Outfit Math
How Many Points Do You Like to Wear?
Whilst scrolling on YouTube a video caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. It was by a creator named AlexaSunshine83 titled Trying the TikTok 7 point outfit method to make my style BETTER (is it life changing?)
I was intrigued because I think that interesting style content flows from TikTok (RIP) even if it’s not always meant for me (an elder millenial). There is a trend on TikTok (RIP) called the 7 Point Method and the idea is that you assign each of the items in your outfit a value and you are trying to create an outfit that adds up to 7 points. Each piece of clothing or accessory is 1 point unless it is particularly interesting in color, pattern or texture and then it gets 2 points.
In her video, Alexa, takes a normal outfit she would wear and tries to up the ante to increase the number of points.
Some of the outfits felt successful for me. Like this one where, I admit, the outfit on the right appeals more.
And others felt like trying just for the sake of trying. Like this outfit that feels a tad overworked (for me) with 7 points.
I was about to write this off but then I remembered my first fashion mentor, Nina Garcia, who I found because she was a judge on Project Runway and, oh yeah, the Creative Director at Marie Claire. I believe it was in her 2007 Little Black Book of Style that I heard about the third piece. The idea being that great outfits have a third piece. (I also was convinced that I needed each of the 100 items from her 2008 follow up book). So you can say I’m a person who enjoys fashion guardrails, who am I to judge a point system!
And then, friends, I couldn’t stop seeing it. I would see a picture of an outfit and, assuming I’m counting correctly, find that it landed between 5-7. Like this one on Lily Sisto, which would be 7 points; 1 for her coat, 2 for her patterned sweater, 1 for her purse, pants, socks and loafers.
Even on outfits that are arguably more “minimal,” I was still finding 7 points!
I
CAN’T
UNSEE
IT
I was explaining all of this to my husband (he tells me about fantasy football, I tell him about fashion trends, it works out fine) and he said, “but, like, do you buy it?”
And while, no, I’m probably not going to count my outfit every morning to ensure I hit a certain number, I do think the exercise is interesting. Take some of my favorite outfits from 2024;
They land somewhere between 3 and 5 points. If I were to add a daily purse or pair of sunglasses to each of these looks I would actually have a 5-7 point outfit. I think we all would have different point systems because, as someone who doesn’t wear a ton of color, any color I wear is going to count as two for me. Maybe pattern will count extra for you (who says we have to stop at 2 points, pattern could count 3!).
I also found that outfits that catch my eye on Pinterest nearly always land between 5-7 points.
And as you look at Pinterest you might find that your perfect outfits are more like 3 or 4 point looks;
OR 8+ point outfits!
So please don’t hear this as an endorsement for forcing yourself into a point. Don’t even hear this as a suggestion to count your outfit points. But it is a guarantee that you’ll start to notice the points and maybe you’ll find that you are regularly attracted to the same number. And, finally, if you are looking at your outfit and feeling like there is something missing; maybe you need to add a point or two. It’s almost the opposite of Coco Chanel’s “remove one thing” quote.
said this same thing recently so it’s obviously sound 😉An extra point could be rolling up your pant leg to expose your sock (maybe even a colorful one?) or pulling the collar of your white undershirt above your sweater collar. I’ve become a major fan of tying a sweater around my waist or shoulders; which I previously wrote off as superfluous but they make such an impact visually.
I’m curious how many points are you wearing today!? It’s currently 6 degrees where I live so I’m aiming for a 150 point outfit today.
Editor’s note: SO many brilliant commentors wrote about how our make-up, hair and accessories can (and should!) count as points on some days. I couldn’t agree more! I took the paywall off a post I wrote months ago about how the things on our body totally count as accessories: read here.
I wonder if this approach holds true on photos of more diverse body sizes? Some of these outfits are very simple - nothing wrong with jeans, a button down and a belt, but they often prompt (for me at least) the “is it chic or is she just really thin?” question. I think any fashion theories or “rules” are much more interesting when we can see if they hold true applied to a diversity of women. Also, I wonder if baked into the points system is an assumption that the body on which the points are displayed is “neutral”, and I certainly don’t think our society views larger women (or even larger than size 6) as neutral!
Well... this just blew my mind.