Survey Reveals "Dormant Wardrobe" Affecting 96% of Women and the "Invisible Management Costs" of Clothing

Moderato Inc. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Asuka Ichihara), which operates the apparel brand "SOÉJU" and personal styling services, has released the results of a "Survey on Dormant Wardrobes and Clothing Management" conducted in May 2026, targeting 551 women aged 30-50 nationwide.

Despite decreased spending due to rising prices and growing interest in decluttering and sustainable consumption, the "problem of clothes not being worn" in closets remains unresolved. This survey sheds light on the reality of this issue, the structural challenges behind it, and potential solutions.

【Survey Results Summary】

- 96.0% of women own "dormant wardrobes" – clothes they haven't worn even once in a year.

- 82.9% feel burdened by the "invisible management costs" of clothing, such as seasonal wardrobe changes and insufficient storage.

- The background to clothing-related concerns includes the dilemma, felt by 73.3%, of "having many clothes but nothing to wear."

- The top reason for not letting go of dormant wardrobes is "I might wear it someday" (61.2%).

- On the other hand, only 6.5% have experience using services that revitalize existing clothes through professional recommendations.

Q2. Number of "dormant wardrobe" items in the closet *The 17.2% who answered "Don't know / Can't count" were also included as having dormant wardrobes (1 or more items).

Q5. Stress and burden related to "owning and managing" clothes (multiple answers allowed)

Q1. Feeling of "having nothing to wear" in daily outfit selection

Only 4.0% of people feel they fully utilize all the clothes in their closet, indicating that almost all women have "clothes they don't wear." Furthermore, over 80% (82.9%) experience management costs, which contributes to the paradox of "having many clothes but nothing to wear" (73.3%).

Decoding the "Unworn Clothes" from the Data

Dormant wardrobes are not necessarily clothes that were a mistake to buy. They are clothes that haven't been "integrated" into daily wear.

When asked why they stopped wearing clothes from their dormant wardrobes (n=529), the most common reasons after "changes in body shape or age" (47.8%) were "don't know how to coordinate them" (34.6%) and "bought for a specific event and have no opportunity to wear them daily" (32.9%). Among these, over 60% cited "I might wear it someday" (61.2%) as the reason for keeping them.

This suggests that many dormant wardrobes are not "clothes regretted after purchase," but rather "clothes for which the wearer doesn't know how to integrate them with their current lifestyle or existing items." As a result, they take up closet space and increase invisible management costs related to "choosing, maintaining, searching for, and discarding."

Q3. Reasons for not wearing "clothes not worn in a year" (multiple answers allowed)

Q4. Reasons for keeping "clothes not worn in a year" without discarding them (multiple answers allowed)

"Professional Styling" Overlooked as a Solution

93.5% have no experience. Before buying more, there's an option to increase the utilization rate of existing clothes.

While many women struggle with closet issues, only 6.5% have "experience using professional advice to make the most of their existing clothes." The reality that over 90% (93.5%) have no such experience indicates that professional styling is not yet a widely adopted solution for this problem.

Instead of continuously buying new clothes, making full use of existing items from a professional perspective is another approach to the dressing challenges faced by modern women.

Q6. Experience using professional recommendation services such as personal styling or closet diagnosis to utilize existing clothes.

Moderato's Initiatives to Address the Challenge

"Try-on rooms that don't sell" and seminars aiming for 100% utilization.

Moderato has offered personal styling services since its founding and launched the D2C brand "SOÉJU" in 2018. Based on the philosophy of "separation of consultation and sales," they opened "SOÉJU Fitting Rooms," which are not for sales. They combine high-quality staple clothing with the proposal power of professional stylists to support customers in integrating their existing clothes into their daily outfits.

Their small-group offline seminar, "100% Utilization! How to Create a Personal Closet to Enjoy Summer," which served as the background for this survey, achieved 100% participation on both days of visits and an average webinar viewership of approximately 81%. The experiential content, where stylists demonstrated coordination on the spot using "dead stock" brought by participants, was highly praised.

The design philosophy and background of the seminar are available in an event report article on their official note.

- "An Apparel Brand Tackles the Problem of 'Having Clothes But Nothing to Wear.' The Design Philosophy Behind a 100% Participation Seminar."

【Survey Overview】

Survey Theme: Questionnaire on Lifestyle (Clothing Ownership and Management)

Target Audience: 551 women aged 30s, 40s, and 50s nationwide.

Survey Method: Internet survey

Survey Period: May 20-26, 2026

【About Moderato Inc.】

Company Name: Moderato Inc.

Representative: Asuka Ichihara, Representative Director

Head Office Location: Gotanda Tech One 2F, 7-1-10 Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo

Date Established: December 2014

Capital: 189 million yen

Business Activities: Apparel retail, personal styling services, cosmetics sales.

URL: https://moderato-inc.jp