Creating outfits from my capsule wardrobe.

I've been so excited with my new purchases that I've been grateful for the cooler weather here in Spain, as it has meant I could wear some of them over the last few days. I loved the fact that when Maria of Looking Stylish created the capsule wardrobe for me, she took my existing wardrobe neutrals into consideration to make my new clothes more versatile.

 

Of course I can't afford to throw away half of my wardrobe, so my Autumn capsule includes several older items of clothing as well as my new purchases. In photo one, I am wearing my new Gold top with a pair of chocolate jeggings and I'm using one of my many scarves to link the two.  Photo two shows my new sand cardigan and trousers with a brown Kettlewell top and a splash of turquoise to liven up the neutrals.

The third photo illustrates how I can jazz up navy jeans and a navy and white striped top with a silk gold scarf that I bought in Greenwich market when I was staying in London. Next is my new olive top with the sand trousers, however I could also have worn it with my chocolate jeggings. Finally, I wore my chocolate lace top with the sand trousers and gold accessories.

I hope that this post demonstrates how you can mix and match both new and older items of clothing to create different outfits. In the photos above I am wearing five new pieces and four old ones, plus an old scarf and my newest purchase. Even if you aren't able to buy any new clothes, you can still create different outfits by mixing and matching existing clothes in new ways. I think one of the reasons why so many women become bored with their wardrobes is that they fall into the trap of always wearing the same combinations of tops and bottoms. Why don't you try out some new outfits over the weekend?

Autumn capsule wardrobe for Project 333

I have now been taking part in Project 333 for three years. The idea behind Project 333 is to limit yourself to a wardrobe of 33 items of clothing and accessories for each season to cover the following 3 months, hence the 333. I have to admit that I bend the rules a bit and don't include any accessories in my 33, however I still find it a challenging exercise. Over the years I have discovered that what helps to combat any boredom is to build a capsule wardrobe with clothes that will mix and match,  so you can create lots of different outfits even though your wardrobe is smaller.

As a member of the Looking Stylish Style Club, I have had some good advice from Maria and the other members. I now know the most flattering neutrals in my existing wardrobe so I can build on those, although realistically I also have to work with the clothes that I already have until I can afford to replace them.

 

I included the above photos in my previous posts: first my main neutral of brown then my new purchases of a sand cardigan and trousers, followed by my secondary neutral of navy and finally accents of teal and coral. All of these go well together - allowing me to create several different outfits - and I love both teal and coral, so it is a bonus that they are good colours for me.

The first photo above shows the three tops that I bought in London last week. Several people thought that I suited olive, so I have included my olive cardigan and a top as shown in the second photo, with two items below them that are on my shopping list. If I succeed in buying all of these items, they will definitely enhance my basic wardrobe, blending with both brown and navy.

These three accessories will be a good addition to my wardrobe, as they will go with most of the items shown above as well as many of the ones below. I have shown a few of my other accessories in some of these photos, however I do have many other scarves, shoes, bags and pieces of jewellery to ring the changes. Now you know why I exclude my accessories!

So far I have 24 items of clothing in my capsule, which would have been a total of 31 if I had included the accessories in these photos. I am adding the next four tops on the basis that they are colourful (yay!) and will go with some of the trousers shown above. Finally, a grey pair of trousers that I'm not quite ready to discard, a red knitted jacket and two jackets that will look fine worn with both the grey trousers and navy jeans, even though they aren't in my most flattering colours. That leaves me with one more item, which - with several social occasions coming up over the next three months as well as Christmas - is likely to be a dress.

My Autumn capsule wardrobe therefore consists of five pairs of trousers, seventeen tops, nine jackets or cardigans, a navy mac and a dress. Mixing and matching all of these should give me enough options to wear a different outfit every day over the next three months. Do you have a capsule wardrobe? What are your main neutrals and accents?

