Six Years Later: How I’m Using the Stylebook App

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More than six years ago, as I was still adjusting to life after college, I downloaded an app to help me organize my closet. Well, I downloaded two apps, compared them in a massive blog post, and chose one to use moving forward: Stylebook.

To be honest, I’m not sure I expected to still be using the app six years later. But I am. In fact, it’s pinned to the bottom of my iPhone so I have easy access to it, no matter which screen I’m on.

Now that I’ve got six years of use under my belt (and more than 1,100 days of continuous calendar recording!), I thought it would be helpful to provide an update on the original post about what features I’m still using every single day.

What I Add to Stylebook

To be honest, I add most of my closet to Stylebook. I don’t add make-up (although I do add nail polish!), socks, luggage, or underwear… but pretty much everything else goes in. Here’s how my closet categories are organized:

• Tops
  • Long Sleeve Tops
  • Short Sleeve Tops
  • Sleeveless Tops
  • Workout Tops
  • Blazers
  • Sweaters
  • Sweatshirts
  • Jerseys
  • Robes
• Bottoms
  • Pants
  • Lounge Pants
  • Shorts
  • Exercise Shorts
  • Skirts
  • Tights
• Dresses
• Shoes
  • Heels
  • Flats
  • Boots
  • Sandals
  • Sneakers
  • Slippers
• Bags
  • Cross-Body Bags
  • Totes
  • Wallets & Clutches
  • Backpacks
• Accessories
  • Necklaces
  • Bracelets
  • Rings
  • Earrings
  • Belts
  • Headbands
  • Winter Hats
  • Winter Scarves
  • Gloves & Mittens
  • Baseball Hats
  • Fashion Scarves
  • Glasses
  • Hair Accessories
• Outerwear
• Swimwear
  • Tops
  • Bottoms
  • One-Pieces
• Nail Polish

I currently have 435 items in Stylebook. It sounds like a lot, but it really helps me stay organized and make sure I’m using (and want!) everything I own.

Style Stats

By far the feature I reference the most is Style Stats. There are so many amazing options in here, which I love, but to be honest, I really only use three.

Cost Per Wear

Pretty much every time I log into Stylebook, I navigate to Cost Per Wear without even thinking about what I’m doing. I could have been meaning to add a new purchase to my closet, but it’s so second-natured for me to go to Cost Per Wear because I swear I reference it five times per day.

I discussed this a little bit in the original post, but the app automatically calculates your Cost Per Wear (CPW) based on the price you add to that clothing item and how often you’ve logged it in your calendar. It calculates by number of days worn, so if you wear a pair of shoes twice in one day, that only counts as one wear.

My biggest goal with the app was to figure out if I’m really getting my full use out of my clothing purchases. The goal is to get each piece of clothing down to $1 CPW, whether it’s a $15 t-shirt that I wear 15 times or a $300 jacket that I wear 300 times. It helps me evaluate when I want to buy something, because I can say “will I realistically wear this x many times?”

Stylebook allows you to see the CPW of up to 100 pieces of clothing at once: your 50 best (lowest) CPW and 50 worst (highest) CPW. Depending on the size of your closet, there might be some overlap. I actually have more than 150 pieces of clothing with costs assigned, so pieces of clothing around $3 CPW get lost in this part of the app, since they’re not in the 50 lowest CPW or the 50 highest CPW.

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In order to focus on my goal of $1 CPW, as soon as an item of clothing hits $1 CPW, I remove the price from that item. Then I can see more items that I need to continue wearing to get a true value out of.

In order to continue hitting $1 CPW for as many items as possible, I’ll typically consult this feature when planning out my outfits.

Never Logged on Calendar

I also track the items in my closet that I have never logged on my calendar. These might be things like winter clothes I finally added to the Stylebook app in the spring, or clothing that I’ve ordered but it hasn’t actually arrived yet.

As a note, I mentioned in the original post about how difficult it is to add clothes to Stylebook, and that’s still true—when you first start using the app. But once you have the bulk of your clothes imported, it’s super easy to add items one at a time as you order them.

In addition to the CPW section, I’ll often consult the Never Logged On Calendar feature when planning out my outfits. It prevents me from purchasing an item and then forgetting about it because it isn’t in a prominent spot in my closet!

Size Tracker

I’ve recently started using the Size Tracker within Style Stats, which has been very useful when I want to make a purchase without measuring myself. It gives you options to put in your bust, waist, hips, short sleeve, inseam, and shoe sizes so you can reference them when checking size charts online. You can also add more if you find them useful.

I use this section to log my sizes for common items at my favorite retailers, because sizing can be so wonky. If I want a t-shirt from Madewell and I love the way my other Madewell tees fit, I can just look up in the size tracker what size I need at Madewell. I can also go directly to the item in the closet section of the app and find the size, but having everything in one place is easier in my mind!

Calendar

In order to use my favorite style stats, I need to use the calendar. I’ve got a 1,103-day streak going with my calendar log, too! You use it to log which pieces of clothing you’ve worn each day. I’ve gotten to the point where I log everything from my clothes to my jewelry to my nail polish, so there’s often a lot listed for each day.

I don’t really reference what I’ve already logged in the calendar; it’s more to enable the Cost Per Wear and Never Logged on Calendar stats to work.

Features I’m Not Really Using

Stylebook has a lot of features, and to be honest they aren’t all for me. These are the features that other people find helpful but I just don’t need.

• Looks: I liked the idea of Looks when I first started using Stylebook, but nowadays (the two years I’ve been working from home and the 5 months we haven’t been leaving our house), having put together Looks just isn’t useful. It’s mostly leggings and a t-shirt, so I’ll just add those two items manually.
• Inspiration: I definitely have inspiration photos saved on Pinterest, but I’ve never felt compelled to add them into Stylebook. I don’t feel the need to mix up my wardrobe all the time, so I’m cool with just the classic combinations I’ve put together.
• Shop: To be honest I’m not even 100% sure what this is supposed to be used for.
• Style Expert: There are plenty of good articles in here, but if something isn’t in my Bloglovin feed, I don’t read it.

Stylebook is still one of my favorite apps, even six years later! I highly recommend it for people who want to be more intentional with their wardrobe. It’s a little bit of a pain to put together at first, but the payoff is definitely worth it!

As a note, I also use Stylebook to pack for trips, but that obviously hasn’t been needed lately. I’ll do a full post once it’s safe to travel again outlining how I use the app to create my packing list!