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Episode: how to build a realistic capsule wardrobe, explained

Author: emma chamberlain
Duration: 00:50:19

Episode Shownotes

my relationship with clothing and fashion over the years used to be toxic. my mentality was, "the more clothes, the better". but recently, i figured out that a capsule wardrobe works for me, and i'm loving it. today i'm going to share with you my guide to building a capsule

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Summary

In this episode of 'Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain,' Emma discusses her transition from an excessive, cluttered wardrobe to a simplified capsule wardrobe that reflects her current values of intentionality and comfort. She shares practical steps for building a cohesive wardrobe, emphasizing the importance of selecting a foundational base color and metal, curating a versatile color palette, and focusing on quality over quantity in clothing. Throughout the episode, Emma highlights that a capsule wardrobe can evolve with personal style, ultimately leading to greater enjoyment and less decision fatigue in fashion choices.

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Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
My relationship to clothing and fashion over the years is weirdly similar to my relationship to dating and romance over the years. It started when I was young, in my early teens. And off the bat, it was toxic, okay?

00:00:14 Speaker_00
I was trying stuff, getting hurt in the process, wasting a lot of resources, failing constantly, frustrated constantly, confused constantly, self-sabotaging in big and small ways, doing things that I would cringe at three to six months later. A mess.

00:00:40 Speaker_00
Okay? I was a mess. In fashion and in romance. And that was the case for many years. I spent many years in a phase of trial and error in fashion and in love. And weirdly enough, recently, both things at pretty much the same time have been figured out.

00:01:00 Speaker_00
I really think that my relationship to clothing and fashion and my relationship to romance and dating is finally in a state of health for possibly the first time in my life.

00:01:12 Speaker_00
I don't know if it's a coincidence that these two things happened at the same time, but let me tell you, it's a delight. It's a delight. Today, we will not be discussing the romance half of this conversation.

00:01:23 Speaker_00
We'll be focusing in on the fashion half of this conversation. For many years, I was in this mindset of consume, consume, consume, consume. The more clothes, the merrier. The more different aesthetics that I experiment with, the better.

00:01:41 Speaker_00
The more color palettes I have available to me in my wardrobe, the better. The more accessories I have, the better. The more I have, the better. It was all about excess. My fashion mentality was just excess.

00:01:55 Speaker_00
And in retrospect, I realize now that I had it all wrong for a trillion reasons. Like that was the wrong mindset for more reasons than I can count.

00:02:06 Speaker_00
Off the top of my head, number one, buying a lot of clothes means having a lot of clutter in your house. And clutter causes anxiety for a lot of us, majority of us. Number two, buying a lot of clothes means decision fatigue.

00:02:24 Speaker_00
How are you supposed to figure out what to wear when you have a trillion options?

00:02:28 Speaker_00
You end up settling on something that you don't even really like because in order to come up with something that actually makes sense and feels complete and exciting to you, you would have had to spend four hours in your closet just finding the pieces to create that.

00:02:41 Speaker_00
Number three, how are you supposed to define your own personal style when you're experimenting with 50 different aesthetics in your packed closet every single day when you go to get dressed?

00:02:52 Speaker_00
It's very hard to define you in a closet full of a bazillion items. Number four, it's wasteful. It's a waste of money. It's just adding more clothes to the landfill.

00:03:04 Speaker_00
And number five, it's a full-time job to constantly be adding new pieces to your wardrobe, to constantly be putting everything together. It takes up a lot of time.

00:03:13 Speaker_00
And it's interesting because you put all this time into this wardrobe and a lot of times you don't even create something from it that's satisfying to you because there's too much stuff.

00:03:23 Speaker_00
You can't even piece things together in a way that feels cohesive and exciting because there's just too much there. There's too many options. The list goes on, okay? There's many reasons why building your closet in that way is negative.

00:03:36 Speaker_00
But that's how I lived for a really long time. And more recently, I came to the conclusion that that was not the way. I got rid of majority of my clothes, like 90% of my clothes, and I'm left now with sort of a capsule wardrobe.

00:03:51 Speaker_00
And I, I don't know if I even want to call it that because I think there are all these different labels for how we put our closets together, how we shop, you know, people are minimalist, people have capsule wardrobes, people have a uniform, like there's all these different labels.

00:04:09 Speaker_00
It's not that fucking deep, who cares, but it's pretty much a capsule wardrobe, and that's what I've figured out works for me, and I've been wearing this capsule wardrobe for a few months now, and it has worked so well for me, and I'm loving it.

00:04:24 Speaker_00
This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. One of my favorite trips is a trip to Palm Springs with my friends. You know, I don't live very far away from Palm Springs. It's a short two-hour drive away. But what made it so special was our Airbnb.

00:04:41 Speaker_00
It was just a little weekend trip, but getting to stay all together in one house made it particularly memorable. It was the perfect balance of privacy and community, and we were able to sort of live normally. Cook dinner, watch TV.

00:04:56 Speaker_00
We all hung out by the pool together. Airbnb also has something called guest favorites. All of the most loved homes on Airbnb based on reviews and reliability and are rated above four point nine stars on average.

00:05:09 Speaker_00
I've used this many times when booking Airbnbs because it sorts it through to the best. I am very much looking forward to my next Airbnb trip. I'll let you know where I go. This episode is brought to you by Bumble. Dating can be exhausting.