Neutrals for my capsule wardrobe: navy

Many of us have accumulated a lot of clothes over the years and some, like me, find it difficult to throw any of them away. Since I started doing Project 333, I have tried to work on a "one in, one out" basis.  I have also, from time to time, tried to be ruthless and have a good clear out. I'm getting there, albeit slowly!

The beauty of having a capsule wardrobe is that - in theory - everything in your wardrobe will go with everything else, enabling you to create lots of different outfits. When you make any new purchases, you should only do so if you are confident that they will go with several other items in your wardrobe. By having a well thought out, flexible capsule wardrobe, you should find that you don't get bored, even if there are fewer clothes in it, as creating new outfits will become easier.

As I already have a lot of navy items in my wardrobe, I can't afford to discard them all in favour of brown. Like most women I have a pair of navy jeans, plus a selection of navy tops and cardigans, a navy trench-coat and navy accessories. I have shown a few of them below, which will be in my autumn/winter wardrobe.

Maria was aware of this when she created my new wardrobe capsule so chose colours that would blend with navy as well as with my brown items of clothing. The following clothes are the ones that I hope to purchase in London, and I'm sure you will agree that they will look as good with the navy items above as with the brown items in my previous post.

Navy can be almost as harsh as black, so I will be wearing pops of colour to brighten it up, especially near the face. The scarf show below will be ideal, and fortunately I already have a good selection of scarves in all the colours of the rainbow.

Although I chose brown as my main neutral, I discovered that olive green also flatters me. Luckily olive will work with the other colours, so I can include it in my autumn/winter wardrobe. Coral and teal will also blend nicely with my navy clothes, adding to their flexibility.

Adding in the navy tops and my navy jeans means that I now have eleven tops and three bottoms in this capsule, which gives enough options to wear a different outfit each day of the month. Don't forget that, as it gets cooler, I may add another layer, which gives me even more variety - plus those all important accessories.

In my next post I will put it all together to create my Autumn 33. For those of you who are wondering about the references to Project 333 and Autumn 33, don't worry: I will explain it all in the following post.

Neutrals for my capsule wardrobe: brown

Having looked critically at the photos in my last post, and having  asked for feedback (many thanks to all of you who left comments), the consensus is that brown is the most flattering neutral for building my capsule wardrobe. I already have a couple of brown tops and the pair of chocolate jeans shown below,  plus two pairs of brown shoes and a brown bag.

If you look back to my earlier posts it is obvious that I love colour, so will using brown for my basics limit me in any way? I don't think so, as I can use different colour accents for tops and accessories as shown in the following photos. I often receive compliments when I wear coral and teal is a universally flattering colour, so these are definitely going to be part of my autumn/winter wardrobe. I can wear them with navy basics too, which I will show in my next post.

I'm going to London in less than two weeks and have a shopping list, thanks to Maria of Looking Stylish. As I also have to fit in meeting friends and family (which obviously is more important than buying new clothes!) I have decided which items will be top of my list. I know that all of the items Maria has selected for me will blend well with both my brown basics and my navy ones, giving me a flexible capsule wardrobe.

As I'm a petite H-shape, outfits that make me look taller and slimmer not surprisingly tend to be my favourites. You can see a brown hoodie and brown trousers in the top photo, plus a sand cardigan and trousers in the photo just above on the left: both of these will help to create a column of colour, which has the desired effect. If it's too warm to wear a cardigan, I can wear a scarf or necklace to match my bottoms to create a similar illusion.

There are eight tops and two bottoms in my capsule. Simple multiplication shows that this will give me sixteen different outfits, however that is without counting cardigans and jackets, plus using accessories to ring the changes. 

Time permitting, I also hope to purchase the following accessories, which will help to complete my new capsule wardrobe.

Maria suggested a few more items of clothing that I hope to buy on-line if I run out of time - and money! - when I'm in London. I'm thinking that if I don't purchase them now, they would be ideal as Christmas presents to complete my capsule. I just have to hope that Santa is reading my blog.