Previous to pursuing a year round minimal wardrobe I practiced a seasonal capsule wardrobe as outlined by Caroline over on Unfancy for an entire year. I can say without a doubt that this process allowed me to own my personal style and thus able to dream up an ideal year round wardrobe at all; but now that I’m another two seasons into crafting this year round wardrobe process I want to take some time to reflect and share with you “my findings”. Albeit there is nothing very scientific about them or this process in general. ;)
Here are a few of my reflections…
PRACTICING A SEASONAL CAPSULE HELPED ME IDENTIFY:
1. That I can be an impulsive shopper + that I don’t like that about myself.
2. That I can appreciate some one else’s sense of style even though it does not align with my own — therefore not have to replicate a look only to ultimately feel dissatisfied.
3. That thinking about your wardrobe as a whole and planning different looks as you build it works so stinkin’ well.
4. My ‘three rules of three’ (explained below).
5. That rules can help foster good habits, but will eventually feel restrictive if a lifestyle change has successfully taken place.
PURSUING A MINIMAL YEAR ROUND WARDROBE HAS ALLOWED ME TO ACKNOWLEDGE:
1. That I can still be an impulsive shopper — no matter how many capsules I have under my belt. Darn it.
2. That no matter how much better you get at this or how much of a baller you are at that. You will always have to give yourself grace — and probably more than you want to.
Ahem, four words: dressing a postpartum body. It’s tough! Trying to accommodate for the now while thinking + planning for the long term is either downright impossible or impossibly expensive! Say it with me now, grace.
3. That it’s still easy to justify irrational purchases with rational sounding words. DARN IT.
4. That your version of minimal and some one else’s version of minimal are not, have not and never will be the same. Remember that saying that’s all-over-everywhere right now? ‘Comparison is the thief of joy’? Yeah. That.
5. That you can get by with less than you think you need. The moment I designed my “perfect” wardrobe I HAD to have it now. But I obviously couldn’t afford to go out and buy it all, new or thrifted. Waiting is a good thing.
6. In fact I’ve now learned to emphasize waiting even longer than I originally decided. One month to be exact. The longer I’ve assessed the more I’ve fine tuned my “perfect” wardrobe list. The longer I wait on something I impulsively want to buy, the less appealing it looks to me. If it really belongs in my closet? I’ll still want it and be able to find some version of it in a month, if not 6 months.
7. That I still like to buy seasonally. I’m still allowed to buy more than four times a year (whatever allowed even means), but I’ve learned that I actually enjoy buying multiple pieces at one time and it works better this way to create cohesive looks. It’s where the magic making happens.
HOW I’VE CHOSEN WHAT TO PUT IN MY ALL SEASONS CAPSULE SO FAR:
Yeesh… Um…?
1. I love the way it looks and feels on me. But it also meets the needs of my reality.
2. It follows my ‘three rules of three’:
See Caroline’s Rule of Three here.
3. Adding it to the ‘master list’ per my original parameters. And then waiting at least one week before purchase.
4. It shares similar characteristics of my three (another three!) most worn items that I love in my closet. Characteristics might include: casual, the color navy, a stripe print, soft texture, etc.
HOW I WILL CHOOSE WHAT TO ADD TO MY WARDROBE MOVING FORWARD:
1. All of the above + up the one week wait period to one month. And now for my internal freakout + rationalizations to the previous statement in the form of a word dump: Oh my gosh! But what if it’s not on sale then?! It will be. Probably even more so. But what if its COMPLETELY sold out?! Check on Ebay, I bet it’s there. Uh, well, it’s NOT. Okay?! Why did I wait so long?!?! Um, chill? Its a shirt. Or a pair of shoes. There is definitely something else out there like it. Go buy that and be totally content + confident in your well thought out decision. Who knows, it might even boost your self confidence and teach you to make better decisions on a shorter timeline the next time around.
2. Buy less quantity and more quality. YES. I still have a lot of work to do in this department. This inherently makes me think more critically about my purchases and yet my impulsivity still wins out time and time again.
How fascinating! For all you Un-fancy fans out there ;)
Wow. That was just so many words. And I probably still didn’t cover all of the thoughts floating around in my head. I feel like you have to have questions. Ask away my friends!