Capsule closets are minimalistic, simple, and necessary. It forces you to become more creative with your outfits while also making it very easy to dress yourself every morning. For those that don’t know what a capsule closet is, it’s basically cutting down your clothes to only about 30 items of clothing. To make these items work for an entire season or an entire year, you have to be very careful and choose items that work well together and that can be worn in different variations and styles. Here are some basic tips and tricks that’ll help you curate your unique capsule closet.
When considering what you want to keep from your overflowing and overwhelming closet, sift through all of your items and ask yourself when the last time you have worn it was. If it’s been longer than 6 months, donate the item or bin it. If not, keep it in your closet and repeat with every item of clothing. Repeat this process until you are left with only essential items; clothes you are comfortable with, that are good quality, and items that you will be able to wear over and over again.
Try to keep yourself to about 30 items. This may seem like a large number of clothes for a capsule closet, but I can estimate that I have about 200+ pieces of clothing including pants, jeans, jackets, t-shirts, sweaters, sleepwear, loungewear, active wear, bathrobes, etc. It’s important to minimize our spending and restrict our ideas of what we “need” from our clothes. Do you really need that sequin miniskirt? No. And do you really need ten basic white tees? Probably not. In our society, we are all consumers targeted by large companies that are making insane amounts of money from us. All for items that realistically only cost a couple of dollars to make. To make these clothes, labour and materials are outsourced from developing countries whose citizens aren’t making enough money for the work they are doing. To make dyes for different coloured clothes and different washes for jeans, gallons upon gallons of fresh water is used, depleting the world’s already dwindling fresh water reserve. While fashion is an important way for people to express themselves and to feel confident, it should also be considered a way for us to help our earth while we still can. Minimizing our spending, our collecting of meaningless trivial things, will help reduce waste in packaging and the waste of gas and energy in the production and transportation of these items. A capsule closet is a great way to kill multiple birds with one stone; it helps you declutter your personal space, you’ll be able to donate clothes to the less fortunate, and make a positive impact on our earth’s deteriorating health, something that humans are solely responsible for. This is a small step of course, but one small step for each person can amount to a greater change that we can achieve only by trying.
Enough babbling, let’s talk about how to curate a capsule wardrobe. Remember, the key to having a successful wardrobe is to have items that are versatile and that you know will work for your body and keep you comfortable. For me, I love a simple style dressed up with accessories and some statement pieces, so it’s important to have a few trendy pieces to keep your capsule wardrobe fresh and fun. Let’s get started.
1. “Less is more”
If there is an item that you can’t decide to keep or to donate, put it aside and give yourself two weeks to see if you reach for that piece. If you don’t, you know to donate it or throw it out. If you do, you can add it to your capsule wardrobe. When it comes to items that we have a lot of, like t-shirts and basics, keep the ones that are the best quality and won’t get damaged after frequent washes. After all, a basic white t-shirt and jeans will become your new outfit base.
2. Keep five pairs of pants at most
Everyday capsule wardrobe users know that jeans will become your new best friend. Jeans are great for every day, frequent wear because they can handle multiple wears in between washes. In fact, the only time I wash my jeans is when they’re obviously dirty and have stretched out. Put aside two pairs of go-to jeans, one blue pair and one black pair. For the other pants, keep comfy joggers that can be worn out and about, as well as a couple of dress pants. That’s all you need for bottoms!
3. Keep the colors neutral
My go-to outfit when I have no time to rummage around my closet is black jeans, a black turtleneck, and black booties. It’s easy and I know that it’ll look make me look more put together than I actually am. The best way to make sure that all of your pieces will complement each other is to keep the color scheme neutral. This makes putting outfits together so much easier when you already know that whatever you choose will look good. It also sets up the possibility of dressing up your outfit with brighter, statement accessories or trendy clothing pieces of the season.
4. Add a trendy piece
Like mentioned above, a simple and clean outfit will give you the choice to elevate your look with trendier in-season pieces that’ll make your closet feel fresh and fun! Right now, neon colors are super-hot and because it’s such a statement, it’s best to match it with an understated, neutral-toned outfit.
5. Dress it up or Dress it down
When considering what pieces belong in your capsule wardrobe, keep in mind that you will probably have events and last-minute rendezvous to dress up for some time during the season ahead. In terms of shoes, keep one pair of clean white sneakers, but also keep a transitional pair of heels. Heels can be worn in the summertime, at work, at business events, and so and so forth. Dress pants are great to wear on a daily basis and can be dressed down with a basic white tee or a wool sweater, but can also be dressed up with a blouse and heels. You want to make sure that your closet can cater to both your casual everyday side and your date-night or interview looks.