Building My Autumn Capsule Wardrobe

+ Everything I Decluttered

One of my favorite things to do is a seasonal capsule wardrobe switchover and declutter. I don’t really track the amount that I wear my clothes, despite numerous attempts to do so, but the seasonal switchover allows me some dedicated time to go through everything and see which items I’ve been wearing the least and which items I can let go of as I work toward a smaller and more refined wardrobe.

It took me 2 days to do this wardrobe switchover. One piece of advice I always give people when they feel overwhelmed by their wardrobes and are dreading an actual declutter is to break it up into smaller pieces. On my first day, I focused on the items that were visible in my wardrobe - my summer capsule wardrobe. On the second day, I focused on the items that were in storage - cold weather items that I had put away last spring, as well as some items that I’d removed in a previous declutter but that were still in my basement storage room (I wanted to make sure that there was nothing in there that I still wanted).

Here are a few things that made this closet switchover and declutter a little easier:

1. I identified my outfit base - I feel my best when I’m wearing jeans/pants and a shirt/t-shirt/sweater. It’s super simple and feels put together. I can add accessories if I want to make it feel more stylish or I can play with layers for more interest, if the weather permits.

2. I rediscovered my love for certain items - on our recent Paris trip, I took my black silk blazer and loved wearing it every evening and it works really well with my base outfit. I’m also a fan of light jackets. Both of these are the perfect third piece to my outfit.

3. I’m liking mini or maxi length dresses at the moment, not midi.

4. I only want to keep items that are versatile, that I can wear with multiple other items or that can be worn in multiple ways.

As someone who enjoys fashion, and shopping, but who’s also easily overwhelmed by stuff, I’m constantly vacillating between wanting to add interesting items to my wardrobe or to just get rid of everything, and right now, I’m in a season of wanting to get rid of everything, which is making me super critical of the clothes that I do own.

Outlining the things that are important to me (above) really helped me to let go of the things that I keep just because. I’m also working on the mindset that I’ve had around clothing for a long time - that I need variety in order to be able to style outfits nicely. Which has led me to realize that I had that mindset for all the wrong reasons.

I’ve had a pretty constant influx of items since I started my Instagram account in 2018, but having taken a step back from that over the past few years has made me realize that I was acquiring those items for the wrong reason - more to impress other people than it being a true want. And then, where I started posting my outfits on here, I fell back into the same mindset, thinking “who wants to see the same things over and over”.

But, in all honesty, I feel my most stylish and creative when I limit myself to a smaller capsule wardrobe. And honestly, when I’m not sharing my outfits online, I resort to wearing the same favorite, tried and true, items over and over. And really, isn’t that just real life?

So, my new (actually old) goal is to continue to minimize my wardrobe - but in a slow, intentional way because I don’t want to declutter just to buy again. I’m fairly minimalist in all other aspects of my life but my wardrobe seems to be the one area where I’m constantly in emotional limbo and I’m looking forward to getting to the other side!

Now that you know where my head is, let’s get to the specifics.

Everything I Decluttered

The first thing that I did was go through my summer capsule wardrobe to pick out the things that I didn’t wear this summer. Then I decided if I was going to declutter them, move them into my autumn capsule wardrobe or put them into storage for next summer.

Once I had done this, and figured out what I was going to do with the rest of the items that I’d actually worn (move them into the autumn capsule, declutter or store them), I got things out of storage, either from the bins at the top of my wardrobe, the storage room where some previously declutter clothing was stored or the spare room closet where coats/jackets are stored.

I didn’t go into this process with a plan to declutter a lot of items. I want to be very mindful of the things that I do get rid of to minimize the chance that I’ll feel regret. Honestly, I feel very little regret about the things that I’ve decluttered in the past and for the items that I do regret, they have been more unique OOAK items, like a black silky blazer with moons and stars all over it - I brought it to a local consignment shop a few years ago and I hold out hope that it will come back to me someday. With this in mind, I decluttered more basic items, except for 1 top that I made from a vintage tablecloth that I liked the idea of more than I liked actually wearing it - I made it when I was experimenting with wearing more bold prints but I’ve learnt that those types of items aren’t for me.

