how many items should a capsule wardrobe have? choosing the best staple clothing
what is meant by capsule wardrobe?
A capsule wardrobe is a term that is used to describe a closet, or wardrobe, in which the garments are interchangeable, have the possibility to be used on any occasion, and will not go out of fashion or degrade in a way that they have to be constantly replaced.
It advocates for owning a few clothes, only the strictly necessary, and using them to their maximum, being able to combine them in tens of different ways without having to buy new clothes to change your outfit.
As you may have noticed, this goes hand-in-hand with Slow Fashion and Sustainable Fashion, which is the reason we’re talking about it in this blog. And this is the reason it’s so beneficial for our environment, as it reduces your carbon footprint by a ton.
Other related terms are key or staple clothes, which are used to describe garments that can be combined in every way, fitting for every occasion you may encounter. If you want to know more about what these things really are, we advise you to check out our other article on the subject. Having said this, let’s continue.
how many items do you need for your capsule wardrobe?
When creating your capsule wardrobe one question that arises is how many items you should be owning in order to keep it „capsuled”, nice and clean. This is a subjective question with a subjective answer that varies from person to person, however, we will still try and answer it for you.
The thing is, it all depends on the person, for example, how often do you have to change clothes? do you live in a place where vast differences between summer and winter? These are things that condition a lot the number of items that you should be having in your personal capsule wardrobe.
The general rule is that you should be aiming for about 30 items in total, this includes accessories, shoes, t-shirts… About 7-10 t-shirts if you do your laundry once a week or more, a few pants, winter and summer clothes if these are necessary… You may also want to aim for a larger number of items if you live in a zone where the climate differences through the year vary a lot, as we said before.
The number of clothes you need depends entirely on your personal situation, so feel free to change your number of items yourself after considering your necessities.
how to choose the best staple clothing
Now that you have an idea of how many items your new capsule wardrobe should have, you should also know how to choose the best staple clothes that will fit in it, as we said before, staple clothing means garments that can be combined in numerous ways while also complementing your style, without further a due, let’s go on.
- Choose a few plain-colored items, plain colors usually combine with everything and go well with every occasion. Thinks like plain white t-shirts, black dresses, etc. They will also give you a minimalist look and complement your style very well, although you may also want to be somewhat more expressive and wear brighter colors, that’s fine too, but having a few plain-colored items does help a lot.
- Always buy clothes with your color palette in mind, when searching for staple clothes for your capsule wardrobe you always have to prepare in your mind what fits your style and what doesn’t, what goes with the color palette you chose, and what doesn’t compliment your other clothes. You may sometimes forget this and you end up buying garments that you will either have to return or resell because they don’t fit your style.
- Choose a few personalized designs, customized items are awesome, not only because you can wear garments with your favorite quotes, your own name, or whatever you want to put on them, but also because you will feel a lot more attached to that item, making you truly treat it like you married it, lasting you a lot longer than your other garments. You will also feel more confident while wearing that customized garment because you feel like you’re wearing something that you „made yourself”.
- Take the 30-day rule and amplify it, the 30-day rule is one that we have talked about before, it basically says that before buying a garment you should ask yourself „Will I wear it a minimum of 30 days?”, then if you say no, discard buying it. Because you are going to make a capsule wardrobe, you should change that rule to be something like „Will I wear it a minimum of 300 days?”, and adapt this to your own preferences.
Now that’s it, remember, you don’t have to own a lot of clothes in order to have a lot of styles, for those who watch Family Feud, just remember when Steve Harvey said that you only have to buy 5 suits with colors that combine with one another and then you can interchange these items in order to achieve 70 possible combinations, 70 possible suits or styles out of 5 that you originally bought. Now that is the magic of staple clothing.
5 tips that will help you create your capsule wardrobe easily
Now that you know this, we will give you a few tips so you can succeed in your mission to create your own capsule wardrobe. Having said that, here are 5 tips that will help you create your very own capsule wardrobe:
- Choose Your Color Scheme, in order to have a small wardrobe that will fit every situation you encounter, you have to keep in mind your color palette, this involves choosing a few base colors that combine with everything, like black, brown, grey, white or navy (which is a pretty cool color if you ask us). All other items that you will wear should be shades of the base colors you have chosen, now you should be able to combine all of your precious garments while still looking as great as you used to.
- Consider Your Body Shape, this is a crucial step in order to feel comfortable with your clothes, you have to make sure the garments you choose are suited for your body, for example, by wearing cap sleeves if you have wider hips, as this will make your shoulders look more proportionate in relation to your hips.
- Consider Your Complexion, this also goes hand-in-hand with the other tip, choose colors that combine with yourself, your own body, as there are colors that may make you look paler or that benefit you more in some way or another. It is just a matter of your own preferences.
- Choose Classic Shapes And Patterns, in order to hold on to your wardrobe, you should think about long-term, avoiding garments that you think will quickly go out of date. So keep in mind that when buying your garments.
- Choose High-Quality Fabrics, this is one of the most important tips, your wardrobe should be composed of high-quality garments and sustainable fashion garments. This will not only make your garments last longer, but it will also reduce your carbon footprint. With a capsule wardrobe, it doesn’t really matter if the price of the garment is higher, you’re not going to buy nearly as many clothes as a normal person would, so you’re just investing in yourself, basically.
Well, this is it, we hope these 5 tips have helped you understand what you need and how you can create your own wardrobe that will help you minimize your impact on this planet, while also letting you live a minimalistic and simple lifestyle.
summary
We hope you now know how many items your capsule wardrobe should have and how to find the best staple clothes that will combine. If you want to learn more about this topic, or about Sustainable Fashion and Sustainable Living, feel free to check the articles linked below or check out our blog, where we have tons of different articles like this.
We are thrilled to teach people all around the world 🙂 Also, did you really know what Fast Fashion really is and its terrible consequences for the environment, the planet, the workers, society, and the economy? Do you know exactly what the Slow Fashion or Sustainable Fashion movement is? You should really take a look at these articles about this forgotten and unknown but very urgent and important subject, click here to read „Can Fashion Ever Be Sustainable?”, Sustainable Fashion, Ethical Fashion, Slow Fashion or Fast Fashion 101 | How It’s Destroying Our Planet because knowledge is one of the most powerful strengths you can have, while ignorance is your worst weakness.
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