Nowadays, shoppers have too many options when it comes to clothes, which can cause decision fatigue – a psychological phenomenon, where the pressure of small decisions snowball into mental distress. If you struggle with excessive options, there is a way to simplify your life. With immense benefits of a capsule wardrobe, you can adopt a minimalist approach toward fashion.
A stress-free capsule closet will help you declutter your everyday routine and slow down your consumption. With a streamlined set of versatile clothing that is easy to coordinate, you can finally feel at ease while dressing up in the morning.
In this guide, we’ll explain why capsule wardrobe is the way to go – regardless of whether your closet needs some detoxing or you simply crave a style transformation.
What Are the Main Benefits of a Capsule Wardrobe?
The benefits of a capsule wardrobe include having a stress-free morning routine, straying away from fast fashion, and finding your own sense of style. Focusing on quality over quantity, a capsule closet helps you stick to the essentials while curbing overconsumption.
With that said, here are 5 key benefits of capsule wardrobe that will redefine shopping for you:
1. Elimination of Decision Fatigue
A capsule wardrobe eliminates the paradox of choice, whether it’s when choosing a daily outfit, shopping for specific items, or defining aesthetic self-expression.
We often fail to realize how much energy it takes to maintain a mind-numbing routine of assembling outfits every morning. Hunting for that perfect blouse, we get exhausted from matching colors, silhouettes, and designs, which sets the wrong tone for the rest of our day.
Energy is a valuable yet limited resource, which is what makes the benefits of capsule wardrobe vast. A small collection of clothing removes the headaches that come with always-on decision-making. Rather, it leads to a feeling of liberation – from trends, expectations, and even financial constraints.
With a decision-free capsule closet, you can spend more time on things that truly matter and more energy on how to make those things happen. Most importantly, you can tackle wardrobe overwhelm with more confidence.
Follow these principles for a stress-free fashion experience and maximize the benefits of your capsule wardrobe:
- Make a checklist when shopping and stick to it.
- Avoid browsing online stores mindlessly and consider blocking websites that trigger impulse shopping.
- Get your dopamine rush from styling, mending, and repurposing your clothes, rather than buying new items.
- Unsubscribe from online store newsletters and limit your exposure to ads.
- Wait a few days before clicking on the checkout button.
2. Promoting Minimalist Attitudes
The capsule wardrobe phenomenon is so much more than just a simple wardrobe system. It’s a lifestyle that allows you to master the art of minimalism and authentic self-expression – thus making you feel content with your fashion choices.
The modern-day aesthetic curation is all about consuming fast fashion and looking trendy. So, if you’re a regular shopper, it’s likely that your self-expression is built upon excess.
In other words, you might still fall for the misconception that more clothes lead to a better style. Unfortunately, this mindset often triggers overconsumption and shopping addiction, which doesn’t seem to leave any room for authenticity or creativity.
To curb this, a capsule wardrobe revolves around the idea that less is more. With just the essentials, it proves that piles and heaps of trendy items are not necessary for a sense of style – hence treasuring clothing, rather than treating it as a disposable resource.
So, it’s time that you stop depending on trends. You can brainstorm new aesthetic combinations, play around with pieces that you already own, and keep track of your consumption habits. After all, as the saying goes, “simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.”
3. Cultivating Authentic Sense of Style
Have you ever noticed the ‘visual sameness’ of outfits on social media? Be it OOTD posts or Pinterest boards, people seem to praise the same, bland style choices that are dictated by big fashion corporations.
Trend cycles move quickly from the catwalk to social media, where they reach the mainstream audience. Whether it’s platform shoes, hoodies under blazers, or puff sleeves, trends spread rapidly and make everyone dress the same.
This fuels the phenomenon of “aesthetic flattening“, where every brand or store produces the same designs. As people hop on the endless hamster-wheel of trends, they never discover their authentic sense of style.
With that said, it’s important to realize that your style should reflect your likes, creativity, lifestyle, and even ethics. But how can you stay authentic to yourself when following the whims and marketing gimmicks of fashion world?
