It’s time to FINALLY get your Kibbe body type. Today I’m going to share with you a step-by-step guide to determining your body type, and all of my best tips for determining your body type on your own.

After watching this video (or reading this article), if you’re still struggling with your body type, my color and body typing service is always available! And if you shoot me a DM on Instagram, I’d be happy to give you a discount code to get you started.

If you’re new here, this year we are diving deep into The 12 Competencies of Personal Style together, to help you get organized, discover your personal style, and start to build your dream wardrobe. That’s why I’d like to invite you to join the 12-month free email course! By the end of the year, we will master these 12 useful concepts and develop your personal style, so that you can consistently create outfits that you love to wear, and ultimately build your perfect capsule wardrobe.

The 12 competencies of personal style are:

• Color Type

• Body Type

• Core Style

• The Wardrobe Framework

• Wardrobe Editing

• Fit & Measurements

• Silhouette & Proportions

• Color Story

• Texture

• Multidimensional Style

• Conflict & Balance

• and Creating Full Outfits

Last month, we focused on color type and I gave you my 3 most useful tricks for determining your color type. And if you’ve joined the course and performed the exercises, hopefully you were able to determine your color type and start creating your wardrobe color palette!

This month, our goal is to determine your body type and start to understand how to use your body type to your advantage.

To Kibbe or not to Kibbe

David Kibbe’s Image ID system is massively popular, and for good reason. This system is such an inspirational resource for understanding, embracing, and celebrating your beautiful body type through fashion.

However, in my opinion, Kibbe’s Image ID system imposes unnecessary recommendations on personal style for each body type. These bundles of body type, styling recommendations, and even color recommendations are what Kibbe calls Image IDs. And these Image IDs can often have a strong stylistic direction, such as Kibbe’s “Free Spirit Chic” representation of the Flamboyant Natural which evokes a very bohemian and earthy visual image.

What is really useful about Kibbe’s Image ID system is its use of Yin/Yang body analysis. So, let’s put Kibbe’s Image IDs aside and focus on understanding the body.

Before we jump into Yin/Yang body analysis in more detail, I’d like to assure you that it has nothing to do with fruits or triangles or trying to become an hourglass. Yin/Yang body analysis provides a framework for understanding how clothing interacts with our bodies without encouraging us to change, hide, or disguise any aspect of our body. In fact, it simply teaches us how to recognize our own natural lines and bring our style more in harmony with them.

So, when it comes to body type, Yin/Yang body analysis is far and away the most useful way to understand your body type. David Kibbe’s Image ID system is a massively popular subtype of this Yin/Yang body analysis.

Dominant Features & Accommodations

Yin/Yang body analysis as a whole is quite a complex topic. For the purposes of this article, I will assume that you have a basic understanding of the 10 body types, and that your goal is to narrow down which body type suits you best.

As a quick overview, the 10 body types are:

• Dramatic

• Soft Dramatic

• Flamboyant Natural

• Soft Natural

• Dramatic Classic

• Soft Classic

• Flamboyant Gamine

• Soft Gamine

• Theatrical Romantic

• and Romantic

Each body type can be primarily understood by its dominant features, or accommodations. In effect, your dominant features will be features that are best enhanced when they are accommodated in your clothing selections. That is why your dominant features are also called accommodations.

Accommodations are not meant to be a negative thing. In fact, it can be quite a relief to recognize your accommodations and realize that there are tons of beautiful people who share them with you!

There are six different types of accommodations that you may have, or a combination thereof. Only one or two of the following can be your dominant features:

• Vertical

• Width

• Curve

• Double-curve

• Balance

• and Petite

Vertical is perceived elongation or height in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette.

Width is perceived breadth or openness of the shoulder-line, or clavicle, in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette.

Curve is the predominant appearance of rounded contours in individual features and overall silhouette.

Double-curve is the predominant and uninterrupted appearance of nearly circular contours in individual features and overall silhouette.

Balance is a nearly equal and blended mix of yin and yang; moderation in all features in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette, and in comparison to the general population.

Petite is the combination of perceived narrowness and short stature, in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette.

Starting to understand your own dominant features is the first step to narrowing down your body type. So, let’s go over the dominant features and accommodations for each of the 10 body types.

Dramatic

Vertical

If you have the Dramatic body type, then your dominant feature is vertical. Vertical is perceived elongation or height in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette.

Your perceived height is impacted by both the narrowness of your bone structure, and the size of your head in comparison to your bone structure. Those with a narrower bone structure will appear taller, or more elongated, than those with a wider bone structure. Likewise, those with a proportionally smaller head will appear more elongated than those with a proportionally larger head.

Because of their vertical line and frame-dominant figure, those with the pure Dramatic body type have predominantly straight and sharp lines within their bone structure, silhouette, and individual features.

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Soft Dramatic

Vertical + Curve

If you have the Soft Dramatic body type, then your dominant features are vertical and curve. This combination results in a naturally elongated hourglass figure.

The Soft Dramatic has a long and angular bone structure with soft flesh that creates a lush, curvy, and elongated silhouette with a defined waist.

Her facial features are also full and lush, often with large rounded eyes and full lips, combined with sharpness in the nose, cheekbones, or chin.

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Flamboyant Natural

Width + Vertical

If you have the Flamboyant Natural body type, then your dominant features are width and vertical. In this context, width a way of describing the bone structure. Width is the perceived breadth or openness of the shoulder-line, or clavicle, in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette.

Often width is evident when the shoulders are significantly wider than the hips.

The Flamboyant Natural is frame-dominant and bluntly angular, creating a strong and sporty appearance. She may appear slightly curvy or have a defined waistline, but her shoulders and hips are softly squared rather than rounded. A trapezoidal hip shape is quite common in the Natural family.

Her facial features are slightly wide and elongated, often with high cheek bones.

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Soft Natural

Width + Curve

If you have the Soft Natural body type, then your dominant features are width and curve. Similar to the Flamboyant Natural, the Soft Natural is frame-dominant and bluntly angular.

However, the Soft Natural’s bone structure is less prominent overall, with a smaller difference in width between the shoulders and hips.

Contrary to popular belief, Soft Naturals have a moderate vertical line and can actually be quite short. The Natural family has the widest height range of all of the body types.

The Soft Natural usually has a defined waist and slightly curvy shape in the bust and torso. Although the width in the shoulder-line interrupts her curve to create a beautiful athletic figure.

Her facial features are bluntly angular and slightly wide, yet moderate in scale. As a result, the Soft Natural’s facial features can often appear quite classic.

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Dramatic Classic

Balance + Vertical

If you have the Dramatic Classic body type, then your dominant features are balance and vertical. Balance is a nearly equal and blended mix of yin and yang; moderation in all features, in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette, and in comparison to the general population.

The Dramatic Classic has an overall moderate and symmetrical, balanced appearance with just a touch of elongation and sharpness.

All features and proportions carry a similar visual impact; nothing in particular appears prominent or draws the eye. For instance, Dramatic Classic women may have shoulders that are slightly wider than their hips, but width in the shoulders does not need to be accommodated. In practice, this means that Dramatic Classics will not usually experience fit issues with one particular part of their figure. This doesn’t mean that they never experience issues with fit, but they are less likely to experience the same type of issue all of the time.

Instead of accommodating a prominent feature, Dramatic Classics instead need to accommodate balance and slight vertical. Classic, symmetrical, and tailored silhouettes will look best. Oversized or exaggerated styles can be overpowering.

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Soft Classic

Balance + Curve

If you have the Soft Classic body type, then your dominant features are balance and curve.

The Soft Classic has an overall moderate and symmetrical, balanced appearance with just a touch of softness and curve.

Similar to the Dramatic Classic, the Soft Classic’s features and proportions all carry a similar visual impact. When glancing at a Soft Classic woman, the eye does not catch on any particularly prominent feature.

Soft Classics accommodate balance and curve. Classic, symmetrical, and tailored silhouettes with waist emphasis will look best. Oversized or very sharp dramatic styles can be overpowering.

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Flamboyant Gamine

Petite + Vertical

If you have the Flamboyant Gamine body type, then your dominant features are petite and vertical. Petite is the combination of perceived narrowness and short stature, in proportion to the overall bone structure and silhouette.

I think it’s really important to remember that a petite women must inherently have a narrow bone structure with relatively thin bones. Petite does not purely describe height, but also the narrowness and overall delicate nature of the bone structure. This is why the Flamboyant Gamine woman can have both petite and vertical. Her narrowness creates a long vertical line, even though she may not be very tall.

The Flamboyant Gamine may have shoulders that are wider than her hips but, like the Dramatic Classic, she does not have prominent width.

She has a small and elongated figure, small and sharp facial features, and typically large rounded eyes.

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Soft Gamine

Petite + Curve

If you have the Soft Gamine body type, then your dominant features are petite and curve.

The Soft Gamine has a narrow and sharp petite bone structure with a slightly curvy figure, creating a youthful appearance. It is important to remember that the Soft Gamine woman is primarily in the Gamine family, so her bone structure is more dominant than her softness. Due to her Gamine bone structure, her curve is more elongated.

She often has a small and slightly rounded facial shape, with large eyes and full lips. Often the Soft Gamine will have an Ingenue appearance, especially in her facial features.

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Theatrical Romantic

Double-Curve + Petite

If you have the Theatrical Romantic body type, then your dominant features are double curve and petite. Double-curve is the predominant and uninterrupted appearance of nearly circular contours in individual features and overall silhouette.

Those with double-curve not only have a defined waist and rounded hips, but rounded shoulders as well. And the arc of their curves is almost circular rather than ovular and elongated.

The Theatrical Romantic’s curves are her most dominant feature. She is also slightly more narrow and sharp than the pure Romantic, and may have a sharper jaw line and facial features.

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Romantic

Double-Curve

If you have the Romantic body type, then your dominant feature is double curve.

The Romantic woman has a lush, curvy silhouette with a clearly defined waist. She has a short vertical line, small bone structure, defined waist, and rounded shoulders and hips. Her shoulders, waist, and hips create an hourglass or pear shape. Her facial features are also delicate, soft, and full; often with large doe-like eyes and full lips.

In comparison to the Theatrical Romantic, the pure Romantic can have slightly wider shoulders and hips, and therefore is not petite.

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The Line Drawing

Now that you understand the dominant features and accommodations of each body type, it’s time to start understanding your own features.

The best way to observe your own proportions and dominant features is to create a line drawing of yourself. I do this with all of my clients when helping them determine their body types.

Take a full-body photo of yourself in a neutral stance, squarely facing the camera, with your arms held slightly away from your sides. Wear solid-colored clothing that does not obscure your figure, such as a bathing suit or workout gear. Enlist the help of a friend, or set up your camera on a counter, tripod, or other surface at chest-height and perpendicular to the floor. Avoid mirror photos as the mirror will distort your proportions.

Then, load your photo into a sketch app to trace the shapes of your body. You could also print your photo and use trace paper if you’d like. You can start by tracing any shapes you see within your figure. Be sure to trace the outline of your head as well - this will help you get a better idea of your vertical line. Also, draw a line across the floor at the base of your heels to bound your height.

Then, trace the silhouette. Draw the shape your shoulders without including your arms, then the outline of your body down to your knees. The final result should look like a tight cap-sleeve dress, essentially.

Remove or hide the original photo, and now you have your line drawing!

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Analyzing Your Line Drawing

Observe your line drawing and try to answer the following questions:

• What kinds of shapes are most common in your line drawing? Do you see elongated ovals, circular shapes, sharply defined corners, or trapezoidal shapes with rounded corners?

• Does any particular feature stand out when you casually glance at your line drawing? Try squinting to force yourself to defocus and take in the image as a whole. Even while squinting, does any particular feature appear noticeable? This could be prominent elongation or height, a well-defined waist, broad shoulders, or nothing at all.

• How many heads tall are you? Cut and paste the outline of your head and stack them from the top of your head to the line you drew at the base of your heels. If you are less than 7 heads tall, you may have a short vertical line. However, keep in mind that the vertical accommodation is not limited to height. Vertical can appear anywhere in the body in the form of elongation. For example, the Flamboyant Gamine has petite and vertical - she may be less than 7 heads tall but she still has vertical in her body proportions.

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Process of Elimination

Now that you have your line drawing and an initial assessment of your shapes and lines, let’s clear the board by eliminating some of the body types.

• Petite. If you know you aren’t petite, eliminate Theatrical Romantic, Soft Gamine, and Flamboyant Gamine. If you are very confident that you are petite, then you are one of these three body types.

• Width. If your shoulders are clearly not wider than your hips, eliminate Flamboyant Natural and Soft Natural. If your shoulders are wider than your hips, you may be Dramatic, Flamboyant Natural, Soft Natural, Dramatic Classic, or Flamboyant Gamine. However, if you are very confident that you have to accommodate width in your shoulders when it comes to your clothing selections, then you are either Flamboyant Natural or Soft Natural.

