Welcome
Its spring of 2017 and I am currently living in capsule number 8 and getting ready to close up year 2 of dressing with a capsule. I am 3 capsule wardrobes behind. Here is capsule number 5.
I am planning to keep these updates short and simple. This isn’t a fashion blog so I don’t want to have 3 capsule posts in 3 weeks. I am rolling out 1 a month and in June we should be all up to date.
My goal in year 2 ( capsule 5-8) was to get all my clothes to fit into 1 bin and 1 back pack.
When I just started out, my goal for year one of my capsule was to test out the majority of my wardrobe. I had lots of clothes I wasn’t wearing, but I couldn’t tell you why. So I decided that instead of just dumping everything into the donate box I would give each item a chance. To figure out why I wasn’t wearing it. Did it not fit right? Was it nice to look at but itchy to wear? or did it just not suit my mom life style? The experiment went really well and I discovered some hidden gems and said goodbye to a lot of unnecessary items. Cutting my wardrobe from 269 down to 142 items.
Today it’s all about Capsule 5 Summer 2016.
After all the testing of last year I was finally able to ask, Which of these items are my favorite? To keep only the best. Instead of looking at all my clothes and starting from scratch. I stuck to the 4 capsule templates I had created in the first year.
Here is a visual of the items in my wardrobe. I unintentionally ended up with green, purple and white as the main color pallet.
Here is what I learned from Capsule 5
1. Long sleeves men’s shirts work as outer layers
That’s right. Long sleeve men’s shirts work well as sweaters or outer layers. During last years capsule I felt I needed some more button up or zip up sweaters. They are much more useful and flexible then pull overs. But I don’t want to buy anything, I have enough. I want to learn to use what I already have, and make the most of it. Finding out that these shirts I had been holding on to but never using fit my need, it was great.
Men’s shirts work great in the summer since they are usually very lightweight. They can be an extra layer for warmth. Or keep you fresh and out of direct sunlight. Win win.
2. Skirts can pull double duty
Doing some google image searches and u tube video searches I discovered the cool idea of wearing a skirt as a shirt. I don’t think I got that trick down in this capsule but at least I am now aware of it. Giving what I own more functionality.
3. Old can be new if its never been used
None of the clothes in my summer capsule was new ( actually most is over 5 years old). I haven’t been participating in a shopping ban but I didn’t buy anything for Capsule 5. I used last summers capsule as my base and added the items that still needed to be tested. The green dress (item 1), Long pink skirt (12), and others were all like if I had bought myself new clothes. When you have so much clothes there is a lot that goes unused. It’s amazing to think you can have new clothes that is just old clothes that you never wear. Who knew clothes could go into hibernation.
I failed in capturing looks.
People say sharing your wins and failures is important in blogging. Here is an example of my failure to light pictures and to accumulate enough outfit looks. But hey this is real life so there you have it.
I considered putting in the time and effort to do a photo shoot of looks at the end of the season but like I said this isn’t a fashion blog. So this is what you get. You can compare it to my first summer capsule.
The items that didn’t make the cut
In the end I got rid of some of my “new” items because they just didn’t fit into my life style. Hello item 1 and 2 below. But I got rid of the black men’s shirt because I discovered another 2 in my stuff that I liked better.
For me capsule wardrobes aren’t about curbing unnecessary spending, they are really about my minimalism journey.
You can check out the rest of my capsule journey
Have you tried capsule dressing?
Ciao,
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