Capsule Wardrobe, Capsule Life

I was so happy with how my Capsule Wardrobe worked on my vacation. I was able to create a variety of outfits using the same basic pieces. 

Here are a few of my outfits:

For running around shopping:

Dinner at a brewery:

Dinner at a nice restaurant:

Another nice restaurant:

I first started exploring this Capsule Wardrobe idea in April when I was changing out my winter clothes for my summer ones. I had a lot of clothes I never wore. They were nice clothes; some still had tags, but they didn’t work with anything else I owned, so they just clogged up my drawers and closet. 

What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

A capsule wardrobe is a collection of pieces you mix and match to create outfits for various occasions. 

The idea is to have a few curated pieces rather than a whole closet full of clothes that don’t work together. 

The basic philosophy is: You don’t need more clothes; you need the right clothes.

**I first wrote about this in, Nothing to Wear. Then, I got into what it means to have a personal style: Style is How You Break The Rules. And then, in June, I was still trying to figure out my personal style in I Want to Be Chic.

The point of a capsule wardrobe is to build outfits. You start with a top and a bottom, usually pants and a shirt, then build out from there.

Styling involves putting together a look by adding shoes, a belt, a bag, a blazer, or some jewelry.

As I’ve been putting together my capsule wardrobe this summer, I started to wonder if this could work with my life, too. Could I build a Capsule Life using the same principles as a Capsule Wardrobe?

 How to Build a Capsule Life

You don’t need more life; you need the right life.

To live well, you must know your basics. What do you care about the most? For most of us, our basics are love and work. These are the two domains we fret about the most.

To create a Capsule Life around these basics, we need to collect some pieces we can mix and match to signal to others where we stand and how we feel about these things.  We need to create life-outfits for love and work. 

Life-Outfits are created by adding or subtracting people, places, and things to our basic lives. How we put together these elements defines our lifestyle. Sadly, sometimes you have to ditch stuff that doesn’t work (even if it’s brand new and still has the tags!) so that your life sends a clear signal about what you sincerely love and value.

For example, if you’re on a fitness journey and all your friends eat junk food and go to the bar a lot, you need to curate your friend group.

Or, if your life feels drab and uninteresting, you need to invest in something that will add sparkle and color, like a cool trip or a new hobby.

Or, if your hours of mindless scrolling clash with your aspiration of writing a novel or getting a degree, the scrolling has to go. 

Creating A Lifestyle

The capsule life is a calculated and intentional series of choices about what people, places, and things you need to keep or toss.

Once the basics are in place, we style our lives to showcase our personalities, preferences, idiosyncrasies, and creativity by adding people and activities to our lives that signal what we value and how we want to spend our time.

A lifestyle is nothing more than an idiosyncratic way a person puts their life together by making choices about who to be friends with, what to do with their free time, and what projects to devote themselves to. 

Building a Capsule Life involves being intentional about how you spend your time, who you spend your time with, and what you do with your time. 

As you refine it, your life takes on a distinctive style unique to you. It becomes a vehicle through which you can express your individuality and creativity. And as with your wardrobe, the more pieces you can mix and match the more versatile your life becomes.