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Planning a six week capsule wardrobe?

StyleDetective

Hi YLFers

I used to post around here but stopped when life got a bit hectic last year. I've been lurking and following the blog though!

My work (government) is sending me to do a six week placement with a community organisation in a regional town starting in mid-Feb. I'm a city girl and my whole career has been in big organisations, so I'm very excited to try something new and live in a new community. Me being me I'm planning by thinking about what I will wear.

I will need to pack for a three day camping trip which is part of the placement and will involve swimming, work clothes, and casual gear. It's summer in Australia and will be hot where I am - max daytime temperatures are likely around 86-104 degrees, maybe cooling down in the last few weeks. I'm flying to the placement and my baggage allowance is 50 pounds.

Dress code for work I have been given is 'corporate' but this leans toward 'business casual' rather than 'big firm lawyer'. I prefer skirts and dresses to pants (or as I think of them, leg prisons :P) and the only pants I'm planning to take are for hiking, chilling around the house, etc.

I'm a little overwhelmed trying to think of how much I need, what to take and how to pack smart and take things I get the most use from. Do you ladies have any advice? I wondered also if there were wardrobe curating apps I could use to have a visual representation of what I'll be taking and which pieces will work together. Thanks!

Edit: Also, shortly after I finish this placement, I will also be moving to the US for nine months. I'll be asking for help about that too, but taking it one thing at a time for now

Dressing

21 replies

Latest reply was from StyleDetective

Bijou

Veteran

StyleDetective, it is so lovely to see you post. I love the advice Angie gave on putting together a workable capsule in these posts and have referred to them myself many times (there are more in Archived Blogs)
https://youlookfab.com/2013/08.....-for-fall/

https://youlookfab.com/2016/02.....ring-2016/
You will need different pieces to Angie's capsule, but the advice on how to create maximum variety from a small number of key pieces is just fantastic and should keep you going for the 3 month period. If you are working in air-con you may find actual variations in temperature outside don't impact the capsule. The good thing is that clothing for warmer temps tend to be smaller and lighter, so you will have more room in your case to take more than just one smallish capsule.

2020 sounds like a super exciting year for you. The 9 month secondment to the US is fantastic! Hopefully you get a bigger luggage allowance with that move.

StyleDetective

Bijou thank you for this kind response! Thank you so much for linking to Angie's post, I did do a quick search before I posted but assumed I needed something more specific. Now that I read Angie's post, I see the advice is just as applicable to my situation. It actually makes me feel slightly better, because I have a good handle on what colours I will be wearing and my style. This list makes me realise I have way more bottoms than tops which is a bit weird and explains some wardrobe bottlenecks I've been experiencing.

Yes it is a big year!! It is exciting, but it's hard to feel it while we rush around packing up our apartment, sort visas, sell our rustbucket car, etc. I'm looking forward to the logistics being over so I can focus on the good stuff thinking about clothes is fun though. I'm buying a lot of Australian labels atm, want to show a bit of Aussie style in the US

Liesbeth

Veteran

How exciting!
A tip to determine how many pieces to take in each category (from Into Mind blog) in the form of an example.
If you want to go two weeks without laundry and in those two weeks you'll need 10 work outfits, determine the type of outfits and number of repeats. You wear only dresses and won't repeat wear without washing (just as an example) that's ten dresses. You layer a cardi or jacket over the dresses and can repeat 3 times before laundry: that's 3-4 toppers you need. And so on...
If you favor a small number of silhouettes and are pretty confident about climate and formality factors, you can create a pretty tight mix and match capsule this way.

StyleDetective

Ooh that's super useful Liesbeth. I love the idea of having a formula which I can use to tell me if I've got enough (or too much). Thank you, I knew I'd get some great advice if I posted here.

It actually makes me realise I don't need as much as I think - I'll have a washing machine at my place so theoretically could get away with five work outfits. Maybe I'll aim for 7 work outfits and 4 casual ones so I don't get too bored.

Funny, I often feel guilty that I favour a fit/flare silhoutte so strongly, but it's actually going to make life much easier in terms of mix and match pieces. Yay

SarahD8

Veteran

What an exciting year you have coming up! Congratulations!

You've gotten great advice already. For the visual representation aspect, I recommend the blog The Vivienne Files. She does a lot of packing and wardrobe planning posts and has several different "systems" -- whatever's clean 13, crazy 8, etc. You might find that one of those options resonates most for your situation and then you could use her templates to help you plan. (For example, for a 6 week posting, maybe you need two "whatever's clean 13" sets for business clothes, one based on navy and one based on khaki, and one casual "crazy 8." Those are just made up examples but hopefully that makes sense.)

Helena

Veteran

Hi there, sounds like a fun opportunity!

I think you've got great advice above - since you mention dresses, that makes life easy, since these are "one and done" outfits and since it will be hot, you likely won't need toppers (or many, at least). I think your numbers are basically driven by how many times am I willing to repeat an outfit, and how often do I figure I can get the laundry done = how many things do I need.

Another thing to consider is to limit your colours so that they mix & match easily, so you can make different combinations - again if repeating outfits isn't your thing.

StyleDetective

Oh wow Sarah D8, thank you for the link to the Vivienne Files. I've taken a quick look and while I'm still getting my head around the concepts, I very much like her methodical approach and how clearly everything is mapped out. I like her pie chart of colour palettes... if I could I'd walk around looking like a human rainbow, so it's interesting to think about colour in a more intentional way. I'm very instinctive in the way I buy and wear clothes, and yet I love it when people come up with structures to make it easier.