00:05:25 Speaker_00
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00:05:33 Speaker_00
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00:06:01 Speaker_00
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00:07:26 Speaker_00
Now, let me tell you what a capsule wardrobe is. A capsule wardrobe is a small curated collection of clothing and accessories that can be mixed and matched to create many different outfits.

00:07:35 Speaker_00
The goal is to have a variety of outfits for different occasions without owning too many items. Okay, a capsule wardrobe is literally just having a normal amount of clothes.

00:07:44 Speaker_00
Like, the fact that I'm coming on here and saying, you guys, I did this crazy thing, I have a capsule wardrobe, that should be normal.

00:07:50 Speaker_00
And I think for many people it is, but because I'm somebody who, you know, loves fashion, and fashion is one of my hobbies, and I also have a career on the internet where I'm constantly wearing clothes on the internet, and there's this pressure to constantly be wearing a new outfit, which I don't really care about anymore, but I used to, that's why this is sort of a large feat for me, right?

00:08:09 Speaker_00
But I think nowadays it's more rare to have a capsule wardrobe, especially Gen Z. I think a lot of Gen Z are big consumers and are buying a lot of sort of fast fashion and stuff like that. And the mindset is let's pack the closet.

00:08:24 Speaker_00
And I get it because I was the same way. Here's the deal. So I truly believe that the capsule wardrobe is a beautiful thing. This is honestly the first time in my life that I've had a capsule wardrobe.

00:08:37 Speaker_00
I mean, I guess I sort of had one in like elementary school, but that doesn't really count. Okay, so this is my first time having a capsule wardrobe as an adult. And I really do think there's an art to building it. And I think it's kind of awesome.

00:08:53 Speaker_00
And when it's done right, you can feel fashionable every day, but not have too much stuff. I always thought it was impossible to feel fashionable every day if I wasn't wearing a different outfit every day. That's not true.

00:09:08 Speaker_00
You can feel fashionable and a little different every day with a capsule wardrobe. And you can also narrow down your own personal style with a capsule wardrobe so that you have sort of an iconic look. It's like that's the your thing, you know?

00:09:24 Speaker_00
And that's really cool. That's something I never really had before in a very distinct way. I think now my personal style is very distinct because of this capsule wardrobe. And that's something that I enjoy for my identity.

00:09:37 Speaker_00
But let me tell you, building this capsule wardrobe was incredibly challenging and confusing. It was a multiple month long contemplation, okay? This was something that took months.

00:09:51 Speaker_00
And I think through my experience of building my capsule wardrobe, or not even building my capsule wardrobe, but rather deconstructing my massive wardrobe and creating a capsule wardrobe out of it, I learned a lot.

00:10:04 Speaker_00
And so today I'm going to share with you what I learned. This is basically my guide, Emma's guide to building a capsule wardrobe. And it's not easy because the whole idea of the capsule wardrobe is that everything sort of matches.

00:10:17 Speaker_00
Everything sort of goes together. Everything can be layered together. There's, you know, a select number of pieces, but they can all be mixed and matched in different ways in order to create a bunch of new outfits. Like that's not easy. Okay.

00:10:32 Speaker_00
It's one thing to have like 10 pieces in your closet that you like, but have none of them match. That's like easy. We can all find 10 things that we like. It's hard to pick 10 things that we like that all go together in one way or another.

00:10:46 Speaker_00
The magic of a capsule wardrobe is when majority of the pieces all go together in one way or another. Do you know what I'm saying? But I think I've come up with a formula for creating a capsule wardrobe.

00:10:59 Speaker_00
And that is what I'm going to share with you today. My formula. There's a few things that must be considered before starting. Number one, what point are you starting at? Do you barely have any clothes?

00:11:13 Speaker_00
Is your closet filled with stuff that you don't really like? And there's also not a lot of it, like you've been wearing the same thing for a while. Or are you in a place where you have too much clothes and you want to narrow things down?

00:11:24 Speaker_00
If you don't have a lot of clothes, then that means you're going to want to add a few things. And if you have too many clothes, the goal should be to buy nothing and just get rid of stuff.

00:11:33 Speaker_00
I also think it's important to remember that your capsule wardrobe is going to change throughout your life. This is not something that you're marrying forever.

00:11:41 Speaker_00
This is what you're going to be wearing for, say, the next year, maybe two years, but you can constantly be changing it and evolving it and swapping out pieces here and there. Like, don't feel like you're marrying this for the rest of your life.

00:11:56 Speaker_00
Your capsule wardrobe can evolve and change as you do, and you can just do it intuitively as it happens.

00:12:01 Speaker_00
And last but not least, instead of rushing to buy a bunch of new things for your capsule wardrobe, shop with intention and wait until you've found the perfect piece.

00:12:10 Speaker_00
If you're like, I really want the perfect pair of jeans, don't just rush and buy the first pair of jeans you find. Look in your own closet. See if you already have that pair of jeans or

00:12:20 Speaker_00
Go out for two or three weekends in a row and go try on jeans in person until you find the perfect pair. Don't rush it and pay attention to what you already have in your closet. So shop intentionally. Don't rush. Be conscious of what you already have.

