn’t fit me properly anymore, and I used that as the spark for a quick refresh.

I decided to run myself through the exact same process I developed that we use for clients to rebuild and refine their style from the ground up. I’m going to show you that exact process from start to finish.

Here’s what I did to transform my wardrobe using our Pivot Perfect Wardrobe™️ framework.

Step One: Define The Plan

The first thing we do with clients is lock in the strategy and understand what works for them. We use a variety of tools to do this, but we’re trying to uncover and educate you on 3 core things above all else.

1) Your personal style
2) Your correct fits and measurements for your body
3) What colors look best on you

Since I already have this dialed in, I’m only needing to use these points for reference when I shop, but this is the foundation for every client and what we get right first.

The reason we do this is so that we know what to shop for. There are only a handful of items that will work for all three areas - the goal is to find them and add them to the closet.

For fun, you can see my personal style boards below.

Step Two: Clean It Out

The next thing is moving into the closet and assessing everything for fit and sizing.

First, we’re taking a quick speed run through your wardrobe and see if we can find any easy options to get rid of. This is: anything you haven’t worn in a year, any colors that don’t work for you, anything that doesn’t match your ideal style, or anything that’s beat up.

For me, there were only a few items that hit the donation pile here, but if it’s been a while since you’ve cleaned things out, you’ll have a much larger stack.

Once we have done our speed run, we’re going to assess how everything fits your body. Ideally, everything in your wardrobe should fit you perfectly, so we need to get it there.

For this process, you should try on everything and assess if it fits you. If it doesn’t, you have two paths. Either 1) tailor it or 2) donate it.

A quick tip I use: If an item only needs 1-2 alterations, or if the cost of the item is high, tailor it. If it needs 3 or more alterations, or if the cost of the item was very low, donate it.

We do this process with our in-person style transformation clients, where I’m in the closet with you, assessing everything for you. Then, as part of the service, we tailor everything that needs it to perfection for you. It all gets shipped right back to your doorstep.

So that's just what I did. Every single item of clothing in my closet was tried on, and I decided what to keep, what to tailor, and what to get rid of.

You can see some of what I donated below. I would estimate I’m donating between 5-10K worth of clothing. Some guys would cringe at getting rid of that amount, for other guys, they couldn’t care less. Fortunately, I’m in the latter group.

I learned long ago that if I’m not wearing the clothing, it’s pointless to have it sit in my closet, taking up space both mentally and physically. If you don’t wear the clothing, it’s like it doesn’t exist.

 So now the closet has been combed through, and I was left with a pile of things to tailor, a pile to donate, and the rest of the items remained in the closet, but reorganized for better flow.

It didn’t leave me with much. Take a look at the number of pants I was left with below.

However, I know this is part of the process. It just feels the worst because you have yet to add in the new stuff.

I will say that having pulled the weeds, you do feel invigorated and satisfied, knowing that now everything you own works for you. Now it's time to rebuild.

Step Three: Fill The Gaps

Now it's time to shop for the gaps. Most guys get this backward: they shop first. What happens? They don’t even know what looks best on them or what to buy, so they end up buying junk to pile on top of the junk they already own.

The right way is to first understand what looks best on you, then set your closet up for success and figure out what’s missing, and then start shopping. Shopping should be the last step, used only for correctly acquiring things that make you look good and fill a gap in your wardrobe.

You should act like a military general here - The majority of the operation is spent planning, and then it all accumulates in one swift, targeted action. If you spend hours shopping aimlessly, your lack of order is the reason why you struggle.

What you buy should be based on the items you got rid of, along with items you’ve identified that would fit in your style.

For me, I already know what brands fit me well, I know my style, colors, and what gaps I need to fill, along with knowing where to source the highest quality stuff for my budget. It’s basically shopping on easy mode.

This is exactly what we do for clients. When you work with me inside of our in-person transformation package, all the items are already picked out for you based on what brands will fit you best, so you’re not actually doing any of the shopping. Same thing if you work with us online - we put together a list of the exact products you’ll need with direct links to the items, all from high-quality brands for your budget.


This is our process. For me, it was a fun reminder of what our clients get to go through when we work together to get them a seamless wardrobe they love.

After a decade of styling thousands of men, this system just works. As you’d expect, the process is more nuanced than I can get into here, but if you follow these steps, you’ll end up with a wardrobe that fits, looks sharp, and makes getting dressed easy.

If you’re doing it yourself, follow the order of these steps, and you’ll end up with a better result. You can use these resources here to help you further.

If you want us to handle the heavy lifting, you can apply for a call with me here. I’ll show you what the process looks like and how I might be able to help you.

Either way, hope this helps.

x Patrick