What is a capsule wardrobe you ask?
CAPSULE WARDROBE
“A trendy lifestyle adopted by influencers and pushed on us normal folks to make us feel bad for walking out of H&M with 1 bag filled with 12 items we got for $95 which encourages the purchase of one staple item per season at approximately $300 for organic bamboo and $575 if it was hand stitched by a girl downtown who went to art school.”
Or the real definition:
“A minimal wardrobe composed of 30 to 40 high-quality, versatile items that will meet your needs for a given time amount of time.”
So as you can see, since I love getting lost in the Influencer Instagram hole where I ultimately feel bad about myself, I have had to adopt the capsule wardrobe so that I could continue to stalk influencers on Instagram and somewhat stomach myself afterward.
So let’s get started:
Step 1- The purge
Your closet, so soon
Take everything you own out of your closet and drawers and start to go through it placing the items in 3 piles: Yes, Maybe keep, Definitely toss.
12 hours later, after sending umpteen pictures of yourself in high school sweats and college era mini dresses to your group chat, put on something reasonable bc you’re late for dinner. Try again tomorrow.
Step 2- Do it again
You have three piles, great. I was just kidding about the “Maybe Keep” piles- you’re not keeping that shit. Add it to the toss pile.
Now separate your keep pile into another yes, maybe , toss. You know what I’m making you do with the maybes. Toss ’em.
Step 3- Look up the Rules
Get you a Blazer (or 12)
Capsule wardrobing is hard. If you listen to the experts, they’ll say you need X # of shirts and Y # of pants per season. Plus Z-AA # of dresses. And a blazer.
I used the letters XYZ AND AA bc I have no idea the number they recommend. You have to google that shit.
Step 4- finalize the look
My rule of thumb is if it’s black and gray, it’s capsule wardrobe worthy. That’s right, capsule wardrobing is boring AF
Step 5- time to shop!
You can’t buy ANY of this!
Now that we’ve established your base, it’s time to shop for the missing pieces. You’ll know what is missing from what you googled from people who came before me with many more Instagram followers, (you’re welcome for those Rstyle dollars, ladies). Since this first shopping trip will probably be your most expensive, I suggest setting a plan and a budget.
Do your research! Find out the shops in your town who are using eco-friendly materials and sourcing socio-consciously. Find out who is ordering small batch pieces from organically producing American factories . And by factories I mean someone’s living room in Brooklyn obviously.
I suggest budgeting like this:
– 20% for bottoms
– 40% for tops
– 10% for essentials (tanks, tees etc.)
– 20% for jackets
– 10% for a special item (maybe your “pop of color” for the season)
So if your budget is $3000 that breaks down to….
-$600 for bottoms
-$1200 for tops
-$300 for essentials
-$600 for jackets
-$300 for a special item
If your budget is $200 then hahahahahahah
You’re screwed.
Step 6: the final result
Just take $200 to H&M and buy 20 cheaply made, on trend pieces, possibly made by a child and go back to wondering how an Instagram Influencer with 20k followers has such a better life than you.
I haven’t successfully capsule wardrobed yet, but I’d like to as an exercise in simplicity. I’d also like to support eco friendly, socially conscious clothing makers but I don’t have a big budget.
