Capsule Closet for dummies

I’m not a fashionista. I don’t follow fashion trends and I generally always just wore what I liked. For me that was mainly jeans, a shirt/sweater and sneakers. I would change it up to boots in winter and a dress with sandals in summer, but you get the idea. Recently, I discovered the capsule wardrobe style and honestly, this makes dressing (nicely) so much easier!

Vittorio (husband) would make fun of me in the past for wearing what he called “horrific prints”. I liked patters on my clothes and wore a lot of either colorful clothes, or beige/brown tints. The problem was that many of my shirts could only be worn with 1 specific pair of pants or vice versa. I found it also difficult to dress more professionaly at work since I would always wear the same concept. It wasn’t bad, I just think it made me look too casual and I was not always taken seriously.

The concept of capsule wardrobe is that you have a few basic pieces that you can combine with each other, so that with 10 pieces of clothing you can basically create 30 looks. The aim is also to be able to dress for every occassion, without having to own excessive amounts of clothes.

So over the last few months, I have been slowly building my own capsule wardrobe. It’s still a work in progress and I am also new to this myself, but I thought I’d share the looks that I made with it with you, just to maybe inspire you to copy some. I realise now I even forgot one item in my wardrobe, but you will get the idea.

My capsule wardrobe

• A striped t-shirt (Mango)
• A plain white t-shirt (Costes)
• A beige halter top (Pretty Lavish)
• A black asymmetric top (Zara)
• A striped longsleeve shirt (Costes)
• A white longsleeve shirt (Uniqlo)
• A black/white striped sweater (not on the pictures, but Uniqlo)
• A striped longsleeve shirt (borrowed from my husband)
• A little black dress (Zara)
• Mom jeans (Costes, model Lou)
• Beige classic trousers (Costes)
• Black classic trousers (Mango)
• A black blazer (Only)
• A beige blazer (Soft rebels)
• A beige trench coat (River Island)
• A jeans jacket (H&M)
• A black belt
• A beige belt
• Black loafers (Allessenza, bought in Italy)
• White high sneakers
• White low sneakers (Puma)
• Black boots

My capsule wardrobe outfits with jeans

Ok, to take my jeans as the basic piece here. These are all the combinations I made, going from (casual) office looks to brunch with friends looks.

Jeans will always give your look a bit of a casual feel, but as you can see, you can still dress it up nicely by adding a blazer and boots/loafers. One thing I also learned, is that mom jeans or loose fit jeans tend to look so much better on me than skinny jeans!

My capsule wardrobe outfits with beige classic trousers

I didn’t own beige classic trousers before this, because I thought they were too uptight and I would never wear them. But I just never found a well fitting, comfortable pair! Can really recommend Costes pants.

I forgot to take my striped sweater during these pictures, but it would fit really well with the beige trousers as well, or as a throw-on over the white shirt.

My capsule wardrobe outfits with black classic trousers

I had black pants before, but they were usually tight fitting and skinny, so not as comfortable. If you don’t own black classic trousers yet – look for something that flatters your body type. In my case (pear figure) I need something more loose fit.

Isn’t it amazing how an outfit changes completely depending on the blazer/belt/shoes? This is such an epiphany for me 😀 Also here, the striped sweater would have been nice as a top. Or even the beige halter top.

Dressing up or dressing down

So depending on the rest of your outfit, you can either dress items up or down. For example a little black dress – it can be worn more formally with loafers or dressed down with a jeans jacket and sneakers.

Again, I am not a fashionista AT ALL, but this really helps me to pick outfits that combine well together and look good for every occasion. I hope it helped you to get some inspiration, I love exploring and experimenting more on this topic.

Until next time, xoxo
Claudia