00:12:35 Speaker_00
Okay. With all of that in mind, let's begin. This is the step-by-step guide, how to build the capsule wardrobe by Emma Chamberlain. In my opinion, take it all with a grain of salt. This episode is brought to you by Bumble. Dating can be exhausting.

00:12:50 Speaker_00
Even just getting to the dating stage is a little bit overwhelming. You know, I'm not somebody who loves casually dating. I like to be in a relationship.

00:12:58 Speaker_00
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00:13:11 Speaker_00
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00:13:26 Speaker_00
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00:13:49 Speaker_00
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The first thing I did was choose my base color. Now, what does that mean?

00:14:03 Speaker_00
The base color is kind of like the color that grounds the outfit. I would say this is usually a dark color. Honestly, I think the base color is either black or brown. And the first step is to choose one or the other.

00:14:19 Speaker_00
I mean, if you're somebody who loves bright colors, your base color might be red. but I would say majority of us are gonna choose between black and brown. So what is a base color? A base color is like the through-line color in your outfits.

00:14:34 Speaker_00
This is the color that's present in almost every outfit, if not every single outfit. This is the dark color that sort of roots the outfit and gives it dimension, okay? That's why I'm saying it's usually black or brown. For me personally, it's black.

00:14:49 Speaker_00
I tend to choose black as my base color for my outfit. I'd say probably 85% of the time. These days, there was a long period of time where I would say my base color was more brown, actually.

00:15:02 Speaker_00
Like, I tended to choose brown shoes, brown bag, you know, brown sunglasses. But more recently, I'm choosing black. Like, black is the through line for my outfit. Okay, next, choose your metal. I would recommend choosing a metal and sticking to it.

00:15:20 Speaker_00
Now, some people are like, uh, shut the fuck up. No, I like mixing metals. I like wearing gold earrings and a little silver bracelet and a little rose gold fucking anklet, like whatever. If you love that, go for it.

00:15:33 Speaker_00
But I think there's something really nice about choosing a metal and sticking to it and being cohesive. It's pretty much just gold or silver, okay? Choose gold or silver. Which one is more you? Which one do you lean towards?

00:15:45 Speaker_00
Which one looks better with your skin tone? Which one do you like better? For me, at this point in my life, it's silver. It used to be gold for me for many years. Now it's silver, okay? So my base color, black. My base metal, I guess, if you will, silver.

00:15:59 Speaker_00
Okay, so now I have sort of my base. Now, step three is to find your staple daily accessories in your base color and base metal. So for me, that would mean figuring out my go-to sunglasses, black pair of sunglasses.

00:16:17 Speaker_00
Finding the ones that fit the best, have the most versatile vibe for all the sort of different outfits that I like to experiment with. Sunglasses that are comfortable on my head, I can wear all day long. They're not falling off my head.

00:16:33 Speaker_00
They fit perfect. They're versatile. If there's hardware on them, it's silver, and the color of them is black, okay? Jewelry. Pick daily jewelry in the middle that you chose. So for me, that means silver hoops, and that's kind of it.

00:16:48 Speaker_00
I occasionally will wear a watch, but for the most part, silver hoops. That's it. That's my go-to jewelry. I do have a silver watch with a black band. That's another great piece of jewelry for me.

00:17:03 Speaker_00
It's not something I wear every day, but it's something that I have that I wear whenever I want to wear a watch. It's great because it's in the base color and the base metal. Choose a belt, easy, in your base color.

00:17:14 Speaker_00
And with the base metal, for me, that means black belt, silver hardware, purse and bag, black bag, silver hardware, staple shoes, black shoes. silver hardware. You get the idea.

00:17:25 Speaker_00
So if your base color is brown and gold, that actually used to be kind of my base color and metal. I had brown and gold sunglasses, gold jewelry, brown and gold belt, brown and gold bag, brown and gold shoes. And that was the base.

00:17:41 Speaker_00
You know, and when it comes to picking all of these things, I think the key is taking your time to find them, making sure that they're versatile enough to match a variety of different things.

00:17:56 Speaker_00
Because even though, you know, this is a capsule wardrobe, you're not going to look exactly the same every day. There's still going to be little differences depending on what gets paired with what.

00:18:05 Speaker_00
And so you want something that's versatile enough to go with many different things, but also represents your style enough where you're not like, this is just boring. I'm bored of this thing.

00:18:15 Speaker_00
So simple, but you, and only you can determine what that is, right? But it also needs to be something that is genuinely comfortable for you. Making sure that those sunglasses are so fucking comfortable on your head, that is crucial.

00:18:31 Speaker_00
Making sure that the jewelry that you chose is something that you can sleep in for the most part. I mean, if you're wearing like big hoops, like I like to wear big hoops, so I do have to take those out, or I prefer to take them out.

00:18:44 Speaker_00
But I have like, you know, small little huggies in two of my other holes. I can sleep in those. It's easy to pop a hoop in and out. You know, it's fine. So ideally stuff that you can sleep in or easy to put in and out.

00:18:57 Speaker_00
Ideally pieces that you can shower in and Having a purse or bag that's comfortable on your shoulder or it's cross-body so that you don't have to think about it. Choosing something that you don't mind carrying every single day. It's not annoying.

00:19:11 Speaker_00
It's easy. It fits on your shoulder like a glove. And picking shoes that look cool but are also comfortable enough to wear every day. And I would say shoes are the only thing that you might need a few of.

