Okay so. You have all these clothes, some fabulous, some good ol’ reliable standards and some that you’re not quite sure how you ended up with them. Now, how are you supposed to figure out what to wear? I’m sure I’ve mentioned several of the following points in various other columns over the past year and a half, but today I’m going to try and give you a compressed version of how to put together an outfit.

So, there are numerous ways to go about planning what to wear, and regardless of how you put together your outfits or how far in advance you have ideas, there are some parameters that should help you determine when it’s opportune to wear which outfit. These include weather (I really thought winter had started on Friday, but obviously not, given the high in the 60s Monday) — both in terms of temperature and precipitation — what you’re doing that day (other activities, how far you’ll be walking) and the people you’ll be seeing (not just which cute boy/girl you are dressing for, but also if you are meeting with a professor or your advising dean). The goal is to be dressed appropriately for every situation you’ll be encountering.

One way to plan outfits, especially if you’re in a total quandary, is to start with an accessory you really want to wear, either just because it’s awesome or because you just found it after a long absence. Good examples are shoes, necklaces and scarves. So, you know you want to wear these totally sweet Converse hi-tops that are, let’s say, lime green, orange, and zebra printed, and say “Kickin It” on the back. What do you have to wear that would play them up? You can highlight the accessory by choosing a pretty neutral canvas and / or silhouette, like all black, or jeans and a white T-shirt with no other accessories. Or, returning to our shoe example, you could choose other accessories that are also orange or green, or a shirt that’s black and white like the zebra print. You do want to avoid being too “matchy-matchy” which has come to mean theme- or color-matching to the extreme; the best way to avoid this is to look at yourself in the mirror before you leave the house.

Alternatively, perhaps you have a day where a lot of different things are going on but you don’t want to have to carry a lot of extra clothes. Take my Tuesdays for example. On Tuesdays I go to the physical therapist, where I have to wear moveable clothes and tennis shoes with my orthotics in them (my orthotics are inserts specially shaped to support my feet). Then I have to go to class, and right after that I run down to Schwartz to take a dance class. So, a typical Tuesday might look something like this: easily washable T-shirt with a cool graphic, footless tights, Pumas, a high-waisted skirt, sometimes patterned and a jacket/sweater appropriate for the weather. All I have to carry in my backpack is a pair of dance pants (and deodorant). The idea to extrapolate from this self-centered account is to think about clothes which can multi-task, but don’t sacrifice your style.

Another great way to get inspiration is to copy other people. That statement could be applied to basically any remotely creative field, but while in almost every other situation a citation would be needed to avoid plagiarism / copyright issues, getting inspiration for your outfit is not going to get you in trouble with the Code of Conduct. Whether it’s a look from the runway, a celebrity, or a cashier at Temple of Zeus, don’t worry about trying to replicate it precisely. Instead, try to pinpoint what it was about the outfit that caught your eye. Was it the silhouette? The mix of casual and fancy? The color combinations? The mix of patterns? Then, go to your closet and see what you have that you could achieve the same thing with. You may end up with something that an observer wouldn’t realize was derivative, or you might be able to copy it verbatim. Either way you end up with a new outfit you weren’t aware of before.

Great. So now how do we who are not in possession of Cher’s (from Clueless) amazing outfit generating computer innovate our wardrobes? Many magazines recommend taking pictures of clothes and even accessories that are part of outfits you have planned so that they are at hand in the morning, and you can avoid the epic-clothes-pile-generating “I have nothing to wear” syndrome. Also, you could write them down, have clothes hung up or folded together as outfits (although this limits your browsing possibilities), or just daydream about them while you’re in class. I mean, what? I’m always paying attention.

I hope these tips keep you out of the nothing-interesting-or-fun-to-wear doldrums. But, if you do find yourself stuck there, or just want some advice, shoot me an e-mail with “Dressing on the Side” in the subject line; my next column will be based on questions from you, my readers, so please write! Hope to hear from you soon, and no question is too silly or unimportant!