5 Wardrobe Staples From The How To Wear Everything Guide

If you’ve ever stood in front of your wardrobe and thought, I have nothing to wear, Net-A-Porter’s fashion director Kay Barron has some advice for you. Her new book, How To Wear Everything, is a no-nonsense guide to dressing, designed to help us worry less about our clothes. Filled with her practical and professional tips alongside advice from people like Sofia Richie Grainge, Law Roach and Sarah Jessica Parker (no big deal), Barron’s book is helping us to connect with our personal style. 

The idea for the book came six years ago: She wanted it to be a “bible” for getting dressed. “Clothes should never be intimidating, they should always make you feel good about yourself,” she tells Refinery29. “I wanted everyone to understand what they want to wear, how they want to wear it and where they want to wear it.” In the book, Barron shares item-by-item tips for every kind of occasion, from heading to the office to going on a first date (which obviously differs from the second and third one). “The thing to remember about making use of everything in your wardrobe is that you don’t have to love everything all the time, and instead you have to know what you will love again in future, so you don’t part with it and regret it later,” Barron says.

How To Wear Everything reminds us that clothes play a huge role in our lives, no matter how we feel about fashion. So instead of starting wars with our wardrobes — and our social media feeds, which can make us feel ultra unstylish — we can follow simple style strategies to make our clothing work for us. Below, find a taster of Barron’s sage advice including five wardrobe staples she highlights in the book, along with how to wear them.

Don’t underestimate the satisfaction of putting on a long coat that a) goes with pretty much everything and b) makes you feel like you’re in The Matrix. Barron suggests a coat that’s slightly below mid-calf length, straight-cut and single-breasted — and black because it can make you feel however you want. Outerwear is one of Barron’s favourite staple categories. “I will often build an outfit around the jacket I am going to wear with it,” she says. “The complete look is the first impression, and that is important.”

While you might overlook undergarments when auditing your wardrobe staples, Barron’s hawk eye for detail gives tighty-whities more importance. “A good bra or bralette, even if you just see a flash of it, can revolutionise the most basic of outfits, and can even replace a top altogether with the right jacket buttoned over it,” Barron writes. 

“Off-duty style should be as aspirational as any sort of dressing,” Barron writes. “These are the clothes that we spend our personal time in, and we owe it to ourselves to make even the smallest efforts.” Barron highlights the humble hoodie as a staple of off-duty and on-duty style. Wear a cropped hoodie with high-waisted trousers, an oversized one under a duster coat, or a soft hoodie French-tucked into wide-leg trousers. “Some earrings or a stack of bracelets further serve to take the hoodie off the sofa, out of the gym and into the office.”

For Barron, “long evening boots” means a fitted boot that hits just below or over the knee, has a higher heel and a pointed or round toe. It’s the type of boot you’ll wear to a party or a dinner date or a formal work event. Boots are another of Barron’s favourite staples. “Over-the-knee, stiletto, block heel, flat and probably every other style you can think of are sat in a cupboard in my house just waiting for autumn,” Barron says. “Boots suit about 80% of the weather, and almost every single occasion. I can’t get enough.”

Like capsule wardrobes, Barron believes in handbag capsules — and a tote bag should be your hardest working one. Since you’ll use it for work, travel and day-to-day living, she suggests finding a tote bag that goes with everything you wear. “Ensure the handles fit comfortably over your shoulder, even when wearing a large coat, and that they aren’t flimsy. An inner pocket is always useful to keep the essentials.” She also gives practical albeit controversial advice: “Please take time to regularly clean it out — I’d suggest once a week.”

To read more of Barron’s no-nonsense clothing advice, How To Wear Everything is available to buy now.