There are a number of apps available for organizing your wardrobe.  I hear especially good things about Stylebook.  But there are a few potential issues with a smartphone-based apps.

Some people still don’t have smartphones.  I have one, but I don’t use it often, and it doesn’t have enough memory in it to store all my wardrobe information.  A problem more likely to be common is that most apps aren’t cross-platform.  So the one you like might not be available for your phone.  If it is, then if you ever switch phones (which people tend to do more often than they switch computers) you lose the whole thing and have to start over.  So some of us would prefer to keep our wardrobe organization on our primary at-home computer.

What Do I Mean by Wardrobe Organization, and Why Do It?

It’s probably apparent that I’m not talking about physically organizing your clothing.  No one stores their skirts in their computers!  So what am I talking about?  Keeping a record of what clothing and accessories you own, so  you can easily plan outfits without having to physically haul everything out of the closet.

This is also helpful for knowing where there are gaps in your wardrobe that need to be filled, especially if you store off-season clothing out of sight.

“Official” Options

I spent a ridiculous amount of time not long ago, trying out the various options.  There are two options designed for this purpose that meet our criteria (not smartphone-based) that I like pretty well.  These programs let you save your clothing pieces and then use them to build outfits by dragging pieces together.

The first of these is Finery.  Finery is internet-based, which has both pros and cons.  It’s nice that it will still be available even if you change computers or operating systems, that it’s “backed up” by default, and that it doesn’t take up space on your hard drive.  On the other hand, you’re not ultimately the one in control of your data, and if your internet connection is out, you’re out of luck.  Still, this is a pretty good option.

The utility is free, and there’s a handy browser add-on that lets you easily download an image of a garment or add it to your wardrobe.  Pieces from some shopping sites can be imported almost automatically.  That’s a very useful feature.

Overall, I liked this option a lot.  However, it didn’t let me sort my garments down as far as I would like.  For instance, I would have liked to be able to subdivide skirts into maxi skirts and shorter skirts.  I can’t do that with Finery; the categories are pretty much pre-set.

A second option that works pretty well, despite being incredibly basic, is HomyFads Wardrobe Manager.  This is a freeware program for Windows.  It’s a pretty simple, database-based program.  It did allow me to sort as far down as I wanted.  In fact, I really like the flexibility it offers in how you organize your garments.

However, the search is just a little too simplistic for me.  You can only search for one term at a time.  This means you can’t, for instance, search for a skirt that is “maxi” AND “green.”  You can get around this somewhat by really subdividing the garments based on folders (wardrobes), but you have to set up the keyword fields all over again (manually) for every single one, which seemed like an overly-tedious way to get around this.

It finally occurred to me that I’m not so concerned about being able to “build an outfit” (I can do that in my head, or copy images into an image-editing program), so I really only needed something that would allow me to organize photos with the features I wanted.  Which led me to the software I settled on, that I’m very, very happy with.

Eagle

Eagle is really intended for designers, to keep track of inspiration for designs.  However, it had exactly the features I wanted: images can be sorted into folders, tagged, and annotated.  (Links can also be added, but I’m not using that feature for my wardrobe.)  And each image “library” can be separate, so I can keep my “wardrobe” library distinct and still use the software for other purposes.

It’s $29.95 to license the software after the trial period, but I think it’s going to be well worth the investment.  (I already have another use for it — besides the obvious — which I’ll share soon.)

This program is available for Window and for Mac.  (Linux users can probably run it on a Windows simulator, but I don’t know anyone who’s tried it.)  The options for searching and sorting are almost unlimited.  And it’s pretty intuitive to use (which is important, because the one real weakness of this software is the help files are virtually nonexistent).

I currently have all of my clothing in a single file, which is working just fine, although I could drag them into separate folders.  I have each one tagged with basic information like the garment type and style, and with descriptive features like color, sleeve length, etc., as well as seasons and scenarios where it would be appropriate.  This allows for considerable sorting.  I can, for instance, look for a “skirt” that’s “blue” and good for an “autumn” “date.”  Or “earrings,” “dangly”:

I also have a template I copy-and-paste into the notes section for each that lets me add that descriptive information, as well as a few other things like washing instructions, brand name & size, etc.  (As much or as little as desired can be filled out, but it makes a handy little “form” to keep track of the information — and to remind me what tags to add.)  This is what I copy in, and then I type information & delete extra information as necessary.  (It’s easier to have some of these categories already in here than to keep re-typing them.)

Item Name:
Brand:
Size:

Color Family:
Color Category:
Color Designation:
Item Type:
Item Style:
Neckline:
Sleeves:
Length:
Exact length:
Season: spring, summer, autumn, winter, all/none
Occasion: everyday, church, date, business, formal, exercise, sleep, beach/swim

Source:
Price:
Washing Instructions: machine wash cold, warm, hot, gentle; hand wash; tumble dry; dry flat; dry clean
Notes:

The color information requires a little explanation.  “Color family” is simply the “basic” color: blue, red, pink, green, etc.  The other two line items are for those who have had personal color analyses done.  “Color category” is for color systems where certain colors are designated as setting particular “moods,” as in David Zyla’s “essence” or “tranquil” colors or John Kitchener’s “powerful” or “understated” colors.  “Color designation” is for the exact color swatch in your palette the garment matches.  If these don’t apply to you, by all means, delete them.

And feel free, of course, to change the occasions or whatever else you need, to what makes sense for you.

“Length” is for the general length of a garment – mini, midi, maxi (for skirts), shorts, capris, pants, tunic, etc.  “Exact length” is to allow for an actual measurement to be entered.  (I don’t currently have measurements entered for many items, but wanted the option, particularly for skirts and necklaces.)

Eagle has another feature that’s pretty nifty, especially for wardrobe browsing — it identifies the main colors in an image, and will allow you to search for other images by similar color.  This is, unfortunately, a little quirky.  If there’s a white background on the image, white will often be one of the major colors in the palette it builds, even though this is useless for our purposes.  And sometimes it brings in weird, incidental colors.  For instance, I had a pair of brown tights that I photographed still inside the vinyl shoe holder I store them in.  There was a tiny powder blue reflection on the vinyl — and that powder blue made it into the color palette.  Still, this can be a fun thing to play with.

If it’s picking a weird color as primary (the white background, for instance), you can change the order.  Right-click the swatch you want, and tell it to “make primary.”  It will move into the left-most position.  If you repeat this process with another swatch, it will become second in line.