Clothing & Style

I’m currently dressing out of a suitcase I packed in the middle of December – with the vague idea (but no desire to closely examine the thought) that I’d be living out of it for longer than my originally projected 10 weeks.

I ended up with 20 pieces in my suitcase dictated capsule wardrobe. Which is about 10 pieces under the number of clothes I had at the end of my year long, handmade wardrobe challenge.

So the question I keep coming back to as I plan my summery wardrobe infusion is: why am I sick of all the clothes in my wardrobe?!

Is it the clothes themselves?

I ended up with approximately a 50/50 handmade/store bought clothing split in my carry-on suitcase sized capsule wardrobe.

So about 50 percent of the clothes in this current wardrobe were made by me, for me, as part of the self-made wardrobe project. And the other 50 percent were either from before my year of self-made wardrobe-ing or passed along from friends since the end of that year.

Which means, there’s nothing in this wardrobe I hate or dislike or that makes me feel uncomfortable or anything like that.

In fact – I adore all these clothes. And lets be honest, if I didn’t love them, they probably wouldn’t be with me.

Is it a lack of possible combinations of clothing?

One of the most important components of any capsule wardrobe is versatility of each piece within the capsule wardrobe itself.

Meaning, how many pieces of clothing does a single garment “go with?” Not “in theory” – the land of “yea, sure, I’d totally wear this top with all those skirts” – but in reality – the land of “yea, sure, I could wear this top with that skirt and this other skirt, but I’m sure as hell not going to.”

Paring anything with just about anything else is theoretically possible – but that doesn’t mean we’d all wear it.

So with a capsule wardrobe, because you have a limited number of pieces, you want to maximize the versatility of each piece & compatibility of pieces with many other pieces. The more garments one pieces is compatible with, the more looks you can put together.

Therefore it’s quite possible to have a wardrobe where you love all the pieces individually, and still have “nothing to wear.”

There might be some of this going on – but I don’t think we can attribute all of my wardrobe sickness to this. I have a pretty standard uniform. Black tank top. Skirt or Jeans. Over-shirt, sweater or sweatshirt.

This uniform has been thoroughly documented, and I have (more or less) accepted it.

Am I getting garment fatigue?

Even when I have a teeny tiny wardrobe, I still find myself going through “clothing phases.” I’ll fall in love with a particular skirt, or over-shirt, and wear it every other day for awhile. Then I’ll turn my attention on to a different piece. And so the cycle continues.

There probably some of this going on. I’m finding myself reaching for the same maxi dress, and the same shirt over and over again. (And also wishing I had a second one of each.) This whole only having one of a certain type of garment is kind of screwing me over wardrobe-wise.

I packed the dress thinking I’d pull it out once or twice – and would definitely want it during the summer in NYC – but I never thought it would become my go to.

And the shirt – I totally tossed into my suitcase because it was at the bottom of a draw, and I had already sealed the wardrobe box I was packing up.

So a significant part of my wardrobe infusion is aimed at taking some of the focus off of these two particular pieces.

Is there anything I haven’t worn?
And do I actually have a 20 piece wardrobe?

Sort of?

If I made any mistakes packing my carry-on suitcase sized capsule wardrobe it was packing too many dresses.

I packed 3.

And contrary to what I just answered to the above question – I don’t really wear dresses.

Out of the dresses I packed, I’ve regularly worn 1 out of 3.

I figured out quite early on in the self-made wardrobe project that dresses were not really my thing. But I packed them anyway because dresses often feel more versatile (dress them up, down, sideways) than a skirt + top.

I know I can dress a skirt + top up, down or sideways.

And yet, I still felt the need to pack a dress (and then another) “just in case.”

So while I have with me 20 pieces of clothing – 2 of those pieces are dresses that I don’t regularly wear, 2 of those pieces are are coats, and 2 of those pieces are what I’m currently reaching for every other day.

This leaves a rotation of 14 pieces – 2 of which are sweaters that are a little too warm for this weather.

So really, once you take away the coats, the written off dresses, the it’s-too-warm-for sweaters, and add back in the 2 pieces of clothing I’m reaching for every other day – I actually have a 14 piece wardrobe.

Which is far smaller than a 20 piece one.

But really?

I think it comes down to a lack of new clothing.

The last pieces I introduced into my wardrobe were a couple pairs of new jeans – which were replacing a couple pairs of worn out & done in jeans. So they didn’t really add to my wardrobe, they more maintained.

The last pieces I introduced into my wardrobe before those jeans were, a navy sweatshirt (that I have with me), and a black over-shirt (the one I keep reaching for). And if I’m remembering correctly, I introduced those back in the fall, around October or November – we’re now a third of the way through May…

So I think a large part of my wardrobe “over-it-ness” comes down to a lack of new.

With the year-long self-made wardrobe project, I may have ended up with only about 10 more pieces of clothing than I currently have – but I was continually introducing pieces into my wardrobe throughout the year.

And as I truly discovered during that project – one single piece of well chosen clothing can make you see your entire wardrobe in a new light.

When a new piece of clothing is well chosen and slots seamlessly into your existing wardrobe – it can open up possibilities that you couldn’t have envisioned when you bought (or made) the piece. It can open up possibilities that have nothing to do with the new piece of clothing itself.

It’s as if the sparkly newness rubs off on all your other clothing and re-makes them all fresh & shiny.

I want new shiny clothing!

And this desire is, I think, the driving impetus behind my summer wardrobe infusion.

I want to see all my beloved clothing through that shiny & new wardrobe filter.

So now, If you’ll pardon me, I’m going to go make some new clothes.