• Curve. Curve is not an easy trait to use for eliminating body types, because as humans none of us are entirely made up of perfectly straight lines. However, if your line drawing includes a clear pattern of rounded ovular or circular shapes, then you are likely one of the soft types.

• Double-curve. Double-curve is quite a rare type of curve which presents as a clear pattern of nearly circular shapes. Those with double-curve will notice that their rounded shoulders and chest create a circular shape which ends around the waistline. Their hips will also create a circular shape which touches or overlaps with the circle created by their shoulders and chest. In your line drawing, this may appear almost like a drawing of a snowman with one circle on top of the other. If you are one of the rare women who see these shapes in their line drawings, then you are most likely one of the Romantic types. In even rarer cases, Soft Classic and Soft Gamine women may have double-curve.

• Vertical. Although vertical accommodation is not all about height, you may be able to eliminate some body types based on height. If you are very tall and clearly elongated, you are likely either Dramatic, Soft Dramatic, or Flamboyant Natural. If you are very short, you are either Romantic, Theatrical Romantic, Soft Gamine, Flamboyant Gamine, or Soft Natural. It’s important to note here that the Natural family has no height limits, but the Soft Natural has a moderate-to-short vertical line and the Flamboyant Natural has a moderate-to-long vertical line and sometimes a very long vertical line.

• Balance. Like curve, balance is another tricky feature to pinpoint. However, if you truly see no prominent or dominant association with any of the previous characteristics we discussed, then you may be very balanced and symmetrical. In this case, you are likely one of the Classic types.

Tie-Breakers

If you’re still struggling to determine your exact body type, here are some common tie breakers that I have encountered.

• Dramatic vs Flamboyant Natural. The Dramatic body type is much narrower than the Flamboyant Natural. And although the Dramatic’s shoulders are typically slightly wider than her hips, she doesn’t have to accommodate the width in her shoulders in her clothing selection. For example, fitting a classic tailored blazer off the rack will likely be very easy for a Dramatic, while it is much more of a challenge for the Flamboyant Natural. The Dramatic also tends to have thinner and sharper bones, with the Flamboyant Natural’s bone structure appearing much stronger.

• Dramatic vs Dramatic Classic. In general, it is fairly easy to differentiate the Classic body types from other body types. This is because the Classic types are very moderate in all aspects. Therefore, the Dramatic will have a clear and prominent vertical line in comparison to the Dramatic Classic. If you see clear elongation in your line drawing and you are stuck between these two types, you are Dramatic. You can also look at facial features for a tie-breaker here. The Dramatic’s facial features will be stronger, sharper, and more geometric than the Dramatic Classic.

• Flamboyant Natural vs Soft Natural. As I mentioned earlier, the Natural family has no height limits, which may confuse you when deciding between Flamboyant Natural and Soft Natural. The difference here is all in the vertical line. The Flamboyant Natural has a long vertical, while the Soft Natural has a short vertical. You may be able to assess your facial features as well to determine your level of elongation. If your face is elongated, then you are more likely Flamboyant Natural. The Flamboyant Natural also has a more prominent bone structure and proportionally wider shoulders than the Soft Natural in general. The Soft Natural’s less narrow hips help support her curvier silhouette by allowing her waist to look smaller in comparison.

• Soft Natural vs Soft Classic. Soft Natural and Soft Classic can often have a lot of similarities in their appearance, especially in the facial features. Here it is important to remember that width is an accommodation for all naturals. So if you don’t have to accommodate the width in your shoulders in your clothing selections, then you are likely not a Soft Natural.

• Soft Natural vs Flamboyant Gamine. The Soft Natural and Flamboyant Gamine have completely different sets of accommodations - width and curve versus petite and vertical. Similar to the previous tie-breaker, Soft Natural must have width. The Flamboyant Gamine is inherently narrow due to her petite frame. Although the Flamboyant Gamine’s shoulders may be wider than her hips, they are still narrow and do not require accommodation. The Soft Natural also must accommodate curve, while the Flamboyant Gamine does not require curve accommodation.

• Dramatic Classic vs Soft Classic. Deciding between the two Classic body types seems like a very difficult task at first, but it’s actually easier than you might think. Because the Classic types are a balanced and blended combination of yin and yang, any small amount of extra drama or softness will determine their specific type. If you believe you are Classic and you see any hint of sharpness in your features, then you are likely Dramatic Classic. The same goes for extra softness with the Soft Classic.

• Soft Gamine vs Theatrical Romantic. It can be difficult to differentiate the Theatrical Romantic description from the Soft Gamine description, although the difference becomes clear when comparing examples of the two. The best way to understand this difference is to notice how the Soft Gamine has an overall more youthful and fresh appearance in her proportions, while the Theatrical Romantic has an overall more sensual and moody appearance. The Soft Gamine will also have more elongated limbs, while the Theatrical Romantic’s arms and legs will be proportionally shorter. You may also notice this difference in elongation in your hands and feet as well.

And if you’re still struggling with your color type, my color and body typing service is always available for the price of a haircut. Plus, if you send me a DM on Instagram I would be happy to give you a discount code to get you started.

Just remember that body type is not a set of rules that you must apply to your wardrobe; it is a lens through which to see your outfits and your wardrobe more clearly. Each of The 12 Competencies of Personal Style is a tool to add to your personal style toolbox, to help you confidently and consistently create outfits that work for your life and your style. So have fun first and foremost!

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Knowing your color type is crucial for honing your personal style. If you’ve explored my channel before, you’ll probably know that color and body type form the cornerstone of every successful capsule wardrobe. Knowing your color type will help you understand why you enjoy wearing certain colors and why others may not work for you. And if you want to wear colors that don’t fall within your color type, understanding how to prioritize your color characteristics will allow you to do so intentionally and with confidence. So today, I’m going to share my three most valuable tricks for narrowing down your color type and prioritizing your natural characteristics.

If you’re new here, this year we are diving deep into The 12 Competencies of Personal Style together, to help you get organized, discover your personal style, and start to build your dream wardrobe. That’s why I’d like to invite you to join the 12-month free email course! By the end of the year, we will master these 12 useful concepts and develop your personal style, so that you can consistently create outfits that you love to wear, and ultimately build your perfect capsule wardrobe.

The 12 competencies of personal style are:

• Color Type

• Body Type

• Core Style

• The Wardrobe Framework

• Wardrobe Editing

• Fit & Measurements

• Silhouette & Proportions

• Color Story

• Texture

• Multidimensional Style

• Conflict & Balance

• and Creating Full Outfits

Let’s start with a quick overview of the 3 Dimensions of Color.

The 3 Dimensions of Color

All colors can be fully defined in terms of three dimensions: hue, value, and chroma.

Hue and Temperature

Hue is the “pure” or spectral color that is most closely related to a given color. It is the attribute by which colors are most commonly classified. For example, red, green, or blue.

In color analysis, a color’s temperature is the most important aspect of its hue. The temperature of a color is defined by its hue. A hue’s temperature can be cool, warm, or neutral. Temperature can also be viewed as warmer or cooler relative to other hues. So color temperature is not purely subjective, it is also relative. For instance, blue is generally considered to be a cool color, but when we look at a range of different blues, we can see that there are warmer shades and cooler shades of blue.

In general, adding blue to a color will make it cooler, and adding yellow to a color will make it warmer. Pure red is neutral - a cool color mixed with red will remain cool, and a warm color mixed with red will remain warm. True green is also a neutral, having equal parts of yellow and blue.

In seasonal color analysis, Spring and Autumn are warm seasons while Winter and Summer are cool seasons.

Value

Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. It is the attribute by which color is scaled from black to white. Value can be determined by desaturating the color to identify the most closely related shade of gray.

In color analysis, a season’s value also indicates its level of contrast. Dark seasons, like Winter and Autumn, have higher contrast within their palettes than the lighter seasons of Spring and Summer. Winter is the darkest most contrasted season, and the only season for which pure black and pure white are usually recommended. Next we have Autumn and Spring with medium contrast. And Summer is the least contrasted season.

Chroma

Chroma is the brightness or softness of a color. It is the attribute by which a color is visually different from its most closely related shade of gray. Adding gray to a given color results in a softer, or more muted color. Mixing complementary colors has a similar effect.

Autumn and Summer are muted seasons while Spring and Winter are bright seasons.

In seasonal color typing, each of the basic seasons is defined by a combination of temperature, value, and chroma.

• Spring is warm, light, and bright.

• Summer is cool, light, and muted.

• Autumn is warm, dark, and muted.

• Winter is cool, dark, and bright.

Then, each subtype is further defined by its primary characteristic. Your primary characteristic is the most important characteristic to match when choosing colors for your color palette. Your primary characteristic is either cool, warm, light, dark, soft, or bright.

• Light Spring’s primary characteristic is light.

• True Spring’s primary characteristic is warm.

• Bright Spring’s primary characteristic is bright.

So, now that you understand how each color season is defined using The 3 Dimensions of Color, let’s get into these tricks, because I know they are going to be game changers in the way that you think about your color season.

Trick #1: Black and White

Whenever I’m color typing my clients, the very first thing that I do is assess how they look in pure black and pure white. As I mentioned earlier, Winter is the most contrasted color season, and the only season for which pure black and pure white are typically recommended. This means, if black is one of your best colors and you have a cool undertone, then you can narrow down your color season to one of the Winter types. If you feel that black is one of your best colors and you have a warm undertone, then you must be either Dark Autumn or Bright Spring. If black is one of your worst colors, you can instantly eliminate all of the Winter types.

Trick #2: Use Your Worst Colors

Speaking of our worst colors, analyzing the colors that are least flattering on us is a super powerful tool for narrowing down our color seasons. Go into your wardrobe and pull out any colors that you hate to wear, write them down from memory, or if you’ve joined the course you will be receiving a free swatch library which you can page through to identify your worst colors.

Now, how would you describe these colors? What characteristics do they share? Are they light or dark? Do they have warm or cool undertones? Are they bright and clear colors, or complex and muted colors? If so, write down those key words: cool or warm for temperature, bright or muted for chroma, and light or dark for value. It’s okay if you only see one commonality. Just write down what you see. These common themes represent characteristics that are disharmonious with your natural beauty.

Temperature and brightness tell us the most about our coloring, so focus on eliminating seasons that don’t suit your undertone and chroma first. If one of your disharmonious characteristics is “muted,” then you can eliminate the Autumn and Summer types. If you dislike all warm colors, then eliminate Autumn and Spring.

With value, I make an exception. I don’t believe that you should eliminate entire seasons based on how well you suit light or dark colors. However, you can eliminate specific subgroups. So, if one of your disharmonious characteristics is “dark,” then you won’t be Dark Autumn or Dark Winter.

And if one of your disharmonious characteristics is “light,” then you can eliminate Light Spring and Light Summer. However, I would not recommend that you eliminate Spring and Summer altogether. I often see clients who are cool and muted, but think they must be Winter because they don’t suit light colors. In reality, they are Summers whose primary characteristic is either cool or muted, rather than light. Therefore they look great in dark, cool, and muted shades within the Summer color palette.

Trick #3: Your Sister Season

Now that you’ve eliminated some possibilities by analyzing your worst colors, you can probably determine which of the four basic seasons suits you best - Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter. So how do you finally determine your subtype? This is where the concept of Sister Seasons has been extremely illuminating for me and my clients.

Your Sister Season is such an illuminating tool because it offers an easy process of elimination for determining your exact seasonal subtype.

So what is your Sister Season?

Sister Seasons are pairs of seasonal palettes that share the same primary characteristic - light, dark, bright, soft, warm, or cool. Your Sister Season is the only seasonal subtype that will suit your natural coloring even though it lies outside of your basic season family.

So, if your specific subtype is Bright Winter, then your Sister Season is Bright Spring, both of which share the primary characteristic “bright.” If your specific subtype is True Autumn, then your Sister Season is True Spring, both of which share the primary characteristic “warm.”

Now, you can easily use the concept of Sister Seasons to confirm your seasonal subtype.

Let’s say you know you think you belong to the Bright Spring color type. You can confirm this by trying on colors from Bright Spring’s Sister Season, Bright Winter. If you are a Bright Spring, then the Bright Winter color palette will suit you as well. The same idea holds for all other color types.

If you have no idea where to start, then try on colors from all three potential Sister Seasons. If you know you are in the Spring color family, you’ll try Light Summer, True Autumn, and Bright Winter. When I use this exercise with clients, it becomes very clear which two options are least suitable. If you are a Bright Spring as in the previous example, then True Autumn colors will look too warm on you, and Light Summer will look too muted.

