Are you swimming in clothes? Or just want to get better at figuring out what to wear? This was me a handful of years back. I asked for help from a trusted friend. And booted sooo much out. Like teacher clothes I no longer needed as a stay at home mom. From there, I wanted to simplify and get better at figuring out my clothing situation. It was quite the process, but worth it now that I’m mostly out the other side. I know what I like now! Today on the blog, I’m sharing with you five steps to build your simple summer wardrobe. Plus you’ll get a peek at my summer wardrobe this year too. I’m so excited to share!

A picture of clothes on hangers.

So, what is a capsule wardrobe?

“Capsule wardrobe is a term coined by Susie Faux, the owner of a London boutique called “Wardrobe” in the 1970s. According to Faux, a capsule wardrobe is a collection of a few essential items of clothing that don’t go out of fashion, such as skirts, trousers, and coats, which can then be augmented with seasonal pieces.” (thanks, wiki)

A neat clothing challenge to kind of get you in the mindset of having a capsule wardrobe is the Project 333 challenge! “Project 333™ is the minimalist fashion challenge that invites you to dress with 33 items or less for 3 months.” You can check out that challenge here.

Having a smaller wardrobe, focusing on quality pieces that are classic and not fast fashion pieces will save money from replacing lower quality pieces over the years. I took time thinking about what I’d like to keep in my wardrobe and what I’d like to add over time. Instead of just buying impulse discount purchases of low quality clothes over and over to replace what didn’t make it through the last year or so. Read more about choosing sustainable higher quality clothing in a capsule wardrobe here.

Five Steps to Build Your Simple Summer Wardrobe

  1. Take inventory of what you have. Save money and time by using what you have first! Also, using what you have will also help you to figure what you actually do like wearing and what you may need in the future for your summer wardrobe.
  2. Pick your colour palette. It’s much harder to create a simple summer wardrobe if you’re not sure what colours you’re going be using. Limit yourself to a certain amount of colours and go from there. I’m around 4 colours and a neutral currently, for reference.

  3. Pick your basics for your summer wadrobe. Pick what kinds of basics you’d like in your wardrobe. Are you a tank wearer? V neck or scoop neck? Skirts? Shorts? What will your basics be? If you’re feeling overwhelmed, focus on less categories at first and tweak along the way.

    From my blog “Fifteen Basics to Consider When Building a Simple Wardobe”:

    “The best way I’ve found to go about finding out what basics work best for me it is to ask myself some questions:

    • What’s my lifestyle like - i.e. what is practical wardrobe wise for my life right now?
    • What kinds of clothing do I like wearing?
    • Can I remove some “basics” categories and simplify (such as one or two kinds of bottoms vs seven)? For me, in one basic category for instance, that became leggings only for long pants for me eventually.”
  4. Make note of gaps. With your current summer wardrobe, are there obvious gaps? Such as you’re down to one pair of ripped shorts? Make note!
  5. Tweak as you go and enjoy the process.

THE SIMPLE CAPSULE WARDROBE GUIDE

PS These above steps are inspired by my Simple Capsule Wardrobe Guide, which walks you through simple steps to create your own capsule wardrobe that are clear and easy to follow.

Some recent feedback on my Simple Capsule Wadrobe Guide:

“Ahhh Kelly! That was brilliant! I’m going to do some sorting this weekend, more purging, and most importantly writing down what I have vs what I need. Thank you!!!” Want to know more about how I fine tuned my whole wardrobe and follow along the simple steps? You may like my Simple Capsule Wardrobe Guide ebook (new and updated). You can find that guide here.

My Simple Summer Wardrobe

This took a long process to get to this place, but I know what I like now for summer clothing! I’ve got everything that I need and most pieces are mix and match. I love that as it simplifies things a lot for me.

A pictureof my simple summer wardrobe.

Tops:

  • Tees: Two super soft, buttery feel, and lightweight scoop neck tees
  • Tanks: Three sport tank tops
  • Dress: black tank, navy tank
  • Under: Knix brand built in bra tank. I wear this all year under things usually

Bottoms:

  • Skirts: patterned skirt that I fixed with a new waist elastic (Walmart), grey flowy pocket skirt I bought for my birthday. I LOVE it!
  • Dress skirt: turqoise wool pencil skirt
  • Shorts: cutoff shorts from my old jeggings that wore out in the knees

You can find some of my simple summer wadrobe pieces in my Amazon shops under “capsule wardrobe”. Click: Amazon Canada and Amazon US.

SAVE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE:

A blog overview picture with hangers as the background picture.

Other blogs of mine you may enjoy:

Hi, I’m Kelly! I’m a mother of four children - three boys, one toddler girl - and our family lives on the beautiful east coast of Canada. I’m a past elementary teacher, turned stay at home, work at home mom eight years ago after I had my second child. I’ve found that the busier I’ve become and as my children age, that it’s become even more important to figure out what is most important to me and us as a family. Living a simpler lifestyle has helped us in so many ways in our home life - from better routines to faster tidying up times. It has been through my children that I have been inspired to learn how to effectively manage my time and to simplify in all areas of my home and life. I enjoy helping busy moms simplify home life by teaching flexible planning methods and skills. Enjoyed this blog and think it would be helpful to others? I'd love if you shared it. Thank you!