Category: Wardrobe Building Series

Welcome to the fourth post in our series on building a capsule wardrobe.  Today’s focus is on dresses and outerwear.  We’ll wrap up the foundation pieces next week with shoes and with a strong foundation in place, we’ll move on to the fun stuff!

Spring/Summer Casual Capsule Foundation Dresses

• Dark Neutral T-shirt Dress
  • Budget: Old Navy jersey swing or fitted v-neck tee dress
  • Mid-Range: Gap Softspun A-line tank or tee dress
  • High: Eileen Fisher ballet neck dress

• Shirt Dress in a solid, denim or stripe.  NOTE: A style that buttons all the way down (as opposed to a popover) increases versatility by letting you style it as a dress or unbuttoned as a layering piece over trousers.
  • Budget: Lulu’s chambray shirt dress or Target Merona shirt dress
  • Mid-Range: Madewell striped shirt dress, J. Crew shirt dress, Everlane striped shirt dress, Mango cotton shirt dress
  • High: Velvet by Graham & Spencer shirt dress

Spring/Summer Office Capsule Foundation Dresses

• Neutral Sheath Dress (a fit & flare style works if you find sheaths a difficult silhouette to wear)
  • Budget: Liz Claiborne sheath and NY & Company 7th Avenue sheath, Target Merona sheath and Old Navy sleeveless sheath
  • Mid-Range: J. Crew offers several good options including the cap-sleeve v-neck, the buckle dress, the portfolio dress and the resume dress
  • High: Theory Eano sheath, Theory Betty sheath, Boss Dirusa sheath and Kate Spade Sicily sheath

Spring/Summer Capsule Foundation Outerwear

• A sporty, lightweight jacket.  This could be a denim jacket, lightweight moto or bomber in either a cropped or just-at-the-waist length for layering over tees and dresses.

• 
• Neutral Trench in black or tan/taupe.  Mid to upper thigh lengths are most versatile.
  • Budget: Old Navy trench
  • Mid-Range: London Fog Heritage trench, Michael Kors hooded trench or Calvin Klein trench
  • High: Burberry Kensington or Sandringham

Friendly Reminders for Capsule Foundation Pieces

• You don’t need every recommended piece but should work toward  collecting at least a few of them.
• For most foundation items, buy the best you can afford.  These will be the workhorse pieces that get a lot of repeat wear.
• Keep foundation piece silhouettes clean and minimal.  Decorative details are fun but limit versatility.
• Commit to a primary color palette for the season – a dark base of either black/charcoal, navy or brown with a light base of either light grey, white or ivory for black/charcoal and navy or either tan or ivory for those choosing a brown dark base.

Continuing on last week’s capsule wardrobe theme, today we’ll focus on foundation tops.   Again, you don’t need ALL of these pieces for a capsule, but it’s easier to get started if you have at least a few of them.

With foundation items, I recommend buying the best you can afford. An exception to this would be white camis and tees as most people I know replace them often.  As with our basic bottoms, keep details clean and somewhat minimal.  At this stage we are working on versatility. Remember to stay true to your primary color palette.  If your go-to dark is black, don’t buy navy tees/sweaters and vice versa.  Charcoals and greys fit in nicely with both navy and black color palettes for mid-tone neural pieces.

Spring/Summer Casual Capsule Foundation Tops

Continue reading “Wardrobe Building: Capsule Foundation Tops”

Before you can begin building a capsule wardrobe, you need to have a strong foundation.  This week I’d like to talk about some workhorse basic bottoms – the pants and skirts that can be worn again and again and will act as the basis of your capsule.  While you don’t need ALL of these pieces to start a capsule, you will find it easier if you have at least three or four of them.  As basics that will get a lot of repeat wear, I’d keep details clean and minimal.  We’ll get to some fun stuff a bit later!

Spring/Summer Casual Capsule Foundation Bottoms

Continue reading “Wardrobe Building: Capsule Foundation Bottoms”