What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

The capsule wardrobe is probably something you have heard about before. It’s a minimalist approach to your closet! Buy nice things and wear them until you cannot anymore. For me, I think a capsule wardrobe should still encompass high and low priced pieces. I think there are just certain things that you may not want to wear year after year and aren’t worth spending too much on. The capsule wardrobe was really made popular in the 1980s when Donna Karan came out with her “Seven Easy pieces” collection. I don’t see how you could live with just seven pieces. It must have only included clothes and not shoes, accessories, etc. I just think of my own life; going to church, the gym, and the park. There is no way I could make it long term with seven things! The best approach I have found to the capsule wardrobe is to try to use 33 pieces over 3 months. That includes shoes, accessories and clothes. If you workout I would recommend not having those be included in your current 33 while you’re getting started.

Cleaning out your closet

To get started, you have to purge! If you want to really clean out your closet, read “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” That book will change your thinking on what you keep in your home. In the book, the author, Marie Kondō, discusses only keeping things that you find joy in. There are some parts of the book that are a little unusual but overall a great read! If you’re not going to read that book, then I would start by picking out the things you love. Find the clothes that fit very nicely that you feel the best in and pull them out of your closet. Then, go through and pick out the things that you know you want to get rid of; there should be some low hanging fruit in that category as well. Once you’re done with the easy stuff, start a “maybe” pile. However, if it’s in that pile my guess is you’ll get rid of it eventually but you don’t have to commit just yet. Try to keep in mind that if you don’t look and feel good in it, WHY would you ever wear it! Then, pack away the maybe pile and revisit it in a month. At that point if there is anything you don’t miss or haven’t wanted to use then donate or sell what you can.

Filling in the gaps

Now that you’ve gone through and gotten rid of the clothes you hid from yourself it’s time to assess what you have. If you’re going to 33 pieces in three months, pick out the clothes that match the season and count out your pieces. Look for any gaps in your wardrobe. At this point you will probably need to come up with a budget on how much you’re going to spend. If you made any money from selling your clothes you can include that in how much you want to spend. One of the things that I love to invest in is nice coats and boats that I can wear year after year. You won’t want to buy some of these pieces right away because it can get expensive, so think about what you could wait to buy and what you need to buy now. It’s also important to talk about colors because you should invest more in neutral colors that you can wear a lot. If you buy something that is very patterned or doesn’t match your color palette it will be hard to arrive at the 33 pieces.

Lindsay….