00:19:24 Speaker_00
Like, you don't, you only need one pair of sunglasses, one pair of, you know, earrings, one necklace, one belt, one bag. You could have a few if you wanted.

00:19:34 Speaker_00
I think, I mean, I have a few all in my base color and base metal, but I would say shoes, it's nice to have a few pairs.

00:19:42 Speaker_00
It's nice to have like a light summery shoe, something like, you know, a flat or a loafer or something sort of sandal-esque, I guess, depending on your style. It's nice to have some sort of boot.

00:19:55 Speaker_00
Maybe it's a heeled boot, maybe it's a flat boot, maybe it's a knee-high boot. Again, depends on your style.

00:20:00 Speaker_00
And then maybe some sort of comfy shoe, maybe it's like a fleece boot, you know, a clog, like some sort of comfy shoe, maybe a flip-flop if that's your style, like whatever.

00:20:10 Speaker_00
It's nice to have a few variations of staple shoe, but then from there you sort of have the base, okay? All of those things can be worn together with almost any outfit on a daily basis and serve their purpose, okay?

00:20:26 Speaker_00
And to a lot of people, it might seem backwards to start with the accessories, but I don't know, like in a lot of ways, those accessories are, in a weird way, the backbone of the outfit, right?

00:20:38 Speaker_00
Like when you have a capsule wardrobe, that through line, like having like your base color and your base metal, that'll just tie everything together, you know what I mean? That gives you a really good backbone for pairing together other pieces, right?

00:20:52 Speaker_00
Because now you have this through line of the black and the through line of the silver. I don't know. I just, I think it's very helpful. From there, step number four is to choose your color palette. Okay.

00:21:04 Speaker_00
Now, obviously there's a color we've already decided. Okay. As we know, you got to add from there. I recommend closing your eyes and thinking about what colors look good on you.

00:21:14 Speaker_00
Think about, go through every single color in the rainbow, in all the different shades of each color, okay? So close your eyes and think about yourself wearing a red t-shirt. Eh, you don't really like that.

00:21:25 Speaker_00
So now imagine yourself wearing a maroon t-shirt. Oh, that's kind of nice. What about an orange t-shirt? Ew, ugly. What about yellow? Ooh, ugly. What about green? Oh, kind of nice. What about blue? Ooh, kind of nice. What about purple? Eh. What about beige? Eh.

00:21:41 Speaker_00
What about navy blue? Eh. You know, okay, go through all these different colors and maybe even write them down. Write down the ones that look good on you. So like for me, for example, I know blue looks good on me. I think olive green looks good on me.

00:21:59 Speaker_00
I think maroon looks good on me. I think gray looks good on me. I know yellow looks really bad on me. I know orange doesn't look good on me. So I sort of narrow it down to the colors that I know look good on me.

00:22:13 Speaker_00
Now it's time to analyze what you've got, okay? Now in your head, figure out if this palette is cohesive. Figure out what you're missing.

00:22:22 Speaker_00
For example, you might have chosen the base color of brown and then concluded that olive green and maroon look good on you. But you're like, that's not enough options. So you kind of want to fill in the gaps.

00:22:37 Speaker_00
And you might want to fill in the gaps with some neutrals. Like, oh, you know, actually cream would be kind of nice to add to this sort of palette. And that color actually does look good on me.

00:22:47 Speaker_00
And, you know, navy blue, I haven't really worn a lot of navy blue, but I actually think it might look good. And that would actually look good in this palette. So sort of create this palette that makes sense for you, right?

00:22:58 Speaker_00
And at the end, you should have approximately six to eight colors in your palette. And they should pretty much all match each other. My personal color palette, if you're wondering, It's kind of unusual, but it makes a lot of sense to me. Okay?

00:23:13 Speaker_00
Black, white, cream, gray, so basically every neutral, olive green, maroon, and pale blue. That's my color palette. Those colors all look good on me. They all look good together. It just works. And it took me a while to figure it out.

00:23:30 Speaker_00
But yours might be navy blue, pale blue, beige, cream, white, light gray, and bright red, like more of a nautical vibe. Or, you know, you might be brown, maroon, dark green, navy, mustard. Everyone's different.

00:23:50 Speaker_00
You're the only one that can come up with your perfect color palette.

00:23:54 Speaker_00
It makes shopping so much easier when you know what colors look good on you and you know that if you buy something in one of these colors, it will match with all the other stuff in your wardrobe.

00:24:05 Speaker_00
I can't tell you how many times I've bought stuff and been like, wait, I don't even know how to style this

00:24:12 Speaker_00
color, like I don't even have stuff that goes with this color and it would just end up collecting dust in my closet because it didn't really match anything else. I didn't even know how to style it. That entire color palette always matches.

00:24:24 Speaker_00
It always has the same vibe and feel. It always works. So, you know, for example, like I just bought a little olive green tote bag.

00:24:33 Speaker_00
I'm already getting a bunch of use out of it because that color is a part of my color palette and it matches almost every single outfit I put together. You could also start making mood boards.

00:24:43 Speaker_00
The only thing that's hard about making mood boards is that the people in the photos on the mood boards are not you. So it's not as personalized, which is, you know, a valid way to learn and figure out your own style.

00:24:56 Speaker_00
But when it comes to building your own wardrobe, it's best to think about what you look best in.

