Why I Only Wear Three Colours

Uniqlo coat (similar)
Mango dress
Zara boots (similar)
Louis Vuitton handbag
Mango sunglasses
Elizabeth Lyn Jewelry necklace (similar)
Elizabeth Lyn Jewelry necklace (c/o)
Madewell rings
Old Navy earrings (c/o Ivanhoe Cambridge)
Location: Winnipeg Clinic – Winnipeg, Manitoba

“You always look so put together…!” a colleague of mine observed on a business trip last week. It was Friday morning. We were all tired. But there she was, in a navy blue and white outfit with coral accents that she had obviously put a considerable amount of thought into, while I appeared, inevitably, in a black top, beige skirt and black heels. My uniform. Around us, a group of colleagues, all in equally creative and colourful looks, agreed.

“It’s simple,” I shrugged, because to me it seems obvious now; “I only wear three colours.”

There was a time in my life when my wardrobe was decidedly colourful. When I ran out of electives at the end of high school and found myself taking art as the last available option, I discovered colour theory. I was immediately hooked. I relished wearing orange and green together – doing it well – while everyone around me stuck to the safety of grey and blue. Stores that stocked too many neutral garments held no appeal. Black and white bored me. (In fact, my wardrobe was much less neutral even a few years ago.)

But the consequences of my pursuit of colour were very real. By the time I reached my mid-twenties, my closet was in chaos. The bizarre variety of garments that had caught my eye for reasons I could no longer recall made getting dressed in the morning nearly impossible. I found myself relying on the same few pieces constantly, particularly as I entered the conservative corporate world, and feeling frustrated that my wardrobe didn’t hold more options.

Colours weren’t the problem; decisions were. I recently learned that, on average, a human being can make only twenty good decisions in a day. Between bed, breakfast and the office, seven to ten of those are already gone, leaving only another ten to get us through the workday. For the past five years, my whole job consisted of making decision after decision. Sometimes, I was required to make more than ten decisions that directly impacted another person’s right to receive a pay cheque in a single morning. The reality that only five of those might be good decisions concerned me, to say the least.

Without realising it, I figured out early in this job that I needed all the good decisions I could get. I gave up choosing what to eat for breakfast in the morning, preferring to eat the same thing every day. Lunch quickly followed. In time, I gave up making trivial decisions in order to take as much good decision-making power to the office as I possibly could. There isn’t always a lot of variety in my daily life, but my brain isn’t exhausted by ten am – and that makes a big difference in how I feel throughout the workday.

In my wardrobe, that translated into a major closet cleanout, getting rid of pieces I found it difficult to figure out how to wear when I was strapped for time. And then, to planning my outfits the night before work. After that, I shifted my focus to acquiring only the type of classic, versatile pieces I could wear to work and then after the day was over. Think white oxford shirts, wide leg trousers and classic, oversized blazers. Those garments, for the most part, come in four colours; black, white, grey and camel. For years, grey was my third colour, but once I bought my camel coat – the same one I’m wearing in these photos – I realised camel really was the colour for me.

These days, my closet is black, white and shades of beige. There is, I admit, a few grey pieces that still hang in it. So technically, I suppose, I wear four colours. But saying I wear only three colours versus only four is a distinction without a difference. The reality is, I only buy clothes that will match all the clothes I already own – it means I always look put together, with very minimal effort. I love clothes, but because I love them, I want them to always be a source of joy, never stress or anxiety. For me, that meant paring back my colour choices. Honestly, it remains the best decision that I’ve ever (subconsciously) made.