I've been thinking generally about shopping smarter and why I buy so much stuff but feel like I only have a few ways to put it together, and this is very relevant to that as well. Thanks

notsaf

Veteran

Congratulations and good luck with the run-up to your adventure! I can totally relate: I do lots of travelling for work and started posting on the forum this summer while preparing for a temporary overseas move myself.

You've already gotten great advice, but one I'd like to add is to pack more underwear/socks/camis than you think you need: I always like to have more of these on hand, they are super small, and they keep things fresh even when you need to do laundry.

I also like to travel with a couple of different scarves: they're great to change things up, good for airplanes and airconditioning, and again don't need to take up a lot of space.

Finally, throw in one or two "wild card" pieces that you don't need, but that you're excited about wearing. These, too, will keep things fresh and fun when you're just plain sick and tired of the great basics you packed.

Have fun and keep us posted!

StyleDetective

Torontogirl, those are good points to think about too. I think I'm a low repetition type of person... if I wear the same skirt/top or dress two weeks in a row, I usually will throw on a different cardi or accessories over the top to give it a slightly different feel. So mix and match colours will be very helpful. I definitely want to wear black, white, red, and royal blue - bold and high contrast I know but that's my personality. Silver for metallic accents and jewellery. I think I need one or two more colours to stay sane though so will have to give it further thought

Anonymous

Smiling at "leg prisons" Finds could be a good tool for you for planning your capsule- check out notsafs for inspo!

karen13

Veteran

So exciting! I just did a 30 day travel vacation through Central Europe and Athens with carryon only. Repetion was high! Hot weather will make yours easier in some ways as you won’t need bulky outer wear. A key for me was merino wool tops by brands like Icebreaker, smartwool, and others, for their anti-odor superpower. But I was traveling without access to laundry facilities, so you may not need that as much. You are wise to start working on this now!

rachylou

Veteran

How exciting!! Great advice so far! Cannot add much, except to say I used to travel a lot - do extended stays abroad - and always found myself buying things there. After awhile, I started packing a lot lighter and stopped trying to bring everything from home to cover my whole stay.

StyleDetective

Racheylou, that's very true about buying stuff while you travel. For my first trip, I'll be a fair way from decent shops, but for my US trip I should be more realistic about buying stuff while I'm there. I think I'm trying to bring Australia with me though my clothes, which is ok to an extent, but realistically I'm going to want to buy lots of things while I'm there as well!

Lynn

Veteran

Hi Style Detective
It sounds like a very exciting year for you. I have done a lot of extended travel with a carry on. One thing I have found to be very helpful is to limit myself to 1 style uniform rather than having a variety of different silhouettes.

Personally I prefer pants so mine is slim pant or jean + tunic length top + 3/4 length (low thigh) length topper + flat shoes. This way I only need 1 pant length and I can limit the shoes since they are bulky. If I were to take a dress or skirt it would have to work the topper silhouette or totally stand alone without a layering piece. Plus it would need to work with flat shoes.

For every bottom I make sure I have @ least 3 "tops" that I can wear with it. I consider a "top" to be either a stand alone top or a top + topper combination.

I keep my bottoms (pants) and most of my toppers neutral and add interest in my tops.

Since you prefer skirts and dresses perhaps stick to the fit and flare silhouette for both. Then pick the style(s) of topper that you prefer with that silhouette. Short cardigans could be versatile as you could wear them buttoned as a stand alone top (if the office climate allows) or open as a third layer.

Hope this helps in some way.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

My goodness this so exciting! I mean I would be hiding underneath my desk, but it sounds great . Not one to have capsule wardrobe or packing advice except to think most of all about shoes and sun protection (hats).

Suz

(website)

Veteran

So exciting!! It sounds as if you've had excellent advice already. If you can do laundry you are in much better shape, but also consider drying -some fabrics take longer than others, of course. Sun protection will be key, as will footwear, as Shevia said. The common advice is to take only one or two pair of shoes. I strongly disagree. Bear in mind, I'm a huge walker. But the way I save my feet (and my temper) when travelling is with comfortable footwear choices. I would say, try to be as generous with footwear as you are able.

notsaf

Veteran

Seconding what Suz just said! Along with everything else I mentioned above, I always take more shoes than absolutely needed and never regret it.

The Cat

Veteran

I support what Suz and notsaf said about footwear. It's definitely worth having more than two pairs to choose from, in particular on such a long trip. Your feet will thank you.

The Cat

Veteran

I just read this article on how to build an effective capsule wardrobe and thought some of these tips and ideas might be helpful to you:
https://40plusstyle.com/capsule-wardrobe/

StyleDetective

Thank you again for your kind words and good advice all! Sorry for the delayed reply. Shevia and Suz who recommended hats and sun protection, absolutely. I have a family history of skin cancer and live under a giant hole in the ozone layer, so I feel strongly about being sun smart.

For the footwear, I honestly can't see how I could get away with two pairs of shoes. It'll have to be: one pair of hiking boots, one pair of beach/casual sandals, one pair of work pumps, one pair of work/casual flats, and then my new Rollies for casual wear. And I could take more if I wasn't strict with myself! So I guess I am on Team All of the Shoes. Suz I am a walker too, and I couldn't abide not being able to get around in comfort.

The Cat, thank you for linking me to the 40 plus style article. I really like that she has a different approach to colour than, say, the Vivienne Files and that she thinks it's ok for not everything to go with everything.

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StyleDetective

Also Lynn, that is great advice and very consistent with what I am starting to think about. I am thinking of a 'uniform' which is flared skirt (just below knee), top/blouse, then cardi over the top for warmth. One suit jacket for formal meetings. I should be able to do a lot of mix and matching that way