Now that you’ve learned my three most valuable tricks for determining your color type, I hope you’ll be able to confidently choose your color season and start building your wardrobe color palette! Don’t forget to sign up for the course to get access to the free swatch library and all of the exercises to guide you through the process.

And if you’re still struggling with your color type, my color and body typing service is always available for the price of a haircut. Plus, if you send me a DM on Instagram I would be happy to give you a discount code to get you started.

Just remember that color type is not a set of rules that you must apply to your wardrobe; it is a lens through which to see your outfits and your wardrobe more clearly. Each of The 12 Competencies of Personal Style is a tool to add to your personal style toolbox, to help you confidently and consistently create outfits that work for your life and your style. So have fun first and foremost!

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A new year is upon us, and you are finally ready to get organized, discover your personal style, and build the foundation for your dream wardrobe. If you’re overwhelmed, I understand the feeling.

There are so many things to consider when developing your own unique personal style. And if you’re like me, I know that you love to take an analytical and scholarly approach to style. But you also want to augment that with creativity. You want to take all that knowledge and creativity and actually create outfits that you can wear right now, while working towards building your perfect capsule wardrobe.

That’s why I’d like to reintroduce you to the 12 Competencies of Personal Style, and invite you to join a 12-month free email course to help you master these concepts and develop your personal style, so that you can consistently create outfits that you love to wear, and ultimately build your perfect capsule wardrobe.

The 12 competencies of personal style are:

• Color Type

• Body Type

• Core Style

• The Wardrobe Framework

• Wardrobe Editing

• Fit & Measurements

• Silhouette & Proportions

• Color Story

• Texture

• Multidimensional Style

• Conflict & Balance

• and Creating Full Outfits

During the 12-month email course and on YouTube, we will focus on building one competency each month. We will complete exercises designed to help you develop your personal style, and build your own personalized style book along the way. So, I invite you to subscribe and join the email course!

In the meantime, let me give you an overview of each of the 12 Competencies and some of the fun stuff you have to look forward to in the coming year.

Color & Body Type

The first two competencies are crucial for honing your personal style - color type and body type. If you’ve explored my channel before, you’ll probably know that color and body type are always the foundation of every capsule wardrobe. I recommend using the 12-season color type and yin/yang or Kibbe body typing systems, but any system that works for you will satisfy these initial steps. It’s important to note that these two steps are not meant to narrow down your options, but to help you become more observant and intentional about your style.

Knowing your color type will help you understand why you enjoy wearing certain colors and why others may not work for you. And if you want to wear colors that don’t fall within your color type, you can do so intentionally and with confidence. For instance, if you are a Soft Summer color type, but you enjoy dark and moody color combinations, you can choose to use the darkest colors within your Soft Summer color palette, like dark gray or navy. Alternatively, you can choose black for an intentionally sharp and intense look.

Similarly, knowing your body type can give you a lot of comfort in knowing how to embrace and enhance your unique beauty. I recommend the yin/yang or Kibbe body typing system because it teaches you how to create harmony with your body, and doesn’t encourage you to correct or hide your shape. In this system there are ten different body types: Dramatic, Soft Dramatic, Flamboyant Natural, Soft Natural, Dramatic Classic, Soft Classic, Flamboyant Gamine, Soft Gamine, Theatrical Romantic, and Romantic. Each type has its own unique style lines and clothing recommendations.

Color and body type are not a set of rules that you must apply to your wardrobe. Each of these systems is a lens through which to see your outfits and your wardrobe more clearly. Tools not rules.

During the first two months of the course, I’ll be giving you resources and exercises to help you understand your color type and body type, start to create your wardrobe color palette, and test out your style lines.

Core Style

The next important step is to define your core style in three words. The key to successfully building the perfect wardrobe is to verbalize your style.

So how do you define your core style? The most useful way to define your core style is with three adjectives. And it’s very important that you distill your adjectives down to three. Think of these three words as your own personal brand. Your three words are the three elements that you really can’t go without. If any one element is missing, you won’t feel like yourself.

These three words are your core style. Like color type and body type, your core style is another lens in your toolkit that brings clarity to your wardrobe. In the third month, we will learn how to uncover your core style and start creating your own style dictionary.

The Wardrobe Framework

The fourth competency in the 12 Competencies of Personal Style is The Wardrobe Framework. The Wardrobe Framework consists of three categories that every stylish and practical capsule wardrobe must include: Essentials, Seasonals, and Statements.

This will be a month to regroup and get organized in your current wardrobe. We will categorize your current Essentials, Seasonals, and Statements and start to observe how they stack up against your color type, body type, and core style.

Using this wardrobe framework, your Essentials should make up about 50-60% of your capsule wardrobe.

Notice that I don’t use the word “basics.” When you’re looking for the perfect basics for a capsule wardrobe, what you’re really looking for is Essentials. Essentials are your basics, but better. They are your basics that take into account your color type, body type, and core style. And all together, your essentials should create a complete capsule wardrobe in and of themselves. And one that is not at all basic or boring. When you build a foundation of essentials rather than basics, even your worst day becomes quite stylish.

Remember - essentials should be useful pretty much year-round, and should take into account body type, color type, and core style. However, it’s okay if they don’t check all three boxes. What’s most important is that you feel great in them and can mix-and-match them with your Seasonals and Statement pieces.

Your seasonals should make up about 20-25% of your capsule wardrobe.

Seasonal items are those that can be worn 3-6 months out of the year and that you plan to bring out year after year. Usually these incorporate seasonally appropriate colors or textures and perhaps include some macro-trends that you expect to enjoy for several years. Your Seasonals can consist of just a few key items, like a coat and boots, or they can create entire mini-capsules that completely transform your Essentials for a particular season. The main idea is that these items are seasonally appropriate and rotate in and out of your wardrobe each year. They are absolutely practical, and because you are rotating them in and out of your closet, they bring excitement to your wardrobe each season, even when you aren’t buying new things.

Finally, your statements should make up about 20-25% of your capsule wardrobe.

Statement pieces are those items that you really have a strong emotional connection with, and are excited to wear now regardless of whether or not they make any practical sense. These are the items that really excite you and keep your wardrobe feeling fresh. They are still items that you plan to keep for a very long time, but they may rotate in and out of your wardrobe asynchronously with the seasons. The primary purpose of Statements is the pure enjoyment of style and self expression.

Wardrobe Editing

Once you’ve learned about The Wardrobe Framework and done some reflection, it’s time to analyze and edit your existing wardrobe. Editing your wardrobe is not about tossing out or selling half of your current wardrobe. In fact, I advise against frequent or extreme wardrobe culling because it can become very wasteful habit in the long run. If you have the space, I recommend storing your questionable items and returning to them in future seasons.

So, instead of traditional spring cleaning, we will focus on creating a visual guide or catalog of your existing wardrobe. We’ll try on everything and make some key observations about fit, fabric, texture, and proportion - that will help to frame and refine the way that you look at your clothing, outfits, and personal style. Plus, this catalog will be super helpful whenever you choose to shop or reconfigure your capsule wardrobe in future seasons.

Then, we can store away any misfits that don’t belong in the current season or maybe just don’t feel right in the current moment. And because you’ll have your wardrobe catalog in hand, you won’t forget what you have in storage come next season.

Fit + Measurements

Using the information you gleaned from wardrobe editing, you can now create your own personalized fit and measurement guide. You’ll learn how to take your measurements, analyze your fit preferences, and use body and garment measurements to make better purchases when shopping online. Your fit and measurement guide will also form the foundation for the next module, silhouette and proportions.

In the second half of the year, we will move into more advanced topics. I’m just going to give a very quick overview of each, because there is so much to cover that I really can’t do it justice in this video.

Silhouette + Proportions

The seventh lesson in our 12 Competencies of Personal Style will be silhouette and proportions.

There are many aspects to silhouette, such as waist emphasis, waist placement, shape, width, and vertical line. Proportion refers to the visual size of individual parts of the outfit in comparison to other items and your own body proportions.

Your experience with silhouette and proportion will be highly influenced by your body type and core style. In this module, we will learn about each element, conduct some outfit experiments, and make observations. Then, we’ll formulate three key outfit formulas that perfectly align with your body type and core style.

Color Story & Texture

An extension of silhouette and proportions is color story, since the use of color within an outfit can drastically change the visual proportions.

Not only can color alter visual proportions, but color can alter the visual mood of an outfit as well. Color and texture can also create focal points within an outfit.

In these two modules, we’ll explore each aspect of color, texture, and using focal points to tell a story with your outfits.

Multidimensional Style

Once you’ve mastered the first nine concepts in the 12 Competencies of Personal Style, you’ll be ready to expand beyond your core style.

Multidimensional style is all about tailoring your outfits to your unique circumstances and moods. We are all multidimensional people with a variety of roles to play in our daily lives, and our wardrobes should support that. In this module, we will work to identify those roles that we want to fill or moods that we want to create. Then, we’ll practice expanding our core style to create outfits that suit those roles while still feeling like ourselves.

Conflict + Balance

Creating conflict and balance is a technique for assessing your outfits emotionally and creatively applying your personal style. You’ll learn how to assess contrast and harmony within an outfit and when to add or remove elements to create balance and visual interest.

Full Outfits

Finally, we will practice combining all 12 Competencies to create full outfits and identify critical gaps in your current wardrobe. And by the end of the year, you have completed your personalized style book which will be an invaluable tool as you continue to build your perfect capsule wardrobe.

So, whether you are just starting your personal style journey, or want to take your wardrobe to the next level, I invite you to subscribe and join the course! I can’t wait to get organized and develop our personal style together in the new year!

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Hey everyone! Welcome back to my ultimate wardrobe series where I’m giving you absolutely everything you need to create your perfect wardrobe!

Today, let’s talk about why personal style is so important and how building your perfect wardrobe will change your life. Then, let’s set some goals together so that you can form a clear picture of where your new wardrobe will take you. When you’re ready, you can download this free Goal Setting Worksheet so that you can follow along!

Before we get started, if you’re overwhelmed with the idea of revamping your wardrobe, booking a capsule wardrobe consultation with me is a great place to start. It includes a one-on-one style talk with me, color and styling recommendations to enhance your unique beauty, and curated outfit recommendations that will get you going in the right direction for your life and style goals. Check out my services here if you’re interested (or grab a gift card for the perfect last-minute holiday gift)!

Now, let’s talk about why your personal style is so important.

Why Personal Style is Important

Personal style is a powerful tool for achieving greater life changes. What you wear and how you present yourself can have a big impact in your career, your relationships, and within yourself. But these changes don’t have to be massive to make a significant impact in your life. Maybe you just want to start speaking up more, form a good habit, or feel more in-tune with yourself.

How we dress is also connected to our purpose in life and the meaning that we create for ourselves and others. Style is not only about looking good or feeling good, it’s also about representing what we believe in and how we contribute to the world around us. You have been gifted with a unique beauty and unique talents to share with the world. And, at its best, your wardrobe should enhance and facilitate that.

Small changes in the way you dress can have a big impact on the way others see you, the way you feel about yourself, and even the way you behave. And while this is such a great superpower of personal style, the possibility of change is also the reason why many people are afraid to embrace their true style.

Style is also just fun! Maybe you’re not that into fashion and you want your wardrobe to be utilitarian and practical. That’s a valid goal. However, if you’ve clicked on this video you probably want more than that. Most of us want to have fun with our personal style. This aspect of fun is also a really important way to improve your daily life. 

Don’t wait for your life to change around you. Don’t wait to lose weight, make more money, or move to a different city. Take action to change your life now. Invest the time and effort to create a wardrobe that will help you achieve your goals and create meaning in your life.

Setting Your Goals

Now that we’ve established how important personal style can be and how it can change your life for the better, it’s time to get to know your goals. Finding your personal style and building your perfect wardrobe starts with learning about yourself. In fact, the majority of this series will focus on helping you understand yourself first and foremost. So let’s start the process of self discovery by setting your goals.

Internal Goals & Self Expression

How do you want to feel? What emotional roadblocks are you facing? Are you trying to build a new habit, reclaim your life after going through a difficult time, or improve your mental or physical health?

Many women who are interested in building a capsule wardrobe want to adopt minimalism, save money, or curb bad shopping habits. But maybe your goal is to be more extra, more expressive, or just work on developing your style. Or you might have a more pragmatic goal like improving your health or social skills.

All of these are examples of internal goals that you might want to integrate into your personal style expression and wardrobe planning.

External Goals & Making An Impression

How do you want to be seen by people around you? What leadership roles do you have in your life or want to develop?

You might want to start spending more quality time with your husband or maybe you’re still looking for the right partner and you want to make sure you’re communicating your personality fully through your outfits. Maybe you are moving up the ranks in your career and you need to create some visual separation between yourself and your direct reports. Or perhaps you want to be a source of inspiration for your friends. Maybe you’re a mother who just wants to elevate her everyday activities and make them more special for herself and those around her.

