My Fall Capsule Wardrobe + A Video!

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Oct 7

From moving to a new city to quitting my job to downsizing our living space, it turned out to be too difficult to nail down a wardrobe of 40 items or less this summer. Enter the color scheme to help keep things a little cohesive.

This season is a little different. Our ambitious downsizing meant our storage space had to become as efficient as possible. Our long but narrow closet needs to house all the clothes (including our laundry), our shoes, our off-season clothes plus our suitcases and other random things that always end up stored for long periods of time.

In the past, I’ve had enough space to justify a larger capsule wardrobe, but that wasn’t the case this year.

Also, I really wanted to try having a hard and fast capsule wardrobe to see if 37 items was actually doable for my lifestyle or if I’ve been trying to force it because I’m an incessant rule follower.

Side note, after a year of curating and editing (plus the move), I realized that I don’t have nearly as many clothes as I used to. I’m almost able to store all my non-capsule items/off season pieces in one tote, which has been my goal since starting this process!

PS: What? How have I been doing this for a year already?

PLANNING THE FALL CAPSULE

I spent a lot of time planning this capsule. I didn’t jam it out in a day, but instead let my decisions breathe, if that makes sense. So I did the mental work of evaluating my current wardrobe, which pieces and shapes were and weren’t working, picking a color palette, and choosing which words I wanted my wardrobe to reflect about three weeks before actually going through all my pieces to decide what I’d include and what I’d store.

Honestly, it took a lot of focus, but that all paid off when it came time to actually build the capsule. I have a few things on my wishlist that I'd like to include in this capsule but I'm holding off on buying anything until after my birthday.

MAKING THE CAPSULE

Our internet went out last week which gave me the perfect chance to sift through my clothes. The video below shows what I’ll be wearing this fall. I managed to make my fall capsule exactly 37 items! 15 tops + 9 bottoms + 2 dress + 2 jackets + 9 shoes.

Hey friends! I'm really excited to share my 2016 fall capsule wardrobe with you guys! (I seriously say it like a million times in the video). I went with a hard 37 items this time around just to see if it's something I can actually live with since I've always been flexible on the number before.

TIPS

Here are five things tips I’ve learned in the year I’ve been building capsule wardrobes:

Building my capsule wardrobe shortly after doing laundry made the process so much easier for me. I have an out of sight, out of mind brain so I loved knowing everything I saw was everything I had to choose from
Nothing replaces physically picking out items–I’ve tried building my capsule during a lunch break at work using my phone and always came home to realize I’d forgotten about a piece (see tip #1) or, even worse, I wouldn’t store the things I didn’t include (see last year’s capsule wardrobe lessons).
Practice makes choosing items a lot easier; when I made my first capsule, I tried to include all my favorite fall items regardless of color which made it harder for me to create a cohesive wardrobe. That and I didn’t have a clear idea of what my personal style was. This year, I found that most of my clothes already matched my color palette and almost everything looked like “me.” Being intentional pays off in the long run!
Regardless of how many colors you pick for your color palette, try to keep at least half of them neutrals. It’ll help guarantee that the pieces work with each other.
In a similar vein, don’t feel the need to pick specific shades of a color; a looser scheme is easier to work with. For example, this season I opted for medium wash denim blues, black (I include dark grays in this), beiges, burnt red-oranges, earthy greens, and caramels. More than giving me freedom, it gives me variety even with a limited number of pieces.

SHOP IT

A lot of my items are older ones so I've tried finding pieces as similar as possible and as close to my original price points as possible, too!

Fall 2016 Capsule Wardrobe | tintedgreenblog.com | Casual, easy, simple, earthy colored wardrobe for a California autumn

Tops

striped mock neck tank | striped tee | striped long sleeve | striped mockneck (old) similar | tie crop tee (old) similar, similar

braided muscle tank | short sleeve knit (old) similar | striped knit (old) similar, similar | v-neck tee (old) similar | linen tee

3/4 sleeve knit (old) similar, similar | loose long sleeve (old) similar | chunky crop sweater (old) similar | GAP sweater (old) similar | boxy crop top (old) similar