00:25:02 Speaker_00
However, if you're feeling sort of stumped, like, I don't really know what I look best in, or you're one of those people that just looks good in everything and that's causing decision fatigue, go on Pinterest and make a Pinterest board of outfits that you love that sort of, I don't know, feel like your vibe.

00:25:19 Speaker_00
And then look at what color palette naturally comes up. Like if I were to go on my Pinterest right now, there's an obvious sort of color palette going on. There's a lot of reoccurring colors. Because that's what I'm into right now.

00:25:31 Speaker_00
That's what I've been wearing recently, right? That just naturally sort of happens. So that could also be another method of figuring out your color palette. From there, we must build the wardrobe. Okay, so step number five is finding staple tops.

00:25:47 Speaker_00
Now, my recommendation that I think would work for almost anyone would be to find a brand that you love that makes basics and load up on simple silhouettes in colors from your color palette, okay?

00:26:01 Speaker_00
Tank tops, short sleeve, boxy t-shirt, long sleeve, buttoned up colored shirt in turtleneck. These are like the staple shapes. You need the tank tops and the short sleeves for summer.

00:26:13 Speaker_00
There's, you know, lots of different variations so you can find the one that you like. Maybe you like a scoop neck. Maybe you like a slightly cropped silhouette. Maybe you like a slightly longer silhouette. It's all there for you to decide.

00:26:25 Speaker_00
Boxy t-shirts are great for layering. Also very comfortable. Also kind of a style choice. That's great to have. Coarse long sleeve in turtleneck for the winter.

00:26:37 Speaker_00
And then I feel like majority of us need a button-up collared shirt every once in a while for something. Now, this is sort of going to be the base top for everything that you wear.

00:26:49 Speaker_00
I think when it comes to building a capsule wardrobe, it's best to just have a bunch of simple tops and then you can build from there.

00:26:55 Speaker_00
Instead of having a bunch of different intricate tops, it's best to just have all the basic tops in silhouettes that you know, you love, you're comfortable with, and then you can build on top. top of them.

00:27:08 Speaker_00
And when it comes to picking the colors, I mean, I think anything from your color palette, but most importantly, the neutrals from your color palette.

00:27:15 Speaker_00
And now that that's sort of the base for your top half of your body, step number six would be to find some layering pieces, some exciting layering pieces that can be paired with your basic tops to add dimensions to outfits.

00:27:28 Speaker_00
And these should be simple enough that they could be reworn over and over again, but exciting enough to add dimension. Okay. Like, something with text on it, like something that says, like, Stargirl, you know what I mean? That's kind of loud.

00:27:45 Speaker_00
That is very memorable, okay? It's hard to re-wear that over and over again and make it look and feel different. It has a very distinct style. Something with maybe a more subtle pattern. or a really unique silhouette, but a neutral color.

00:28:01 Speaker_00
Those types of things can be styled many different ways. And because they're a bit more subtle, it's not like, oh, she's wearing that shirt again. And some people are very self-conscious of that. So that's why

00:28:14 Speaker_00
you know, I'm, I'm bringing this up because it doesn't really matter. If you don't care, then great.

00:28:18 Speaker_00
But I think again, the beauty of the capsule wardrobe is that you can create a bunch of different outfits and it's not like, Oh, she's wearing that shirt again. It's like, Oh, that feels like a different outfit.

00:28:29 Speaker_00
And that's, what's cool about it is that you can get that new fresh feeling while wearing the same pieces over and over again and rotating them. Right. So like layering pieces to me are little vests,

00:28:41 Speaker_00
sheer lace mesh tops that you can pair underneath other tops, put over other tops, over shirts, okay, like a boxy button-up or like a quarter zip sort of, you know, boxy top, tunics, like slightly baggier, longer shirts that maybe have an interesting silhouette.

00:29:04 Speaker_00
And these things can be paired with A tank top during the summer, super cute. During the winter, you can wear your mesh top over a long sleeve shirt. Now it has a completely different feeling.

00:29:17 Speaker_00
If you have like a lace tank top, you could wear that over a short sleeve for a cute layering moment. You could also wear it over a turtleneck for a cute layering moment. You can wear a tunic over a short sleeve, a long sleeve.

00:29:32 Speaker_00
Like, do you see what I mean? There's like all these different options. So seasonally, you know, these things can work time and time again, just based on what undershirt you put under them.

00:29:42 Speaker_00
And I think this is the area where you can have a bit more fun, you know, pick out layering pieces that are in the brighter colors from your color palette.

00:29:52 Speaker_00
I think the only challenge with these sorts of layering pieces is that they're definitely more diamonds in the rough, right? Like finding a beautiful vest. And by vest, I don't just mean sweater vest.

00:30:06 Speaker_00
Like this could be any type of vest, a little leather vest. It could be like a mohair vest. It could be

00:30:14 Speaker_00
canvas material vest, it could be like a satin sort of vest, like there's a bazillion different types of vests, you know, when it comes to sheer lace mesh tops, that's a genre of top that's great for layering, but it could be, there's endless options, right?

00:30:31 Speaker_00
over shirts, finding the right one that fits right and is the right aesthetic that you're going for. That takes time. Finding the right tunic. Honestly, tunics are weird and most people don't even think of them as an option. I personally like them.

