Capsule Wardrobe: What You Need to Know?

What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

In short, A capsule wardrobe is a compact or minimal wardrobe. It usually consists of only a few staple pieces and accessories. The most famous origin of the capsule wardrobe started with Faux – who suggested that an ideal capsule wardrobe consisted of fewer than a dozen items, clothes, accessories and shoes included, for the whole year. Now, the most popular option for the capsule wardrobe is usually in the range of about 30 – 40 items, more or less, with a few seasonal additions, so every 3 months, you are allowed to add necessities that fits the season.

 

Why It Works: Benefits of a Capsule Wardrobe

Having a Capsule wardrobe has a lot of advantages.

  • More closet space
  • Less decisions on what to wear
  • Saves money
  • Helps the environment by not falling into the temptation of fast fashion.

How to Create a Capsule Wardrobe

There are no specific way in how you should create your capsule wardrobe, but there are main points that you should keep in mind. Other than that, it’s really up to you how you want your capsule wardrobe to be- you can:

  • Keep it Simple – like the classic black and white wardrobe
  • Make it Exotic – bright colors, neutrals, or color blockings
  • Keep it minimal – You can’t have a capsule wardrode consisting of 100+ clothes, the most you can do is probably 50, other than that it’s no longer a capsule wardrobe.
  • There are many ways you can go about with it.
    • There’s Susie Faux’s Original Capsule Wardrobe approach of having only a dozen items (including shoes, clothes, and accessories) that’s meant to be worn year round.
    • There’s also Today’s approach of it: a concept of about 30-40 items (including clothes, shoes, accesories, etc.) and for a period of three months, or seasonal.

Capsule Wardrobe List of Essentials

Like what I have mentioned earlier, there’s no specific way to create a capsule wardrobe. Everything is based on your own taste and preference as long as you keep it minimal or capsule- like. But, if you are still having a hard time figuring out where or how to start, here are some essential ideas for a capsule wardrobe:

  • Seasonal items ( Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall clothes, colors, shoes and accessories)
  • Accessories ( watch/bracelet, necklace, earrings, belts, sunglasses, or anything else that you know you will wear more than once!)
  • Shoes ( black shoe, flats, sandals, statement shoe, sneaker, boots, anything else appropriate for the season)
  • Clothes (a line skirt, black Dress, Jeans, workout clothes, casual clothes, etc.)

Common Mistakes You Should Avoid

  • People need to understand that Capsule wardrobing means to simplify your needs and wants but still having the freedom of wearing what you want to wear. Meaning you don’t have to get rid of everything and start from scratch.
  • Another main point of is to save up money instead of buying new things over and over again when you have all these clothes already in hand.  
  • Capsule wardrobe doesn’t give you the reason why you should start buying new clothes, people tend to think that every season they have to start a new capsule wardrobe, when in reality you just add a few seasonal items to what you already have.

Minimalist Capsule Wardrobe Examples:

Spring Capsule Wardrobe – by Unfancy

Summer Capsule Wardrobe – by Apartment Therapy

Fall Capsule Wardrobe – by Pinch of Yum

Winter Capsule Wardrobe – by Unfancy

Travel Capsule Wardrobe – by The Golden Girl

Work Capsule Wardrobe – by Stylebook

Maternity Capsule Wardrobe – by Allie Seidel

Plus-Size Capsule Wardrobe- by Wholefully

 

Our Capsule Wardrobe Case Study Experiment:

  • My roommate and I did the capsule wardrobe together (my clothes and her clothes) We both started with 300+ clothes each (just the clothes itself, no shoes or accessories yet)

  • Right now (5/8/2017) we ended up with 100+ clothes each ( including seasonal and year round things only clothing – haven’t touched any shoes or accessories yet)

In Conclusion:

After putting away our Winter clothes and getting rid of other clothes we don’t need, we found that it’s still hard to keep a capsule wardrobe that only consists of 30 or so amount of clothes. It really is hard, but we are still in the process or trying to make it better!

Some things we learned based on doing our research and from our own experience:

  • Capsule Wardrob-ing is SUPER challenging
  • It can get super emotional, especially if you have attachment with your clothes
  • We realized that we’ve got so many unnecessary things that were just stuck there for a long time and we didn’t even know it.
  • We wanted to go and get rid of some more clothes but we still ended up having a lot left.
  • Capsule wardrobe is not a “thing” it’s more of a learning process.
    • Learning how to be more organized
    • Learning how to be more crucial when it comes to your clothing
    • Learning how to be more financially strict
    • Learning the difference of need and want

So, let us know how your approach goes with the Capsule Wardrobe trend or what you think about it. Likes, Dislikes, Advantages, Disadvantages, even your very own version of Capsule Wardrobe! And don’t forget at the end of the day, learn something from it, don’t just do it, actually experience it!

 

Happy Capsule Wardrobing!!!!