These are examples of external goals that might impact your wardrobe selections based on the impression you want to create on others.

Impression vs Expression

Some of your goals might dictate what kind of impression you want to make on others, while other goals will inspire your unique self expression. Depending on the circumstances, each outfit you create should be a balance of impression and expression. 

For example, when attending an important interview, your outfit will likely be centered primarily around the impression that you want to make, and maybe only 5% of the outfit will be focused on self expression - maybe you bring in some personality with your earrings and makeup. 

On the other hand, you might want to create a vacation capsule that fully expresses your personality, and puts less emphasis on the impression that you might be making on those around you.

Your Challenge

So, I challenge you to take the next 20 minutes of your day to reflect and write down at least one internal and one external goal. Then take each of these goals and think about two specific ways in which they might impact your personal style or your wardrobe. For example, if your internal goal is to feel more powerful, this might impact your style by adding more color and being slightly more dressed-up than those around you. And maybe your external goal is to inspire your family to be more active. This might impact your style by adding some cute workout outfits and casual clothes that you can easily run around in while still looking stylish.

If you’re not sure where to start, you can download this free Goal Setting Worksheet. You deserve to create the wardrobe that will help you achieve your goals and change your life for the better!

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Today let’s talk about 5 MORE tips to level up your wardrobe. If you want to see my first 10 tips, check out this post and then come straight back here to learn the rest.

These tips are sort of in order, so if you want to you can tackle them one by one. There are some heavy hitters here, but if you want some easy tips to start right now, subscribe to my YouTube channel or email list so that you don’t miss the next five simple, accessible tips to level up your wardrobe!

1

Think About How You Dress Rather than What You Wear

This tip is inspired by Style Thoughts by Rita. I just recently discovered her channel and she has created a framework for thinking about personal style that I have found really useful and inspiring. In Rita’s system, she divides personal style into four quadrants which are based on the logic that different women use when getting dressed. 

The first distinction in Rita’s four quadrant system is your essence, which Rita categorizes as either Left or Right. The Left essence is characterized as sensual or sensory, enveloping, intriguing, and elemental. The Right essence is described as radiant, inspiring, dreamy, refined, and luminous.

The second distinction is your styling approach, which Rita categorizes as either Up or Down. The Up styling method is dramatic, glamorous, mysterious, and communicates effort. The Down styling method is delicate, intuitive, approachable, understated, personable, and communicates ease. She describes this “upness” or “downness” as a filter through which a person expresses their Left or Right essence.

Within each category, Left + Up, Left + Down, Right + Up, or Right + Down, Rita has created five style archetypes with celebrity examples which you can use as inspiration for cultivating your own personal style.
Not only is this an inspiring new way to think about style, Rita has a really fun personality and has a way of speaking about style that is really encouraging and inviting. I definitely recommend that you watch some of her videos to learn more about each quadrant and to gather some inspiration for developing your personal style. Check Rita’s essence system video, and be sure to give her lots of love and subscribe to her channel!

2

Find Your Kibbe Body Type

If you were asked to describe your body type, what would you say? Would you compare your shape to a fruit or an object? While I think all body typing systems can be useful, and none are perfect, the Kibbe body type system is definitely a step up from the simplistic Hourglass, Inverted Triangle, Apple, Pear, and Rectangle categories that many of us are familiar with.

The Kibbe system consists of 5 main categories which are broken down into 13 body types, each representing a unique mix of yin and yang essence. Yin describes feminine traits like soft, curvy, and short while yang describes masculine traits like angular, structured, and long. The five main types are dramatic, natural, classic, gamine, and romantic. In addition to the pure types, there are eight subtypes: soft dramatic, flamboyant natural, soft natural, dramatic classic, soft classic, flamboyant gamine, soft gamine, and theatrical romantic.

The goal of the Kibbe body type system is to help you dress in accordance with your natural silhouette, or “lines.” In simplest terms, Kibbe’s system will help you understand your body and identify items of clothing which enhance and harmonize with your unique beauty. If you’re interested in finding your Kibbe type, I suggest joining David Kibbe’s Strictly Kibbe Facebook group where David provides resources and guidance for women to type themselves. And comment down below if you’d like to see a series of capsule wardrobes for each Kibbe body type!

3

Go On a Pinning Spree

Pinterest is a great tool for developing your personal style. Get on Pinterest and create a Style Inspiration board. Start pinning outfits that you connect with and could see yourself wearing. And remember you’re not limited only to Pinterest search - you can also pin photos directly from your favorite blogs, brands, or Instagram.

Once you’ve accumulated several images, go through your board and edit it down to the ones you feel best represent your style. Now you can continually add to and look back on this board whenever you need direction or inspiration for your personal style. I have a running board called “Style Ideas” where I do this for myself. If you’re not sure where to start, you can follow me on Pinterest where I have boards for various style types, Kibbe body types, colors, and even some style keywords that might help you start to discover your personal style.

Now, I would recommend creating a second board where you can store more practical looks which contain at least one or two items that are similar to ones you already own. Start with your Style Inspiration board and pin all of the outfits you could see yourself wearing to your new board. It’s important that you only pin outfits that you can already create with your current wardrobe or ones that contain items that you are planning on adding to your wardrobe soon. Especially if you are just starting out on your personal style journey, you don’t want to be overwhelmed with looks that you can’t or won’t wear yet. You want this board to be full of outfit ideas that you can recreate whenever you feel like you have nothing to wear. Each week, I challenge you to pick one outfit from this board and recreate it with items you already own.

4

Build Outfits, Not Capsules (Or Vice Versa)

One thing that capsule wardrobes can lack by nature is distinct, head-to-toe looks. Because most capsule wardrobes are meant to be minimal, all of the pieces must mix and match together to create a maximum number of total outfits. However, this might make certain items or outfits feel less special or personal. If you have been using capsule wardrobes for a while, I challenge you to try an outfit-based approach next time you decide to add something new to your wardrobe. Use the inspirational pinterest board you created in the previous step to help you create one new head-to-toe look that fully expresses your style.

When you’re exploring this outfit-based approach, don’t worry about traditional capsule wardrobe rules. The pieces in this head-to-toe look don’t have to mix and match perfectly with all your other items. Just focus on creating a look that expresses your personal style and suits your lifestyle. Have fun with it and focus on the details down to the specific shoes, bag, jewelry, hairstyle, and makeup look to complete the outfit. This approach can really help you break out of a personal style rut and refocus the creative direction of your wardrobe. It also gives you practice with creating full looks that are expressive, creative, and special to you. And once you create that one new outfit that you love, so many new style possibilities will start to unfold for you.

And vice versa, if you have been building your wardrobe one individual outfit at a time, you might find it refreshing to build a capsule wardrobe around those outfits that you already love! Start with what you already own and begin by trying on all of your tops with all of your bottoms and recording which outfits work for you. Don’t worry about forcing absolutely everything to mix and match, and don’t get rid of your favorite outfits just because they don’t match with anything else you own. Just play around and see how many new outfits you can create. Then, start thinking about what you might be able to add to unify your wardrobe and expand the number of outfits you can mix and match. Maybe it’s some simple basics or maybe it’s more pieces in your core color palette so that you can create bold monochromatic looks with your statement pieces. 

Thinking about your wardrobe both as a whole and as a collection of head-to-toe outfits will help you master the art of maximizing your wardrobe and your personal style at the same time.

5

Curate Your Accessories Capsule

And on the topic of creating head-to-toe looks, finding the right accessories for you is key. You can even think about your accessories as a capsule of its own - a selection of well-curated pieces that you love and cherish. This could include jewelry, scarves, hair accessories, handbags, or anything else you might want to add to your look that isn’t a part of your core outfit formulas (i.e. tops, bottoms, and usually shoes and jackets). Accessories make a huge impact on your overall look, so don’t neglect them! Check out my favorite place to buy pre-owned handbags and accessories and start curating your accessories capsule!

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Hi everyone! Welcome back! Since you clicked on this post, it’s very likely that you share my love of capsule wardrobes. Or maybe you’re not quite sure if capsule wardrobes are for you. Today, let’s talk about what a capsule wardrobe is, how absolutely anyone can apply the capsule wardrobe mindset, and my 10 essential capsule wardrobe rules to live by. 

The Capsule Wardrobe Mindset

What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

A capsule wardrobe is a collection of items that are fully interchangeable and provide outfits for a specific purpose. For example, you can have a seasonal capsule wardrobe full of day-to-day outfits, a travel capsule for a specific destination, or an office capsule geared toward achieving your career aspirations. You could create one year-round capsule wardrobe, or several capsule wardrobe “modules” that build on one another to create a greater whole.

Anyone Can Apply the Capsule Wardrobe Mindset

A capsule wardrobe should not be required to contain a certain number of items for all people. Neither are you limited to having only one capsule in your full wardrobe. Rather, I like to think about capsule wardrobes as a framework or a mindset to apply when looking at any wardrobe. The Capsule Wardrobe Mindset is defined by 10 basic principles. Building your wardrobe with these 10 rules at the foundation will help you fully express your style, avoid impulse shopping, and always have something fantastic to wear for your unique lifestyle and goals.

The 10 Capsule Wardrobe Principles

Selectivity

Only keep items that you love. When you try on an item that is perfect for you, it should click right away. If you find yourself debating whether or not to keep something, get rid of it. Be ruthlessly honest with yourself and return items that don’t fit right, feel right, or suit your personal and style goals. Don’t be afraid to be picky.

Definition

Develop a strong sense of your personal style and your signature look. Create a moodboard of outfits that you can see yourself wearing. This visual definition of your style will bring clarity and focus to your wardrobe that words cannot. If you aren’t sure where to start, check out my Pinterest where you can find inspiration boards for various style types. Pinterest is also a great place for you to create your own board to start curating and defining your unique personal style. 

Quality

Focus on building a collection of high-quality pieces that last for multiple seasons, or even years. Learn to identify quality materials, construction, and fit. Poor quality items are often less flattering and must be replaced often. You could even end up spending more money on cheaper items because of how frequently they must be repurchased. Building a closet full of high-quality items that last for years will allow you to waste less and use more of your budget to build upon your wardrobe and evolve your style.

Authenticity

Embrace your individuality. Contrary to the mainstream, black and white, laundry list capsule wardrobes out there, let your capsule wardrobe fully express you. Don’t feel trapped by traditional style types. Combine elements from more than one style type to create your unique look. Being authentic will bring a unique timelessness to your style and your wardrobe.

Direction

What are your personal goals? Career goals? Relationship goals? Each of your goals will likely require you to take part in different activities and therefore wear different outfits. For example, you may need formal business wear to meet your career aspirations, date night outfits for time with your significant other, and athletic wear to achieve fitness goals. Make sure to write down your goals and determine how many outfits you will need for each associated activity. The perfect capsule wardrobe should be tailor-made to help you achieve your aspirations in life. 

Harmony

A capsule wardrobe strives to be harmonious with your natural beauty, an extension of your best self. This includes color harmony, body harmony, personal style harmony, and alignment with your personal goals. Search out items in cuts and colors that harmonize with your natural beauty, preferences, goals, and personality.

Investment

A capsule wardrobe is an investment in yourself, your image, and your future. Invest the necessary time and money into selecting high-quality garments that are perfect for you. One perfect piece is worth 10 half-baked ones.

Practicality

Prioritize practicality and wearability. Strive to include elements of your authentic style in every outfit, but ensure that your wardrobe is appropriate for your daily lifestyle. Account for weather, dress codes, and comfort when selecting items and evaluating outfits. Aim for form and function within every piece.

Versatility

Maximize your outfit combinations by selecting items in a diverse range of cuts and colors that are fully interchangeable with one another. If you’d like to keep your capsule small, try to avoid including several similar items. For example, 3 pairs of dark wash skinny jeans will bring less versatility than one pair of light wash kick-flare jeans, one pair of dark wash skinny jeans, and one pair of black wide-leg denim. The intersection of variety and cohesiveness is the key to creating maximum versatility with only a small number of pieces.

Evolution

Personal style is a journey. Use every season as an opportunity to learn more about yourself, redefine your goals, and evolve your personal style. Each season, evaluate your capsule and take note of which items you wear the most. Then, take an honest account of the items that you don’t often wear, and consider selling, donating, or recycling them. Anything that makes you anxious, doesn’t fit properly, doesn’t match with most other items, or hasn’t been worn in the last year should go. Then, reevaluate your life goals and adjust your capsule accordingly. No need for a huge overhaul every season. For example, you might remove one old item and add two new items to slowly evolve and grow your capsule. Take it slow and have fun improving your style every season!

