capsule wardrobe Archives - Page 16 of 29

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – January 2017

January 2, 2017

Yaaaaay!!! It's that time again... The new scarves are chosen (FINALLY...) and the first outfits for this year's capsule wardrobes are assembled!!!!

First up, the scarves:

Black - Hermès Carré en Boucles; Beige - Hermès Flanerie à Versailles; Navy - Hermès au Bout du Monde; Olive – Hermès Collections Impériales; Grey - Hermès Etude pour un Iris Arc-en-ciel; Brown – Hermès Chemins de Corail

I looked at LOTS of scarves, from literally dozens of sources, but in the end, I came back to Hermès, because of the richness of the patterns and the creativity of the color schemes. This is a little bit self-defeating on my part, because if you DO buy a scarf from Hermès, I get no commission. I ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Olive-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 9, 2016 The wardrobe is as far from colors that I wear as is physically possible, but I still think it's really nice - very well-balanced, lots of attractive choices, and a wide range of ways to pull outfits together.

I'm always surprised to see how organized these wardrobes turn out to be, even though I made choices for a lot of months based on things that just interested me, or that I found attractive. In this wardrobe example, the Four by Four wardrobe possibilities were really easy to find:

When we look at this wardrobe in terms of how well it serves the owner for a range of activities, through a full year of weather, the only real "blanks" I see are in the area of very dressy activities. ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a A Black-Based Capsule Wardrobe – An Evaluation

December 7, 2016

Ah, this one is closest to my normal capsule wardrobe, and to what I would buy if I had to start all over...Remember, we left this wardrobe on the first of November like this:

You can see the outfit-by-outfit progression of this wardrobe here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

Because this wardrobe is so close to my own, I wasn't really concerned that things wouldn't be reasonably well balanced. The easy assembly of a "Four by Four" capsule wardrobe supports my thoughts:

I wasn't quite as certain that things would be as well-balanced for seasons and dressiness - I tend to love cold-weather clothing more than warm, and ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Beige-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 5, 2016

This seemed like it was going to be a really impractical, too pastel, too feminine exercise... but upon analysis, it's turned out quite well!This was where we left it on the first of November:

If you want to go back and catch up on earlier posts, check here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

Here was the first signal to me that this was a pretty well-constructed 11-month shopping adventure; I was easily able to pull out pieces to assemble a really functional Four by Four wardrobe:

This layout, on spectrums of weather and of dressiness, might suggest that this heroine could use something dressy for cool weather...

And when I arranged all of the ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Brown-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 2, 2016 If you want to go back and catch up on how we've arrived at this point, the earlier posts are here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.The second of our six wardrobes looked like this when we left it in November:

As I did yesterday, my first project is to try to fit these pieces into the Four by Four template. It seems to me that this wardrobe still could use a casual skirt. She already has 2 skirts, they they're both pretty dressy - maybe khaki is an option.

When I look at the existing wardrobe in terms of weather and dressiness, I find the same thing that I did yesterday - a shortage of simple tee shirts. That bottom right ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Navy-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 1, 2016

Back in November, when we left this wardrobe, it was in pretty good shape. Eleven outfits had been collected into a pretty coherent, and pretty comprehensive, capsule wardrobe that would see most people through a great many of their activities:

As I've said before, no wardrobe is ever really finished. Clothes wear out, or get damaged. Our sizes change, and sometimes, we just plain get completely fed up with a garment that we've worn a lot, and feel the need to replace it. So it's useful to have a few different ways to really look at a wardrobe and determine what might be needed, or useful, or helpful, to add. I thought of a couple of different ways to evaluate things...

First off, I thought that ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Starting From Scratch, Stage 5

November 11, 2016

It's tempting to say we've reached the home stretch of building this capsule wardrobe, but in reality, you're never finished building your wardrobe. Things wear out, or suddenly shrink, or you just plain can't stand the sight of that tee shirt EVER AGAIN... (after travel, you might need to find something new just to retain your sanity!)But for people who don't put all that much worry and fuss into clothing, this wardrobe is at a pretty good stage for a long time:

Here's where I like to stop and lay things out in an orderly fashion, to see where I've gone awry, and what needs to be supplemented, and what needs to be avoided, for the last little bit of shopping:

It's important to me to ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Starting From Scratch, Stage 2

November 8, 2016 When we paused at the end of yesterday's capsule wardrobe building, we had five pieces of clothing - not a ton, but still enough for a tidy handful of outfits:

Clearly, this wardrobe is going to take on some real depth of color with the addition of some accessories. I'm sticking with this gorgeous rich brown leather for as many things as I can manage, including a really nice bracelet!

watch - Kapten and Son; bracelet - Colana; scarf – Santorus; earrings – Lagos; bag – Frye

Generally speaking, a well-balanced wardrobe should have more "tops" than "bottoms." Jeans and trousers don't need to be laundered as frequently, and because they're worn below the waist, they're ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Starting From Scratch, First Steps

November 7, 2016

Another step by step, starting from scratch Capsule Wardrobe exercise! This week, I'm tackling olive and beige as the neutrals, with teal, rust and ivory as the accent colors. Our primary emphasis is going to be on the "very casual, lots of jeans and corduroy" sort of style. Many of you have told me that you have very little need for dressy clothes in your wardrobe, so let's see what can be done with that in mind.

And fear not, when I do this in December, it's going to be conservative-office dressy!

First up, let's visualize the colors:

Since these colors are definitely pretty warm, with the exception of the teal, my current plan is to use warm deep brown leather goods, and gold jewelry. Our heroine's style is ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: August

August 1, 2016

In August, the stores have VERY little warm-weather apparel, so we'd better be prepared to plan ahead and pick up some things that will be useful in autumn and winter...For reference, the earlier installments of this series can be found here:

January February March April May June July

And for reference purposes, these are the 6 scarves with which we started the capsule wardrobes: (I can't wait to choose NEXT year's 6 scarves - maybe we'll vote?)

Navy– Hermes Voyage en Etoffes; brown – Hermes Tyger Tyger; beige – Hermes Le Voyage de Pytheas; olive – Hermes Cheval Mirage; grey – Hermes Cheval Surprise Remix; black – Hermes Au Pays des Oiseaux Fleurs

This ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: July

July 1, 2016

In the world of "fashion," summer is pretty much over! It's a good time to grab a couple of tee shirts (which you will of course continue to wear well into the colder weather), as well as another pair of shorts for your capsule wardrobes. A pair of sandals purchased now will definitely be a starter pair for NEXT summer, and a pretty pendant will be useful for years to come...Remember, these are our starting points for the 6 capsule wardrobes we're building:

I just NOW noticed that I chose TWO scarves with "voyage" in the title. Do I think about travel ALL the time?

Note that the pendant is "square-ish," and turquoise blue, and intricately detailed, like the elements in ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes – a Half-Way Through Bonus

June 11, 2016 I've been thinking about how these capsule wardrobes would work for additional outfits, now that we're up to a dozen pieces of clothing in each wardrobe. So I played around and came up with another six outfits for each grouping. Enjoy!

love, Janice

... View the Post