Well, the answer is simple – you can’t. The only way to define your personal style is to carefully curate your items. By this, you can free yourself from unattainable lifestyle standards and channel your inner stylist.
Truthfully, with a capsule wardrobe, you’ll never fall into the vicious cycle of ‘having nothing to wear’ again.
4. Conscious Shopping
We all have valuable clothing hiding in our closet like jeans that no longer fit us, dresses that went out of style, or tops that remind us of our past. However, we never think about reimagining, reinventing, or preserving them. This is due to the fact that the fashion industry urges us to always buy new, even if our old clothes are not torn, dirty, or unusable.
The fashion world alters consumer taste so that we purchase trends as soon as they’re available. Rather than prolonging the lifecycle of our garments, we treat clothing as disposable and cultivate careless shopping habits.
Yet, in terms of environmental degradation, every purchase counts – even if you don’t remember it anymore. The piles of clothing in your wardrobe, no matter donated or not, will eventually end up in landfills.
In fact, 92 million tons of unwanted clothing get discarded every year, which pollute the waters in the Global South, get caught in fishermen’s nets, and release toxic microplastics. And their damage is virtually forever, as discarded clothing takes over 200 years to decompose.
Luckily, among the benefits of capsule wardrobe lies conscious shopping, which applies the practice of mindfulness to how we treat clothes.
Here are some of the questions you should ask when shopping for capsule closet essentials:
- Do I really need it?
- Does it match my lifestyle?
- Do I already have something like it that I could restyle, mend, or upcycle?
- Will I wear it often?
- Do I have enough space in my closet to store it?
- Does it match the things I already own?
- Do I like or love it?
- Will I love it in the future?
5. Preserving Clothes that You Already Have
Ready to own less clothing? First, learn how to prolong the lifecycle of your existing garments.
The average shopper in the US throw out 80lbs of clothing each year, which is a disaster for the planet. People rarely set aside some time to care for their garments, extend their life, and think twice before shopping for new items.
To combat that, capsule wardrobe pressures us to mend, tailor, and reimagine our existing clothes. It urges us to maximize the potential of our garments by cleaning, tailoring, and upcycling them.
To sustain a minimalist closet in the long run, you should ensure your clothing is clean, tailored, and up-to-date. For instance, instead of throwing away your skinny jeans from 10 years ago, get them tailored and pair them with knee-high boots, an oversized sweater, or a leather jacket.
This way, you’ll make sure that your clothing will serve you for longer – thus upholding your minimalist closet for years to come.
Moreover, to extend the lifecycle of your garments and beyond, you should these follow easy, no-spend capsule wardrobe activities:
Discover Your Personal Style
The fashion world has always differentiated style from fashion, as the latter is more short-lived and trend dominant. As Oscar De La Renta mentions, “Fashion is a trend. Style lives within a person.”
Style is an alloy of habits and stylistic choices that is unique to each individual. It is an expression of one-of-a-kind taste, which stands the test of time, evolves, and moves on despite the newest trends.
That is, an individual with an authentic sense of style may not follow fashion trends but can still remain true to their genuine aesthetic expression.
Apart from that, merely following trends comes with an environmental cost. Keep in mind that fast fashion churns out around 52 micro-seasons a year, generating massive amounts of textile waste. If every shopper followed their own style, there would be less demand for trendy apparel – thus benefitting the environment.
Organize Your Wardrobe
If you struggle with a messy wardrobe, closet organizers will be your best companion. They will help you clear out all the messy garments in your dresser and make better use of your space. With shelving, extra hanging space, and optimized storage, you can sort clothes and visualize what you already own better.
So, make sure to invest in hangers, clothing racks, and wardrobe accessories. They will help you fold, stack, or hang clothes optimally, ensuring that every garment has its own place.
