I have been fascinated by the idea of a capsule wardrobe for some time now. I never really "needed" to implement it in my own life, however. I was a health care worker who spent the majority of my time in scrubs. When I came home, I would either wear athletic wear or lounge wear. I owned some clothes to wear out, but I was good at only purchasing what I needed, picking only a few items per season (2-3). When I became pregnant, I purchased a few essential maternity clothes and pretty much wore the same 5 outfits over and over again. I am now on maternity leave and I have the opportunity to wear "real" clothes everyday. I found that I was purchasing a lot of items to build my new wardrobe. At first, this wasn't so bad. I was buying a few key items here and there. I started to notice, however, that I was buying a lot of new clothes every time my husband and I went shopping. I love to shop and I was using my new role as "stay at home, nursing mother" as an excuse to purchase new clothes every shopping trip. I decided that I needed to rein myself in. I acknowledge that the change in my lifestyle required new clothing. I just don't want to get carried away.
I looked at a few blogs about capsule wardrobes like Un-Fancy and Into Mind. I wanted to make sure that I built a wardrobe that would be functional and suit my personal sense of style. I do not claim to be "fashionable". This is a wardrobe for my every day life as a mom.
Things that I took into consideration:
LIFESTYLE:
I am currently at home with my (almost) 6 month old daughter. I am still nursing. The holidays are coming up and we will have some Christmas celebrations to attend.
HOW I WANT TO FEEL:
I live on the prairies in Canada. It is cold here! I need my clothes to be cozy and warm. I want to be comfortable, but still look "put together".
FUNCTION:
My tops have to be accessible for nursing. Everything must be machine washable and should be able to go in the dryer. The clothes I choose must not require a lot of extra care.
STYLE THAT I ADMIRE:
My style icons are Audrey Hepburn and Kate Middleton. They both have a beautiful, classic style that I love!
COLOURS THAT SUIT ME:
I want to have a lot neutral colours for ease of outfit building. I do like some colour. I want some red (a classic Christmas colour) and some jewel tones. I find that jewel tones complement my skin tone and look refined. I like plum, royal blue and deep green.
PIECES THAT I CURRENTLY LOVE AND WEAR FREQUENTLY:
I practically live in skinny jeans and sweaters.
I spent some time on Pinterest. I pinned outfits that I wanted to have in my wardrobe. I built the wardrobe virtually, until I had a clear vision of what I wanted. After I knew what I wanted, I made my wardrobe list. I was happy to see that I only had 5 items to purchase outside of what I already owned. I found the items over the past weekend and my wardrobe is finally complete. I have 4 pairs of shoes, 7 bottoms, 15 tops and 2 coats. In total, my wardrobe is comprised of 28 items. I didn't include my nursing tank tops in this count as they act as underwear, not as stand-alone tops. I also did not include my athletic wear or lounge wear. I didn't add accessories into my total number, but I plan to curate a small number of accessories for the season. I will do a post about accessories next week.
My winter capsule wardrobe will be worn from the December 1st to February 28th. I will not do any shopping during this time (eek!). I will share outfits and discuss the capsule wardrobe on Wednesdays. Once again, I am definitely NOT a fashion maven, but I hope that my style is something that the average person can relate to. I will "reveal" all of the capsule pieces this Wednesday.
Have you ever done a capsule wardrobe? What tips do you have to share about building a wardrobe? I would love to hear from you!
No comments:
Post a Comment