Capsule Wardrobe Summer 2018 – Revisited

How did I do this summer?

The temperatures are beginning to cool, leaves are starting to fall, the nights are drawing in and I’ve found myself craving pumpkin flavoured food and drinks. The only explanation is autumn is drawing nearer and this means I need to say goodbye to my summer capsule wardrobe. If you haven’t seen my capsule, you can find it here. I find it’s easiest to create four capsules throughout the year because the seasons in north Europe change so dramatically. At the end of each capsule, I like to take a second and see how it performed for the three months. What I ended up wearing a lot of and what I didn’t. A kind of lessons learned if you will.

The Good Points

1. I liked all the colour and prints in my capsule, a lot of capsules I have found online are minimalist colours and patterns. But I actually like to clash prints so I was still able to create lots of outfit combinations.
2. In previous years, I’ve had to get rid of clothing because they were polyester and acrylic and felt they were suffocating me. Not this time, I enjoyed wearing all the pieces.
3. I figured out a few more ways to wear my clothes. I had so much fun styling up this tee ten different ways.

The Not So Good

1. In general, I had too many clothes. I had 38 pieces and I added a pair of shoes which took it to 39. It just felt like too many clothes. A few pieces I didn’t get around to wearing and others I just wore because I was feeling anxiety about not wearing them! A lot of the shoes I didn’t wear because it was just too hot.
2. I had too many skirts in my capsule wardrobe. Although I do love a midi skirt, I felt I had too many of a similar style. The majority I own are secondhand and vintage. I love them all but I may mix it up a bit next time. Not to worry, most of them can be worn throughout the year so maybe next time I will keep some in storage and swap them around.
3. Unfortunately, I didn’t include enough shorts. I only have one pair for everyday wear. I have shorts for exercising and hiking but don’t include them in my capsule. Maybe it was because the weather was so hot for such a long time this summer, but I felt like I could do with another pair.
4. I also didn’t have enough flat sandals. I only had one pair left over from last year and didn’t particularly like them! They looked past their best and there was nothing I could really do to make them look better. It is a problem with cheap shoes, they can work fine but it is difficult for them to look good year in year out. In the end, I bought a new pair (pictures below) that I really love and have worn them non stop.
5. I bought quite a few pieces secondhand that needed altering slightly. This in itself was fine but, I took way too long to take them to the tailor. They are altered now but I think next time I will make it a priority. I still stored the clothes in my wardrobe and it was disappointing to see lots of clothes hanging that I couldn’t wear. It seems like I had lost the point of the capsule which is supposed to be a selection of clothes I wear all the time!
6. Maybe the main reason I didn’t get on so well with this capsule wardrobe? I had put on weight! Many of the clothes that I had already were tighter than usual. Most of them looked fine but they didn’t feel as comfortable as in previous years.

In conclusion, I didn’t do so well this year! However, I’ve extended the summer capsule wardrobe into September. I’m on holiday for most of the month so will still end up wearing a lot of the clothes. It also gives me more time to plan out my Autumn capsule. As luck would have it, autumn is one of my favourites times of the year for fashion. My autumn capsule wardrobe will be up in October.

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