We never go out of style
summer capsule wardrobe and lessons learned from spring
I’ve gotten back into the swing of creating a seasonal capsule wardrobe every 3 months almost effortlessly, and now it’s become a fun part of my quarterly planning. Summer is my least favorite part of the year because it’s HOT so I try to wear fun clothes.
I started with creating my color palette - 3 colors + 3 neutrals. This time I didn’t look at what’s “in style”, but noticed I bought another bright orange tee from Old Navy for $5 (cannot resist because they’re 100% cotton and fit me perfectly). This meant I had a small collection of orange items, which is not a color I’ve worn much. My color analysis said no but I can’t always follow the rules! I love a deep, saturated orange.
Another underrated color for me is a bright cobalt blue. And it goes well with orange, so I had 2/3 colors picked. My dark neutral in summer is navy blue - black feels too heavy and hot. I love bright white and “save” that color for summer as a treat during our worst season. Plus it looks great with navy!
That left one more color and one more neutral and I had trouble narrowing them down. I finally settled on yellow-green (repeated from Spring) for the color, because it looks so good with navy and it’s my favorite color hands down.
I had a pair of cream linen pants I haven’t worn much, and I love cream and white together, so I decided that would be my last neutral even though color analysis said no to that too :).
I tried to sneak in olive green (color #7) because I have a pair of linen pants I wanted to wear more often, but I ended up nixing it when I pulled everything summer-appropriate from my closet in all 7 colors. It was just too many items.
Once I had gathered all the items and made some hard decisions (sorry guys, maybe next summer!) I filled in a couple of “holes”:
Garnet Hill gray maxi skirt - I have 2 other skirts in navy so ended up buying a non-capsule color and I can live with that. It goes well with this color palette though! I had 2 of these in a different size and sold them years ago because I couldn’t figure out how to wear them. Turns out they were 1) too big and 2) the current trend of cropped boxy tees or tucking tops in is what I needed back then!
Target $8 cotton graphic tee - blue, green, orange print on a white background. Perfect for this palette and fits like a dream. (Unlike the other 3 tops I bought and promptly returned.)
Victoria’s Secret cream long-line bralette and lime cropped tank - I haven’t shopped there in years but the fit on both is impeccable? So confusing. Both are for layering.
Embroidered Chicas Latinas collab Superga sneakers - OK this was absolutely an impulse buy but I’ve been eyeing these sneaks for YEARS and finally got a new pair on Poshmark for $11. #sorrynotsorry
Lessons learned from Spring Capsule:
I don’t like pants, skirts, and shorts in non-neutral colors. I’ve made an executive decision to stop buying them. Neutrals only for bottoms. This makes coordinating clothes easier - I save the colors for tops and know most of my bottoms will match.
If it doesn’t fit, you must get rid of it. I had a super cute pale green Madewell muscle tee that was a size too large, and gave it up at the end of spring. I valiantly tried to make a $5 dress and $5 shorts work and they just didn’t. I used to do this with my kids - give them “one last wear” of something they outgrew before we had to give it away.
Trial and error is part of the process. I narrow the number of clothes and shoes down to ~50 for a capsule. I try to choose things I haven’t worn as much and use the capsule process to “audition” them - do they get to stay? I gave up 6 pants/skirts in Spring because they were not right, but still had plenty to wear in my closet.
Take non-capsule clothes on trips. This gives me a break from the capsule choices and lets me explore other items that might not be weather-appropriate for Arizona.
Not shopping *during* the season is liberating and doesn’t feel restrictive because I know if I “need” something for the next capsule I can buy it. But honestly, I don’t need much.
Two weeks into this summer capsule and I’ve already gotten rid of a pair of shorts that don’t fit well and eliminated a top because there are too many choices. I love this process of actively wearing a smaller portion of my wardrobe more often to identify my favorites. And it’s so damn easy to pick out clothes in the morning because I like everything. If you’re still reading, thanks ;) I love talking about wardrobe management!
I love these posts! I also only wear neutrals on the bottom (navy and black for work) but I am breaking like a bit as I now own animal print and orange skirts. I also bought orange pants in Vietnam (yet to wear because it’s still winter). I love chartreuse too. In fact, my clothes are chosen for today but I’m going to choose some chartreuse for tomorrow and I’ll take a pic for you.
Such a fun topic. I love the idea of creating a seasonal capsule and really taking the time to plan it out. I realized at some point that my summer wardrobe is out of proportion to the rest of my wardrobe and decided on a summer no-buy. It’s actually a great way of lessening decision fatigue. I also live out of a suitcase for much of the summer (I spent June in California with my daughter visiting family and now I’m in the south of France for two weeks). I can never bring it all with me anyway. My summer style is pretty different from the rest of the year. I tend to go for more feminine, kinda romantic looks and plenty of color. Fall/winter me is more neutral, modern, unisex. Spring is such a finicky season in Paris and I basically pull from my fall items and mix them with some summery stuff. Basically I have « mid season » stuff, summer and winter. Last year I wanted to buy new fall and winter clothes and waited for « the sales » thinking I’d find some great brands for less. Bad move. There was nothing left that interested me, and all the full-price good stuff was gone. So this year I’m going to carefully consider what I need most and pay full price. Enjoy your summer capsule !