...because I can't dress myself. Honestly. For years I tried to rock a "Bohemian" look with clearance, thrifted, or outdated hand-me-downs from my mother (from the 90's...my mom is actually a pretty stylish person), but I usually came out looking like I'd lost a battle at Savers. I'd hit a sort of stride in fashion a few years ago, but the cycle of pregnancy, postpartum, and nursing took a toll on how my clothes fit and what I needed. I found myself passing over the same tops and pants day after day because they weren't flattering, didn't match anything, or weren't easy to nurse in.
The idea of a capsule wardrobe always appealed to my love of minimalism, but in practice it has made it easier for me to put together a reasonably coordinated and nursing-friendly outfit very quickly. According to everything I've found by Googling "capsule wardrobe," the best way to get started is to completely empty your closet and dresser.
Most of the resources I found about capsule wardrobes recommend having several capsules based on season and occasion, and exclude workout clothes and loungewear. Since I almost never wear my "work clothes" pieces outside of work (black slacks and blouse, the universal musician's uniform), I put them aside on a single hanger and moved on. I also decided to put all of my workout/pajama type clothing in a single drawer of my dresser, and all of my out-of-season clothing in another. That way, I wouldn't have the visual clutter of clothes that I wasn't going to be wearing in my day-to-day outfits. Then I filled bag after bag of clothing to donate to St. Vincent de Paul. From there I realized I could use a few nursing-friendly short-sleeve tops (my nursing-cami-under-short-sleeve-top system only works up to 70 degrees), so I picked up three stretchy v-necks from Target in gray, navy, and dark green.
What remained, I (eventually) photographed and uploaded into Stylebook, an app for the organizationally obsessed. And here is my late spring/summer/early fall capsule wardrobe thus far.
The "look" features is actually deceptive, because...
The idea of a capsule wardrobe always appealed to my love of minimalism, but in practice it has made it easier for me to put together a reasonably coordinated and nursing-friendly outfit very quickly. According to everything I've found by Googling "capsule wardrobe," the best way to get started is to completely empty your closet and dresser.
Yikes! I'd never realized how many clothes I had. This wasn't even counting the collection of maternity clothes and clothes-completely-incompatible-with-nursing I had stored in the basement. I'd never really considered myself a hoarder, but here was the evidence.
Most of the resources I found about capsule wardrobes recommend having several capsules based on season and occasion, and exclude workout clothes and loungewear. Since I almost never wear my "work clothes" pieces outside of work (black slacks and blouse, the universal musician's uniform), I put them aside on a single hanger and moved on. I also decided to put all of my workout/pajama type clothing in a single drawer of my dresser, and all of my out-of-season clothing in another. That way, I wouldn't have the visual clutter of clothes that I wasn't going to be wearing in my day-to-day outfits. Then I filled bag after bag of clothing to donate to St. Vincent de Paul. From there I realized I could use a few nursing-friendly short-sleeve tops (my nursing-cami-under-short-sleeve-top system only works up to 70 degrees), so I picked up three stretchy v-necks from Target in gray, navy, and dark green.
What remained, I (eventually) photographed and uploaded into Stylebook, an app for the organizationally obsessed. And here is my late spring/summer/early fall capsule wardrobe thus far.
Everything that doesn't need to be hung up fits in a single drawer, so it's very easy to visualize my options for the day.
I may have sort of "half-fast" the photographing cropping of some of the images (beige, gray, white, and striped clothing don't fare well in the auto-crop feature) before I started looking for retailers' images of some of my clothes. I also haven't photographed most of my jewelry, but at this point I'm not sure it matters. Most of my necklaces are in the Graveyard of Jewelry Destroyed by Sir Toddler, so I don't wear any except for special occasions.
One of the neat features of Stylebook is that it allows you to put together outfits (or "looks") effortlessly, that look like professional graphic designer's work. It makes my outfits look a lot cooler than they are in reality.
Outfit I wore on a cool beach day.
What I wore for an anniversary date with Mr. Husband.
My everyday look. Sometimes I change it up with the Saltwaters or my stylish 6-year-old running sneakers.
...sometimes all of those outfits are in the wash.
Have you ever tried a capsule wardrobe?
Whoa!! I never heard of that before! That's so cool. I don't know if I have the patience to go through and photograph everything, but...maybe when I have to pack everything up for our next move this could make things more fun.
ReplyDeleteWay to rock the saltwaters. I love those!
I only took pictures of my summer + nursing friendly "capsule" this time around...I'll have to do more when we need long sleeves again. It actually didn't take as much time as I anticipated...I just took pictures on a day when almost all of my clothes were coming out of the dryer (using the unmade bed sheet as a backdrop, haha).
DeleteI am a fan of the Saltwaters, although they are not wood-chip-paved-playground friendly. Then again, I don't think any shoe choice apart from knee-length rubber boots keeps the wood chips away.