Spring Essentials - YouLookFab Forum

Hi Fabbers

A month ago I posted my Spring Capsule. It included approx 50 items. It was for cold Spring and Warm Spring. Well summer has arrived early here and now I have to take out my Summer items. I managed to wear most of the items but after looking at my Wear records it seems only 14 pieces were really worn repeatedly. Btw, I did add a few more items as time went on. Mostly bottoms, which quite a few of you, including Angie, commented that I may not have enough. So this is my 14 piece Essential Items List for Spring for 2022. The takeaway - I really can live with less! I do know this and am working towards a smaller wardrobe in the future.

SPRING ESSENTIALS 2022
14 Items

Black Turtleneck
Black Mockneck
Black Cardigan
Green Cardigan

Green L/S Sweatshirt

Dusty Mauve L/S Sweatshirt

Plaid L/S Button-Down
Denim Chambray S/S Button-Down

White Snake-print Skinnies
Pink Skinnies
Various Jeans X 3 (BFs, Bootcut)
Denim Skirt

I will use this list as a reference for purchase going forward. This is what I wear in real life.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks for reading.

2 years ago

Bijou

Veteran

Star I'm so impressed that you can live with such a small capsule - it looks very cohesive. Do you have a variety of shoes, bags, scarves and jewellery or is that kept streamlined as well? The thing that looks missing to me is a coat or jacket, but I guess that depends upon the temperatures and whether you need anything warmer than a sweatshirt or cardigan.

rachylou

Well this is interesting. Were these essentials the base of all/most of your outfits, and you ‘garnished’ with the other items - or did these essentials make up the whole of your outfits?

Joy

For even cold spring, I wear lots of white and need several pieces to allow for laundry or dry cleaning time.

I am impressed with your capsule but it may need lightening up. If white is not good, a light neutral like light grey or beige or blush. An you roll full length jeans up to go from cold days to warm ones or even be comfortable during the same day?

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Lots of black tops! And lots of essentials - I think?

So much about having a great and authentic personal style that is fab-for-you is about knowing yourself. You have that sorted, Star

WELL DONE!

Glad to see you added some bottoms! What did you add?

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

When I saw "14 items", I thought that wasn't enough. When you list it out, I realized it's actually quite a nice selection of garments. Funny how that works!

My thought for warmer temperatures are some short sleeves or sleeveless, and some lower necklines. Maybe a thinner cardigan or denim jacket for those indoor A/C moments.

Star

To explain a bit more in-depth, Rachylou and Bijou I did wear most of the 50 items as least once, although not the long sleeve T-Shirts. I certainly did not wear only these 14 items, However they got the most wear; the bottoms mostly around 4 to 8 times each. So I was not in black knits and sweaters everyday (other colors were worn too), however the first two weeks had a lot of grey and very cool days and then black tops seemed to work. I did wear a jacket everyday but did not record it. Joy and Angie, the next two or so weeks warmed up and brightened up substantially and then I wore my pink skinnies quite a bit. I also pulled in a cream floral maxi skirt and wore it with a short sleeve T and a denim cut-off jacket a couple of times. I wore a 3/4 sleeve denim dress a couple of times too. Also a white cool leopard tube skirt was added and worn a couple of times. These two skirts lightened things up. I wore the bootcuts jeans on the colder days. I always cuff my BF jeans in Spring. The white snake-print skinnies were quite versatile, working for the cold 2 weeks AND the warmer period, and because they are white they lightened everything up, even if worn with a black knit. Interestingly I do not wear much black in deep winter but these knits are lightweight cotton and work well in cloudy, cold Spring with a Jacket. I really think I could live in these 14 items in Spring plus a short sleeve T or two.

MaryBeth, exactly so, 14 is quite a lot actually. My Black cardi was a workhorse for chilly in-doors, I had a green one too. Definitely 2 short-sleeve T's would have to be added. I did wear a Magenta one and a white one a few times but I seemed to wear my button-downs more. This is probably due to my middle being wider than I prefer at the moment and the b/downs are more forgiving.

JAileen

I have many more things so I don’t have laundry bottlenecks. I do laundry only once a week. In very hot weather I wouldn’t rewear bottoms if I get sweaty, so I need more things. If your small wardrobe works for you, more power to you!

Jaileen I mostly only wear skirts, longer shorts and lightweight dresses when it is really hot! Skirts can get away with a few more wears but yes other items only get worn once and then go for laundering when it is really hot, which is from now to end August. I have to build my summer capsule now.

Sal

I think it’s great to know that these are the core and if the cardigan wears out, you would want to replace it. Whereas with other pieces, you can enjoy them occasionally but maybe not replace.

Sounds like it was a worthwhile experiment.

Thanks for the validation Sal. I do enjoy my experiments

Bijoux I did have a variety of statement-y shoes jazzing up the outfits. These included regular flat black leather chelsea-type boots, brown suede ankle boots, my blush pink Puma sneakers with gummy sole, light blue backless flat mules, rose-silver very pointy backless flat mules (I think JenniNZ may like these -quite elf-ish), and cream caged sandals for the cream maxi. So these kept even the simplest outfits more interesting.

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