A New Twist on the Capsule Wardrobe

I didn’t realise until I looked back at the photos of this outfit that, other than the shoes and bag, I’m wearing head-to-toe H&M here. 

I’m pretty sure I’m probably breaking some kind of fashion “rule” with that admission, but… meh. It’ll just be one of those terrible secrets I’ll have to carry with me for the rest of my life, I suppose. I’ll live.

I actually wear quite a lot of H&M – mostly, I have to admit, because their website has an “invoice in parcel” option, which means that rather than paying for your order upfront, and then having to request a refund for anything you end up returning, you only pay for whatever you decide to keep. It’s not like racking up debt, because you do have to pay the amount in full every month, but I find it really handy, because it allows me to order things in two different sizes, say, safe in the knowledge that I’ll only have to pay for the one I decide to keep. (This is particularly handy with H&M, because they’re one of the few stores I can think of where I never know what size I’m going to be, so I probably wouldn’t order online from them at all if I had to pay upfront for everything!)

I also wear a lot of H&M because they do a lot of good basics, and as you all know, basics are my jam right now. This particular outfit follows the blazer/jeans/stripes uniform I’ve been beating to death this spring, and two of the items come from my spring capsule wardrobe – well, sort of. I DID have a stripe t-shirt in the capsule… but it wasn’t this stripe t-shirt. And while I DID have a blazer in the capsule, it was a white one, not a navy one. And this, I’ve found, is the main reason a TRUE capsule wardrobe just doesn’t work for me: I basically need multiples of each item.

For instance, there’s a grey sweater in my capsule, but I actually have a few grey sweaters, and although they’re all the same colour, they’re different shapes, and different fabrics, so some of them look better with jeans, and others with skirts – and so on and so forth. Similarly, although the blazer in my capsule is white, I also have this blue one, and a black one, all of which I’ve worn over the last few weeks. So, rather than “grey sweater” I’d need “grey sweaterS”, and rather than “white blazer”, I’d just need “blazer”. I think that’s probably how I’ll approach the next capsule I do – so, rather than it being a collection of specific items, it becomes a set of outfit formulas, really, with “blazer” standing for ANY blazer, “jeans” for ANY jeans, etc etc.

Well, any excuse to buy more trench coats, right?