MINIMALIST
///////////
minimalism _ minimalis When is the last time you simplified your wardrobe?
What does a minimalist wear?
Some where back in the past have memories of high school culottes that might be enough to scar you for life
01 02 03 04 07 08 09 10 13 14 15 16 19 20 21 22 inimalism _ minimalism
/////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
C O NT ENT
We live in a culture that begs us to conform.
Minimalism lifestyle is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives
Simplicity is the ultimate form of Sophistication
We all know the saying ' keep it simple '
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
# MINIMALIST
ART #
W
e
live in a culture that begs us to conform. Through its various messages, it calls us to squeeze into its mold.
It exerts external pressure on our minds to believe in and buy its opinions, hopes, and aspirations. Yet, the pursuits that define most of our culture never fully satisfy our heart and soul.
///////// M I N I M A L I S T ///////////
In response, the world will tell us to just run faster, reach further, work harder, make more, and become conformed more deeply. But its promised offer of fulfillment always remains out of reach. Our deepest longings are left unsatisfied. Unfortunately, through this vicious cycle, we lose our uniqueness.
We lose our passion. We lose our energy. We lose our opportunity to choose a different future. And because we are too busy chasing the wrong things, we sacrifice our opportunity to find something greater and more fulfilling in this life.
{
}
01
02
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
/////////
MINIMALIST
///////////
MINIMALIST
LIFE SHOUDL BE SIMPLE SIMPLE YOUR LIFE
LIFE SHOUDL BE SIMPLE SIMPLE YOUR LIFE
/////
LIFESTYLE
Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.
There are many flavors of minimalism:
K E Y ///// W O R D SIMPLE MINIMALIST
A 20-year-old single guy’s minimalist lifestyle looks different from a 45-year-old mother’s minimalist life. Even though everyone embraces minimalism differently, each path leads to the same place: a life with more time, more money, and more freedom to live a more meaningful life.
At first glance, people might think the point of minimalism is only to get rid of material possessions. Eliminating. Jettisoning. Extracting. Detaching. Decluttering. Paring down. Letting go.
But that’s a mistake. True, removing the excess is an important part of the recipe. But it’s just one ingredient. If we’re concerned solely with the stuff, then we’re missing the larger point.
Minimalists don’t focus on having less, less, less. Rather, we focus on making room for more: more time, more passion, more experiences, more growth and contribution and contentment. More freedom. It just so happens that clearing the clutter from life’s path helps us make that room.
04
CULTURE 1
Me? I’m a simple man. I live a simple life, not an easy one.
MINIMALIST
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
W
I
hen is the last time you simplified your wardrobe? Maybe this weekend would be a great time to embrace a little bedroom-closet minimalism.
t’s not surprising, though: thousands of people—woman and men—have taken the Project 333 challenge and’ve found immense value in slashing their wardrobe, reducing their closets down to the essentials.
Being fashionable is easy when all your clothes are your favorite clothes. Just ask our friend Courtney Carver, founder of Project 333, a minimalist fashion challenge that invites people to dress with 33 or fewer items for 3 months.
In fact, during our tour, it was easy to identify audience members who were experimenting with Project 333: they were always the best-dressed folks in the room. Simply put, simple is the new black. You can find more details at Project 333.
Toward the end of our recent book tour, somewhere between our 46th and 47th cities, we had the opportunity to speak on a panel about minimalism alongside Courtney.
In addition to her popular Project 333, Courtney recently launched a wonderfully simple, $10 microcourse called How to Create a Meaningful Morning Routine.
We told her that her project gets discussed
a lot during our meetups.
What we like about her microcourse is that it doesn’t include excessive links, fluff, or impossible tasks. Said another way, it’s pretty damn simple to create a meaningful morning routine with Courtney’s help.
08
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
/////////
MINIMALIST
///////////
irst, we can admit that there must be more. We can come to a point where we realize that there is more to life than what the world is peddling. We admit that we have foolishly bought what the world is selling… and our lives are still empty. Possessions have not brought happiness. Money has not provided security. Popularity and power have not satisfied. And sex has not brought love. The answers clearly do not lie in a life conformed to the unoriginal culture of our day.
S
econd, we can limit culture’s messages into our lives. The calls for conformity enter through our eyes and ears, take room in our mind, and force out the pleas surfacing from within our soul. While we can never remove the external pressure completely, we can limit their opportunity for impact. We can watch less television. We can flip through fewer ads. We can worship fewer celebrities. We can find more silence. And as we begin to reduce the noise from the outside, we open space in our mind to hear from the inside.
T
hird, we can listen more to our heart. In the absence of external noise, we find more opportunity to intentionally search our heart. We find the space to allow our soul to speak and cry out for its desires. We hear best in solitude, meditation, and self-examination. But be advised, this is difficult at the beginning. We are rarely flattered with what we find at first. We must face the hard truth that we have wasted most of our lives chasing the wrong things. We are humbled at how easily we believed culture’s false promises. But keep listening. The look back is necessary, but short.
F
ourth, we can pursue our newfound passions. To complete the process, we must realign our lives to seek our heart’s truest desires. If our lives do not intentionally chart a course in this new direction, they will eventually revert back to their original state. But be assured that you don’t need to know every step of the journey ahead, you only need to know the first one… however small it may be.
Simplicity is the ultimate form of Sophistication
F
S O P H I S T I C A T I O N
S I M P L I C I T Y
10
IF IT DOESN'T GET RID OF IT. MATTER.
