I Am Dreaming About a Capsule Wardrobe

Capsule Wardrobe

Everywhere I look online I am reading about the capsule wardrobe and how it is life changing. Every woman in my Facebook groups are posting links and announcing “I need to try this!” I kind of have been doing this for years but a) without knowing it and b) not following the rules per-say.

UPDATED: If you want to see my finished Spring/Summer Capsule Wardrobe read here.

The concept goes hand in hand with me wanting to streamline and live in a more minimalistic home so I have tried to figure out the game of how it really works. I understand the concept and it is laid out clearly in any blog post you read about it. My favourite resource for the capsule wardrobe is a blog called UnFancy. She is actually on blog hiatus right now but all of her posts are still online for people to go through.

What she did was give herself a capsule wardrobe based on a season. Each season consists of a 37 piece wardrobe that includes 9 pairs of shoes, 9 bottoms, and 15 tops, then the remaining 4 for 2 dresses and 2 jackets/coats. Which I would have to play with a little by season because I live in Toronto and is gets cold here in the winter. I might need more in the tops/sweater area or take from one area to  add to another. Anything like under garments, pyjamas, workout-wear, jewellery is not included in the capsule. I don’t believe accessories like hats and scarves are either but you need to be careful in that department because it is easy to go overboard and accumulate too many that you don’t use nor need. The idea behind this is to make your life easier and more fuss free which you can’t do if you have 30 hats and 100 scarves. I do have a lot of scarves and I only actually wear three of them so I need to go through those as well.

When a season is over you carry over what will work in the next season, bring out wearable items that you may have placed in storage from previous season (like winter coats), and anything else you buy on a need basis. Maybe to freshen up what you already have or to replace items that are worn or lose their trendiness.

I can’t afford to buy a whole new wardrobe season to season so I would need to be able to have items that will transfer well from season to season. My idea is to pair back what I have, keep the items that I love, fit well, and wear all the time. Anything else goes. I need to be more cut-throat with this because although my closet isn’t filled with clothes, there are still a lot of things in there that I do not wear or keep in hopes of wearing one day. From there I will make an inventory of items that I need to fill out the capsule and buy accordingly.  UnFancy actually has a Free Wardrobe Planner if you are a pen and paper list kind of person like me.

This is what my closet currently looks like.

closet

Sorry about my shitty picture. How do bloggers make their pictures so white, bright, and inspiring? Every time I make one it looks like I live in a dark cave. I really need to work on this skill.

There are some sweaters crammed on the shelf below the clothes I have hanging but all in all this is everything I have aside from some pants that are in a dresser. My shoe situation is actually quite around where it should be. It is down to about 8 pairs. I have one pair of exercise runners, one pair of flats, black leather sandals, black leather boots, 1 pair of Hunter rain boots, black leather open toe wedges, 2 pairs of heels (yellow leather, and teal leather). So I am thinking of getting a pair of converse and another pair of flats to round things out. I need a new pair of winter boots but I don’t need to worry about that until later.

shoes
The Lean Closet Series is a really good read if you need motivation and inspiration from others who are also building their capsule wardrobes. Just search #leancloset on social media to see what others are doing. I got the capsule wardrobe idea from obsessing about travelling and packing in a carry-on only. My thoughts are if you build a wardrobe from only items that you love, and each piece can co-ordinate with everything else in your wardrobe you will never have issues with wondering what to pack, over-packing, or packing pieces not outfits. You know, if I ever get the chance to travel 😉 I’m just preparing myself for the future. Hint, hint dear husband.

I have the tendency to gravitate towards certain colours and stick with those colours. My current wardrobe primarily consists of black, white, and grey. The bright colours I choose to integrate are usually red, yellow/gold, and green. It makes it really easy to mix and match what I have because so much goes with each other. I hope to improve on this even more by buying myself some quality pieces over the next few years. A really great leather jacket, and Frye Boots are first items on my list in the “Sara’s Closet Fixer Upper Goals”. I also dream to have a wonderful built-in closet via Ikea some day…some Day. I don’t even want a walk in, just extremely organized with shelves, boxes, and places to hang and put everything. I like the one on the bottom right. I want to go for brighter and more open and think the white would work better to active this. I also like all the storage places.

ikea closets

Photo via Ikea

I am kind of really excited to do this. It’s going to be a fun journey.

 

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Sara

Sara is the founder and creative behind livelovesara. A George Brown College Fashion Styling Graduate, she provides advice on finding your personal style regardless of age and budget. She is always on the hunt for the perfect wardrobe piece and is a vintage and thrifting enthusiast who can't wait to share her newest finds. She is also trying to learn French.

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