Happy Friday!
Quartz fashion reporter Marc Bain here, doing my best to fill the very stylish shoes of Jenni Avins while she’s away.
Minimalism has been on my mind this week. Most of us want to simplify our lives, own and waste less, and reduce the “decision fatigue” that paralyzes us when we face a closet stuffed with nothing to wear. But one question I get asked a lot—especially by men—is this: How do I actually create a minimal wardrobe? And what should be in it?
The best guidance I’ve heard on the subject comes from Peter Nguyen, a personal stylist and writer with a background in the fashion industry. Most of his time is actually spent clearing out his clients’ closets, not filling them with new clothes. His argument: If you pare back to just essential items that are easily mixed and matched, you can get dressed super fast and ensure you always look great.
I wrote up Nguyen’s tips, which he has also blogged about himself, on how to create the perfect minimalist wardrobe. They’re generally geared toward guys, since those are his clients, but they work just as well for women.
In short:
Decide how often you want to do laundry. The less clothing you have, the more you’ll wear it—and the more often you’ll have to wash it.
Work out your minimum. Nguyen developed a wardrobe made of just 14 pieces (not including socks and underwear). It’s enough to get through one week comfortably before you have to do a load of laundry:
- two jackets (casual and blazer)
- two pants (jeans and chinos)
- two pairs of footwear (boots and sneakers)
- eight shirts (including button ups, t-shirts, etc.)
You can adapt the template to your needs: Women may not need eight shirts, for instance, and could swap in dresses.
Pick the right pieces. A minimal wardrobe works best if everything you have is versatile, matches your lifestyle, and has the quality to last. Stick to solid neutrals, such as black, white, grey, tan, and navy, that are easy to pair.
Minimalist dressing is not for everyone—some prefer a more eclectic look, or to express how they feel each day in what they’re wearing. But the advantage, Nguyen says, is your wardrobe will “work automatically,” meaning any two items you grab in the morning should pair easily. His clients spend less time thinking about what to wear, and typically look better for it.
Minimalism isn’t what it used to be. Recently, Chelsea Fagan in the Guardian took a shot at minimalism as a craze—and in particular that expensive, monochrome, Instagram-ready aesthetic often associated with it. Minimalism, she says, has become dull and sanctimonious, allowing us to preach asceticism without relinquishing our cherished class signifiers. It’s a provocative essay.
It also got me thinking: When did minimalism become so bland? When the design idea first coalesced in the 1960s, it was about reducing things to their essential parts, sure—but also about strong geometric lines, novel shapes, and unusual materials. Artist Dan Flavin created fluorescent-light installations that were explosively colorful. André Courrèges, one of minimalism’s progenitors in fashion, made futuristic clothes that earned him a legion of fans, including Brigitte Bardot (pictured up top). Somehow, over the years, minimalism seems to have been reduced to meaning “white and sparse.”
The sweet taste of profit. The fancy Brooklyn-based ice cream company Van Leeuwen credits its newly minimal black-type-on-solid-background packaging with helping sales grow 50% since they introduced it last fall. Quartz’s Anne Quito had an enlightening chat with the designer. It turns out the stripped-down look makes pints stand out, and—importantly—pop on social media.
The best show on TV also has some of the best clothes. Here at Quartz, a few of us are obsessed with Legion, FX’s unorthodox new superhero series, which aired its season-one finale on Wednesday (here’s our Facebook Live chat about it, but beware of spoilers if you’re not caught up). Beyond Legion‘s mind-bender of a story and eye-popping set design, a major component of the show’s absorbing visual gestalt are its clothes.
I talked to Legion costume designer Carol Case about the surreal and wildly stylish wardrobe. There’s a heavy 1960s influence—think The Who, Brigitte Bardot (again), Mary Quant, and André Courrèges’ space-agey stuff. There are also contemporary and futuristic elements mixed in, making the look deliberately impossible to pin down. Actress Aubrey Plaza and her outfits are reason alone to check out the show.
Who’s hungry? Your regular host, Jenni Avins, is a knowledgeable and creative cook. I am not. A complicated recipe intimidates me, which is why I’ve long relied on the food writer Mark Bittman, aka The Minimalist, for help. Since I bought his tome How To Cook Everything, one Vietnamese dish has intrigued me, but I’d never tried it—until this week.
Reader, it was delicious. A version of the pungent, peppery-sweet Cá Kho Tộ, usually cooked in a clay pot, it’s easy to throw together with any white fish (I used cod) and a few easy-to-find ingredients. I ate mine with quinoa, before watching the Legion finale. Here’s Bittman’s recipe:
1 cup sugar
Water
3 or 4 shallots
2 limes worth of juice
1/2 cup fish sauce
One 1 to 1 1/2-pound cod fillet (or another thick, white-fleshed fish)
Ground black pepper
CilantroCook the sugar with a couple tablespoons of water over medium heat in a large, deep skillet, so it liquefies. You can chop your shallots while you wait (keeping a close eye on the sugar to prevent it burning). When it has darkened to a caramel color, turn off the heat. Mix the fish sauce with 1/2 cup water and add it to the sugar. (Careful, it will bubble and steam.) Turn the heat to medium-high and stir constantly for a couple minutes until it’s all incorporated. Add the shallots and cook until soft. Stir in lots of fresh-ground black pepper and the lime juice, then place the fish in the sauce. If the sauce doesn’t reach halfway up the fish, add some water. Simmer until you can pierce the fish with little resistance using a knife. Scatter cilantro leaves on top and serve.
I’ll keep my sign-off minimal and just tell you that Jenni will be back next week with tidbits from her travels. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
Like clockwork. While I looked at Legion‘s clothes, Quartz’s TV reporter Adam Epstein dove into the soundtrack, speaking with the show’s composer, Jeff Russo, about the task of translating the unsound mind of the show’s main character, David Haller, into music. The soundtrack to Legion is great for bringing out your inner superhero (or supervillain). I’ve been writing away to it at work, and you can find it easily on Spotify, Apple Music, and elsewhere.