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
Minimalism 极 简
“Look at all those fancy clothes, but these gon keep us warm just like those.”
simple _ life_
—Jack Johnson
What does a minimalist wear?
I
am surprised I get this question as often as I do—as if people expect to see me walking around Dayton, Ohio, in a loincloth—but, given the many misconceptions surrounding minimalism, I suppose it’s a valid question.
My answer: a minimalist wears his or her favorite clothes and nothing else. You might recall I donated over 90% of my clothes this year. Do you know why that’s so exciting? Two reasons:
I T
love all the clothes I kept, so I get to wear what I love every day.
hus, a minimalist wears his or her favorite clothes every day. Most days I wear jeans, a teeshirt, and a pair of Toms shoes. r, when I feel like it, I wear a crisp white button-up shirt (pictured above), jeans, a blazer, colorful socks, and a clean pair of dress shoes. And I avoid logos for several reasons (though I still have a couple items with a small horse logo).
O
I enjoy my clothes, but I am not my wardrobe. To illustrate this fact (i.e., to practice what I preach), I gave away my favorite jeans, my favorite shirt, and my favorite shoes on my buddy Craig’s Simple Black Coffee website in February. What did that mean to me? Well, the same two things as above: (1) a few people got some nice new attire (plus I made a new online friend in David William, a great guy who got my favorite pair of Allen Edmonds dress shoes); and (2) other garments stepped up and became my new favorites.
I don’t have many clothes now
and I still go to the Goodwill a few times per month and donate an item or two (if I’m not wearing it anymore, it gets donated)—but I thoroughly enjoy the clothes I do own.
But I don’t give sentimental
meaning to my clothes. If all my clothes burned in a house fire tomorrow, it wouldn’t be a big deal to me.
I give meaning to the important
things in life—to relationships, to health, to pursuing my passions, to growth, to contribution.
14
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
MODEL: MAGDALENA FRACKOWIACK PHOTOGRAPHER: WARD IVAN RAFIK STYLIST: ANNA SCHIFFEL
WE ALL KNOW THE SAYING ‘KEEP IT SIMPLE’, HOWEVER WITH THE WORLD AT OUR FINGERTIPS THESE DAYS IT CAN BE EASY TO FORGET, SOMETIMES ALL YOU NEED IS BARE FEET, SOFT SILHOUETTES AND PERFECTLY CAST SHADOWS TO CREATE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF IMAGES .. OF COURSE A DOSE OF THE MAGDALENA FRACKOWIACK NEVER GOES ASTRAY EITHER.
16
Minimalism there's nothing better than relaxed suiting and the perfect balance of boy meets girl. we're forever in love with this tomboy style chic an there's no better way to start the week......
MISS VOGUE DECEMBER 2014 MODEL: VIOLETTE D’URSO PHOTOGRAPHER: SCOTT TRINDLE
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
S
OMEWHERE BACK IN THE PAST I HAVE MEMORIES OF HIGH SCHOOL CULOTTES THAT MIGHT BE ENOUGH TO SCAR YOU FOR LIFE .. ALMOST. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE SHIN LENGTH SHORT AND AUTHORITY HAVE SINCE FADED AWAY AND GIVEN IN TO A MUCH COOLER VERSION .. THINK OFF DUTY MODELS IN CULOTTES AND SNEAKERS .. JUST THE RIGHT KIND OF INSPIRATION TO REPLACE YOUR FORMER LESS COOLER PERCEPTIONS. THE CULOTTE IS BIG THIS SEASON AND WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT YOU’LL BE TRAWLING ONLINE BEFORE YOU KNOW IT. THE PERFECT PANT FOR MIDDAY MEETINGS (WORN BEST WITH AN OXFORD), NIGHT TIME CATCH UPS (A SHARP PUMP WILL DO NICELY) OR A WEEKEND GETAWAY (LET’S NEVER FORGET THE COMFORT OF A GOOD SLIDE). TODAY’S CULOTTE OF CHOICE BY MCQ ALEXANDER MCQUEEN , BEING MY FAVOURITE TO DATE WORN NONCHALANTLY WITH A MCQ SHEARLING COAT, JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF STREET CRED TO BE CLASSIFIED AS OFF DUTY .. WELL THAT’S WHAT WE’LL CALL IT ANYWAY
Turning up the heat literally,the temperature here has been in the high 30's this weel amd it's been hot enough to fry an egg on top of your leather duffle bag...not that that will be happening any time soon.in times like this i like to head to wearing pieces that are not just relaxed and easy but also cool,and that's not just in the literal sense of the word either.bassike just get it and to be honest they'll get you too if you already haven't sampled the goods...you can never be too cool for school...
WHITE TOP: BASSIKE NAVY TROUSERS: BASSIKE BAG: DYLAN KAIN SUNGLASSES: CELINE JEWELLERY: ALEX & ERNEST
Some of my favorite black everyday pieces at the moment and of course a hit of alexander wang barcode...put it this way...you'll never get lost at the shopping centre...
CELINE GEOMETRIC SUNGLASSES WONDERLAND STATELINE SUNGLASSES BLACK SWEATSHIRT: ALEXANDER WANG BAG: M2MALLETIER GOLD NECKLACE: GORJANA BLACK WATCH: MICHAEL KORS BLACK SKORTS: TOPSHOP PERFUME: NARCISO RODRIGUEZ
20
simple
your
life
MINIMALIST
22