Essential Outerwear for a Capsule Wardrobe

A smart black coat is essential for any wardrobe. Even if you're not a big fan of black, there are occasions when you will need one. Sadly, those occasions are often funerals.

It may seem morbid to keep clothes in your wardrobes specifically for this reason but trust me, when you're grieving, you don't want the stress of trying to find an appropriate outfit at the last minute. I have this Santinni Couture 'A Place in the Sun' coat and a tailored L K Bennett dress in my wardrobe for just this reason.

Wrap coats are my absolute favourite. I love how cosy they are - it can sometimes feel like wearing your dressing gown outside the house and I am 100% up for that!

They can be easily dressed up with a pair of heels or dressed down with a pair of boots. As always I would recommend a neutral colour so it goes with everything, but an exciting colour is definitely worth having on hand too. I have a dark green version of this Ted Baker coat as well as the camel you can see here, and the dark green actually works really well with all of my autumn and winter outfits. It's practically a neutral, but it makes a real statement.

Sadly I left this faux leather jacket on a train to Bicester and haven't been able to find a good replacement! A leather or denim jacket will add the perfect practical yet fashionable touch to outfits during the transitional seasons. It can be hard to know what outerwear to wear with shorter skirts and dresses, and a short jacket always looks great.

With leather jackets, try a few on and keep an eye on what it's doing to your figure. I find biker jackets added too much bulk for me, whereas this smoother jacket worked perfectly. (Sob. I miss it.)

You can't talk about essential capsule-wardrobe coats without mentioning the classic trench coat. Mine is from Burberry (similar linked) but I'd actually recommend going to the high street. The Burberry one comes up small and needs to be dry-cleaned, and I haven't been able to get a stain from a dog walk out of it even with specialist cleaning, whereas I used to have an equally beautiful one from Tommy Hilfiger which I could wash at home and always looked great. Of course, the flash of Burberry check still makes me giddy so I don't regret it.

Autumn is the perfect season to treat yourself to a new trench coat as it's the season of layering. Go for one that's slightly oversized so you have a choice of knits to wear underneath.

OK OK, capes definitely aren't essential, but I would argue it IS essential to have one statement piece of outerwear in your arsenal, whether that's a high-fashion cape or a classic wrap coat in a really fun colour like Barbie pink or siren red.

Most of the coats on this list are practical and will work for many different occasions, but fashion should still be fun and on occasion you're entitled to more frivolous purchases like a snowy cape that makes you feel like Belle in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.