How realistic is keeping your capsule wardrobe for a lifetime? That is what we’re exploring today!
This post was originally sent (with a discount) to my email list to help welcome Holly’s Guide to Building Your Next Capsule Wardrobe into the world. If you’d like to get first looks at most blog posts, products, and services, sign up here.
Reasons. Seasons. Lifetimes.
You know that saying: people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
The same can be said for your clothes.
Some items come into our lives for a reason – the dress we wore to our cousin’s wedding or the quick dry tops for business travel. Some clothes we have for a season – our first work wardrobe, maternity and postpartum clothes. And some last for a lifetime – those magical boots that always seem to work no matter the trend, or the long black coat we only pull out for funerals but always seems appropriate.
We talk about reasons & seasons in another post, but here… lifetimes.
Have you ever seen those pre-built capsule wardrobes?
It’s usually 10-20 pieces (or more!) of clothing that make up a “capsule collection” and you’re supposed to buy the whole selection. It almost always includes a white or blue and white striped button up shirt, some sort of black slack, and surprisingly often a trench coat.
The implied promise of a pre-built capsule wardrobe is that this capsule would stay in your life for a lifetime and solve all your style problems.
And the good-ones can be really good!
But even then, they seldom fulfill that implied promise.
Even when they work, they are probably better suited to a reason or a season.
How realistic is keeping your capsule wardrobe for a lifetime?
Because we change and our lives change. Declaring “this is the way everything will be forever and always, pinky promise” is usually inaccurate – in style, as in life.
The beauty of a capsule wardrobe is that small tweaks can have improbably large impacts. Swapping out a single piece can change the entire feeling.
But that’s difficult to intuit when the capsule is presented as complete and pre-built.
My original concept for Holly’s Guide to Building Your Next Capsule Wardrobe was templates – so that you could plug and play your clothes into these templates. (And I may still create those because they are really handy to have on hand, especially for packing!)
But without the process that would still leave you stuck and relying on a pre-built template.
And that is why I wrote Holly’s Guide to Building Your Next Capsule Wardrobe to bring through the process. So you know how to iterate.
We start with an inspiration piece from your closet and build step-by-step from there.
So you have the power to adjust your capsule as your life changes and grows.
Your capsule, and your style, are yours. Once you learn the process you can iterate for the rest of your lifetime.
Learn more and buy your copy of Holly’s Guide to Building Your Next Capsule Wardrobe here.
Adapting your capsule wardrobe over time
Once you have your capsule and know the process, adapting it over time is simple. You could:
- Swap a style of bottom (a pair of jeans for a pair of slacks, a pair of slacks for a skirt, etc.)
- Swap a style of top (a button up for a blouse, blouse for a t-shirt, etc.)
- Add a juxtaposing layer (a sleek blazer or cozy fuzzy cardigan, etc.)
- Reconsider how you are accessorizing
- Consider reviewing how many of your potential outfits you regularly reach for
- Change out one of the colors in your capsule color palette
Any one of these can shift the entire vibe. Tiny tweaks can lead to tremendous changes.
Honestly a static unchanging capsule for the rest of your life was probably an impossible promise to begin with. (We’re building capsule wardrobes here, not time capsules.)
But when you know the process – growing and evolving for the rest of your lifetime suddenly makes a lot of sense. Just like with life-long friends – as in life, so in style.
So how realistic is keeping your capsule wardrobe for a lifetime?
Keeping it static and unchanging – improbable.
Keeping it growing and changing as you grow and change – very possible indeed.
This post was originally sent (with a discount) to my email list to help welcome Holly’s Guide to Building Your Next Capsule Wardrobe into the world. If you’d like to get first looks at most blog posts, products, and services, sign up here.