Overhaul

Whew- Friday blew by me this week and it wasn’t until this morning that I realized I forgot to post a blog entry.  However, it may have actually been good timing since I spent this evening working on something a little unconventional for the capsule wardrobe world: a mid-season overhaul.  I decided that the Spring capsule that I have been wearing since March 20th was much too scattered.  In trying to plan for the unpredictable weather we have throughout the season, I ended up with a few of each type of clothing (pants, tees, sweaters, etc) and no real depth or personal style in my outfits.  Having too few of each item made for wearing the same few outfits over and over again in a week if the weather stayed at a constant temperature. For example, I had one pair of jeans and a few tees.  If it was cool weather, I would end up wearing the same jeans and tees over and over again, while the other thirty pieces in my closet sat untouched. 

One of my favorite capsule wardrobe bloggers suggests that when you get in a bit of a wardrobe rut, sometimes it is better to take things away rather than to add things.  So that’s what I did- I switched out some of the tops and skirts for dresses, and removed items that I had not touched in the past 6 weeks.  I ended up going from 40 items down to 32 items- a 20% decrease that I am happy about.   

You may be wondering why I chose to swap out some items for dresses, and my reasoning is that I believe dresses to be very versatile.  A little bit of layering, like leggings and a sweater or jacket, and they are a great cool-weather option.  But by themselves, they are also a complete outfit.  A complete outfit, and it only occupies one of my 32 spaces?  Awesome.  When I think about my long term goals for my capsule wardrobes, I really see a handful of nice quality dresses, a few layering pieces like cardigans, leggings, and a jacket, and a pair of jeans with a few tops, all of which I hope will total under 16-18 pieces per season.  I feel like this little revamp will allow me to experiment to see if that is a feasible goal for my current lifestyle.  I really love how Jennifer over at the Daily Connoisseur Blog structured her 10-item Spring wardrobe; eight out of her ten core pieces were dresses.  I would LOVE to have a ten item wardrobe…I hope to get there someday.  

Have any of you started your capsule for a season and had to give it a makeover before the season was over?  I’d would love to hear what you did.  I hope you all have a great week, and thank you for reading!