Is a colorful, high-vibe capsule wardrobe possible?

Question: Can I make a colorful capsule wardrobe?

I love the concept of a capsule wardrobe, but I never wear any neutrals. My style is more colors and prints and crazy sequins and faux fur and feathers and animal prints. I love wearing interesting silhouettes and tight fitting jumpsuits and leotards and oversized jackets and blazers. 

And I feel like the capsule wardrobe style just isn’t me. But I love the simplicity of it and I want the simplicity of it. 

I have a big life, and a fast-moving one, so I want to be able to just grab clothes and get out the door in the morning. While I love wearing crazy things together, I don’t enjoy spending my mornings putting outfits together. Which is where a grab-and-go wardrobe is really appealing to me. 

I’m like a minimalist maximalist; I want all the fun and all the bold and all the wild and all the crazy plus the simplicity, the ease, and the speed. Is that possible? And if so, where do I start?

Much love, 
A minimalist wanna-be

Your wardrobe thinks…

Yes, it’s possible. Don’t settle. Do it your way. 

We love you just the way you are, 
Your over the top wardrobe. 

Style Tips to Make This Work for You:

I agree with your wardrobe⁠—a maximalist capsule wardrobe is entirely possible. The first step in a lot of capsule wardrobe advice is to stick with neutrals, which I think is bullshit. Yes, neutrals are very easy when it comes to a small wardrobe; however, neutral is not a requirement.

A capsule wardrobe is any wardrobe where you maximize the number of wearable outfits from a finite number of pieces of clothing. There’s nothing in there about having to stick to neutral colors! Here are 7 quick tips to help you build a capsule wardrobe you love.

To create your brightly bright and bold and fun and loud wardrobe, you’re going to want to spend a little bit of time experimenting and figuring out what your staple pieces are going to be. These are going to be pieces that could work with almost all of the outfits that are possible in your wardrobe.

In most capsule wardrobes, these are things like your black pants, your blue jeans, your white button up shirt, a simple straightforward little black dress, sneakers, things like that.

In your maximalist capsule wardrobe, these are still going to be things like pants, skirts, shirts, shoes. They just won’t be black or white or gray or beige, etc. 

Then you’re going to want to add over the top exciting pieces: those animal prints and sequins and faux furs that go with as many of your base pieces as possible. 

The key to getting any capsule wardrobe nailed down is to test it out, so I would suggest pulling out what you think your wardrobe would be and wear it for a week to see where the holes are before you get rid of anything else from your closet. You can also combine this with taking 5 Days of Style to create a stronger container for your capsule wardrobe try-out. Or check out Holly’s Guide to Building Your Next Capsule Wardrobe, I’ll walk you step by step through the process.

A really simple way to get started with this is to do the 10 x 10 challenge started by Style Bee, where you choose 10 pieces of clothing and wear them for 10 days. Whether your share your experiment or not, it’s a great way to dip your toes in and you’ll learn how terrible we all are at planning these the first time.

So, that’s where I suggest you start. There is absolutely no rule that says your capsule wardrobe has to be black and white and gray. That would be boring.

Some other capsule wardrobe tips:

You can change out the items in your capsule as often as you like. A lot of people do it by season because that’s straightforward. But you could, if you really enjoy clothing, change out your capsule wardrobe or a couple pieces from it every week, every two weeks, or as often as you want. If your goal is to make your morning simpler, you could have a work capsule wardrobe that you only wear on weekdays and then go through your whole wardrobe on the weekends or evenings. 

The other thing is accessories. A lot of people include shoes and handbags in their capsule wardrobe, but you don’t have to. You can also use scarves and jewelry to spice up a base capsule wardrobe for as much spice as you want. I mean, a brightly colored T-shirt and some jeans, killer heels, and a ton of jewelry is not a neutral outfit; I don’t care who you’re talking to. 

Remember, is no one is good at planning a capsule wardrobe the first time. We all have things that we thought we’d wear but we didn’t. We all throw in one thing that we thought we’d never wear but we ended up wearing all the time. So cut yourself some slack if it doesn’t turn out as perfectly as you want it the first time.

There’s also no firm limit to the number of pieces of clothing you can have in your capsule wardrobe. I suggest keeping it on the smaller end; you don’t want hundreds of pieces in a capsule, because that gets unwieldy and the outfit combinations become completely overwhelming. 

Remember, the key to a successful capsule wardrobe is maximizing your wearable outfit options from finite number of pieces. 

This makes it a fantastic option for many people – but it’s not right for everyone. So play around and see if it’s right for you.

Happy capsuling! 

Keep reading…

For another neutral clothing myth busting read: How to wear animal prints: is animal print a neutral? (Spoilers: sometimes.)

And to figure out if building a capsule wardrobe is worth it for you read: Stop wasting energy: Is a capsule wardrobe worth the effort?

If you’d like to dive deeper into building your own capsule wardrobe. Check out Holly’s Guide to Building Your Next Capsule Wardrobe, I’ll walk you step by step through the process, and you can start (and finish!) building your next capsule wardrobe this afternoon. Find out more and buy your copy here.