Capsule Wardrobe Plans Archives - Page 44 of 62

What If I Only Want to Wear Solid Colors?

June 14, 2014

What if you don't WANT to wear printed garments, or scarves? More power to you, and congratulations for knowing what you really prefer! I'm going to recommend some coordinating small solid earrings in semi-precious stones, bracelets in enamel or stone, and solid scarves to keep your ensembles looking "intentional." I'm not sure, but I think this could qualify as a "whatever's clean" wardrobe...

Starting with the dark neutrals we've seen before:

And then the light neutrals:

And some solid neutral tops:

Finally, the accent colors. We haven't seen pastels for a while, so let's go pink and blue!

This is your sixteen-piece wardrobe:

Plenty of ways to pull this together ... View the Post

A Floral Blouse in A Common Capsule Wardrobe

June 11, 2014 Floral garments are everywhere this summer - any sort of skirt, blouse, tee shirt or dress your heart may desire is out there somewhere... But I receive emails every day asking how a floral garment can be incorporated into The Common Capsule Wardrobe. Let's look at this problem in some detail. First off - the gorgeous blouse with which you fall in love - is it in colors that bear at least a passing resemblance to the rest of your wardrobe? Or does it include a substantial portion of a neutral (or two)? This blouse might be the first glimpse of rose/dark pink that your wardrobe has seen in decades, but at least it has a lot of neutral khaki in it, and enough black details that it can be worn ... View the Post

My Version of Une Annee de Style – A Common Capsule Wardrobe

May 20, 2014

After thinking a while about last week's book (Une Annee de Style), I realized that this book was basically just a variation of my old standard Common Capsule Wardrobe - a small collection of neutral, simple garments upon which one can build all kinds of personalized styles and outfits.Let's say that you get a wild inclination to buy a fantastic tee shirt... You find some pretty outrageous sandals that go with your tee shirt, and also a beautiful, solid scarf...

If you start with that simple core of garments that we all should own (in some variation or another)...

You have all of these ways to wear the fabulous new tee shirt, as well as the cool green sandals and the beautiful ... View the Post

How to get “stress dressed”…

May 14 2014 I am asked this question often - is there anything I can do to be prepared when I have one of those mornings and I just can't get dressed? Today's a particularly appropriate day for me to write this, because I'm wearing my version of this today - head to toe black with accessories... For me, the best way to be prepared for this is to have ten items - six garments and four accessories - specifically assigned (in my mind, at least) for these days when everything feels like it's falling apart. You can work this in any color scheme, and the garments in question are an excellent base for both a travel wardrobe or a new simpler closet. You have to accept that you're going to wear a very simple ... View the Post

18=216, in a really big, perfect wardrobe slot machine…

April 28, 2014

I said on Saturday that the idea of a wardrobe slot machine could be expanded, and one of my dearest friends was eager to see how this would play out. For some of us, the idea of getting dressed for work every day is just plain annoying - nobody is going to pay much attention to what we're wearing, as long as we're appropriately dressed.

So I promised her that I would show an example that would give her more than a week's worth of shirts or blouses (i.e. six), and then show how it could be expanded. Six top layers x six shirts or blouses x six pants or skirts =216 combinations.

She could literally shop once a year and then forget about work clothing for a long time... In the hottest ... View the Post

The Perfect Clothing/Slot Machine /Backpack

April 26, 2014

I've been in the live-in caretaker role for quite a while now - since we got back from Paris, I've only been home a handful of days... In order to uncomplicate my life, I just put some clothes into a backpack and hopped on the train, hoping for the best. Turns out that my instincts were great - I was wearing three garments, I packed six, and there was literally NO combination that wasn't wearable. I felt like my clothes were a perfectly weighed slot machine upon which I couldn't lose...

These were the clothes that I had with me: (okay, these aren't exactly the same garments. My cardigans are from Lands' End, and are years old. My denim shirt is from J. Jill and is no longer available. Everything else is Eileen ... View the Post

Leveraging the Floral Trend: 1= 20

April 22, 2014

Once more, let's visit this beige and navy spring and summer wardrobe. You're happy with this wardrobe - it provides appropriate and attractive options for pretty much every event in your life. But you decide that you WANT something floral, just to participate in a current trend. You love flowers. You want a new tee shirt. You just plain want to shop! Keeping your color scheme in mind - either through carrying around some skeins of embroidery floss, or a photograph of your closet, or whatever mnemonic works best for you:

You stumble across this beauty in your shopping:

All your colors. Floral. It seems perfect... ... View the Post

I Built Us a Worksheet…

I realized that I needed a good worksheet for building my own 24-piece wardrobe, so I built a JPG file that we can all use.

Click below - it costs 99 cents, to help me pay for the file hosting. Let me know how it works for you! ... View the Post

More Wardrobe Leverage: 3 = 30

April 19, 2014

Let's say that you are the happy owner of the 24 piece wardrobe in navy and beige that we've looked at for the last two days... And you decide that you want a little bit of brightness for spring!The only real thing you want to keep in mind while shopping is the degree to which anything new that you choose can be worn with your core pants and sweaters. A scarf that includes your core colors, along with a couple of pretty accent colors, is a good place to start. Pick up a pair of tee shirts in the accent colors, and you're on your way!

At first, these don't see to be a particularly compatible choice for your original wardrobe:

But in ... View the Post

2 dozen = 12 dozen, at least

April 18, 2014

I'm always intrigued by how many outfits you can pull together from a well-chosen capsule wardrobe, so after I built yesterday's ensemble, I started pulling together outfits, just out of curiosity...Remember, these were the 24 garments with which I started:

There are almost certainly more possibilities here; I threw in the towel after I passed twelve dozen...

love, Janice ... View the Post

A “Two Suit” Wardrobe in Navy and Beige

April 17, 2014 Another visit to this concept, keeping the beige linen (I'm SO lazy...) and using navy as our other neutral. I'm going to try to explain the steps for choosing these items in more detail, so that you can recreate what I do in your own closet.

Also, I want to address the question of having multiple pairs of dark neutral pants. Often, we're told that "you shouldn't own three pair of navy pants", but I heartily disagree, because of the wide variety of navy pants that you might own. In this particular example, I've included very narrow navy capris in a cotton fabric, a wide-legged trouser (full-length), and a silk-like palazzo pant. My feeling is that these three pants give three very different outfits when ... View the Post

Can Chanel Guide Us to a Workable Casual Wardrobe?

April 16, 2014 One of the most popular posts I've ever written was asking if Coco Chanel was right when she told us that a woman only needs two suits to be well dressed. (find it here) I'm often asked how this idea translates for those among us who wear mostly casual clothing, and who don't really have any use for a suit. So these are my thoughts: First off - the equivalent of the black suit - a cardigan, capris, pants, and a dress:

and then a similar approach in beige - another cardigan, linen pants, a pair of shorts and another:

First add-on is a couple of "twin-sets" in accent colors. But only one cardigan, and a linen shirt to take the place of the ... View the Post