Today's article is about what I do every day, what I make my living from and what I probably understand best of all. About shopping and building a wardrobe. Consumerism and the fashion wave, when we buy everything that is "in fashion and worth it", is something probably every one of us has to go through, and I had this period for quite a looong time too. Since I work with fashion, plus I blog, many of you probably think that I'm buried under loads of clothes. The opposite is true. What is photographed in the cover photo is my wardrobe, that is, my closet. Yes, just one. Apart from that I only have coats, jackets and shoes. Because quality means far more to me than quantity!
By the way, do you know what a perfect wardrobe looks like? Simple, high-quality and mix-and-matchable. After a short look inside, it should be clear to anyone what your personal style is. And that is exactly what a capsule wardrobe is about.
"A capsule is something like a small collection of clothes for the season that can easily be combined with one another."
If in the morning you stand furious in front of an overflowing wardrobe, you shop constantly and still have nothing to wear, this is the solution for you. Your problem is quantity at the expense of quality, not knowing your own style, and buying things you don't need and that don't go with anything. But after putting together a capsule wardrobe, at first glance it will click what your style is, what suits you best and what you feel most confident in. You will find out what you really need to buy, and every day you will get up with a good feeling, knowing exactly which outfit you want to wear today. Careful, a capsule wardrobe doesn't mean boring, because you choose the pieces according to your own style and taste, the only difference being that they will go together. As inspiration I'm including my two capsules put together for this winter.
HOW to put together your own "capsule":
- Step 1: Take absolutely all the clothes out of your wardrobe. It must stay completely empty!
- Step 2: From the whole heap of clothes, pick only the things you like best and actually wear. (Don't pick pieces that you "feel" you should have because they were expensive, because you'll lose weight and fit into them, or because they're supposedly a must-have.) Simply pick only the ones you wear and feel good in. From my experience it tends to be about 2 dresses, 3 blouses or shirts, trousers, jeans, 2 jumpers. Yes, really that little.
- Step 3: Think about your lifestyle. Are you at home on maternity leave, do you work from home, go to work every day, by car or rather on foot, and what about evenings out? Realise where and how you need to dress, and check whether the pile you picked corresponds to these occasions. If you used to be a working woman, spent every day in a business suit at work and evenings in cocktail dresses, and now you will be on maternity leave for 6 years, believe me, it is high time to reconsider the space in your wardrobe taken up by these "memories". It is enough to keep one dress and one suit, and even that only for your own good feeling. You know, by the time you get back to work, fashion will definitely be different. I know that from my own experience.
- Step 4: You always start building a winter wardrobe from the coat/jacket. All the visible pieces must go with it. Once you have chosen your outer layer, fine-tune it with shoes, a handbag, a scarf and a hat. Continue with trousers and tops. They don't have to match the coat/jacket 100%, because they are underneath it, but they should go with the trousers/skirt. If you have 2 coats and a jacket, you will end up with three variations of outfits that go together. (See the attached illustrations of my two capsules.)
- Step 5: Finally, put these few pieces of clothing back into the wardrobe and, after thinking about how you will wear them, write down what you are missing. A cardigan for shirts, a white vest top under a blouse, a thick polo neck under a jacket, but mostly it's totally basic things like these. Once you add them, you suddenly have complete, great outfits.
- Step 6: Most people can donate and give up at most a third of their clothes, and the remaining things, even though discarded, they put back into the wardrobe. Mistake! If you have nobody and nowhere to donate them to, put them into bags, boxes etc. and place them under the bed, in the cellar, or somewhere. Don't keep them in your wardrobe in plain sight. You would only get the feeling that you have something to wear when in fact you don't.
MY SHOPPING TIPS:
- If something is on sale or cheap, ask yourself whether you would buy it even if it cost 3 times as much. The worst are purchases made for reasons like "For a couple of quid??? Then I have to buy it!" It is a couple of quid thrown away for nothing, a mess in the wardrobe and clothing you don't need on top of that.
- Don't buy everything you like. In EVERY shop you will like something. So what?! Buy only what goes with the existing things in your wardrobe.
- Don't let anyone advise you. Neither a shop assistant nor a friend. You know best how you feel and whether you like a given item. The only exception is a good stylist.
- Quality is MORE than quantity. If you have only 2 shirts, but designer ones, you will always feel you have something to wear. It is better than 8 shirts from H&M and then, when you want to look good somewhere, you are suddenly panicking about "what to wear".
- Invest in accessories and never buy a cheap watch or costume jewellery for everyday wear. Other things are occasional items that you wear once.
And finally, a few photos from my winter wardrobe. It contains just a few shirts and silk blouses, cashmere jumpers, , a cape, 2 faux fur gilets, 5 pairs of trousers, several T-shirts, a leather travel bag and 5 handbags. After just a short look my style, materials and the colours I prefer are clear to you. So how does your wardrobe look?
Let me know whether the article helped you look at it from a different angle and whether you understand everything. If you happen not to know what to do about something, don't be afraid to ask, I'll gladly advise!
