No matter how many new items of clothes you add to your wardrobe each season, do you somehow always find yourself with absolutely nothing to wear? With an abundance of options in your closet, you’d think putting together outfits would be simple, right? But the truth is, staring into your overflowing closet rammed with clothes, you might as well be staring into a giant gaping black hole. An interchangeable capsule wardrobe is different.
What is an Interchangeable Capsule Wardrobe?
An interchangeable capsule wardrobe is a small well thought out collection of clothes, carefully curated to fit one’s style, lifestyle, and seamlessly interchange with each other for versatility.
The ultimate capsule wardrobe is unique, and all your own. It displays your personal style, defined and refined, to establish one’s signature aesthetic. It doesn’t rely on fashion or trends, but instead on classic and timeless elements that will grow and evolve with a woman throughout her lifetime. It will take time, effort, patience, and commitment, and you’ll wonder why you hadn’t created one sooner.
The trick, of course, is picking the right pieces in the first place. That’s why I’ve put together a Step by Step Guide To Creating The perfectly stylish and functional interchangeable capsule wardrobe. This guide will help you lay the foundation of building your classic wardrobe.
STEP ONE
Start With Why You Need a Capsule Wardrobe
Building your very own classic wardrobe will require some introspection. Why is it that you want to upgrade or curate your wardrobe, to begin with? Why do you want to dress or look better? How will a minimalist or capsule wardrobe serve you?
Maybe you haven’t given much serious thought or effort to your wardrobe since high school (or ever), you’re entering a new phase of life or career and want to reflect the sophisticated woman that you are. Perhaps you’re dating, and wish to dress in a way that makes you feel more fabulous, flirty, and feminine. Or maybe you’d just like an easier time getting ready each day and wouldn’t mind to look more polished and put together.
Are you looking to do a complete overhaul? Or just make some tweaks to what you currently have?
Whatever your desire, it’s important to think through these questions to get a good understanding of exactly what you’d ultimately like to accomplish before building your interchangeable capsule wardrobe.
Related: 101 Things That Happen When You Become A Well Dressed Woman
STEP TWO
Get Style Inspiration
Think of yourself as Picasso when creating your capsule wardrobe. The goal is to create from a semi blank canvas, an absolute masterpiece. And just as every great artist, before we embark upon our masterpiece creation, we need to begin with a bit of inspiration.
Perhaps you fancy a classic style icon like Audrey Hepburn or the modern stylings of Victoria Beckham. Inspiration may come from anywhere and everywhere. Gather images from far and wide. Dedicate a few hours to sit down, search, and collect (or use Pinterest to pin) images that inspire you.
After you’ve put together a substantial repertoire, you will curate the inspiration you’ve gathered. Do you actually love this particular style? Why? Does this style or outfit suit you? During this process, you should scrap and organize until you get a really good baseline from which to work with.
It’s a good idea to have various categorized boards. For example, have a Real Life Style Inspiration Board and Fantasy Life Style Inspiration Board. In one, you pin ideas that you could and would love to wear in real life. In the other, pin things that absolutely give you life, but wouldn’t serve practically whatsoever for your lifestyle.
Great resources to get inspiration for curating a classic (Sophisticated and Classy) style wardrobe are as follows.
Fashion Magazines (Print and Online)
Italian, French, and Japanese, in particular, tend to be ahead of American style in terms of innovative and refreshing. Consider checking them out. Elle, Glamour, Vogue, Instyle, Essence Fashion
Fashion & Style Bloggers
Follow Our Style Inspiration Boards on Pinterest
Movies and TV Shows
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Clueless, How To Marry a Millionaire
People Watching
I especially recommend this is you live in, or travel to a city known for their fashionistas. It’s so interesting and fun to people watch in a city like London, New York, Paris, or Italy. Def a great way to spark inspiration. Our Style Inspiration Pinterest Boards
Take special note of patterns you pin frequently, colors, materials, cuts, fits, and silhouettes that you really love. Make mental notes of the overall aesthetic, feeling and mood of your choosings.
STEP THREE
Get Functional
Getting functional is imperative to building fixing that ever-pervasive “I have nothing to wear” conundrum. Because what’s the point of having a closet full of beautifully tailored suits because you love how they look if you’re not the Duchess of Sussex? You’re never going to wear them.
In this step, we get real and tailor a wardrobe that fits your actual life, and not your fantasy one. Start getting functional by listing all of your monthly, weekly, and daily activities. Group together activities where you may wear the same kinds of outfits. Then acknowledge groups based on they’re under or over-representation in your current wardrobe. These are the categories you’ll pay extra attention to.
Outfit Formulas and Uniforms
Author Anuschka Rees defines an outfit formula as a recipe for a specific combination of pieces that you can wear in lots of different variations. This is solid outfit formula or uniform is imperative to creating a minimalist and functional capsule wardrobe. Certain outfit formulas that you love to wear, you can even make your personal uniform. Further simplifying looking fabulous, every day, effortlessly.
Some of the biggest style icons of our time wear a version of their uniform all the time. Take Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Her uniform for well over a decade has been mostly unchanged… a beautiful well structured, tailored dress nipped at the waist, with lots of colors and bold pattern. Her signature statement pieces: her Sleek bob haircut and oversized shades.
What outfit formula combinations do you find yourself most drawn to? What do you currently really like to wear? What would you like to wear more of? What are you seeing over and over, in your style inspirations?
STEP FOUR
Creating a Capsule Wardrobe Color Palette
Understanding color and formulating a solid personal color palette for each season is integral to a cohesive capsule wardrobe. Firstly having colors that go together will make it simple to match and put together outfits. Additionally color is a great way to enhance your beauty by complementing your hair, eyes and skin tone.
STEP FIVE
Putting it All Together
This is where you turn vague missing ideas into concrete pieces.
What are the biggest gaps in your wardrobe? From creating your ultimate formulas, what are the care absolute must-have that you simply do not have? Are there some underrepresented in your wardrobe?
But before you head out shopping you need to create a solid list of the items you need to purchase. For example, I want to wear flowy skirts and cami in the sprint, but I only own one decent cami. Instead of just listing cami, I should be more specific based on what I want to look like, exactly what these pieces should look like. For example, I would like a White Silk Cami, with lace detail. Super functional, comfy, feminine, and goes very well with this and other outfit formulas I’ve come up with.
The absolute worst thing ever is when you’re getting ready to go somewhere, you scavenge through your closet, trying your best to piece things together but nothing quite goes. This should no longer be a problem, with a curated wardrobe, however, you could make your life even that much easier by fitting and piecing outfits together long before having to get dressed. With your new wardrobe realized or conceptualized, I promise this will be so much fun! Time to turn up some fun music and put together outfits in front of your full-sized mirror. You could even take photos to add them to a folder on your phone and use as a reference when trying to figure out what to wear.
Et, voila! You’ve got your capsule wardrobe set, your outfits put together. Girlfriend your good to go, and looking better than ever!
[…] RELATED: How To Build An Interchangeable Capsule Wardrobe […]
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