The Ultimate Capsule Wardrobe Guide
What is the concept about?
A capsule wardrobe is a specific set of versatile, timeless clothes that can be mixed and matched for many outfit options. Its goal is to simplify your closet by focusing on quality pieces that suit your style and go well together. By choosing well-made items that fit you well, you can create a practical and stylish wardrobe. A capsule wardrobe means having a smaller but high-quality collection that can be easily combined for various occasions and weather. This method encourages careful shopping, discourages impulsive buying, and supports a more sustainable fashion approach.
Here’s an example of a small capsule wardrobe for the warmer months. Of course you can adapt the concept to your own style and colour preferences and your wardrobe doesn’t need to be that small, but I’m sure you get the general idea.
Step 1: Find your style
The first and most important step to starting a capsule wardrobe is to find out what you actually like wearing and what you feel good in. This should be something everyone should focus own regardless if one wants to create a capsule wardrobe or not. If you don’t take the time to actually find your true style, it will always be difficult to build a wardrobe you truly love. You will constantly buy things that you don’t love and you will also be influenced quite easily by trends, fashion bloggers or magazines which leads to more purchases that may not be a good choice.
There are different ways of finding your style:
Try creating a Pinterest board with outfits you love or take photos every time you like an outfit you are wearing and then evaluate what the outfits you like have in common. You can also do this to find out what you don’t like.
If you feel like you hate everything in your wardrobe, go to a store alone and try on various different things just for fun. How do the different outfits make you feel? Again: what do they have in common?
Whatever method you try pay attention to styles, colours, fits
A last tip: try to minimize being influenced by trends or other (which is hard). We often see things on others and love them but that doesn’t mean we feel great in them as well.
Step 2: Evaluate what you already own
When evaluating the clothes in your wardrobe, it is important to assess each item's condition, fit, and relevance to your personal style. Begin by sorting your clothes into categories such as everyday wear, special occasions, and seasonal items. Next, try on each piece to see if it fits well and if you feel comfortable wearing it. Take note of any items that are worn out, no longer fit correctly, or do not align with your current style preferences. Consider donating or selling these garments to make space for new pieces that better represent your current lifestyle and fashion taste. Regularly reviewing and updating your wardrobe ensures that you have a curated collection of clothing that makes getting dressed a simpler and more enjoyable task.
If the thought of minimizing your wardrobe makes you nervous or you have a hard time decluttering just store away some things for a while and try out having a smaller wardrobe. You probably won’t miss a lot of the things you stored away.
Step 3: Identifying the gaps
After you’ve got an overview of what you already have and love (and maybe got rid of things you don’t love) it’s time to identify what you are missing. When thinking of items to buy try to focus on timeless and versatile pieces that go well with a lot of things in your wardrobe. Sometime it’s like a puzzle. You have to find the perfect piece that ties everything together nicely.
Step 4: The actual shopping
Now it’s time for the fun part that can also be overwhelming. There are quite a few things to have in mind, when shopping more strategically: how’s the quality, does something fit your style, can you think of different ways to style it? Take your time. Research about different brands and fabrics, it gets a lot easier over time in my opinion.
Bonus: Building your dream wardrobe on a budget
Oftentimes when you start your wardrobe project you might feel like you need to buy a lot of things to build a wardrobe you truly love and that’s obviously expensive. There are a few ways to do it a bit more budget-friendly:
don’t rush: you don’t need to have a completely new wardrobe within a week. What I like to do is keeping a wishlist sorted by priority in my phone and then I buy the things over time. I also sometimes keep things I don’t really love and replace them over time. I have an old low quality polyester blazer for example that I definitely want to replace at some point, but until then I keep it.
Sell-to-shop: If you feel like you need a lot of new clothes chances are that you also decluttered a lot. If the pieces are in good condition, sell them and use the money for new clothes.
Pre-loved: probably the most obvious tip, but buying second-hand can save you a lot of money. Its a bit more time consuming to find the perfect pieces in your size, but finding something great second-hand is just the best feeling and also way more sustainable than buying new.
I hope this little guide can help you on your capsule wardrobe journey. Take your time and make the concept your own. I did not include any “rules” or certain number because that’s not something I believe is helpful. Finding your true style and shopping more strategically will automatically help you to make better choices and to build your dream wardrobe.
Love, Alice