Daily dilemma

---

Easy access to those clothes

BY Pia Hatch

Have you found yourself standing in front of your open wardrobe, staring at piles of clothing and moaning that you don’t have anything to wear? A great solution to this dilemma of deciding what to wear every day is the ‘capsule wardrobe.’ By definition, a capsule wardrobe refers to the practice of reducing your wardrobe to your favourite key pieces and then remixing them regularly.

STEP 1 Clean out your closets. Since a capsule wardrobe must comprise clothes you will definitely wear, everything else should be stored or given away.

STEP 2 There are some items such as workout gear, nightwear and any seasonal pieces like winter jackets that don’t belong in your capsule. The capsule part of your wardrobe is permanent and should ideally be stored separately.

STEP 3 First, decide how many pieces will make up your capsule. Some people manage with as few as 10 items while others have as many as 50. Remember that this includes clothes, shoes and even accessories – so it really depends on how big your wardrobe is.

For example, if you’ve identified a 25 piece wardrobe, you could break that down into 10 tops, five pairs of pants, three skirts, three dresses and four pairs of shoes.

STEP 4 Your capsule wardrobe is where you get your day-to-day outfits from. So it might be helpful to identify about three categories of clothing such as work, dressy and fun, which you need the most. Base your decisions on the versatility of each item in your chosen categories, how it fits and matches with others.

Don’t buy new attire. Try to create a capsule based on what you own. Each capsule needs to last only three months and you can then dive into your stored items or do some strategic shopping.