Hello!
I don’t mean this title to sound as accusing as it does, it’s just a realisation I had the other day and wanted to share because sometimes it’s easy to see lot’s of people online talking about how they do something and starting to think that’s what you want and forgetting that’s not actually what you want!
I watch, follow and read about quite a few fashion bloggers, YouTubers and instagrammers and in the age of sustainability and avoiding fast fashion, everyone’s talking about capsule wardrobes.
This is how it went for me – I started trying to plan a capsule wardrobe, I picked out loads of clothes that I didn’t want anymore (which I needed to do anyway) to donate or sell and I was looking at my wardrobe, still not very capsule, and I was watching videos or people talking about their capsule wardrobes and it hit me like a truck.
We don’t have the same style, so why am I trying to make my wardrobe like theirs?
There wardrobes were all plain clothes and patterns, mine is some of this but with band t-shirts and pop-culture-nerd t-shirts. Their wardrobe had eight pairs of jeans, I have one and a bunch of funky stripy trousers from New Look (side note: I love the Anna Edit but eight pairs of jeans?? Surely no one ‘needs’ eight pairs of jeans?? No judging, just genuinely intrigued).
My impression of a capsule wardrobe is that you have fewer items of clothing but they all match and coordinate more. For some reason, I kind of decided that meant that I had to have a wardrobe centred around one colour and if you have a shirt that you think goes really well with one pair of trousers but not really anything else, then that shirt isn’t wearable enough (if that makes sense?).
But that’s not the case!
The turning point for me is I was trying to figure out things to get rid of to make my wardrobe more minimalistic and capsule and I realised that Anna (from the Anna Edit) doesn’t wear hoodies, it’s just not something that is in her wardrobe and I literally own six or seven and they’re all slightly different and I actually wear them all, so why should I make myself throw them all away when I actually get a lot of use out of them?
I love hoodies, I love nerd merch, but I love pattern clothes and I’m a sucker for a plain white tee too and I’m integrating these in my own way!
So on the one hand, my wardrobe isn’t so ‘capsule’ because everything doesn’t quite go with everything else, but I am getting a lot better at refining it and being less precious about clothes I’ve owned for a long time or clothes I spent a lot of money on just because I spent a lot of money on them.
Living a more minimalist life and valuing the things I actually need more – thinking more about need than want is my new priority – but also, I’m a really sentimental person so I’ve got 4 or 5 photos alums and lots of boxes and I want to make sure I use everything so I’ve got lots of notebooks that I haven’t used, and literally about 50 biros that I will use in the long run and I don’t see the point in throwing them away and then having to buy new ones in the future!
It’s all a balance, a balance I haven’t figured out yet but what I have realised is that I need to make sure is that I don’t lose my own style and thoughts and opinions because I’m getting so invested in the creators I follow online.
I’m not saying that fashion bloggers are to blame – they’re not telling me that my wardrobe is wrong, I just didn’t see the kind of clothes I like wearing in the creators I watch.
Maybe I’m just being a moron and saying something that no one else had ever thought before but you know what? I might not be! It’s so easy to be influenced by social media and not realise you’re losing yourself a little bit but I thoroughly recommend staring at your wardrobe for a little bit just to figure out what you really love.
Thank you so much for reading,
Sophie xx
sophie counts clouds 
I completely agree with what you said about fashion bloggers. The bottom line for them is to try to get you to purchase stuff they get a kickback for or to make you throw out all your clothes and have you blow your money on a few expensive pieces. I understand the urgency to minimize what you own stuff to be more environmentally friendly or so you don’t waste money and go into debt. Six years ago, I didn’t have much of a wardrobe. I went back to school and was going to get an office job. I started hitting thrift stores to build an office wardrobe. I didn’t stop there. I love color and now have a beautiful wardrobe that suits me personally. For most of my life I was a tomboy and I wore jeans and t-shirts. I am now embracing my feminine side. I am in my forties and someday I will be old and grey and maybe bent over, I rather maximize my looks while i’m still good looking now, even if I’m overweight. Once I’m in my 70’s I can’t control how I look or won’t be able pull off stylish outfits. I live in a rural area, we don’t don’t have access to all the trendy stores and Walmart is a fashion joke. I worked hard to build my wardrobe and I’m keeping it. Fashion bloggers always make me feel like fashion magazines, I’m never going to be good or fasionable enough. I don’t have the fashion bloggers deep pockets (one blogger I was watching, had a cute purse I liked, I looked up the price, $1,300!) or live in a urban center. Everything made today whether you pay $100 or $10 is so poorly made I don’t see how a capsule wardrobe would last you a single season, 3-4 months. How long do you think anything white will last? I got a white T-shirt that got stained the first time I wore it. There is a great deal of Impracticality being pushed online. Your blog expresses some common sense that is badly needed online. Keep going.
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