TAKING MY OBSESSION TO THE NEXT LEVEL....THE CAPSULE WARDROBE SAGA

Okay, so I think it’s been pretty well established that I’m a HUGE nerd! If I find something fascinating, I will research it to death! You can ask my husband or my daughter (or my sons when they’re visiting from college) that I basically study ALL THE TIME.

So when I got on this idea of a capsule wardrobe, I have been studying the heck out of the concept.

It is very safe to say that fashion is NOT my forte.

At all.

I suck.

But I still LOVE this concept.

I’ve been discussing it with friends (shout out to my friend Annie for listening to me and giving some solid advice!), and spending FAR too much time on Pinterest and YouTube checking out options. 

I've been posting about it on social media. 

And I’m not going to lie – with the plethora of information out there, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. That’s a lot of information to take in about a subject that, frankly, I find rather intimidating.

But I love it so much for a few reasons.

The first one being – I already have a pretty good start on a basic Capsule Wardrobe.

The second – I feel like it helps simplify my life. Be honest. How many of you have a closet FULL of clothes, or dressers FULL of clothes, but you only wear a very SPECIFIC handful of the same outfits? That would be me! By shifting to a Capsule Wardrobe, I would be clearing out my closets and drawers of clothes that I honestly don’t even wear that much anymore.

Which sort of ties into my third reason – you are probably holding on to TONS of clothes that you “might wear again someday”. You have t-shirts from college or high school. You have that gifted sweater from Aunt Ruth that you are NEVER going to wear in public, but you hate to give it away and hurt her feelings. You have pants that you haven’t worn since before your first child was born – and BRAVO to you if you can still fit in those bad boys!!! Surprise! By paring down with a capsule wardrobe, you don’t have to hurt any feelings and you can give away to your heart’s content. By following the basics of a capsule wardrobe you don’t have to feel guilty about getting rid of things that don’t “match” in your capsule.

And my fourth reason – it takes the guess work out of “what am I going to wear?” Although, in my case a lot of the decision falls into the “what is clean?” category. But this way, I know that ALMOST no matter what I pick from my closet, it’s going to match and go together. Hubs and Mini-Me like to tease me about “looking FANCY” when I wear clothes that actually MATCH! This way, I can grab whatever shirt, pants, jacket, shoes that I need for the day, and they will ALL work together.

So, then I had to figure out, what exactly is going to be IN my Capsule Wardrobe?

Now, I’m going to go off on a little tangent here because I want to address a quick issue – SPORTS MOMS.

I live in a small, rural town. We LOVE our school sports. We support our local businesses who create the swag that we wear to each and every game. There is NO WAY I would ever NOT wear something either with our school/town/sport on the shirt/pants/jacket, or at the very least have our school colors on!

So, for the sports moms – your school swag DOES NOT COUNT as part of your Capsule. It is a separate entity all on its own that NO ONE dares touch or try to take away! So, if you have an entirely separate closet FULL of clothes supporting your kids’ activities (and I know I used sports moms, but this actually applies to dance moms and band moms and vocal moms and any mom out there who has kids in ANY activities) that is COMPLETELY fine, and we don’t count any of those clothes.

Back to the Capsule. What goes in it?

From everything that I’ve seen and read about it, since the point is to go “basic” that’s what you start with.

Bottoms – jeans, trousers, skirts, etc. Most of what I’ve seen calls for anywhere from 3-7 combined pieces. So that probably means if you have 30 pairs of pants/skirts/etc., it’s probably safe to get rid of a few.

For me, I have jeans (blue and black), black trousers, and a couple of black skirts (pencil and maxi).

Tops – long sleeved, short sleeved, t-shirts, button-downs, sweaters, etc. Again, I’ve seen recommendations of only 3 all the way to 10. More than that kind of feels like it defeats the purpose of having a basic capsule.

For me, I have a few of the tops, but will be filling out the capsule with a few more basics and giving away a lot of things that a.) Don’t Fit; b.) Don’t Match; c.) Out of Style; or d.) No Longer Work with My Hair Color. This last might not be a concern for some of you, but in case you missed my profile picture, I have naturally white/silver hair. Warm colors (browns, tans, oranges, reds, yellows, olive green) DO NOT go with my hair. I look AWFUL! So, I have to clear out a lot of things I used to be able to wear when my hair was more of a dark blonde/light brown.

Outerwear – denim jackets, leather jackets, blazers, cardigans, shackets, etc. Mostly seems to be the consensus that 3-5 different outerwear pieces should suffice.

I will admit I have a denim jacket, a leather jacket, and multiple cardigans. I will probably mix and match those throughout the Fall, Winter, and Spring.

Then there are a couple of dresses thrown into some of the capsules, depending on what your needs are.

Accessories in almost all the pictures include scarves, hats, jewelry, sunglasses, and purses/bags. This scares the ever-loving fire outta me and with the exception of MAYBE adding a scarf when it’s cold, I won’t be venturing outside of my basic cross-body purse and my sunglasses. However, since this is your capsule, you are free to add WHATEVER you wish. But the bottom line is Keep It Simple! Try to just pick 2 or 3 of your favorites and stick with those for simplicity’s sake.

Shoes – sneakers, boots, loafers, sandals, heels, etc. I feel like shoes are where this could get even more complicated than accessories! This is another area where I have to say to each their own. Again, to keep it simple, you might want to evaluate what clothes you wear the most often, and what shoes fit those needs, with others thrown in where necessary.

If you work in an office, you are probably going to need the loafers, sandals, heels, and possibly the boots. If you work in a more casual atmosphere, maybe the sneakers, sandals, and boots will get you by.

The basic premise of the capsule, other than keeping it simple, is to coordinate as many of the items as possible. So, following a specific color scheme and coordinating your items around that.

My “color scheme” is black, white, and gray with denim pieces. Most of the Fall Capsules I’ve seen have black, white or off-white, tan, olive, and denim coordinating pieces. I’m honestly still working on what “colors” to include in mine – other than our school color, that doesn’t count! I know I need cool tones or jewel tones that aren’t warm (no gold, bronze, topaz, etc.).

But I feel like once I get this worked out, I’m going to really enjoy going into my closet and grabbing ANYTHING, and KNOWING that it is coordinated and works together, and I don’t have to stress about it.

As busy moms, I feel like anything we can do to simplify our life and help us get through the hectic days is worth looking into. It might not be for everyone, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Whatever helps keep me sane and feeling comfortable is something I’m willing to try.

So, we’ll see how this Capsule Wardrobe creation works out.

Later….