00:30:46 Speaker_00
I have one or two that I really like as layering pieces, but I didn't even know I wanted a tunic until I found one. A lot of these things are going to find you. It's going to take time to find these things.

00:30:57 Speaker_00
It's a lot easier to go out and find the perfect tank top or just go into your own closet and be like, oh, this is my favorite white tank top. This is my favorite black tank top. I've been wearing these for months anyway, for years anyway.

00:31:09 Speaker_00
You know, I don't need a new one. Those things are easier to find. It's more about the perfect fit, the perfect material for you. And it's definitely a saturated portion of the market, right? There's a lot of basics out there.

00:31:23 Speaker_00
It's a bit harder to find the unique layering pieces that add the dimension to the look. It's just harder to find. I really encourage you to take your time and let them find you, you know?

00:31:33 Speaker_00
And I think the key question to ask yourself when you're looking for these pieces and potentially buying these pieces is, Does this work with at least 75% of my capsule wardrobe? Yes or no?

00:31:48 Speaker_00
If the answer's no, that's not a good layering piece for a capsule wardrobe. And then if the answer's yes, this will match with 75% or more of my wardrobe, then you're good to press go.

00:32:03 Speaker_00
There might be, you know, a little while where you're just wearing a lot of basics because you haven't found those layering pieces yet. Be patient. Be patient. You'll find them. This episode is brought to you by PayPal.

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Terms and cashback limits apply. See PayPal app. This card is issued by the Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license by MasterCard International, Inc., and may be used everywhere MasterCard is accepted. This episode is brought to you by Marc Jacobs.

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Visit IMES.com slash difference to learn more. Let's move on to bottoms. Okay. The bottom half of the body here. Bottoms are a little bit easier because actually they're hard in their own way. It's easier because you can't really layer with bottoms.

00:34:49 Speaker_00
Like bottoms are just bottoms, you know what I mean? But they're complicated because I think it's harder to find bottoms that fit perfectly. So here's my recommendation. In total, approximately 10 pairs of pants, give or take, you know?

00:35:07 Speaker_00
Let me break it down. I would recommend approximately three pant silhouettes, and one or two of each. Honestly, one of each. I don't even think you need more than one of each. But if you really like something, then maybe buy double of it.

00:35:22 Speaker_00
There's endless types of pants. There's jeans, of course. Dress pants. They come in so many different shapes and sizes. You have a low-waisted, more baggier dress pant. You have a tighter dress pant. You have a cotton dress pant.

00:35:36 Speaker_00
You have like a stretchy, almost like spandexy sort of dress pant. Like there's so many different types of dress pants. Work pants. like a Dickie, you know, a Carhartt, that's an option.

00:35:49 Speaker_00
Maybe you like cotton sort of pants, like something that's like tight around the waist and sort of like a wide leg, like cotton pant. Like there's so many different options, right? And I would say you want to choose approximately three.

00:36:04 Speaker_00
So like for me, for example, I have a work pant and then I have like two types of dress pants, like two different types of dress pants. And that's pretty much all I wear for pants.

00:36:16 Speaker_00
And I think it's nice to have at least one pair of pants be your base color. So for me, it's black. You know, I have a beautiful pair of black dress pants. It's very, very handy to have. I wear them a lot.

00:36:27 Speaker_00
But for my other two main pairs of pants, you know, my work pants and then my other pair of dress pants, my favorite pair of dress pants are dark gray. And then my work pants are all of green.

00:36:39 Speaker_00
So, you know, I have options when it comes to colors of my pants. I'm not just choosing neutral, you know, and it's nice to have that green pair because it pops, you know.

00:36:52 Speaker_00
Next, I would say approximately three skirts or dresses depending on who you are. Now, I'm not talking about like a mini skirt.

00:37:01 Speaker_00
I'm talking about a skirt or a dress that you could wear to school, to work, like something that you could wear during the summer, but also during the winter, a longer, more versatile skirt or dress that you could wear to a number of different occasions.

00:37:15 Speaker_00
And it's just nice to have options, you know, various lengths, various colors, various materials. I'm not a dress person, so I just don't even own any dresses. I have instead pretty much three main skirts. I have one black skirt that's long.

00:37:32 Speaker_00
I have one gray skirt that has more of an interesting silhouette to it. And then I have one maroon and gray skirt. And those are pretty much all the skirts I wear. They're all in a similar length, but they're all very different.

00:37:47 Speaker_00
They all give sort of a different vibe. They're made of different materials. Some are a bit more dressy. Some are a bit more subtle. It's nice to have some option, right?

00:37:59 Speaker_00
Moving on, I think it's important to have approximately two comfy pairs of pants, okay? I'm talking about a yoga pant, a like cotton, stretchy, comfy, cute pant. These are pants that are not pajamas, okay? They're just comfy.

00:38:14 Speaker_00
You can wear them to the airport. You can wear them grocery shopping at 9.30 p.m. on a Tuesday. Like, they're comfy, but they can be sort of dressed up enough to be worn out, right? Not, like, fully a sweat pant.

00:38:27 Speaker_00
So this could be, like, a cute knit pair of pants, maybe a cotton straight leg sort of almost a sweat pant, but actually could pass as a real pant sort of pant. Figure out what it is for you. And I recommend a neutral color for this, okay?

