Capsule Wardrobe: How-to
I, perhaps like some of you, had no idea what a capsule wardrobe was a year ago. But as I started following more sustainable fashion accounts and blogs, I noticed this term being used and decided to do some research.
A capsule wardrobe is essentially a small number (usually a subset of your entire wardrobe) of clothing items that are worn for a specific period of time (can vary, I will get into this further down). The goal is to wear only these clothing items for a stretch of time, which can help force some creativity and new mixing/matching so that you don't feel like you are wearing the same outfit everyday (but also, there's nothing wrong with that and you can outfit repeat).
Participating in a capsule wardrobe is also a good way to experiment with how a smaller wardrobe feels for you, maybe it feels great but maybe it doesn't. Both options are possible and fine! It's just information. Because a capsule wardrobe is generally a subset of your entire wardrobe, there is no pressure to actually get rid of things you own and you can do a capsule wardrobe no matter how many pieces of clothing you have!
The numbers.
So you can go with whatever makes the most sense to you, but some common number combinations are:
- 10x10
- 20x20
- 30x30
- Project333 (this one involves wearing 33 items for 3 months)
- Any # of clothing items x Any # of days
How to choose items.
The beauty of these challenges is that they are for you, so there is not one right way to do them! For example, some people include shoes, some will not. Some people will not include outerwear layers that are primarily for shielding rain/snow, but some may. If this is your first capsule, be flexible!
The first capsule I did was a 30x30 but I did not include shoes, accessories, or my rain gear. I simply chose a combination of 30 tops, sweaters, pants, dresses, skirts, etc.
Most recently, I did a 20x20 challenge which was so fun and I did a better job at documenting my capsule so I wanted to include some of that information here. I also included shoes this time around to make it a little more challenging for myself. (Photos of each outfit are included in this blog)
- 5 Tops
- 5 Sweaters
- 5 Bottoms (1 skirt, 4 pants)
- 1 Jumpsuit
- 4 Shoes
*I did not include accessories or rain gear.
I recommend including a good portion of solids/neutrals that you can mix and match easily. I also love including an item or two I haven't really worn often so that I can try to fall more in love with it or figure out it might be time to move on.
And I was really happy with my 20 item combination. I felt like it gave me so many outfit choices, and I basically went the entire 20 days without repeating an outfit exactly. The only thing I may have changed would be to only include 3 shoes and to add another shirt or skirt instead.
One thing I also did was to list out each item in my capsule and add a tally each time I wore the item in the course of the 20 days. This was helpful for me to know which items I was gravitating to the most and which items I was not. My most worn item was my short brown boots and white Babaa sweater. My least worn item was my black crewneck sweater, so I could have chosen a different sweater or top instead maybe.
One of my favorite pieces ended up being this black jumpsuit. I had purchased in December but had yet to wear it so this was a great way to try it out. One of my favorite combinations was actually to wear it UNDER my skirt, so that it acted more as more of a top. It is one of my favorite outfits to date, and I don't know that I would have ever came up with it if I wasn't restricted to these capsule items.
Learn more about your wardrobe.
The first time I did a capsule wardrobe (a 30x30) I was surprised by how many clothing items I had when trying to get it down to just 30. The capsule wardrobe challenge itself does not exactly require you to do a full count of your wardrobe or to do a closet inventory, but by separating out 30 items (or however many items you choose) you can really get an idea of how much you have. I probably had closer to 120-150 just based on how my stack of 30 looked vs the rest of my closet. And after completing the 30 days, I did not want to get back to such a large closet, so I only added in about 45 items and hosted a clothing swap, and donated the rest.
As mentioned before, I tracked my # of wears for each item in my last 20x20 capsule, which was helpful! It is interesting to see which items you gravitate to within this time frame the most and also you can see if there are items on in your capsule that you didn't go for. At the end of the challenge, you may want to revisit why you didn't wear a particular item very much or not at all, and perhaps it may be time to part with it.
Lastly, I also figured out how much my total capsule of 20 items cost. The cost of clothing does not get enough attention in my opinion, so I wanted to be transparent about the cost of the 20 items. I don't have the cost of everything in my entire closet, but going through and estimating costs of these 20 items was doable.
The total cost of my 20 items was $1,140.50. Without my shoes, the total drops to $682.50 since I tend to spend a bit more on my shoes. And 7 out of the 20 items were purchased secondhand!
Reflect afterwards.
Think about your goals for doing a capsule, write them down and check in on them along the way! This is all for fun and to get information for yourself and how you feel about your clothing. There is not a wrong way to do it, and even if you give up halfway through I wouldn't consider it a failure.
Think about what worked and why, and what didn't and why not.
Have fun!
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For further reading, Uncomplicated Spaces has a great blog post on creating your first capsule too!