How to start a capsule wardrobe - Sustainable fashion - my experience

Let me just tell you something.

As silly as it may sound, acapsule wardrobe has changed my life.

I know, I know, it’s a tad dramatic, but let me explain! Picture this scenario:

It’s time to head to a birthday party, and you’re already rushing around a tad late, stopping to scoop up discarded sippy cups and socks, swirling around to change nappies and unclog the kids’ toilet for the seventy billionth time, hoping against hope that your four year old can independently find his missing left shoe, all the while wondering if you still have on the same underwear as the day before…or maybe the day before that. You sneak away for a luxurious whole five minutes, run to your closet determined to look like a real live human woman this time, extend a hand to reach for a cute outfit…aaaaaaaand NOTHING. Nothing comes to mind! What to wear? What still fits? What do I even like myself in anymore? Where was that one pair of jeans I used to love? How is it possible to have a closet filled to the brim and STILL never be able to pull together an outfit I love in a short amount of time?!

Sigh. Been there, man.

If this reminds you in any way of your daily routine, I’m telling you…a capsule wardrobe will completely change how you get ready for your day. It’s a little bit of work up front to save you a TON of effort and energy in the long run, leaving you feeling cute, comfortable and put together in no time flat…so if you are interested in curating your own capsule for summer, stick around! I will be walking through the process of starting from scratch step by step together over the next few weeks! Ive shared my own process in the video below of curating a capsule wardrobe, some tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way, be sure to like and subscribe for more!

So….ready to start?!

Let’s get going with the first and, honestly, the most satisfying step of all:

THE GREAT PURGE AND PILE!

Are we ready?! So the first step is to get your hands dirty, dive into that bursting-at-the-seams closet and start THE PURGE! It feels SO GOOD to clean out the closet. Oh man. Now listen: it’ll take a little bit of time, so pour a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, turn on some Kygo or all (French Cooking Music…ahhh soothing ), and start to sort!

What I did when I first began my capsule journey was sort things into three piles: 1. Love love love it 2. Kinda like it, I think 3. Donate/Sell/Trash

It’s for sure a balancing act; you don’t want to go nuts and donate all your clothes in one fell swoop, but you also need to resist the urge to do what I used to do…hold on to things because “maybe someday in five years it’ll possibly maybe be back in style and possibly fit me again…maybe.” 😉 A good rule of thumb as you purge and pile is to consider if you’ve actually reached for that item in the past year. If not, it’s probably not one of your very favorites for some reason: fit, fabric, color, style, etc. If you JUST CAN’T part with it right away, put it in the “kinda like it, I think” pile, and revisit later.

As your “Love love love it” pile starts to take shape, pay attention to which items you deem most lovable:

-What kind of fabric are they made from?

-Which type of lifestyle do they fit? Do you dress more professional for the office or more casual?

-How do these items make you feel? You must feel good in them if you love them, so why?

-What colors or color groups seem to call to you the most?

-Are you keeping things you hope to love someday or things you love right now?

I cant believe it took me 30 years to discover that I was holding onto things that were serving me no purpose in my life

Okay…so we’ve purged our closets, we’ve sorted the items into piles, and we’re ready for the next step in curating our capsule wardrobe! This next one is a bit like doing homework…but like the MOST fun homework ever! I’m not going to reinvent the wheel (at least not right now… ), so I’m going to share with you the amazing capsule wardrobe planner I’ve used for yearsfound, and then we’re going to talk about how to move forward to actually choosing your capsule items!

I have to tell you, this is one of my very favorite parts of putting together my capsules…ORGANIZATION and PLANNING!! Nerd alert. I don’t even care. It feels so good to have a plan, to know what I’m doing, to have a budget worked out, to know all the things! Using the free capsule wardrobe planner from the Un-Fancy blog It is an amazingly well thought out and easy to use tool so that you don’t feel awkward and overwhelmed trying to figure out how to define your style with only a tiny number of clothes. This planner maps it all out for you, and, by the end, you come away knowing what you love, what makes you happy and feel beautiful, and what you still need in order to complete your capsule!

Some of my favorite sections in the planner are:

– A lifestyle pie chart so you can see exactly what types of clothes you need (i.e. are you in biz mode most of the time, or are you in casual mode?)

– Color planner: you map out your major colors that showed up in your “Love love love it” pile, along with some accent colors so you can curate a coordinating wardrobe that will come together easily every single time. (For example, this time around, my main colors ended up being denim and whites/creams, and then my accent colors were soft pinks, soft blues and cognac leather.) – Nailing down the go-to pieces and go-to outfits…this REALLY helps reveal your style to see on paper what you consistently reach for in your closet. So helpful!

Something to avoid: the Shopping List and Budget sections…I’ll tell ya why.

In my experience, everything about this awesome planner makes sense, except I always got stuck at the end when I’d hit the section on final shopping lists and budgets. It still felt like, ummmmm? Really? I’m ready to finalize NOW? I get that this section helps wrap up the Un-Fancy capsule planner, but, in my own experience, I think there are a few more (easy!) steps before feeling confident enough to finalize a shopping list and hit the stores for those final pieces you need to complete the wardrobe (if any). Want to know my method and the next (way fun!!) step…? Stick around–the next post

In the meantime watch my experience below:

Like and Subscribe