00:38:43 Speaker_00
All of my comfy bottoms are black. And then approximately three short summer silhouettes, okay? I'm talking about like denim shorts, mini skirts, fabric shorts, longer medium length dress shorts, capris.

00:39:00 Speaker_00
Like, I don't really know what this is going to be for me yet because I just, it's not, summer just passed, you know? And this summer I wasn't in my capsule wardrobe era.

00:39:15 Speaker_00
So I'm still kind of trying to figure out what my summer pant is going to be next summer. But I have some time, luckily. Right now, the only sort of short bottoms that I have in my closet are black capris and then long knee-length dress pant shorts.

00:39:35 Speaker_00
So imagine, like, a dress pant if you were to cut it off at the knee. I actually love those shorts. They are fucking amazing. And I'm obsessed with them. But I don't know. I might wear those during the summer, but I don't know.

00:39:47 Speaker_00
I don't know what my summer pant is going to be next summer. I'll figure it out. But anyway, that's pretty much all I have. And the thing about bottoms, the reason why I'm recommending not very many pairs is because you can re-wear pants a lot.

00:40:02 Speaker_00
for weeks and weeks and weeks until they're dirty. I mean, just keep wearing them. I think the hardest part about finding bottoms is finding the right fit for you that also goes with majority of your shoes, if not all of your shoes.

00:40:21 Speaker_00
Let's say one of your staple shoes is a black heeled boot.

00:40:26 Speaker_00
you need to make sure that your pants all look good with a black heeled boot, like they all have the proper length to look proper with a black heeled boot, but also all of your pants are the proper length to also look good with a loafer, if that's your other staple shoe.

00:40:43 Speaker_00
Do you see what I mean? And that's sort of complicated. That means

00:40:48 Speaker_00
going shopping in your heeled boots so that you can make sure it looks good with the heeled boots and then taking the heeled boots off and testing it flat footed to see how it would look with your loafer. You know what I mean?

00:40:59 Speaker_00
That means thinking ahead and that's kind of annoying, but I don't know, it's so worth it. I don't have any heels in my capsule wardrobe to be honest. I used to wear heeled boots all the time. It didn't make it into the capsule wardrobe.

00:41:13 Speaker_00
I'm not really wearing them. I actually still own a pair because it's not bad to have, but they're collecting dust, honestly. I'm like considering getting rid of them because, anyway, but you get the idea.

00:41:24 Speaker_00
Same thing with like, you know, skirts though or dresses, making sure the length is compatible with all of your different types of shoes and figuring out what shoes you can wear with your comfy bottoms.

00:41:37 Speaker_00
Are the comfy bottoms elevated enough that you could wear them with a loafer? That's kind of ideal, you know, like, because then you can wear the, or like, can you wear a cute little flat shoe with your comfy bottoms? I don't know. It's a journey.

00:41:50 Speaker_00
Again, it's a journey. It's a puzzle. It's ultimately a puzzle. Last little tip about bottoms, I'd recommend leaning towards the darker colors in your color palette.

00:42:00 Speaker_00
Light colors of pants tend to get dirty really easily and it's nice to be able to wear your pants over and over and over again.

00:42:05 Speaker_00
I don't know, like you're sitting on stuff in your pants, your pants are kind of exposed, whereas like if you're wearing a white tank top or something or a white t-shirt,

00:42:14 Speaker_00
Not only do you have to wash that more frequently anyway, but also you're often covering it with a sweatshirt or covering it with a little cardigan or whatever. I don't know. It's just different. So, okay, now let's discuss outerwear. Okay?

00:42:25 Speaker_00
The next step is to figure out the outerwear. I would say you're going to want approximately two to four sweaters in various silhouettes, various colors, in various thicknesses. Okay?

00:42:38 Speaker_00
Sweaters are so great for layering, and I think it's nice to have a few different options. Like for me, I have a black button-up. I have a gray three-button little collared sweater. I have a cream turtleneck.

00:42:57 Speaker_00
Yeah, I have like a few other ones, and they all sort of serve different purposes. And I think when it comes to sweaters, they're going to find you. Sweaters are not cheap.

00:43:07 Speaker_00
It's best to take your time and wait and find one that you know you're going to be able to wear in many different ways, because otherwise I just think a sweater is not worth it. Also make sure it's not too tight.

00:43:20 Speaker_00
There's nothing worse than a tight sweater so that it can also fit over other clothes. Because a lot of times we buy our sweaters too small and we can't wear them over a t-shirt. And that's not cool. Like you want to have some space in the sweater. Okay.

00:43:34 Speaker_00
So make sure it fits properly. Make sure it's not itchy. Don't order sweaters online. I've made that mistake enough. I'm done. Go in person and make sure that sweater is not itchy because there's nothing worse than an itchy sweater.

00:43:45 Speaker_00
Take your time with the sweater. You're going to want I don't know, maybe two sweatshirts. If you're somebody who loves sweatshirts though, you know, you could do more. It depends on who you are.

00:43:56 Speaker_00
I think it's nice to have probably half crew neck, half hoodies. I honestly personally prefer blank Hoodies and sweatshirts, I used to love ones with designs on them and stuff, but I've noticed that I can sort of elevate the vibe of blank sweatshirts.

00:44:17 Speaker_00
So that's pretty much what I have now. And I find that I get more use out of them because I can really wear them with anything and everything. A few light jackets, approximately two to four. I think jackets are an area to have fun.

