Create The Best Capsule Wardrobe For You

Most of the time capsules have around 20 to 30 pieces including dresses, tops, bottoms, outerwear, and shoes. But it'll depend on your style, your budget or the season. The good part is that it doesn’t include underwear, sleepwear, and workout gear.

The key is to have versatile clothes that can be used in many different ways, so you get more looks with fewer choices. Include staple pieces that are able to be worn together with other items.

I like to dress and plan by seasons. Where I live, 70% of the year we have hot weather. Most of my clothes are for that kind of climate. Your choices will depend on where you live, but the ideal thing to do is to look for pieces that can be worn in both kinds of weather. For example, garments that could be layered or worn with tights and without them.

1. Basics

This will be like the name says it, the base of your capsule. They should look good with almost anything, they are helpful to blend those special pieces you'll choose into your outfit. It will complement them.

2. Matching

Mix and Matching your clothes is the tricky part. You might want to consider the weather, proximate events, or your daily activities.

This is the part where you get creative! Bring back those inspiring ideas and start mixing and matching your clothes. Try them all together and see how many outfits you can get out of them.

You could use this list to help you plan it.

8 Tops

6 Bottoms

2 Coats

1 Sweater

1 Jacket

1 Sweatshirt

2 Casual Dresses

1 Formal Dress

5 Pairs of Shoes

3-4 Accessories

One brand that does great mixing and matching clothes is Vetta Capsule. They design their clothing in a way that with only 5 items you are able to create 30 different outfits. And the best of everything, their clothes are sustainable.

I also find inspiration from Isabelle on the Clueless Capsule. She creates such beautiful capsules and has very good tips.

3. Accessories

Jewelry | Hats | Bags | Sunglasses

The final touch to your outfits. They are the greatest tool to maximize the number of outfit combinations, you can have endless possibilities. It also brings more personality to your clothes.

4. Color palette

If all your clothes stay in similar color tones your outfit options increases. Choosing clothes with colors that complement each other well, will make it easier to combine every garment.

To create your color palette, I recommend you start with 5 colors.

3 Neutrals and 2 Accents, but you can include a lighter or darker shades to the palette. That way you'll have more options to combine. And to this, you can also add 1 or 2 prints like stripes or plaid, just make sure it fits with the other colors of the palette.

The accent color will depend on the season, your favorite color at the moment, or the color of the special clothes you might want to put into the capsule.

Invest in clothes with better quality. They might be more expensive but you’re going to be buying fewer pieces in the future. It’s better to buy one expensive classic item than four cheaper non-durable items. Also, that is another way to have a more sustainable wardrobe.

Use the Cost-Per-Wear formula to see the benefits of investing in better quality.

Good quality Basic Black Dress $100 USD

Worn 2 times a month for 8 years = 192 uses

Divide those $100 by 192 = $1.92 Per-Wear

Bad quality Basic Black Dress $50 USD

Worn 2 times a month for 1 year = 24 uses (Bad conditions, it's not wearable anymore)

Divide $50 for 24 = $2.08 Per-Wear

As you can notice the better choice is the first one. You get more chances to wear the dress and in the long term, it pays off for the investment you made.

I strongly believe that we should...

Buy less, choose well, make it last. -- Vivienne Westwood

One rule I tend to apply when I'm shopping is, if one thing goes into my closet another must come out. That way you'll only have what's necessary.

Avoid impulse buys, those pieces are most likely to not combine with your wardrobe and they might go out of fashion soon.

Remember those outfit inspirations? Well, next time you are going shopping bring those ideas with you and try to find similar pieces. Before buying it, make sure they also combine with your clothes.

6. Caring for your clothes

The most important step since you’ll be wearing your clothing more often. You might need to maintain them frequently. Always look at the care label, wash the garment as it says there.There are a lot of tips to take care of your clothes. For example, the tip we did on our Instagram page on how to take away the bad smell of your clothes. And as those tips, you can find a lot more. Try to keep your garments like new, like I said, make them last for years to come.

The best way to avoid this if you don't have the time is buying threads that can be easily washed and repaired. The less dry cleaning the better, it’s expensive and really bad for the planet.

As you can see Curating a Capsule will bring you a lot of benefits. Like not wasting a lot of time and effort on thinking what to wear. It'll be stress-free and faster to dress in the morning.

Finally, I just wanted to tell you some statistics about clothing waste.According to the "Environmental Protection Agency" in 2014, 10.46 million tons of clothing waste was sent to the landfill.

An average American throws away approximately 80 pounds of used clothing per person per year. The average lifetime of a piece of clothing is approximately 3 years.

These numbers prove to us, how our consumer choices affect the world. We need to change the way we shop and dress in order to have a better and cleaner planet. We share with you this guide so you're able to create the Best Capsule Wardrobe for you and the environment.

Let us know if you're starting or you already started planning your own capsule.

I hope you find this helpful!

- Dani