Capsule Wardrobe - Success stories?

[PumpkinSpicedTea]

This year I had it in my head that after a year of decluttering my wardrobe, selling on Vinted, donations and recycling, I was going to just get down to basics but nice quality things.

For example I like The House of Foxy swing trousers which can be dressed up or down, for work etc. I can't budget full price so got a couple of different colours on Vinted (rust and bottle green, when I was holding out for navy). I now have a nice pair from another vintage repro brand. So I've now got three different colours of high waisted wide 40s style trousers. Then I've got a pair of plain black normal wide leg I wear to work.

I then decided I liked Tapered trousers for work so have two Black pairs, but on Vinted I found a teal pair, navy and bottle green 🤦🏻‍♀️ can you see theme here?

Similarly I have a local Vintage shop near me Who sells brand new repro brands as well as the brands in pre loved. I visited today and ended up buying two pairs of Seamstress of Bloomsbury light wide leg trousers purely because I can never afford these brands full price!

I keep trying to convince myself I will get more wear out of them.

But now for trousers alone I have at least 9 pairs of trousers and that's including jeans!

I have one pair of each style of Jean I like so:

1 black skinny, 1 light blue straight, 1 darker Bootcut.

This is just bottom half! I could go on with other garments but I won't.

Has anyone successfully managed to have a capsule wardrobe and what kind of items do you have?

I end up rarely going out and when I do I get stressed as can't decide what to wear.

If you've read this far then thank you 😂

I've also got two pairs of chinos and two pairs of linen trousers... I need help.

I once had to do a 5/6 week trip with only carry on luggage which had to include smart and casual options and different climates. So I did curate a great capsule wardrobe and in fairness it worked really well in terms of always having something appropriate to wear, a reasonable variety of outfits etc. But it was boring. So in your example of bottoms I had two trousers, a pair of jeans and a skirt and that was fine but I'd be getting ready and think of all the other options I could do with more choice, like wondering how much better the outfit would be with blue trousers instead of grey or if I'd prefer a different cut of jeans with it. What I was wearing was fine, but I just really missed variety.

Sorry doesn't answer your question directly but I did conclude capsule wardrobes probably works best for people who genuinely don't care about variety in what they wear. And given your choices of colours and knowledge of brands I'm wondering if that's really you? You sound way to interested to be content with minimised options.