00:44:30 Speaker_00
It is nice to have like one solid jacket that you can throw over pretty much anything that's in your base color. So again, that would be black for me. But I think it is fun to have like a cool pop of color jacket.

00:44:45 Speaker_00
So choose one of the bright colors in your palette. And then I think it's nice to have one heavy jacket for cold weather and one heavy vest. Like really find the perfect fucking winter jacket and winter vest and dedicate to it. I can't tell you.

00:45:03 Speaker_00
I mean, it's even worse because I live in California. Like I really never needed to have more than one puffer jacket or more than one like super cozy, warm vest.

00:45:13 Speaker_00
But it's so nice to just have one simple, matches with everything, heavy jacket and heavy vest. Honestly, I'd recommend choosing one that's in your base color, probably. My heavy jacket is a black puffer jacket, okay?

00:45:30 Speaker_00
I have this amazing black puffer jacket. I've had it for years. I always go back to it. I always wear it. And then I just recently got my vest. It's just a black vest, and it goes with everything. And that's it.

00:45:43 Speaker_00
And then the next step, which is not really a step, cause this is something that is sort of like an ongoing journey.

00:45:51 Speaker_00
As you find them in the world, it's fun to slowly collect a few extra fun accessories and shoes in more exciting colors from your color palette as you find them. Okay. As you find them, like for example,

00:46:09 Speaker_00
One of the colors in my color palette is cream, okay? I took a risk and bought these little cream flats because I was like, they're speaking to me, they're in my color palette, let me give them a go.

00:46:22 Speaker_00
And I'm so glad I did because I wear them all the time. I recently explained earlier how I found an olive green bag. Olive green's in my color palette. This bag has such a cool silhouette. I love it.

00:46:35 Speaker_00
It's very comfortable on the shoulder, so I picked it up. I'm slowly but surely adding accessories that match the color palette, match the vibe, that I can use instead of my black base options that I wear a majority of the time.

00:46:53 Speaker_00
And that's fun and that's exciting, but those things are harder to find in a way. Like both of those things, those cream ballet flats that I wear all the time and the little olive green bag, like those things found me.

00:47:04 Speaker_00
I did not search for those, you know? And so I'm letting those things come into my life. And as I find them, I add them into the rotation, but you can't rush that stuff. And then last but not least, you need special event outfits, okay?

00:47:19 Speaker_00
Honestly, I think you need one outfit to wear to a wedding and one outfit to wear to another sort of fancy event. I have not found my go-to wedding dress yet.

00:47:28 Speaker_00
I haven't been invited to a wedding in quite a while, but next time I'm invited to a wedding, I'm going to dedicate myself to finding the perfect dress to wear to a wedding, and then I'm going to proceed to wear that to every single wedding for at least the next three years, if not five.

00:47:43 Speaker_00
I am not playing around. I'm going to find the perfect dress and wear it to every single fucking wedding. It will become like, that is Emma's wedding dress. Okay. But I won't wear it to my own wedding. Actually, maybe I will. That would be kind of funny.

00:47:55 Speaker_00
And then one outfit to wear to a fancy event. Okay. You can decide what that is. Like, is that a dress? Is that a really nice suit? You know, figure that out for you. And that's your capsule wardrobe. Was this helpful? I don't know.

00:48:09 Speaker_00
It might have just been completely useless, but I really hope it was helpful. If you're somebody who's trying to build your capsule wardrobe or, you know, you don't know where to start. And is a lot of it intuitive? Yes, it is.

00:48:23 Speaker_00
Are you going to make some mistakes along the way? Absolutely. But it's so worth it. And I mean, I'm still sort of figuring out my capsule wardrobe, right? Like I know what my capsule wardrobe is.

00:48:35 Speaker_00
I have figured it out, but I still have some stuff I need to get rid of that's kind of like in my closet that I'm not wearing at all.

00:48:42 Speaker_00
And it's not a part of my capsule wardrobe, but it's sitting there because I'm like, Oh, I don't know if I want to get rid of it yet, but I know I have to. It's a process, you know what I mean?

00:48:51 Speaker_00
It takes time to go through and be like, okay, wait, this thing I'm not wearing, this thing I'm wearing. It's a whole journey. It's also emotional at times. There's things in my closet that have not made the cut.

00:49:01 Speaker_00
I'm like, I'm not ever going to wear this again. I am going to get rid of this. But there's something sad about removing it from my closet, and I'm kind of putting it off. So, you know, take your time. You'll get there. It's not gonna happen overnight.

00:49:16 Speaker_00
It shouldn't happen overnight. It's like an ongoing project. And I think that's really fun about it. Anyway. This is actually inspiring me to go into my closet and take out the stuff that I'm not wearing. And maybe I'll do that tonight.

00:49:36 Speaker_00
Anyway, I hope this was helpful. If it wasn't, don't worry. New episodes of Anything Goes every Thursday and Sunday. Maybe next episode will be a little bit more useful, but probably not, so don't get your hopes up.

00:49:48 Speaker_00
Thank you all for listening and hanging out. It's always my pleasure. I love you all. I appreciate you all, and I'll talk to you soon. I'll talk to you later. Okay, bye. This episode is brought to you by American Eagle.

00:50:00 Speaker_00
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