So, even though I hadn’t intended to get rid of a lot of items, that’s what actually happened. In this switchover, I was able to let go of 51 items:

• Accessories - 5

• Activewear - 5

• Tops - 5

• T-shirts - 5

• Shirts - 2

• Sweaters - 3

• Vests - 3

• Pants - 3

• Skirts - 1

• Dress/Jumpsuit - 3

• Shorts/Romper - 3

• Jeans - 2

• Coats/Jackets - 9

• Shoes - 2

This also includes the previously decluttered items that had been in storage.

What Made the Cut for My Autumn Capsule Wardrobe?

I mostly focused on the items that I’ve been wearing on repeat lately and then kept or included similar items - this looks like outfits with pants/jeans + shirt/t-shirt + sweater/blazer/light jacket + ballet flats/loafers/sneakers/boots. I’ve also included a few dresses and skirts to create more layered looks.

The overall selection contains the following number of items per category:

• vests - 2 (grey knitted, navy quilted)

• tops - 7 (green tank, black tank, dressy pink tank, black silk cami, white cotton, black long sleeve, tie-front plaid)

• t-shirts - 3 (ivory, navy, black)

• blouses - 2 (ivory silk, blue chambray)

• cotton shirts - 6 (purple stripe, blue, 3 blue stripe, b/w plaid)

• over shirts - 3 (jeans, velvet, black)

• blazers - 3 (grey wool, b/w silk, black silk)

• skirts -3 (white poplin, silver leather, brown pleated)

• pants - 5 (green utility, black nylon, black textured wide leg, black barrel leg, black trousers)

• dresses - 9 (blue mini, grey silk slip midi, black maxi slip, olive pinafore, cream sheer organza, black sheer silk, white maxi, black long sleeve wrap, denim dress/coat)

• sweaters - 10 (red cotton v-neck, grey wool mockneck, blue cardigan, grey cashmere cardigan, grey cashmere crewneck, tan cashmere crewneck, black cashmere crewneck, green cotton half-zip, black merino mockneck, grey merino mockneck)

• jeans - 7 (white barrel, light blue straight, medium blue utility, 2-toned wide leg, dark blue barrel, black straight/skinny, black straight)

• footwear - 12 (tall black moto, short black moto, black heeled combat, white zipper front, dressy silver, brown harness, leopard print, black loafers, cream suede sneakers, silver leather sneakers, brown ballet flats, tan clogs)

• jackets - 5 (green quilted, black quilted, purple suede, green suede, black leather)

* The 17 bolded items are ones that I think I could remove from my wardrobe and not miss them.

There are currently 77 items in my autumn capsule wardrobe. I hadn’t initially decided to do a tally but my curiosity got the better of me and I was thinking that I had even more than this. I probably have another 30-40 items in storage (top of the wardrobe and coat closet). My goal is to not have any items in storage and to have a (mostly) year round capsule wardrobe and this latest declutter has helped me get closer to that goal.

A few years ago, I read a report titled “Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable” (2022) from The Hot or Cool Institute and their 1.5-degree wardrobe:

“considers a total of 74 garments (including shoes) in active use as the sufficiency level in a two-season country, and a total of 85 garments in a four-season country”.

Ever since reading this, I’ve had this number (85 since I live in a four-season country) in the back of my mind as a goalpost. But not because I’m trying to have as few items in my wardrobe as possible, but to get to a point where my wardrobe only has items that are being actively worn.

Key Takeaways

As I was going through this wardrobe switchover/declutter, a few things kept popping into my head:

1. I do not need any more clothes.

2. I definitely don’t need any more dresses!

3. One of the reasons that I buy new clothes is to impress others - I’m going to start referring to these items as peacock clothes :)

4. I’m really happy with the purchases that I’ve made during my low buy year - I’ve decluttered a couple of them but the majority are ones that fit into my vision of a year round capsule wardrobe.

5. I have more than enough “basics” and future items will be unique items that are suitable for everyday wear, like a velvet western style shirt I bought this month!

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I don’t think there’ll ever be a time when I don’t obsess over my clothes - whether I’m buying too much, or I have too much or I want more. Sometimes it feels like a hobby and others, a curse. But it’s also a distraction and and I think there’s an opportunity for self-growth in there.

If you’d enjoy watching this process, I just published an accompanying video on my YouTube channel:

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Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a great week!