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Ever felt like you have nothing to wear? Enter one of the best tools that you can have in your capsule wardrobe toolbelt - outfit formulas. Outfit formulas are easy two-to-three-piece equations that can help you get inspired to create new outfit combinations with items you already own. Having a few favorite outfit formulas in your back pocket can combat the feeling of having nothing to wear and help you get dressed in a pinch.

Today, I’m going to be sharing five effortlessly cool outfit formulas for spring and how they can be adapted to different style types. Let’s get started.

Shirt Dress + Heeled Sandals

One of the simplest ways to look put together is to throw on a well-fitting shirt dress. Go classic with a striped t-shirt dress and two-strap sandals, or make it casual with a pair of slides or sneakers. For a preppy look, try a polo dress and low-heeled mules. Or get creative with an asymmetric oxford-style shirt dress and some funky accessories.

Straight Leg Jeans + White Shirt

Another super easy go-to is straight-leg jeans and a white shirt. For the creative style, a boxy, oversized cap-sleeve shirt with monochrome gray denim makes a great backdrop for these emerald mules and a contrasting bag. For a more classic look with a romantic twist, try a white shirt with pleated bell sleeves and a tie waist with some classic dark wash jeans and black heeled slides. And for the casual style, light wash denim with a classic oxford shirt and some ankle boots or sneakers is an easy and chic option.

Knit Skirt + Sweater + Sneakers

A more unexpected but fun combination for spring is a knit skirt, sweater, and sneakers. For this outfit formula, I love a tonal or monochrome look. Mix a jewel-toned knit skirt with a hoodie in a lighter shade for a cool athleisure take on this outfit formula. Or, go full monochrome in a neutral colored skirt and cardigan for a casual look with an elegant twist. And if you’re looking for something a little more edgy, go for a shorter skirt in a fun print, black wrap sweater, and Vans.

Trousers + Puff-Sleeve Top + Sandals

Next, let’s try trousers and a puff sleeve top. In my experience, trousers are a very underutilized garment and are often relegated to work wardrobes only. However, they’re a great alternative to denim if you’re willing to try incorporating some trousers into your everyday capsule.

For a romantic look, try a floral puff-sleeve top with some wide leg trousers and strappy sandals. If you’re feeling bold and creative, pair some bright-colored trousers with a simple white top and statement heels. Or try some black track-style trousers with an exaggerated white puff-sleeve top for an editorial take on the athleisure style.

Denim Shorts + Crop Top + Jacket

Finally, for those really warm spring days, consider pairing some denim shorts with a crop top (or tank top) and jacket. For an effortlessly cool athletic look, combine these crossover denim shorts with a sporty bralette, bold track jacket, and ball cap. For a more elegant and dramatic look, start with a black and white base and add a boxy cropped blazer and strappy heels. Or throw a leather jacket over a halter top or bikini top with some funky sneakers for an edgy street-style vibe.

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One of the most common questions I receive is, “what color season am I?” Well, I’m here to tell you that you don’t really need to know your seasonal color type to create your perfect capsule wardrobe color palette. Here’s why, and what to do instead to create your perfect color palette without all the cost, confusion, and restrictions of purchasing and following a professional seasonal color analysis.

Want to learn more about the 12 seasonal color types anyways? Get the Color Guides!

Problems with Seasonal Color Analysis

Confusion & Incorrect Results

It’s not uncommon for many people to become confused about their seasonal color type. In fact, the most common questions I receive on my channel are those asking for help in determining their color type. Often, women are even mis-analyzed by professionals and have reported being given multiple different results on multiple occasions. Frameworks like seasonal color analysis are supposed to make our lives easier. But more often than not I hear from women who are frustrated, confused, and don’t trust their results.

Cost

Professional color analysis services can cost hundreds of dollars, let alone the cost of purchasing new clothing to match your results. And with so many women still feeling confused or unsure of which colors work best for them even after receiving advice from a professional, it's hard to justify the price.

Restrictions & Lack of Personalization

If you’ve ever tried to determine your seasonal color type, you’ve probably had the experience of looking up a color palette example and thinking, “I don’t even like half of these colors!” Not only can this feed into the confusion around your color type, it can also create a feeling of restriction.
The truth is, some colors within a seasonal type might not look good on you, even if you technically do belong to that season. However, it can get boring when you feel like only a few colors in your seasonal palette are wearable for you.

We also have to consider personality, lifestyle, and preferences. First, let’s talk about lifestyle. In some cases, certain aspects of your lifestyle might encourage you to wear some colors and discourage you from wearing other colors. For instance, if your school or workplace has a uniform, you may be forced to wear a specific color every day. Or, if there is a dress code, you may be restricted in which colors you can wear. For example, if you work in an office with a formal business attire dress code, it may not be appropriate to wear a brightly colored suit. You may need to add certain colors to your color palette in order to accommodate these areas of your life. For example, even if black is unflattering on you, you may need to add black to your wardrobe if your work uniform must be black. Don’t worry, I’ve included some tips and tricks you can use to make almost any color work for you at the end of this post.

Next, take into account your personality and preferences. Don’t let seasonal color analysis stunt your creativity or suppress your personality. If there is a color you love wearing that doesn’t appear in your seasonal color palette, don’t be afraid to add it to your wardrobe anyways. If you have a bright and bubbly personality and you enjoy wearing bright fuschia pink, do it! Even if bright colors don’t perfectly suit your natural coloring, they can still look right at home if they match your personality. Similarly, you may like to wear a lot of black or dark colors and that’s okay too. You will always look best when wearing colors that you love because of that extra confidence that you will project out into the world.

Likewise, if there are colors in your color palette that you personally hate, remove them. Don’t feel in any way required to wear colors just because they appear in a color palette that has been supposedly prescribed to you. I would recommend removing them altogether by creating your own personalized color palette graphic. This way, you can feel a sense of visual clarity and inspiration when looking at your color palette. 

Check out my extended guide on how to create your visual color palette. This guide includes everything you need to put together your own personalized color palette, broad color palettes for each seasonal color type to use as a starting point, and even more specialized capsule wardrobe examples to show how your color palette could be implemented in real life. 

How to Create a Color Palette without Seasonal Color Analysis

First, Know Your Undertone

If you’re still interested in seasonal color analysis, or even if you just want to create your own color palette from scratch, the first and most important thing you need to know is your undertone. In my experience, matching your undertone family has the single biggest impact on how flattering or unflattering a color will look on you. Honestly, if you don’t want to bother creating a complex color palette for your capsule wardrobe, you can stop here. As long as you stick to your undertone family, you’ll be good to go for the vast majority of your color choices. If you’re not sure about your undertone, check out the video link below where you’ll learn how to determine your undertone in five easy steps.

RESOURCE // What is My Undertone?

Use Seasonal Color Analysis as a Starting Point

If you know your undertone, you don’t really need to go to the trouble of determining your seasonal color type. However, if you have been professionally analyzed or if you think you know your seasonal type, you can always use seasonal color analysis as a starting point for your capsule wardrobe color palette. Remove colors you don’t like and add the ones that you love that might be missing to create a visual guide for yourself. Then, edit as necessary to ensure that your color palette is cohesive and all of the colors mix and match to your satisfaction. Remember to try to stick within your undertone family, although some excursions outside of your color family might work if you can be strategic about how they are implemented.

RESOURCE // How to Find Your Best Colors According to Color Theory

Try My 5-Steps to Create Your Perfect Color Palette

And if you just don’t want to bother with seasonal color analysis whatsoever, but you still need some help in creating your perfect color palette, check out this video where you can learn my five step process to creating a color palette that perfectly aligns with your natural beauty. We don’t need someone to categorize us just to understand which colors look great on us! The basis of this method starts by understanding your natural beauty and experimenting with the clothing that you already own to physically experience which colors look best on you.  And don’t forget to download the free guide so that you can easily follow along and create your visual color palette.

RESOURCE // Get Your Color Guide!

How to Wear Colors that are “Wrong” for You

Finally, let’s talk about how you can wear colors that are “wrong” for you or do not appear in your seasonal color palette. First and foremost, the bottom line is that you can really wear any color you want in any way that you want. But, if you’re looking to take your wardrobe to the next level, you may want to consider some of these tips to reduce the negative impact that less flattering colors could have on your look.

The gist of the matter is that we want to prioritize the appearance of our faces when we are trying to enhance our beauty with color. Our face is the first thing that others will focus on when interacting with us. Therefore we want the items of clothing and accessories closest to our face to be as close to our perfect color palette as possible, while items that are further away from our faces can deviate more from our perfect color palette if we want them to.

Wear Them on Your Lower Half

So, one way to incorporate colors that are “wrong” for you is to wear them on your lower half. You can also wear them as accent colors, such as a stripe or detail within a top, or accessories like bags or shoes which are typically held at the lower torso or below the waist.

Wear Accessories in Flattering Colors Near Your Face

On the other hand, if your top happens to be an unflattering color, you can wear a scarf, large earrings, headband, or other accessories near your face. As long as you are allowed to add one of these types of accessories, this is a great strategy if you’re forced to wear a certain uniform for school or work.

Pivot to a Similar Color Within Your Undertone Family

Finally, if you want to take your wardrobe to the next level, consider pivoting from a color that is “wrong” for you to a similar one that is more flattering on you. For example, if you love fuschia pink but you have a warm undertone, try swapping it for a warmer punch pink or coral with a similar level of brightness and saturation. This version of pink will flatter your warm undertone while still providing the same level of energy as fuschia. Or, if you like the edginess of black but have lighter hair and eyes, try swapping black for charcoal gray which still has the richness and edginess of black while being better suited to your lighter coloring.

I hope these tips help you to worry less about fitting into a specific seasonal color type and empower you to create your own perfect capsule wardrobe color palette! If you ever have any questions or suggestions, I would love to chat with you in the comments!

RESOURCE // Get the Color Guides!

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Today I’m going to be showing you why NOW is the best time to buy a designer handbag, and which ones to invest in. 

This is going to be a little different than my usual capsule wardrobe content, so bear with me though just a little bit of economics and math. I promise it will be worth it! There’s a designer handbag at the end of this tunnel.

Inflation

As you may know, inflation has been through the roof for the past year and is predicted to continue to increase AND to remain high throughout at least the rest of 2022 and likely longer. Average inflation rate in 2021 was 4.7% and has averaged 7.7% so far in 2022 and is currently at 7.9% with an upward trend. According to Kiplinger, the surge in gasoline prices this month will push inflation to near 10% and the inflation rate will remain high through the rest of the year, ending at 6.5% or so in December.

So, what does this mean for all of us? It means that our cash savings have been decreasing in value since the beginning of 2021, a trend which is predicted to continue. But, I have some good news. That designer handbag you’ve been eyeing could be part of your answer to this problem.

Investment Alternatives

You might be wondering how a designer handbag could be a good investment. Well, let’s talk about some of your investment alternatives. 

First, the stock market. Goldman Sachs is only predicting a 2.1% increase in the S&P 500 in 2022 from its open on January 3, 2022. With inflation set to outpace overall stock market gains for at least the next year unless you’re lucky enough to beat the market, investments in the stock market are only marginally better than cash right now.

The next most popular investment would be US Treasury Bonds. According to Bloomberg, 5-year bond yields are still only around 2.1% as well with 30-year bond yields not much better at 2.4%.

And high-yield savings accounts are only offering around 0.6% interest these days!

While real estate would be a good investment option expected to keep up with inflation, a huge down payment and mortgage is required as well as recurring utility and maintenance costs.

These options all sound pretty bad, right? What if I told you that the right designer handbag could maintain its value through inflation and actually help you save more money in today’s economic environment?

The Best Investment Bags

So, before we get into the math, let’s talk about which designer handbags make the best investments.

A great resource for discovering which brands and styles are currently holding their resale value is the Comprehensive Luxury Appraisal Index for Resale Report, otherwise known as CLAIR. This yearly report is released by the luxury bag resale store Rebag.

According to CLAIR, the best brands for resale are Hermès (The Unicorn), Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Gucci, and Christian Dior.

It is well known throughout the industry that Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Hermès historically have the best resale value in the handbag market, with certain styles even beating the stock market in appreciation. Let’s take a deeper look at these three brands to see which particular styles make the best investments.

01 // Hermès

There’s a reason why the CLAIR report calls Hermès “The Unicorn.” Hermès bags are extremely hard to acquire and most will retain or increase in value. The Hermès Birkin bag retails anywhere from $9000 to $150,000 and can see resale prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

SHOP HERMÈS // The Birkin

The Hermès Kelly also retains or increases in value, and certain styles in both of these bags have historically outperformed the S&P 500.

SHOP HERMÈS // The Kelly

02 // Chanel

Another handbag that has outperformed the stock market is the Chanel Medium Classic Flap in Caviar Leather. A representative from LePrix noted that her version of this bag increased in price by 206% over a ten year period while the S&P 500 return was 49% over that same period. 