Sort Clothing Into Specific Categories
To keep up with an organized capsule wardrobe, you should treat your closet as inventory. Simply sort your items into specific categories -tops, bottoms, outerwear, and eveningwear – and divide them with plastic containers, closet organizers, racks, or cardboard boxes.
Looking at a clean slate, it takes minutes to imagine outfit combinations and find where your clothing belongs. This will help you approach fashion with more intentionality.
Assemble Ready-to-Wear Outfits
It’s right about time you awaken your inner fashion designer! After decluttering your closet, you should analyze your style, define your color palette, and map out outfit combinations.
Pro tip: when organizing your wardrobe, make sure you can easily access outfits that you wear frequently. So, make sure to prepare some ready-to-wear outfits for the week – hang them up at the front of your clothing rack or tuck them in the first drawer of your dresser.
Impact of Capsule Wardrobe: Slowed Consumption
Sustainable fashion is often associated with recycled or natural materials. But it’s rarely linked to healthy amount of consumption. A study conducted by Bardey et al. showed that consumers had a distorted perception of sustainable choices until they built a capsule wardrobe.
Surprisingly, after a simple 3-week capsule wardrobe challenge, the survey participants realized how much clothes they actually owned.
This happened for a few reasons. First, a small closet let them visualize what they owned better, showcasing the number of garments at their disposal. Ultimately, it made them value both quantity and quality of clothing.
Second, a minimalist wardrobe reduced chaos out of the shoppers’ lives. It helped them get rid of all the unnecessary items that didn’t fit them, were damaged, or simply hadn’t been used in years.
Third, the mental benefits of capsule wardrobe afforded the participants more clarity. The participants reflected upon their shopping patterns and came to an important realization. They became aware of their rampant shopping addiction and dependence on trend cycles.
After all, most consumers do not wear at least half of their clothes. So, it’s no surprise that the capsule wardrobe has produced the shock effect of true sustainability.
Capsule Wardrobe Benefits: What to Avoid?
To get all the benefits of capsule wardrobe, you need to tailor it to your existing clothing, lifestyle, and personality. Your cherished collection of garments are not just pieces of fabrics stitched together, but rather indicators of your individuality.
This means that there’s no one-size-fits all formula of capsule wardrobe. Here’s why:
Avoid Sustainable Consumerism
There’s a common misconception in the minimalism scene – the idea that dressing in monochrome colors is the only way to maintain a minimalist closet in the long run.
Rigid color schemes that mix various tones of beige, white, navy, or black create a pleasing effect to the eye. However, they require us to purchase more clothing and ultimately, make our outfits look bland.
Truth be told, following capsule wardrobe blueprints is counterproductive. In the conscious shopping experience, you make all the rules – you get to decide what to donate, what to buy, and what to renew.
So, try not to fall for the “green” version of consumerism for the sake of minimalism, especially if you worry about how your decisions impact the planet. After all, the most sustainable wardrobe is the one built upon your existing collection of clothes – not the one that’s entirely new.
Before you swap your existing clothes for a set of monochrome basics, ask yourself the following questions:
- Can I repurpose my existing clothes?
- Can I identify any secondary, tertiary, or complementary colors in my clothing that can work together?
- Can I style my existing garments in a way that I like them again?
Whether it’s cropping, patching, or dyeing, there are multiple ways to breathe a new life into your current wardrobe. That is to say, you can leverage the benefits of capsule wardrobe even without falling into the trap of conscious overconsumption.
Be selective in your purchases and keep in mind that sustainable consumption is still consumption – no matter how ethical your clothes are. It’s crucial to set limits on your purchases and operate from the point of intentionality.
Conclusion
The mental perks of capsule wardrobe are immense, ranging from refocusing on what you love, decluttering your living space, and renewing your relationship with fashion.
A minimalist closet helps us find balance outside of ourselves, creating a sense of control. With garments that express our unique selves, it fills us with more energy, eliminates decision fatigue, and improves our clarity of thought.
So, cheers to a life without endless trend-chasing – it’s time to refocus and build a capsule wardrobe of your dreams.