What if you could go to your closet tomorrow morning, grab the first thing you see, put it on… and look fabulous?

Then what if you could do it the next day...and the next? How about every day for the rest of your life?

Sounds impossible?

Well, if you build a wardrobe like most women do, it is.

You know – a blouse here, a jacket there, a “must-have”, and the latest movie trend. What do you have? Nothing to wear! It’s like picking up olives, paprika, and ice cream at the grocery store, then wondering why you can’t make a meal.

You know what? You’re making things way too hard on yourself! But then, most women do. That’s why they wear the same outfits all the time, then panic when something special comes along.

But there are a handful of women in this world who manage to look great every day. You know the type. They’re always immaculate, always in style, and seem to have a bottomless closet.

What do they have that you don’t? More money? More time? A life of leisure?

Probably not. Chances are they have the secret; the secret to effortless dressing.

Coco Chanel. Audrey Hepburn. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Best dressed women by anyone’s definition, and each possessing a style all her own. They each had money and celebrity, true, but not necessarily a closet full of clothes. In fact, at the time of Coco Chanel’s death in 1971, the woman Picasso called "the most sensible in the world," had a Paris wardrobe consisting of only three outfits.

Was she destitute? Retired? Ill?

Nope. None of the above.

Instead, she was in possession of the secret. The knowledge that enabled her to turn those three outfits into dozens of combinations that could take her anywhere she needed to go.

So how many outfits do you have in your closet right now? Or perhaps more importantly, how many do you actually wear?

Before you answer that, let me ask you this:

Did you know...

• That the average American woman has $2,000 invested in her wardrobe?
• Of that, she wastes 55% of every clothing dollar on unwise purchases?
• As a result, she wears 20% of her wardrobe 80% of the time?

Why? Because she doesn’t know the secret!

So, following what she sees on television and in magazines, she buys the latest trends and tries to stay current. Some of the clothes work on her, some of them don’t. Some of them fit into her lifestyle, some wouldn’t in a million years. In the end, she has a lot of clothes... but only a few things she actually wears.

So how many of your outfits do you actually wear?

If you didn’t say “all of them”, then it’s time to learn the secret.

Tomorrow: The secret to effortless dressing

Ms Pemberton-Sikes is a wardrobe and image consultant and author of Beauty at Any Age, an ebook that shows women how to find the right hair, make-up, and skin care routines to look their best whatever their age. Visit her online at www.fashionforrealwomen.com.