My Fall Capsule Wardrobe

Hello, friends! I’m so excited to reveal my fall capsule wardrobe to you today. I hope you love it as much as I do, and let’s be honest I hope I still love it in three months from now! 😉 Without further ado, let’s look at all 52 of the pieces that made the cut.

Now for a little background about how this came about.

What Is a Capsule Wardrobe?

If you’ve never heard of the concept, a capsule wardrobe is a curated collection of clothes from your closet {or that you purchase} that you wear in various combinations throughout a specific time frame or season. For my fall capsule I selected 52 pieces {tops, bottoms, dresses, shoes} that I plan to wear from September through November. That’s it. Mixing in accessories is encouraged but for the most part you’re just working with the pieces that make up your capsule. The idea is that having less options actually creates more variety in your wardrobe and also sparks greater joy since the pieces you select are the ones that you truly love {and probably wear most often anyway}.

Why am I doing this?

I guess your first question might be, why am I starting a capsule wardrobe? There are a few reasons I decided to try out a more minimalist approach to my clothing. To be honest, I felt like I was in sort of a rut and wanted to try something different. I also felt like my spending and shopping in general had hit a point that wasn’t sustainable. I was buying almost everything impulsively and I had so many things sitting in my closet with tags still attached or that had been worn once. I literally had more clothes than I could even wear and it just didn’t feel right. Shopping started to take up actual time in my life that I felt could be spent doing more productive things. While I’ll likely never be someone who is able to stick to a budget consistently or doesn’t love shopping I’m hoping to be more thoughtful with my purchases, saving up to buy items that I truly love and then wearing them as much as possible {without getting bored}.

How Does It Work?

So your second question is probably, how did I choose each item? Unfortunately it wasn’t an exact science but I tried my best to incorporate interesting basics {so that I could mix and match as much as possible}, fun colors and patterns {so that my outfits didn’t feel boring}, and finally pieces that I loved and couldn’t imagine not wearing for a few months {because we should all love what we wear}. I tried to keep any overlap or duplicate items to a minimum and I wanted to maintain a consistent color pallet to keep the capsule cohesive.

What’s Included?

Here is how the capsule breaks out:

19 tops
9 bottoms
7 dresses
5 coats
12 shoes

Hopefully this results in endless combinations, or at least enough variety to get me through November. I tried to focus on a few things when selecting pieces for this collection:

A mix of price points. For this capsule to work and be realistic I wanted to incorporate some investment pieces {like this dress} along with budget friendly options {like these shoes}. You’ll notice that the higher priced items are basics, things that I’ll keep for years and incorporate into future capsules. The lower end items are trendier, and might only last for a few months.
Styles that fit my day to day life. Because I work in an office I made sure to incorporate items I could wear to work, along with pieces that will work for weekends, date nights, and other events that might come up over the next few months {like holidays}.
Options for layering. Fall in Michigan might be one of the hardest seasons to plan for. The weather here is already starting to get crisp and over the next few months we’ll likely have some warmer days mixed in with a few that are down right frigid. I wanted to make sure that the items I chose could be layered when it’s needed.

What’s Not Included?

While for the most part I’ll only be wearing these 52 items over the next few months I didn’t include other important things like undergarments, pajamas, and jewelry or accessories {like hats and bags}. While I might try to take the same approach and reduce the amount of those items that I have, I’m not technically including them in my capsule.

Where Are All of My Other Clothes?

As I started to build my fall capsule I took a very hard look at each and every item in my wardrobe and decided if it should stay or if it should have a new life somewhere else. I belong to a few local Facebook groups where people can sell clothes locally so I sold a lot of the items that I no longer needed or wanted and used the money to purchase the new items that I included in my capsule. Everything else is currently in a closet in one of our spare rooms and will be used for future capsules or special occasions. I plan to continually edit my wardrobe so that only things I love wearing remain. It’s definitely a process!

Let’s take a closer look at each item in my fall capsule collection. I tried to link the exact item whenever I could and if something is sold out or not available online I linked the closest version I could find. I bet you already have a lot of these pieces hanging in your closet today!

Shop the Capsule!

white button up | pintuck shirt | long sleeve tee | graphic tee

gray sweater* | wrap coat | cardigan | camo joggers

chunky sweater | girlfriend chinos | patterned skirt* | short sleeve tee

chambray shirt | stripe shirt | graphic sweater | denim tank

cropped sweater | smock dress | classic deni m | lace cami

bomber jacket | pink sweater | buffalo check shirt* | black denim

patterned dress | work dress | cropped sweater | yellow blouse

maxi dress | flutter sleeve tee | camo jacket | pencil skirt

shirt dress | silk dress* | lace shorts* | moto jacket

moto leggings | faux fur jacket | striped dress* | pleated skirt

I’m so excited to style these items over the next few months and I can’t wait for you to follow along for the fun. Tomorrow I’ll be revealing Annabelle’s fall capsule wardrobe. See you then!

P.S. I learned everything I know about capsule wardrobes from this site. If you’re looking to start a capsule of your own Caroline’s site is a great resource and you should definitely check it out!