Building a capsule wardrobe - MORE neutrals

I'm guessing that many of you may groan at the idea of more neutrals, however others may be thinking "great"! Remember that one of the benefits of a capsule wardrobe is flexibility and that some of you may have wardrobes like mine used to be: crammed full of clothes in a variety of colours that don't go together. Hopefully you will see the advantages of adding more neutrals and will bear with me. If you have warm colouring and chose brown, for example, as your dark neutral, then choose a warm but light neutral such as camel, stone or cream as your second neutral. Below are pictures of my light neutrals plus the dark ones from my previous post, which can mix and match with each other.

My light neutrals

My dark neutrals

For those of you who look better in cool colours, stick to a cool neutral like a light grey or white, mixed with dark grey or navy for your dark neutrals as shown below.

Light grey neutrals

Dark navy neutrals

If you do have lots of different colours in your existing wardrobe, don't worry as I'm not going to suggest throwing them all out. Look at the examples above, which are either warm or cool neutrals, and imagine them worn with red, orange, yellow, green, blue or whatever colours you love. If you suit cooler shades, you will obviously need to wear a blue-red top rather than an orange-red one and vice versa. Here are some examples from my own wardrobe, which go beautifully with the neutrals shown in the first two pictures.

A touch of colour

For those of you who look better in cool colours, you might like to choose accent colours similar to those in the following picture.

Cool colour accents

I've shown 14 pieces from my warm capsule wardrobe: 7 tops, 4 bottoms and 3 cardigans. As all of the tops can be worn with all of the bottoms this makes 28 different outfits, however don't forget that there are also three cardigans that can be worn with them, giving over 100 possible combinations. You can do the same with the light grey and navy neutrals, combining them with the cool accent colours to create numerous different outfits.

Don't forget that these are only examples of some of the pieces that you might want to include in your own capsule wardrobe. You may prefer skirts or dresses to trousers. Softer, more delicate colours might flatter your colouring more than the shades I have shown. When you add in your personal style, body shape and colouring you will be creating a capsule wardrobe that is unique to you. You don't even have to include accent colours if you're more of a neutral, monochrome sort of person. I have the occasional day when I wear neutral outfits, however these days are rare as colour is part of my style recipe.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you will know what's coming next. Accessories! Your neutral shoes, bags, necklaces and scarves are an essential part of your capsule, however you can totally change the look of each outfit with not only accessories in accent colours but also in different styles. Classic, feminine, dramatic, sporty. elegant - choose whichever style suits your personality. More on that in my next post!