Hello friends! It’s that time of year where I post my seasonal capsule wardrobe guide. In this guide, I share my Spring Capsule wardrobe which is honestly one of my favorites to do every year. As the weather gets warm, you bring out your lighter colors and put away the darker ones. You get to wear your skirts, shorts and sandals again. Additionally, you can also get wear out of your Fall wardrobe since the weather is still in that “in-between” stage and it’s cooler in the mornings and evenings.
What is a Capsule Wardrobe?
A capsule wardrobe is a small collection of clothing items that can be mixed and matched and worn together to create multiple different outfits. I like to stick to a capsule wardrobe of at least 20 items but you can find ranges from 10 to 40 items. The item count includes tops and bottoms (I treat shoes separately as I consider shoes an accessory like belts and jewelry). You can create a capsule wardrobe for the entire year or if you’re like me, I like to create a capsule for each season or even for a vacation or trip.
My capsules are mostly neutral tones because for me, neutrals are much easier to mix and match and I find that I wear neutrals more often than color. But that doesn’t mean each capsule wardrobe out there has to be neutral. In fact, I recommend injecting a few colorful and/or patterned item to increase your wardrobe variety and prevent boredom when creating outfits.
Benefits of a Capsule Wardrobe
The goal of having a capsule wardrobe is to create multiple outfits using minimal pieces. This means you can have many outfits without buying a lot of additional clothes, therefore saving you money in the long run. Additional benefits:
- Increases closet organization and cohesion
- Reduces closet clutter
- Saves you money
- Reduces stress in getting ready
Because you have less in your closet, you can utilize each item you have more effectively. You can also focus more on creating outfits with things that you love and feel you get a lot of wear out of.
How to build a Capsule Wardrobe
I recommend the following three steps when starting out building your capsule wardrobe
- Take a closet inventory and do complete clean out. Basically, you’ll want to create two separate piles here. Pull out the clothes that you tend to gravitate more and wear often and that is your first pile. Your second pile is anything that you haven’t worn in over a year. If you haven’t worn it in a year, you probably won’t wear it again! I don’t recommend creating a third “maybe” pile as this muddies the process and you really need to be specific here. Anything you need to get rid of (your second pile) can be donated or sold. Your first pile goes back into your closet. These will be your first pieces in your capsule wardrobe
- Determine what type of capsule wardrobe you want. Do you want a mostly neutral and classic based capsule? Or colorful and trendy? This can vary by season as well so you can be flexible in this step. I love to have more neutral colors and classic staples in my wardrobe. I found that I gravitated more towards a lot of black tops, white pants and taupe colored pieces whenever I got dressed. Look at your first pile of clothes that remain in your closet after your clean out. Are they mostly fun and colorful pieces? A mix of neutrals and darker pieces? This assessment is basically figuring out what your personal style is! Have fun with this step, be honest with yourself and dig deep here.
- The last step will be to determine the pieces that are lacking that you will need. These pieces will basically fill in your wardrobe to completion. Do you lack a pair of jeans that you will love to wear day after day? Do you lack layering tees or blazers or work trousers? Yes, you may have to spend money during this step but the goal is to purchase FEW of these items you lack. I recommend buying higher quality items that will last. If you want an occasional trend based item that’s fine, just really think if they will be versatile enough to mix and match with other items in your capsule wardrobe.
Play dress up & have fun styling your outfits!
The final step is to play “dress up”! (Remember doing that when you were 5?) Take the time to put together outfit ideas! I recommend doing this step especially if you’re always on the go and busy. If you can have 10-15 outfit ideas in the back of your pocket, it will make getting ready in the morning much easier. After your capsule wardrobe is complete, set aside some time over the weekend and try on some outfit ideas in front of a mirror. Whatever outfit you feel good in, snap a mirror selfie of it. Create an album on your phone with these outfit pictures so the next time you get ready and need ideas of what to wear, you always have that album to refer to. I also recommend Pinterest for outfit ideas and of course, my blog right here and my Instagram! I have hundreds of outfits on my Instagram for you to pull inspiration from. See below for some outfit examples using the Spring Capsule guide above:
I really hope this was helpful and that you can start having fun with getting dressed in the morning, feeling put together and confident all day!
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