Capsule Wardrobes, Ideas

Seasonal Colours and Capsule Wardrobes

^{Part 3a}

Sorry for the gap last week but yet again weather intervened. This time we had snow, and whilst it wasn't enough to take out our power or internet (although many parts did lose both, we did have frozen pipes so water was from large plastic jerrycans filled at the house of a friend who had water (but no power). Luckily we have a fabulous neighbour who loaned us 3 20 gallon jerrycans plus a very large electric radiator (he was worried we might get cold but the insulation in some of these old places is quite amazing and while it went down as low as 6degC/42.8degF overnight most of the days were spent around a very pleasant 10degC/50degF. At present it is a warm 16.8degC/62.24degF with no heating on, just the warm air outside coming in through the vents plus whatever the uv heating bit is that comes in through glass. Luckily our heating bills are virtually nothing which makes a very nice change, (we spend about Euro10/£8.86/US$12.30 per week on all our electrical needs – heating, lighting, fridge and 2 freezers, charging phones/laptops etc. - with gas for cooking, we couldn't spend less if we tried and it makes an incredibly lassez faire difference knowing that there are no huge bills coming in the post cause we just put a tenner on each week – pre pay – and we're done.) I can't recommend living in a tiny house highly enough, although we would be better in a couple of tiny houses given we have 4 adults in one tiny house, problem when we all have different work-at-home needs and more office space really would be good but hey, tiny is cheaper living expenses so can't complain.

And this brings me nicely into this weeks topic which is capsule wardrobes. I have been researching into capsule clothing wardrobes for a couple of months now and the first thing I have noticed is that everybody has a different definition of 'capsule wardrobe'. Some encompass everything under the one heading, others split work and leisure into 2 different groups, others split things up even further by adding in going-out, staying-in, working-out, sports and so on. So I have gone for a relatively painless version of my own which includes regular change as part of the collection. Basically I have 4 capsules, one for each of the seasons. I freely admit that some items change between all seasons, these are my neutrals that cover almost any occasion, but I have tried to take the colours from my seasonal chart – deep going into warm autumn – and split them into colours that epitomise, for me, the different seasons. So here goes:

Winter - navy, ivory, dark red, green, teal, brown, pink

Spring - navy, ivory, green, yellow, blue, pink,

Summer - navy, ivory, green, yellow, orange, blue, pink, misc. floral,

Autumn - (or fall for the Americas) navy, brown, orange,green, blue, pink, dark red, teal.

If some of the colours seem to keep recurring it is because some of my dresses have several colours in them, for example I have ivory daisies with pink centres on a navy background, this dress is worn with navy, ivory or pink. Equally one of my tan dresses has red, pink, baby blue and green in the pattern so again this can be worn with any of these colours. This means that I have some new items every season while equally others get put away until needed in another 3 months or so.

Colour chart below (courtesy of Pinterest) shows the basic colours for deep autumns, there are many more in more detailed charts, plus the all season neutrals have been omitted – navy, grey, white (pure, winter or creamy) etc.

Next you need to decide on what you LIKE to wear, not what others think you should wear. My own personal choice is a dress and trousers (based on the Indian salwar kameeze/kurti look, but loosely classed as Indo-western), and the dress can be knee length or ankle length, have slits up the side, the center front, off-center at the front – single or a pair – or an A-line with no slits at all. This started when, in decades past, I used to run a backyard smallholding and while I am adept at digging and mucking out the chickens or rabbits in a maxi dress it is undeniably easier when wearing trousers. However I am also larger than I used to be (lots larger as in double my body weight) and find that a dress or kurti over trousers is more flattering, plus I have never really lost the love of maxi dresses from the 1970s when I was growing up (first maxi skirt – 2 of them, both in paisley, one green and one red aged about 7/8 years old), and while I have often had a pair of jeans – first pair aged 12 – I have never found them to be really comfortable or practical. How many others have their current dress sense rooted back in childhood fashions I wonder? I also prefer to dress modestly although I hold that you can reveal as much or little as you like, but it should be YOUR personal choice and not the choice of some fashion editor or a group of peers who decide. I also suffer from lymphoedemia and find that wearing trousers fitted to the ankle, similar to so called hareem trousers but not elasticated by choice, and long between ankle and knee mean that most of the swelling is hidden and stays hidden when I sit thanks to the longer leg length allowed by the fitted ankles. I freely admit my styles are based on several salwar patterns which can easily be found on YouTube, although I stick to the plain churidar or pyjama styles when possible, many designs only really look good if you have super long legs (size not a decider, one of the best wearers of mini-skirts I have ever known was a size UK20 because she had legs up to her armpits whereas another friend who was the same height – 5'8” - looked terrible because she was a skinny size 10 with normal proportion legs and they just didn't suit her at all).

To be continued next week. Capsule wardrobes part 3b, what you have versus what you really need.