I have started a capsule wardrobe challenge a few months ago. See here and here. 🙂
I have talked about my progress and the steps I have taken to get where I’m at currently (see here).
Recap where I left off
In my previous post (Update #1) I assessed what was in my closet, what clothes I had cluttered there. I pondered what kind of lifestyle I had, what kind of clothes I really needed in my closet. After weeding through my closet, I took inventory of what was left, what brands where there and why I liked what I kept. I also took in account of my body type because let’s face it, not every style will look great on me. I needed to figure out what worked for my body and keep that in mind moving forward on this journey.
I then came to the point in the journey where I needed to figure out my color scheme, start building my season capsules, creating a shopping list and budget.
Color Palette
In researching capsule wardrobes, the first step is picking 2 neutral colors. Neutral colors are: grey, white, black, beige/tan, navy blue.
The next step is picking out 3 main clothes and 4 accent colors. This is where I am planning to have different palettes for each season, just because I know I tend to wear certain colors during certain times of the year. If you looked at my closet color palette as a whole, my color palette is all over the place, making it hard to pair items to create new outfits. With pairing down seasonal color palettes to fit my desire to wear certain colors at certain times of the year will help keep me from feeling overwhelmed looking at my closet as a whole.
Another thing to pay attention when you start to plan you capsule color palette. A color will be considered “warm” or “cool”, “deep” or “light”. It is common practice to have all your colors in your palette to be one or the other.
Photo credit
Lets go a little deeper into color palette planning
Neutrals: These color items are going to be part of my base. My base are items (ex: black dress pants) that will stay in the closet no matter what season capsule I am using. My neutrals will not change each season but remain the same 2 colors.
Main Colors: Main colors will be 3 colors that I will plan to wear a lot during each capsule. Also these colors will be close to your face so find colors you feel go with your hair, skin tone, eyes, etc. They can also be colors you gravitate towards when shopping.
Accent Colors: These 4 colors are to add variety to your capsule. They are normally in forms of accessories, a single item, etc. Each accent should go with at least 2 of your main colors.
For example: Let’s start with Fall since in a little over a week, September will be here. 🙂 The fall capsule will be September, October, November (since each capsule should last 3 months). Below is my game plan as to what color palette for fall. Warm fall colors! EEK! SO EXCITED!!! (Fall is my FAVORITE season fyi!) 🙂
So I am building on what I began a year ago with black and white as my base (neutral) colors. In the past, during fall I know I wear the traditional fall colors like burgundy and warm browns – aka warm colors. I also am a Michigan State fan, so adding khaki green to the main color seemed like an obvious fit. 😉
When deciding my accent colors, I thought about what colors would go with my main colors, what holidays/events would be going on during the 3 months that I would like to wear. There is Halloween so having a shade of orange as an accent color was a must. The reason I didn’t have it as a main color was because I didn’t want to feel like a pumpkin for all 3 fall months, ya know? LOL
The accent color slate blue might have not been a typical fall color but I felt it would look awesome with burgundy (example and link back below) and slate blue would go with warm brown (example and link back below).
(photo credit & website link) (photo credit & website link)
Creating a shopping list & budget
So I have my fall capsule game plan. Next step would be get a shopping list game plan since I feel I have gaps in my wardrobe capsule. Please note: I didn’t run out after I went through my clothes and start shopping. I worked with what was left during the past 2 summer months. I also took the time and figured out what colors I was going to focus on for fall. The next step I need to do is to take inventory of what I have and what I could add that 1) fits my style & lifestyle 2) fits into my color palette and 3) fits into my budget.
I will remember when I’m shopping to focus on quality over quantity. I don’t want to go back to having 100 shirts and be overwhelmed again. I do want to be environmentally conscience and will hit the thrift stores and my brand stores to round out my wardrobe.
My budget will be $100 since I want to invest in some quality items and my shopping list will consist of:
- Khaki pants ($30)
- Khaki vest ($25)
- black & white dress ($35)
white t-shirt(picked one up this weekend)- warm brown t-sheet ($10)
Not too long which is the point of the capsule. 🙂
Now that I have my budget and shopping list all set, I don’t have to run out and buy every item tomorrow. I have the whole season to find these items in my budget.
So excited to have a game plan and feel ready to rock fall! 😀
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