Caroline Rector has returned from hiatus and her capsule wardrobe blog, Un-Fancy, is back. In her returning post, she shares where she’s been and how she decided to fire up the blog again, this time with a more relaxed, integrated approach to her wardrobe. Same principles, less structure.
As she puts it: “I’d say I’m off the ‘capsule diet.’ Now it’s just part of my lifestyle — like a healthy habit.”
Capsules are fun to assemble and to show off; for me, there’s something appealing about having just the right pieces and knowing I have a tidy, coherent whole. Like you could tie it all up with a bow and, well, whip up a great blog post about it.
Capsule wardrobe posts generate some of the highest click-rates out there in the style blogging world. I think that’s because a lot of us like the visual aspect—it’s clean, it’s lovely, it’s not overwhelming in an age of digital avalanche—and we like getting inspiration for how we could make it work in our own lives. (Daydreaming about spending zilch time to pick out consistently great outfits…and just picturing how your closet will be able to breathe, to quote Duchesse. Sigh!)
On the flip side, though, spending the time to craft a capsule and create a video about it and then making all of it public puts pressure on the capsule to be JUST RIGHT. Can I really just scrap this skirt when everyone’s seen it’s part of my capsule and the fabric and color go so well with everything else?
(The answer is YES but it can be hard to remember that when you’re curating something, in part, for other people’s consumption!)
To be honest, I do like the limitations that a capsule-like wardrobe imposes—looking at my lovely, cohesive capsule reminds me that I have enough and have no need or desire to shop to fill holes in a poorly-planned wardrobe.
That’s why I like Caroline’s analogy of diet vs. lifestyle—instead of sticking to a strict regimen to achieve a specific goal—say, Capsule Wardrobe Winter 2015-2016—I can take the habits and principles of capsule wardrobe-ing and apply them daily.
Don’t love it? Don’t buy it.
Love it but it won’t go with most of the rest of your closet? Don’t buy it.
We’ll see if this relaxed attitude works this spring—whether I was following the rules long enough for the habits to have cemented themselves in my daily life. :)
Don’t worry, I’ll still photograph my main sartorial squeezes for you so you can see how I’m putting things together. Maybe I’ll even do another video! It’ll just be more like a “core” than a “capsule”—the center around which everything gathers rather than a finite box with hard limits.
What works better for you—distinct capsules or continuous lifestyle habits? And do you want to see spring clothes even if they’re not a traditionally concrete capsule?
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