Building a Wardrobe That Works for Mum Life

From building a practical postpartum wardrobe to embracing secondhand fashion and selling clothes she no longer wears, Miranda shares how motherhood transformed her style, shopping habits and relationship with her wardrobe - and why clearing out your closet can feel surprisingly liberating.

If your personal style had to be described in three words, what would they be?

Comfortable, casual, simple.

How has becoming a mum changed the way you shop, dress, and think about your wardrobe?

On a purely practical level, motherhood has fundamentally changed the things I look for in a garment. I want pieces that are hard-wearing, that will absorb dubious smears and stains with minimal fuss. I want pockets (for all the tiny bits of Lego, rocks, half-eaten biscuits and other treasures my kids hand me while we’re out and about). I really, really don’t want anything that I can’t chuck in the washing machine, or that needs ironing.

Overall my wardrobe now is looser, more casual and adaptable than it was pre-kids. I don’t shop as often as I once did and I don’t feel self-conscious about wearing the hell out of things. Often I’ll wear the same trousers and jumper every day for a week – if that’s what I’m feeling, that’s what I’m feeling. I’ve also stopped ‘saving’ things: if I have something that I like, I’m going to wear it now – not in a year, not maybe when… – even if that means it ends up soaked in milk or streaked with chocolate from little fingers. What’s the point of something gathering dust in a closet?

What first drew you to shopping secondhand, and what keeps you coming back?

My mom has always enjoyed shopping secondhand; during my childhood in California, she took me to a lot of thrift stores and consignment stores over the years. You never knew what you were going to find; that serendipity really appeals to me now, in this heavily influencer-curated moment of late-stage capitalism. How nice to find something unexpected, something that’s had a whole other life, or series of lives, before it found you (my wedding dress was from the 1930s, bought in a basement in Brighton).

In recent years, too, the thought of all the waste associated with clothing has started to weigh heavier on me. I’d rather not increase that waste by buying cheap new things that will quickly fall apart or be discarded. Buying – and selling – secondhand has become a way for me to try to strike a balance between the fluidity of my postpartum body, the ways in which it has changed shape and size and function, and the durability of well-made, well-cut clothes that resist the throwaway culture of fast fashion.

Are there any brands or pieces you especially love sourcing secondhand, and why?

COS and TOAST are my go-tos – I know the fit and style works for me. But also the beauty of buying secondhand is discovering things that you might not otherwise have encountered. For example, a few Onanon pop-ups ago I bought a T-shirt by an Italian brand (ottod’Ame) that I had never heard of and would never have known to look for; it’s become an absolute staple.

What motivated you to start selling pieces you no longer wear, and what benefits have you seen from it?

I’ve sold my clothes online for a long time – on Vinted, and eBay before that – as a way of reducing clutter and waste, and earning a bit of extra cash. But I’ve become a lot more ruthless since having kids, perhaps because there’s so much turnover of stuff in our house now. I used to hang on to things for a long time, out of optimism or sentimentality or both, but now I feel I’d rather let something go if it isn’t serving me now.

What surprised you most about the selling process with Onanon?

How often things sell, and how easy it is (I really appreciate not having to take careful photos of all the things I want to sell and then organise my day around dropping things off at the post office).

What would you say to another mum who's been meaning to clear out her wardrobe but keeps putting it off?

It will set you free! And you never know what little moment of joy something that's been lurking at the back of your closet for a decade might bring someone else discovering it for the first time.