SHOP CHANEL // The Classic Flap

Another Chanel bag worth considering is the Chanel Boy Bag. While the Chanel Boy Bag retains about 80-90% of its value, adjusted for inflation, it has joined the ranks of the Classic Flap and has maintained popularity since it was introduced in 2011. In today’s inflationary environment, even a bag that retains only 80% of its value is a better investment than cash. 

SHOP CHANEL // The Boy Bag

According to Rebag’s CLAIR report, the 19 Flap Bag, which was designed in 2019 to commemorate the death of Karl Lagerfeld, is currently reselling for 110% of its value.

SHOP CHANEL // The 19 Flap Bag

03 // Louis Vuitton

Finally we have the Louis Vuitton Neverfull tote bag which is reported to retain 85-120% of its value with limited edition bags seeing upwards of double the resale value. According to CLAIR, the Neverfull along with four other Louis Vuitton bags hold an average of 125% of their value on the resale market.

SHOP LOUIS VUITTON // The Neverfull

Let’s Do the Math

So, now that we know how to find the projected resale value for designer handbags, let’s finally do a little bit of math to show why NOW is the best time to buy a designer handbag.

Say you have $8000 in cash right now that isn’t allocated to an emergency fund or retirement fund. Assuming that the average inflation rate over the next three years is 5%, we can calculate the Future Value of that cash after three years using the Future Value equation. After three years with inflation at 5%, that $8000 will only have the purchasing power of $6859 in today’s dollars. Not so good, huh? 

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The Future Value of Cash

Present Value x ( 1 - Inflation Rate ) ^ ( # Years ) = Future Value

$8000 x ( 1 - 0.05 ) ^ 3 = $6859

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However, if you were to purchase the Chanel Classic Flap for $8000 today, which retains 97% of its value adjusted for inflation, that bag would be worth $7760 in today’s dollars after three years. That means that the Chanel Classic Flap retains 13% more value than cash over that three year period. PLUS you get that bag that you’ve always wanted.

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The Future Value of the Chanel Classic Flap

Present Value x ( Value Retention after Inflation ) = Future Value

$8000 x 0.97 = $7760

---

I really hope you enjoyed this topic and I hope it inspires you to think a little bit more about your financial future and how you can be financially savvy while also investing in things that you will love and appreciate for years to come.

The information presented in this article does not constitute professional financial advice. All investment strategies involve risk of loss. If you have any doubts as to the merits of an investment, seek advice from an independent financial advisor.

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Our clothing can consist of so many different types of materials, both natural and synthetic. Cotton, spandex, wool, nylon, cashmere, neoprene, linen, acrylic, silk… But which fabrics are truly best for your wardrobe? In a nutshell, natural fibers almost always win out. In this post I am breaking down all of the best fabrics, what’s great about them, and some shopping tips along the way.

Natural fibers vs Synthetics

Before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s talk natural fibers vs. synthetics. Synthetic materials like polyester, acrylic, nylon, and materials which are blended with synthetics are not breathable and do not wick moisture away from the body. Synthetics and semi-synthetics are also produced with larger amounts of harmful chemicals than natural fabrics. Natural fibers are often superior to synthetics in quality, durability, and temperature-regulating properties. However, the main benefit of some synthetics and semi-synthetics is the improvement in fit. Synthetics can help to improve the stretch and drape of a fabric, resulting in a better fit on a curvy silhouette.

01 // Cotton

01 // COTTON

Cotton is the most common natural fabric in clothing today. It is breathable, and can be woven into a variety of textures and thicknesses. Cotton can be soft or stiff, making it a wearable fabric for all body types. Stiffer styles, like 100% cotton denim, chinos, or a crisp white shirt are more suited to angular body types. Softer styles flatter a curvy figure. Cotton gauze drapes nicely along curves, while a 95-98% cotton denim with 2-5% elastane or spandex will hug your shape while remaining comfortable and durable. Cotton/silk blends can also be great if you are looking for a softer draping cotton garment.

Although cotton is often used for sweaters and knits, it will not keep you warm in cold weather for extended periods of time. Cotton is very breathable and does not retain heat efficiently, even when thickly woven. Therefore, cotton is much better suited for summer clothing or light layers in the cooler months.

There are many different varieties of cotton to choose from. The best choices are pima cotton, organic cotton, and recycled cotton. Unfortunately, the production of cotton can be very harmful to the environment. According to the World Wildlife Fund, over 5,000 gallons of water are used to grow enough cotton to make just one t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Cotton crops also require a lot of pesticides. Opting for organic cotton or recycled cotton helps to reduce the environmental impact of this fabric.

Cotton is natural, soft, durable, breathable, machine-washable, affordable, biodegradable, and recyclable. However cotton will not keep you warm in winter, it’s not as environmentally friendly as some other natural fabrics, it wrinkles, and it can bleed in the wash. My go-to cotton varieties would be pima cotton, organic cotton, and recycled cotton.

Cotton PROS

• Natural

• Soft

• Durable

• Breathable

• Machine-washable

• Affordable

• Versatile

• Biodegradable

• Recyclable

Cotton CONS

• Does not retain heat

• Not environmentally friendly

• Wrinkles

• Can bleed in the wash

GO-TO Cotton Varieties

• Pima cotton

• Organic cotton

• Recycled cotton

02 // LINEN

02 // LINEN

Linen is a breathable, natural fabric which is also UV-resistant, making it the best material for summer by far. The main downside to linen is its tendency to wrinkle very easily. For me, the wrinkles are just part of the style of a linen piece. If the wrinkles bother you, opt for a blended linen material mixed with cotton, silk, or wool.

Like cotton, linen can be stiff or soft depending on the knit or weave of the fabric. Knits are flexible and flowy while tightly woven linen will probably be quite rigid. Linen/silk or linen/rayon blends are also softer and less wrinkle-prone than 100% linen.

Linen is also a relatively sustainable fabric. It can be grown without pesticides and it requires less water than cotton, making it a more environmentally friendly alternative for your summer wardrobe.

Linen is natural, durable, breathable, UV-resistant, biodegradable, recyclable, environmentally friendly, and has cooling properties. However it wrinkles and may require special care. My go-to linen varieties would be 100% linen, linen blended with cotton or silk, and lightweight linen knits.

Linen PROS

• Natural

• Durable

• Breathable

• Cooling properties

• UV-resistant

• Environmentally friendly

• Biodegradable

• Recyclable

Linen CONS

• Wrinkles

• Special care may be required

GO-TO Linen Varieties

• 100% linen

• Linen blends

• Lightweight linen knits

03 // SILK

03 // SILK

Silk is seen as one of the most luxurious natural fabrics out there, but did you know that it is also very practical? Silk can help regulate your body temperature, keeping you cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Silk is also the strongest natural fiber, making it surprisingly durable despite its delicate appearance.

Silk also drapes very nicely and works well for all body types, although silk is not often flattering in a tight-fitting garment. Choose flowy silhouettes which allow the silk to drape elegantly over your curves.

Caring for silk is what makes it less practical for every day wear. Most silk garments cannot be machine washed and must be hand washed or dry cleaned instead (although Everlane has come out with some washable silk pieces). I suggest getting a few wears out of your silk garments in between washes if you can. Steam every 1-2 wears and dry clean when needed. In between dry cleaning visits, hand wash or use a delicates bag to wash silk garments in the washing machine on a gentle setting, but don’t throw it in the dryer. When you are done washing your item, hang it up and steam it before it dries to avoid stubborn wrinkles.

Silk is natural, durable, elegant, formal, biodegradable, and regulates body temperature. However it can be expensive, can seem overly formal, may require special care, and is not always considered ethical. My go-to silk varieties would be 100% silk, peace silk, and cotton/silk blends.

SILK PROS

• Natural

• Durable

• Elegant and formal

• Regulates temperature

• Biodegradable

SILK CONS

• Expensive

• Special care may be required

• Less suitable for informal wear

• Not always ethical

GO-TO SILK VARIETIES

• 100% silk

• Peace silk

• Cotton/silk blends for summer

04 // WOOL

04 // WOOL

Wool is a natural fiber that can be found in a number of varieties, including sheep wool, alpaca wool, merino wool, angora wool, cashmere, mohair, and wool/synthetic blends. Similar to silk, wool can regulate your body temperature, keeping you warm when the temperature is cold, or cool when the temperature is hot. Wool is one of the warmest fabrics out there, with merino, alpaca, and cashmere being the warmest. Merino wool and cashmere are also the softest varieties, and merino wool is the most resistant to pilling. Alpaca is the most environmentally friendly type of wool, since alpaca tread lightly on the earth, graze gently, and require minimal water and resources.

Be careful when purchasing wool items. If an item is itchy, or if it shows signs of pilling or loose threads upon purchase, return it. Almost any wool sweater will eventually pill, but wool fabric with longer fibers are higher quality and will pill less. In general, cost and quality are closely associated when it comes to wool items. However, sometimes expensive pieces can be made from low-quality wool. When purchasing wool online, take a look at the reviews before buying or stick with trusted brands.

Wool may be blended with synthetics to help soften the fabric, although many times synthetic blends are simply used to reduce price, and also quality. Items made from synthetic blends are also not as warm as 100% wool pieces. I suggest sticking with 100% merino wool or cashmere if you’re not sure where to start.

Wool is natural, wrinkle-resistant, flame-resistant, recyclable, and warm in winter although it will regulate body temperature in both warm and cold weather. However it can be itchy, it pills, it usually requires special care, some varieties are more environmentally friendly than others, and it’s not always ethical. My go-to wool varieties would be merino wool, cashmere, alpaca, and recycled wool.

Wool PROS

• Natural

• Regulates temperature

• Warm in winter

• Wrinkle-resistant

• Flame-resistant

• Recyclable

Wool CONS

• Can be itchy

• Pilling

• Special care may be required

• Not always environmentally friendly

• Not always ethical

GO-TO Wool Varieties

• Merino wool

• Cashmere

• Alpaca

• Recycled wool

05 // Lyocell & Tencel

Although its name may not be familiar, lyocell is a semi-synthetic fabric that is very similar to cotton. The production of lyocell is relatively gentle on the environment. It is made from eucalyptus trees which require little water and land to grow. Non-toxic chemicals are used in the production process and are recycled for use in future production. Lyocell is also biodegradable and recyclable, making it the most sustainable and environmentally-friendly semi-synthetic fabric available.

Lyocell is machine washable and shrink-resistant, but it is recommended to wash on a cool setting and hang or lay flat to dry. Although lyocell is wrinkle-resistant, it may hold some wrinkles from time to time. Iron with a warm (not hot) iron or steam to avoid burning the fabric.

Lyocell and Tencel are durable, breathable, soft, silky, static-resistant, biodegradable, recyclable, and environmentally friendly in comparison to other synthetic fabrics. However it is semi-synthetic, may require special care, and does not provide heat regulating properties. My go-to lyocell varieties would be 100% lyocell or Tencel, cotton/lyocell blends, and linen/lyocell blends.

Lyocell PROS

• Durable

• Breathable

• Soft/silky

• Wrinkle-resistant

• Static-resistant

• Environmentally friendly

• Biodegradable

• Recyclable

Lyocell CONS

• Semi-synthetic

• Does not retain heat

• Special care may be required

GO-TO Lyocell Varieties

• 100% Tencel or lyocell

• Cotton/lyocell blends

• Linen/lyocell blends

06 // Viscose & Rayon

Viscose and rayon are two words for the same fabric. Viscose is made from eucalyptus, pine, or bamboo wood, however it is a semi-synthetic fabric because chemicals are used in the production process. The texture of viscose is somewhere between cotton and silk. It is soft, somewhat shiny, and more wrinkle-resistant than cotton. However, the fibers in viscose are shorter than those in cotton, making this fabric less durable than most cotton fabrics.

Rayon can be somewhat more difficult to care for than cotton. Although it is more wrinkle resistant than stiff cotton, rayon can wrinkle but it cannot be ironed. Steam your rayon pieces to avoid damaging the fabric.

Rayon is soft, wrinkle-resistant, static-resistant, and affordable. However it is semi-synthetic, it shrinks, it is less durable than cotton, and is less environmentally friendly than lyocell and Tencel. My go-to viscose and rayon varieties would be 100% viscose or rayon, silk/rayon blends, and cotton/rayon blends.

Rayon PROS

• Soft

• Wrinkle-resistant

• Static-resistant

• Affordable

Rayon CONS

• Semi-synthetic

• Shrinks

• Less durable than cotton

• Not environmentally friendly

GO-TO Rayon and Viscose Varieties

• 100% rayon (especially for jacket linings)

• 100% viscose

• Silk/rayon blends

• Cotton/rayon blends

07 // LEATHER

07 // LEATHER

High quality leather is very durable and can even get better with age. In most cases, avoid clothing made from “genuine leather.” Genuine leather is the lowest quality leather that can be produced. If at all possible, look for top-grain or full-grain leather.

