Capsule Wardrobe

Did you know that the average woman only wears about 30% of what’s in her closet? I’m pretty sure I fit that description – I wear the same things on a regular basis while ignoring the rest of the stuff because I don’t like it, it doesn’t fit, it’s not comfortable, or it doesn’t go with anything else.

I think a capsule wardrobe is something I’m going to try to accomplish this year. The idea is to have fewer clothes, but everything fits properly and can be mixed and matched with the other items in the wardrobe. This might mean spending more money on individual pieces, but they’d be higher quality so they’d last longer and look nicer. Plus, the biggest benefit from having a capsule wardrobe is eliminating the closet-full-of-clothes-nothing-to-wear syndrome.

I’ve been reading about capsule wardrobes on various blogs – Project 333 is what I read first. This doesn’t really apply to me since I don’t live in a 4-season climate, so I won’t need to switch out my clothes every 3 months, but it’s a great starting point. I really like The Vivienne Files for outfit ideas; this blogger suggests 75% basics, and 25% “signature pieces”. She also suggests having a clothing budget. I think that’s a brilliant idea and I don’t know why I never previously considered that. I also totally agree with her philosophy about fast fashion.

These will be my wardrobe-building rules:

• Do not buy anything just because it’s on sale. I don’t save when I spend.
• I may only buy pants in curvy-cut. Anything else is unflattering and uncomfortable.
• My pants will go to the dry cleaner to get hemmed immediately. Even if they’re petite. Otherwise they sit in my closet unworn because I don’t like to wear heels.
• Buying suits is forbidden since I wear different sizes on the top and the bottom. Separates only. I don’t need any more suits anyway – it’s not like I go to court or meet with clients. Although suits are definitely the easiest thing to wear and needn’t be overly formal.
• No bold prints, bright colors, or patterns. They may look nice in the store, but argyle or pinstripes is about as daring as my style goes.
• I will not be afraid to spend more money on something that looks nice and fits well. It all evens out when considering the cheap, ill-fitting clothes that I have now.
• I shall try to buy Made in the USA as much as possible. I didn’t think that was important to me, but this horrifying story makes me think twice about purchasing cheap stuff made in third-world countries. And I may have been influenced by the daily ABC World News podcasts.
• I’m going to give 유씨 final approval to decide what is flattering. I want to stop wearing baggy, unshapely clothes. He’s already vetoed a pair of schumpy cords that I ordered online so back they went; without his input I would have kept them and worn them to death.

I’ve started by ruthlessly purging my closet. There was certainly a lot of crap in there, and there’s more still that I didn’t have the heart to toss. I’m going to work on it, though.

I also decided on my core colors. That was easy – black/grey, brown/tan. I will need a pair of pants in each of those colors. I’ve got the black and brown; the grey and tan are suit pants so I will see how those work individually.

This will be a work in progress, and I’m excited about the idea of looking and feeling put-together.