Petite Fashion | How to start a sustainable capsule wardrobe for Petites
What does capsule wardrobe mean?
Capsule wardrobe is a method of editing down your wardrobe to timeless staple items that you totally love to wear for multiple seasons. You create room for a well-curated wardrobe filled with a smaller, versatile collection that simplifies your closet and your life. A capsule wardrobe is a coherent way to dress. You will always find something wearable, no matter what season or occasion.
With this wardrobe refresh you are not only changing your clothing habits and saving yourself time and money, you are making a step towards a more sustainable lifestyle. By approaching the capsule wardrobe as a value based concept, it will guide you to buy less and to choose well. It helps you to embrace the ethos of quality over quantity. It’s a mindful approach that also amplifies how you want to vote with your wallet going forward. For example, only buying from brands that have a clear focus on sustainability, high-quality materials, craftsmanship and that provide a meaningful story and connection behind the brand and product.
By choosing slow fashion, your consumption manners shifts and you reduce the negative impact of the fast fashion industry on humans and the environment.
How many clothing items should you have in your capsule wardrobe?
According to the founder and british fashion icon Susie Faux, 37 is the golden number of pieces you should have in a capsule wardrobe. Personally, we believe that the concept of a well-curated wardrobe doesn’t need to adhere to a specific number. Furthermore, we believe that focusing on quality and versatility is the most essential part of this concept. Having a capsule wardrobe filled with thoughtfully selected premium essentials maximises the wearability of all garments and cultivates forever treasures in your closet. The season of life you are in, your lifestyle, the hemisphere you are living in and the color preferences you have will influence and shape the scale and dynamic of your capsule wardrobe and the number of essentials it comprises.
How to start your own sustainable capsule wardrobe collection?
To create your own sustainable capsule collection, schedule enough time to go through the process and put yourself in the right mindset. Building a capsule wardrobe is about curating a logical selection of clothing items that you love to wear but are also practical and versatile. To begin the process, don’t pull everything straight out of your closet. Start with Step 1 below, reflecting on your current lifestyle first before moving on to actual techniques.
Step 1. Make your wardrobe serve your lifestyle
Take a step back and thoroughly consider what the focus is in your life at the moment (and in the near future). Will you stay focused on your career for the next couple of years? Or are you planning a sabbatical/extended travel in the next few months? Is sport playing a major role in your life right now? Focusing on your lifestyle will help you to think mindfully about your future fashion purchases but also helps you to shift your consumption manner by reducing waste and saving money in the long run.
Step 2. Review/Analyse your current wardrobe
Now, pull out everything you have in your closet and thoroughly look at what you already own. Declutter and clear items you don’t love and don’t feel great about (to get detailed guidance read the “Wardrobe Clean Out Techniques“ in our post the Clean Out.) Identify what you still love while also asking yourself whether you would like to keep your current style (e.g. classic) or if there is any other aesthetic that has been inspiring you lately? Do you have a colour palette in mind you would like to reduce your capsule wardrobe to? By narrowing your current wardrobe down to adaptable, selected essentials you are creating space for new choices and are also giving old clothes a new lease of life.
Step 3. Make it visual and identify the gaps
Before you expand your newly edited wardrobe (if necessary), you have to identify and map out any actual gaps in your current closet. Really think about every category of clothing and what role it plays in your day to day dressing (e.g for petites, making sure there are enough properly fitting trousers, if that is an essential for you and your lifestyle). It really helps to put the clothing items you love and want to keep on a clothing rack and sort it into the following groups: The Basics, The Essentials and The Statements. While the Basics are more or less the same in every wardrobe, e.g timeless, practical and versatile t-shirts, tops & layers, the Essentials can vary depending on your work and lifestyle. These are the core pieces you pull out every single day and also express your aesthetic, e.g. suits, if you are working in corporate, cut in your favourite style. The Statement items are the most extraordinary ones, the more trendy and experimental items you have. This categorization will help you to get a visual outline of your decluttered wardrobe and to identify any gaps. To get more guidance with this process before you purchase any missing elements read our post “The Curation”.
Starting and building a sustainable capsule wardrobe that supports your lifestyle and current activities can be time consuming. That’s why CIMELIA is working on a practical booklet that will guide you through the process in more detail. As you move into new seasons of your life, your style and priorities are likely to change. This is why it’s vital to take the time to look at your wardrobe regularly and (re-)focus on what’s really important to you. Doing proper research and using different channels of inspiration will help you curate a wardrobe that is reflecting YOU. Find inspiration in your favorite style icons, create mood boards on Pinterest, look through old and new magazines, go to a museum. Your imagination is the only limit! Starting and building a sustainable capsule wardrobe that supports your lifestyle and current activities can be time consuming.