Oh, happy day! After a few mall trips, Goodwill runs, written planning, online shopping sprees, and in-store exchanges just to make sure, my fall capsule is finally set.
What this means:
- I have 19 items of clothing in my closet, all of which I could wear today, right here, right now. That’s 5 shoes, 5 pants, and 9 tops. That’s so much time and energy saved for the things I’d rather spend time on. Like food.
- The flip side of that is that I don’t have anything in my closet that I would not wear today, right here, right now. It all fits both my body and my lifestyle just right. No random pink tops with tassels that require me to go purchase new pants and shoes just to make the outfit work. Not that I’ve ever found myself in THAT scenario.
- If you see me this fall, I am likely to wear the same pants and shoes two days in a row, because when you only have 5 pants and 5 shoes? Yeah. And besides, this is all part of the capsule experience and I know you will not judge. It’s called a uniform and I think it’s sort of a trendy thing right now anyway. Go us!
- Getting dressed for the next three months is going to be a joy that does not take more than 30 seconds. PARTYYYY.
This is what I love about a capsule wardrobe.
As mentioned during our September lunch date, I did a pretty terrible job capsuling through summer. I kind of started to put one together, but I never saw it to completion – so I had a half-effort capsule and it did not work any magic for me this summer.
Fall is a little easier, though, right? You’re in more of a normal routine, you’re looking for mostly the same type of clothes (for me, that’s jeans, button ups, sweaters, and boots/flats), and is it just me or are fall clothes just all-around more fun to shop for and wear? I don’t know, for whatever reason, fall seems like a good time to get the capsule wardrobe game back on point after a weak summer of random clothes that did not fit.
If you are interested in how I got the capsule wardrobe bug and how you yourself can start one, you can head on over to the post I did last fall called, obviously, How To Start a Capsule Wardrobe: A Guide for Beginners.
I have my own sort of concept of a capsule wardrobe, which is that I essentially keep two:
- A Base Wardrobe that does not change throughout the year (includes 50 items in many categories: workout clothes, pajamas, layering tees and tanks, formalwear, and outerwear).
- A Capsule Wardrobe that does change with each season (includes 19 items for everyday wear: 9 tops, 5 pants, 5 shoes).
To be honest, a lot of the things in my base wardrobe are not interesting enough to show you. They are old pajama tops (read: free event T-shirts turned loungewear), layering tanks that I’ve accumulated from Target over the years, and one or two dresses and skirts purchased sometime around 2006 and get worn approximately once a year.
The more fun side of the capsule wardrobe is seeing and choosing the everyday pieces that you will wear for the season, so that’s what today is – just a little breakdown of the tops, pants, and shoes that are making my wardrobe life easy and wonderful this fall.
Here it is! My easy, life-saving Fall 2016 capsule wardrobe.
Note: because products and links are continually changing, I did not directly link the pieces below. This is just an example of what I would have in my fall capsule wardrobe!
Fall Tops
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Pro tip about the tops:
I find it super helpful to plan my tops in groups of three.
In the grid above, you’ll see 3 button ups, 3 sweaters, and 3 open-front tops. That is intentional. That makes planning super easy. That allows me to pick jeans and pants that easily work with everything.
I’ve also been known to even buy the same exact shirt in multiple colors and maybe I put both in the fall capsule, or maybe I put one in the fall and one in the spring – either way works. Once I find something that fits and flatters, I grab hold tightly and do not let go.
Fall Pants
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One thing to note about the pants: THERE ARE ONLY 4! For real. I have found that so far this fall, I really only need four pairs of pants, and it’s awesome.
REMEMBER THOUGH: I have a strange life and I work from home and I don’t need “office wear.” This 4 pants situation is probably WAY more workable for work-from-homers and not quite as possible for most people who are doing the home-to-office-to-home thing.
I have three different washes of jeans (all from Express, all similar styles, because remember: once I find something that works, I grab hold and do not let go) and then one pair of black leggings from Lou & Grey which actually hold some shape and are never ever see-through and will ruin all other leggings for you forever. I will probably upgrade with a new pair of jeans or two this winter and spring, but for now, the old standbys are working just fine, TYVM.
All my pants are the same style (skinnies, mid-rise) which makes shoe planning REALLY really easy.
Fashion forwards of the world might get bored with this arrangement – I, on the other hand, mostly get really happy, because it’s SO AMAZINGLY EASY to get dressed every day.
Fall Shoes
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Shoes in the fall are the best. Flats and boots are where it’s at. Dress up, dress down, you can do it all with these two types of shoes. And when all your pants are all the same style (hello skinnies), shoe planning is a non-issue.
Three of these shoes are left over from last year, and two of them (the sneakers and the booties) are newbies to my life.
Alright, a few more semi-related comments and tips.
First of all, just know – I do not necessarily think of myself as a fashion forward person BUT I do think of myself as the person who HAS AN EASY WAY TO GET DRESSED WELL. If you’re like me and want to spend as little time as possible getting dressed while ending up wearing the most comfortable, most flattering, most appropriate for your lifestyle at all times clothes – YOU NEED A CAPSULE. I can’t recommend it highly enough. All the PDF forms and concepts that I use to plan my capsule are available in this post. I wish you all the good things on your capsule journey, young grasshopper!
If you are just getting started or have been doing capsule wardrobes for a while, there’s an app called Cladwell that is an interesting and mostly helpful tool in planning. I would still say the written forms that I used are an easier and more straightforward way to plan a capsule (biased much?), but that being said, the Cladwell app helps you focus on colors and gives you some template styles to pull from which was a win for me. Also cute apps in general are just a bonus, right?
Finally, really random tip and maybe a strange way to end, but I bought these organizers on Amazon that I use to organize socks, underwear, and other accessories and they have literally changed my top drawer life. It’s the little things, guys. It’s the little things.
What pieces (capsule or no capsule) are you loving this fall? Stay forever, September! ♡