If you’re worried about the sustainability or ethics of leather, buying second-hand is your best bet. The great thing about leather is that it can improve with age which makes it an amazing candidate for second-hand shopping. Buying higher quality leather pieces will also extend their life in your wardrobe which helps to reduce their environmental impact.

Leather is natural, durable, and can improve with age. However leather carries both environmental and ethical issues. My go-to leather options would be top-grain leather, full-grain leather, or second-hand leather.

Leather PROS

• Natural

• Durable

• Can improve with age

Leather CONS

• Not environmentally friendly

• Unethical

GO-TO Leather Options

• Top-grain leather

• Full-grain leather

• Second-hand leather

08 // Modal

Modal is another version of viscose, but it is more durable (longer fibers), more breathable, and less likely to shrink than viscose or cotton. Modal is more environmentally friendly than viscose or rayon because the chemicals are often recycled for future production. It is also biodegradable and recyclable.

Modal drapes very well, forming closely to the figure underneath. This characteristic makes it very comfortable and elegant, but be careful when choosing undergarments.

Modal is soft, silky, breathable, wrinkle-resistant, biodegradable, and recyclable. However it is semi-synthetic and can be clingy. My go-to modal varieties would be 100% modal and cotton/modal blends.

Modal PROS

• Soft/silky

• Breathable

• Wrinkle-resistant

• Biodegradable

• Recyclable

Modal CONS

• Semi-synthetic

GO-TO Modal Varieties

• 100% modal

• Cotton/modal blends

09 // Hemp

Hemp is a natural fiber that is similar to linen in its properties and its environmentally friendly production. Like linen, hemp does not require pesticides or large amounts of water to grow. It also does not deplete nutrients in the soil which reduces the need for fertilizers.

Since hemp can be rough or itchy on its own, go for 50/50 mixes with organic cotton or linen.

Hemp is natural, durable, breathable, UV-resistant, biodegradable, recyclable, environmentally friendly, and softens over time. However it wrinkles and can be rough or itchy. My go-to hemp fabric varieties would be cotton/hemp blends and linen/hemp blends.

Hemp Fabric PROS

• Natural

• Durable

• Breathable

• Softens over time

• UV-resistant

• Environmentally friendly

• Biodegradable

• Recyclable

Hemp Fabric CONS

• Wrinkles

• Can be rough or itchy

GO-TO Hemp Fabric Options

• Organic cotton/hemp blends

• Linen/hemp blends

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Do you want to learn how to create the perfect wardrobe color palette? I'll show you how to create a color palette for your wardrobe that will be harmonious with your natural beauty and NOT BORING! Download the worksheet below if you’d like to get some extra color guides and a template to record your color palette for future reference.

WORKSHEET // Your Wardrobe Color Palette

01 // Start with Your Natural Beauty

As we’ve discussed in previous blog posts, knowing your undertone is the first step to creating a flattering color palette that will bring out the best in you. Your undertone will inform whether you should choose warmer (more yellow) or cooler (more blue) colors for your color palette. If you’re not sure about your undertone, check out this post first.

RESOURCE // What is My Undertone?

It is also helpful to understand your own natural coloring in terms of value, intensity, and contrast. To perform your own personal color analysis, take a look at this post before moving onto step 2.

RESOURCE // How to Find Your Best Colors According to Color Theory

Identify your Color Character

Warm or cool? Light or dark? Muted or saturated? Blended or contrasted? If you’re not sure, watch this helpful video!

02 // Shop Your Closet

Now that you’ve started to understand how to describe your natural coloring, take a look through your closet and pull out 1-5 items in colors that you really enjoy wearing. It’s useful to note which neutral colors you enjoy wearing as well, but try to choose colors other than black, white, gray, or beige for now. How do they compare to your undertone? Try each item on and evaluate how well they flatter your skin tone. And remember, just because you have a warm undertone doesn’t mean you can’t wear green, blue, or purple - your undertone simply informs which versions of these colors will look best on you. For example, lime green, teal blue, and red-violet would be warmer versions of green, blue, and purple. Now, take the items of clothing which best suit you and note their colors. This is a great place to start for your capsule wardrobe color palette. Don’t worry if you only found one color that you like, the following steps will help you find additional colors to round out your palette.

What You Love

What colors do you love wearing right now? Which ones do you already have in your wardrobe? This is the best place to start for your capsule wardrobe color palette!

03 // Complete Your Base

Next, it’s time to complete your set of base colors. If you’ve chosen more than one color from the previous step, do your colors mix and match well with one another? If not, you may want to eliminate some of the colors from your palette, or make adjustments. For example, one of your colors may have a clashing undertone when compared to the others. If you’d like to keep that color in your palette, consider swapping it for a similar hue within your undertone family.

If you would like to add more colors to your base, a great place to start would be to take one color you know you love and choose an analogous color within the color family of your natural undertone. Analogous colors are those that are close to each other on the color wheel. For example, if you love emerald and you have a cool undertone, you could choose blue-green teal color which will naturally harmonize with both emerald and your natural undertone. Adobe Color is an awesome free online tool that you can use to play around and find analogous color palettes if you’re not sure where to start!

RESOURCE // Adobe Color

Once you have 2-3 colors in your base palette that mix and match well together, continue to step 4. The number of colors in your base is completely up to you, but I would encourage you to choose at least one non-neutral color to include in your color palette at this stage.

Your Color Spring board

Use the colors that you know you love as a spring board for your base palette! Add and subtract colors to refine as needed. Analogous colors are a great place to start if you want to add more colors to your base.

04 // Choose Supporting Colors

Now that you have your base colors, let’s choose some supporting colors. Here is where the concepts of value and intensity really come into play. If your natural hair is on the darker side and you have a more saturated complexion, take your base colors and add pure black to them to create deeper shades of your base color palette. If your natural hair is on the lighter side and you have a saturated complexion, take your base colors and add pure white to them to create lighter tints of your base colors. If your hair is dark and your complexion is muted, add dark gray to your base colors to create deeper tones of your base colors. If your hair is light and your complexion is muted, add light gray to your base colors to create lighter tones of your base colors. This will be your set of supporting colors. Feel free to pick and choose which ones you would like to add to your palette! I would recommend you choose at least one supporting color before moving onto the final step.

WORKSHEET // Your Wardrobe Color Palette

Amplify your Natural Beauty

Supporting colors are meant to amplify your natural beauty by taking colors you love and bringing them closer to your natural coloring - whether that be lighter, darker, softer, or brighter.

05 // Select Your Neutrals

Finally, let’s pick out some neutrals. I like to leave neutrals for last because, especially in the capsule wardrobe community, we usually overbuy our neutrals at the expense of color. When we choose our non-neutral colors first, it’s easy to choose the right neutrals. Neutral colors are traditionally black, white, gray, navy, beige, and earth tones. I would recommend choosing neutrals based on your undertone, value, and contrast. For example, if you are highly contrasted with dark hair and a warm undertone, you may want to add a warm white which will allow you to create highly contrasted outfits when combined with the darker shades that you’ve chosen in the previous steps. On the other hand, if you have low contrast and light coloring, you may want to avoid adding stark black to your capsule as it may be too harsh in comparison to your light and soft base colors. Choose a soft gray or beige instead to complement your natural value and contrast.

your Best Neutrals

Choosing neutrals is easy when you leave it for last! Choose your neutrals based on your undertone, value, and contrast.

06 // Visualize Your Color Palette

Your capsule wardrobe color palette is complete! How did it turn out? Use this color palette worksheet to record your color palette for reference next time you want to add a new item to your capsule. I’d love for you to share your color palettes with me on Instagram - just use the Instagram template in the color palette worksheet and tag me in your post, @waardrobe_!

It may also be helpful to create a Pinterest board which represents your color theme. Check out my Pinterest to find inspiration boards for every color!

RESOURCE // Get the Color Guides!

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Figuring out which colors suit you best is probably one of the most frustrating and difficult steps in putting together your perfect wardrobe. I know I’ve struggled with the seasonal color analysis method myself. So I hope that I can help break down each element of the process and provide a method that can be tailored to your unique look. Instead of trying to squeeze into one specific seasonal color type, like clear winter or warm spring, let’s look at each aspect of color analysis individually and create a color palette that’s customized just for you.

There are five main aspects of color analysis that you can take advantage of when choosing your color palette: your skin undertone, the overall lightness or deepness of your coloring, the intensity of your coloring, contrast, and your personal style. Let’s start with the most important element, undertone.

01 // Undertone

What is undertone? Your undertone is the underlying color temperature of your skin tone. Your undertone is either warm, cool, or neutral.

Your undertone is the most important feature to consider when choosing your color palette. When you wear colors that are harmonious with your undertone, you will immediately look brighter and more vibrant. Colors which clash with your undertone may make you look washed out, tired, or sick in comparison.

It’s important to note that undertone is separate from skin tone. Having darker or lighter skin does not affect your undertone. Also, try not to confuse your undertone with your overtone. For example, if you have an olive skin tone, you likely have a cool undertone with a warm overtone, giving your overall complexion a warmer look. In this case, undertone is still the more important factor when determining which colors will look best on you.

RESOURCE // What is My Undertone?

Your undertone determines the overall color family that you belong to. At a basic level, cool colors contain more blue (like blue-greens and purples), and warm colors contain more yellow (like yellow-greens and oranges). Contrary to popular belief, true red is a neutral and can be worn with any skin tone. Don’t let your color family make you feel restricted - there are warm and cool versions of almost any color out there. Here are some examples of color palettes for cool and warm color undertones using different versions of the same colors.

Warm and Cool

An example of warm and cool color palettes using different versions of the same colors - gray, black, blue, white, brown, red, and pink.

02 // Value

In color theory, value is defined as the relative lightness or darkness of a color. When it comes to choosing your perfect color palette, it is important to consider not only the value of your skin tone, but also the value of your hair and eyes. If the overall coloring of your hair and eyes is medium to dark, you are likely to look best in deep colors. If your hair and eyes are medium to light, you will shine in lighter shades. Or, if your skin, hair, and eyes fall in the middle of the spectrum, you might be somewhere in between. If you have light hair and dark eyes or vice versa, you might be lucky enough to look great in both light and deep colors, although the value of your hair will probably be more dominant.

Light or Dark

Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a color. You are most likely to look best in colors with a similar value to that of your hair.

03 // Intensity

The fourth parameter to consider when analyzing your coloring is your chroma, or the intensity of your coloring. Your chroma will lie somewhere on a spectrum from muted and soft (low intensity) to bright and clear (high intensity). Simply put, you should choose to wear colors which have a similar level of saturation to your skin, hair, and eyes, whether that be bright, soft, or somewhere in between. Colors that suit the undertone and value of your coloring may still look unnatural if they fall on the opposite side of the chroma spectrum. For example, highly saturated colors may cause muted skin tones look dull by comparison, while soft colors will look serene and healthy.

Muted or CLear

Intensity is the level of saturation in your coloring, from soft to bright. In color theory, the most saturated colors are created from only primary colors. Adding gray to a color will make it more muted.

04 // Contrast

Now that you have determined the value of your skin, hair, and eyes, you can determine the relative contrast among your features. Do your hair and eye color differ strikingly from your skin tone, or do you feel your coloring is rather unified? Someone with pale skin, fair blonde hair, and light brown eyes would have low contrast. If you have very low contrast, you may actually look great in the opposite value to that of your overall coloring. For example, women with very dark skin, cool undertones, and black hair often look amazing in light, cool, icy shades.

05 // Style

At the end of the day, your style preferences are more important than which colors you “should” or “shouldn’t” wear according to color theory. However, I believe that any style can be reflected using colors from your perfect color palette. It’s just a matter of choosing the right ones. For example, you might have warm undertones and light coloring, but you hate pastels. Don’t worry, you don’t have to wear them. Choose earthy shades like soft brown, army green, rust red, and marine blue.

You have options

Don’t feel restricted by the typical seasonal color analysis recommendations. Ideally, choose colors that have a similar undertone, value, intensity, and contrast to your natural coloring, AND reflect your personal style.

Still Not Sure?

When you come across a color that looks great on you, see if you can determine if that color is more warm or cool, light or dark, bright or muted. Record which colors look good on you and seek out colors with a similar undertone, value, and chroma.

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The first step to creating a color palette for your capsule wardrobe is to discover your natural skin undertone. Your undertone may be very obvious to you, or it may be very subtle. Try these methods to help you determine your undertone! Be sure to perform each test in natural daylight without any makeup, skin tints, or tanners.

01 // The Green Test

In my opinion, The Green Test is the best way to determine your undertone that no one ever talks about. Green is a special color in that it is very easy to tell which shades of green are more blue (cool) and which are more yellow (warm). Find two pieces of clothing, one that is a cool green, like teal, and one that is a warm green, like army or khaki green. For this test, it is best to find garments that are similar in saturation and lightness or darkness to keep the focus on the undertone of the fabric. Either wear the garment or drape it across the front of your chest and neck so that it covers any other clothing that you may be wearing near your face. Which shade of green looks better on you? Which one makes you feel more vibrant and awake? If it’s the warm green, you probably have a warm undertone. If it’s the cool shade, you are likely to have a cool undertone. If you can’t quite tell, try the next test.

02 // THE VEIN TEST

Stand in indirect natural light, such as near a window during the daytime. Observe the veins on the underside of your wrist. Do they appear blue or green? If they appear blue, you have a cool undertone. If they appear green, you may have a warm, neutral, or olive undertone - continue with the following tests to further clarify your undertone.

03 // THE METAL TEST

Grab a mirror or a camera and the largest pieces of silver and gold jewelry that you can find. Find some indirect natural light and hold each metal up to your skin. Avoid making a comparison with your face, especially if you are wearing makeup or if you have a tan. I suggest using your décolletage for comparison because your skin tone is less likely to be affected by the sun in that area. If you do have a tan, try comparing with the skin behind your ears, or the underside of your arm.

Which metal best complements your skin tone? Does silver look sleek and elegant against your skin? Does gold make you look glamorous and bright? If silver is your metal, you have a cool undertone. If gold is your metal, you have a warm undertone. If you can’t tell which metal suits you best, you may have a neutral undertone.

04 // The WHITE PAPER TEST

Stand in indirect natural light and hold a white sheet of paper up to your décolletage. By comparison, does your skin appear slightly pink, or slightly yellow? If your skin appears pink or red, you have a cool undertone. If your skin appears somewhat yellowish in comparison to the paper, you have a warm undertone. Otherwise, you may be neutral.

If you are flushed, or if you have rosacea, you may want to perform this test on another area or at a time when your skin is more calm. Flushing or rosacea will affect your skin’s overtone, and may temporarily mask your true undertone.

05 // THE SUN TEST

Do you tan nicely, or do you burn quickly in the sun? If you tend to burn, you probably have a cool undertone. If you tan relatively easily, you probably might have a warm undertone. If you’re in the middle, you might be neutral or olive toned.

06 // The HAIR AND EYE COLOR TEST

If you’re still not sure what your undertone is, or if you think you might be neutral, take a look at your hair and eye color for clues. Most often, the natural undertone of your hair and eyes will be similar to your skin undertone. Do your eyes and hair look more ashy or more golden? If you have black hair, does it have a slightly blue tint to it? If you have ashy features or blue-black hair, you likely have overall cool undertones. If you have golden, red, or honey hues in your hair or eyes, you likely have overall warm undertones.

In the images above, the woman on the left has a cool undertone with dark brown hair and cool blue eyes. You can also see that her skin appears to have more of a red or blue tint. The woman in the middle has a warmer undertone. Yellow flecks can be seen in her gray eyes and her skin appears warmer in contrast to the other two women. Her hair is also more of a warm, reddish brown than an ashy brown. And finally, the women on the right has a neutral undertone, with medium brown eyes and hair that are neither warm nor ashy.

6 Ways to Determine Your Skin Undertone

01 // The Green Test

02 // The Vein Test

03 // The Metal Test

04 // The White Paper Test

05 // The Sun Test

06 // The Hair and Eye Color Test

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Fall Winter Season | Autumn Color Type | Budget Capsule

20 Pieces // 40 Outfits

If you’re looking to create a capsule wardrobe on a budget, the best way to save money is to choose long lasting, high quality pieces that you can wear for years to come. Better yet, quality doesn’t always have to be expensive! Check out the video below to learn how to create this affordable fall winter capsule wardrobe including what items to look for, how to get started, and some simple steps to make a budget capsule that looks expensive.

The color palette is earthy and warm with contrasting sky blue and bright orange. This capsule is best suited for someone with a warm undertone and includes angular elements such as straight leg jeans, tailored jackets, and geometric cuts.

6 Tops

black camisole // blue oxford shirt // dusty yellow silk shirt // camel cashmere sweater // orange t-shirt // cream turtleneck

3 Bottoms

straight leg jeans (similar) // black leather pants // cream wide leg trousers

1 Dress

brown knitted dress

6 Accessories

yellow trench coat // cream double-breasted blazer // brown cashmere beanie // cropped teddy coat // black leather jacket (similar) // brown tailored coat

4 Shoes

cream ankle boots // black vans old skool // chunky black boots // orange strappy sandals

33 Outfits

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01 // Keep Practicality at the Core

Creating a capsule wardrobe is all about curating a selection of outfits that perfectly meets your needs for your lifestyle. But having too many items that linger in the back of our closet can make us feel like we have nothing to wear. Keep it practical by perfectly customizing your wardrobe to fit your needs and goals.

Take some time to record all of the events and activities that you attend in a typical month whether it be work, date night, happy hour, working out, etc. Then, consider the season ahead and be sure to note any upcoming special occasions or travel. 

Now, count how many outfits you might need for each occasion. For example, if you work full time then you probably work about 60 days in a season. If you don’t mind wearing some outfits twice, then you may only need 45 work-appropriate outfits in your capsule. On the flip side, if you like to have more fun with your date night and happy hour outfits, and you go out about 20 nights in a season, you might want 30 going-out outfits in your capsule.

Likewise, if you rarely attend formal events, then you probably don’t need to add many, if any, gowns or formal cocktail dresses to your wardrobe. Formal events or unexpected events are a great opportunity to test out luxury rental services like Rent the Runway.

Whether your wardrobe is big or small, what matters is that you have the right number of outfits that are practical and appropriate for each occasion in your lifestyle.

02 // Curate Unique Pieces, Not Just Basics

Ever type capsule wardrobe into Google and find hundreds of images of wardrobes consisting of a white t-shirt, a white button-down, a pair of jeans, a black blazer, and a pair of black pumps? Don’t get me wrong, these are great basics that you might want to include in your capsule. But if you want a truly tailored, expressive wardrobe that perfectly encapsulates your personal style and makes you stand out from the crowd, don’t get too hung up on the basics. 

INSPIRATION // Muted Autumn Capsule Wardrobe

Seek out a few unique pieces that you love, that really capture the mood that you want to express for the season. Then, work backwards and determine which key basics would allow you to maximize their versatility. Need some inspiration? Check out this capsule wardrobe example which contains 7 stand-out pieces and only 8 basics.

03 // Master the Returns Policy

If you want to have a wardrobe full of beautiful pieces that you love, you have to learn to be absolutely brutal when deciding whether or not a new item truly deserves a place in your collection. Don’t be afraid to return something if it isn’t absolutely perfect for you. My personal rule is that if I try something on and I even hesitate to decide that I like it, I should probably return it. 

For this reason, it is crucial to inspect a shop’s return policy before purchasing an item, especially online. Ideally, stick to shops with free shipping and free returns. At the very least, ensure that returns are affordable and prepaid shipping labels are provided by the retailer. Unless you know and love the brand, avoid retailers with vague returns policies or inconvenient requirements. Especially if the brand is headquartered in a different region or country, avoid returns policies that require the customer to arrange for return shipping. Also, be sure to check for caveats like final sale or exchange-only items.

If you happen to find an item that you love on a site with a poor returns policy, try searching elsewhere for the same item. I love Aeyde boots, but they don’t provide return shipping labels for U.S. customers, and shipping a large box to Europe on my own could cost over $100. Luckily, Net-A-Porter stockes Ayede shoes and they offer free shipping and returns in the U.S., score!

04 // Take Advantage of Your Color Season

Is your capsule wardrobe full of black, gray, white, navy, and neutrals? While neutral colors certainly are chic and versatile, give your wardrobe some new life with a refreshed color palette that compliments your natural coloring. 

There are about a million different ways to determine your color type, and I’m not quite sure that I believe there truly are exact color types that can be applied to entire groups of people. Plus, our personal preferences should take precedence over any particular style rules that might be thrown at us. However, knowing which colors are most likely to suit you is a great starting point.

As you try new things, take note of which colors make you feel bright, happy, and healthy. Then look for colors with similar undertones, saturation, lightness, or darkness. Slowly build a color palette that includes a few colors that match well together. Then combine these with your neutrals to really amp up the versatility in your wardrobe.

05 // Choose Long-Wearing Fabrics

Quality is king. Building a great wardrobe full of stand-out investment pieces without breaking the bank means that each item must be a wardrobe workhorse for years to come. That means carefully choosing materials with a high percentage of strong, natural fibers. Prioritize silk, wool, cotton, linen, and hemp. Of these, silk, linen, thick cotton, and merino wool are the most durable and long-lasting.

In addition to choosing quality fabrics, be sure to inspect the stitching. Great quality items have straight, sturdy stitching free from gaps or loose threads. You could also look for a button fly rather than a zipper on your next new pair of jeans. Check out my Quality Clothing and Material Guide for more tips on choosing long-lasting pieces for your capsule.

06 // Embrace Your Shape

Every single one of us has features we would consider assets. It’s time to embrace those assets with clothing that flatters our own unique shapes. 

If you have a rounded, curvy, muscular, hourglass, pear, or apple shaped body type, prioritize softer, flowy fabrics like silk and soft cotton which will elegantly skim your curves. If you have a more angular, rectangle, or inverted triangle body type, dare to wear structured silhouettes like a strong blazer or a-line skirt. 

Accentuate the smallest points on your body by simply ruching up your sleeves to expose your wrists, wearing a delicate choker necklace, choosing a midi skirt that hits just above the smallest point on your calf, or adding a belt to cinch in your waist.

Through embracing your shape and customizing your look to fit your unique proportions, you will show the world that you know what’s great about you. There is nothing more attractive and powerful than a woman who knows her strengths and is not afraid to use them.

07 // Choose a Variety of Shapes and Colors

One of the best ways to ensure maximum versatility in your wardrobe is to make sure that each item differs from every other item in either color or shape. In other words, no two items should have both the same or similar color and shape. Oftentimes we find a piece of clothing that we love and we buy it in every color. That’s certainly okay, especially if it is a basic that we wear almost every day. But if you are interested in minimizing your wardrobe while also getting maximum variety in your outfit options, this rule is key. If you can choose pieces that differ in both color and shape, even better. 

INSPIRATION // Sophisticated Spring Summer Capsule Wardrobe

Check out this capsule wardrobe example which contains only a few items of the same color and none that are the same shape. This method allows for a small, 15 item capsule to create 28 completely different outfits from semi-formal to backyard casual.

08 // Create a Seasonal Rotating Capsule

If you’ve already achieved a great year-round capsule wardrobe that you love, great job! Now it’s time to take your capsule to the next level. As the upcoming season approaches, think about refreshing your wardrobe by adding a seasonal color to your color palette, or maybe a couple new weather-appropriate silhouettes. These new items can become part of your rotating seasonal capsule wardrobe. 

For example, you could add a camel turtleneck sweater to your next autumn wardrobe, or a white eyelet dress to your next spring wardrobe. At the end of the season, pack away your seasonal items until next year. Even if you only change out one or two items, this will keep your wardrobe feeling fresh and extend the life of your clothes.

09 // Visualize Your Outfit Combinations

The best way to get the most out of your capsule wardrobe is to create a visual outfit guide. You can do this by collecting photos of each item of clothing in your wardrobe, and using a simple keynote or Word document to mix and match the items, creating each outfit. I like to search for each item online and download a photo with a solid background. If I can’t find the exact item, I look for a similar one. If you like, you can also take photos of your items at home with a smartphone, just hang each item on a blank wall with plenty of natural light and snap a quick photo.

INSPIRATION // Business Casual Fall Workwear Capsule

Any time you purchase a new item, remember to download a photo and add it to your collection. Take a look at any of these shoppable capsule wardrobe examples for visual guide inspiration.

10 // Remember Your Roots

Try new things, but always remember who you are and who you want to be. Your wardrobe is yours. No one can tell you exactly what you want or need or should have in your closet. If you ever feel lost, take some time to reconnect with who you are. Grab a notebook and write down five words that describe who you are, according to you. Then write down five goals that you are working to achieve. Not fashion goals, life goals. Let your roots ground you and your goals guide you.

10 Capsule Wardrobe Tips

01 // Keep Practicality at the Core

02 // Curate Unique Pieces, Not Just Basics

03 // Master the Returns Policy

04 // Take Advantage of Your Color Season

05 // Choose Long Wearing Fabrics

06 // Embrace Your Shape

07 // Choose a Variety of Shapes and Colors

08 // Create a Seasonal Rotating Capsule

09 // Visualize Your Outfit Combinations

10 // Remember Your Roots

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