The Wardrobe Architect Week 9: The Capsule Wardrobe

Thursday, March 27, 2014
So far we have examined color palettes, clothing silhouettes and hair and beauty. This week, the folks at the Coletterie's Wardrobe Architect are trying to put it all together into a functional wardrobe by building a capsule wardrobe.

A capsule wardrobe is made up of a manageable subset of your entire wardrobe, typically consisting of 20 to 33 pieces (depending on what articles you're counting as clothing). You can organize a capsule wardrobe bi-yearly, seasonally, or monthly. The idea is that once you've figured out how to mix and match a select number of clothing items on a regular basis, it will be easier to mix and match other pieces that you incorporate into your wardrobe.

The blog into-mind.com does a great job explaining and breaking down how to construct a capsule wardrobe. Basically, a capsule wardrobe is composed of basics, mid-range and statement pieces. To create a capsule wardrobe, we first examine our preferred silhouettes, create a color story and then select pieces a few pieces from your wardrobe that fit in with your silhouette and color story. If you find certain elements to be difficult to find, you'll know that you need to buy/make more of that item.

Here were my Spring/ Summer Silhouettes from my previous post:

Typical summer wardrobe 2013
Outfit 1, 2, and 3

And here's a new one:
Outfit 4 (image link)
Outfit 1: Flowy top with skinny pants

Outfit 2 and 3: Fitted knit top with printed/ high waisted shorts

Outfit 4: Bold cropped pant and neutral top

Outfit 5: Boot cut jeans and button down shirt (my uniform)

These silhouette's aren't set in stone just yet, they're just ideas I'm just toying around with. I'll get to breaking down this wardrobe a little more after I create a seasonal color story in future posts.
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Tracking My Wardrobe

Wednesday, March 26, 2014
I've been in hardcore spring cleaning mode and this week I decided to tackle my closet. Inspired by Coletterie's Wardrobe Architect series, I decided to take an inventory of my current wardrobe using Coletterie's wardrobe inventory template in order to see what all of my hard-earned spending money has been going towards, see what items need pairing down, and what items I need to add.

My total came to 293.2 items (Including bras, panties, purses, scarves and outerwear).

Accessories, shoes and outerwear = 77
Shoes = 22
Handbags =  6
Winter Hats = 7
Belts = 8
Scarves (winter and all season) = 20
Coats = 2
Jackets = 10
Gloves = 2

Intimates = 89.9
Panties = 18
Bras = 8
Sports Bras = 7
Socks = 27
Tights = 12
Pajamas = 4.5
Work out tops = 8
Work out bottoms = 3
Swimsuits = 2

Dresses = 13

Bottoms = 33
Jeans = 6
Black pants = 1
other pants (including wool pants, white pants, and cords) = 9
shorts = 5
skirts = 12

Tops = 63
Blouses = 13
Knit tops = 50

Here's what this exercise taught me:

  • I have WAY too many socks and knit tops. I don't need to purchase/make more of these items until I pair down what I have.
  • I have nearly as many sports bras as I do regular bras but I don't nearly wear sports bras as often.
  • I am lacking in woven tanks and blouses to wear to work or on nights on the town.
  • Although I have more 'going out' dresses than I need, I don't have very many casual dresses that are casual enough to wear to work.
  • I don't have very many pairs of shorts.
I will definitely be considering what I learned from this exercise as I start re-building my ideal wardrobe. 
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What's Making Me Laugh: Kevin Bacon's Footloose Entrance on Jimmy Fallon

Sunday, March 23, 2014



In the States, Kevin Bacon has most recently been known for his dramatic role in the FOX tv show, The Following, but we here in the UK know Kevin Bacon has a funny side as seen in his EE cell phone network ads (see above). But this week Kevin brought his funny side to the States as he revived his Footloose role for Jimmy Fallon in order to end Jimmy Fallon's ban on dancing.

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The Wardrobe Architect Week 8: Hair, Make-up, and Beauty

Thursday, March 20, 2014
I've been growing my hair out.

For most of my life I've stuck with short/medium length bobs as I typically get annoyed with the bulk and maintenance of my hair once it gets past my shoulders and I don't like to spend much time on myself. But, since moving to England it seems that most young Brits prefer to grow their hair out long and enjoy it's youthful versatility before chopping it off in middle age, so, with the help of my Aveda hair stylist, I've decided to give it a go and see how long I can grow it before it makes me mad. 
As for my hair-color, I've always been a brunette (aside from the occasional Halloween wig) and I can't imagine my hair color being any other color. It's dark and dramatic and that color suits me just fine. I've been cursed with pre-mature grey hairs so I've colored my roots for years. My favorite shade of brown at the moment is L'Oreal Excellence Creme 5AR Medium Maple Brown.
Beauty Signatures
I like to think that I have an easy/ carefree day-to-day beauty style and a more classic evening beauty style. I don't wear make-up day-to-day; just for special occasions or when I am feeling self-conscious. If I were to list my beauty signatures they'd be: SPF 15 moisturiser, pinky-red tinted lip gloss, natural skin and hair and medium length dark hair. However, for a fancy night out my signature would be dark red lip tint, natural foundation, pink cheek, black eye-liner and mascara with neutral colored shadow (usually brown). 








I prefer natural and organic products to non-organic products, but I also prefer cheap and easily accessible products too (because I'm poor and lazy). Here are a few products I use everyday:




Oil of Olay Complete; Maybeline Baby Lips in Cherry; Night of Olay cream; Lush Tea Tree Water
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What's Making Me Laugh: Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Rogan in True Detective 2

Sunday, March 16, 2014
If you haven't started watching the HBO tv series True Detective do it NOW! My husband and I just discovered the series last Monday and we binge watched the whole series this week. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are excellent and the story is great- borrowing from pulp detective novels, horror, with visuals borrowing from comic book writers Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and film-maker David Lynch. 


There's a lot of speculation about what season 2 will be about and who will be in it. So check out Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Rogan's hilarious take on True Detective 2.




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What I'm Listening To: Bastille- "Pompeii"

Saturday, March 15, 2014
Eh-eh-o-eh-o, eh-eh-o-eh-o


Last weekend my husband and I were taking a 4 hour drive to Newcastle upon Tyne, which turned into an incredibly frustrating 8 hour drive thanks to heavy traffic. But one of the things that kept us calm was singing along to Bastille's song "Pompeii". That hook is waaaaayyy catchy.

Fun fact: Bastille took home a 2014 Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough Act.
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The Wardrobe Architect Week 7: Let's Talk About Prints

Thursday, March 13, 2014
For the past few weeks, I've been examining what colors work best for me in my wardrobe. This week the Coletterie Wardrobe Architect series is examining prints

Now I don't know about you, but I LOVE prints! When I'm shopping I tend to gravitate towards printed fabrics over plain fabrics because I feel like they're more fun! I'd say that currently about 1/3 of my wardrobe has a print. Here are the types you'll find in my closet:

Stripes, Plaids and Checks

I tend to wear stripes, plaids and checks most often and almost view them like a neutral colored fabric that I can pair with everything. 



Dots

My second most worn fabrics are polka-dots. I just love polka-dotted fabric and find something very cheerful about this print. I own several polka-dotted clothing items in black and white and am still on the hunt for a grey and white dotted sweater.

Camo and Animal Print

I feel like camo and animal prints can be fun in moderation. I tend to go through love/hate phases with these two prints. Sometimes I can't get enough of these prints, and other times I just can't stand them. Currently I'm in love with them.



Novelty Print

Two of my favorite and most worn work shirts are novelty print (one is cat print and the other is tea cup printed). I love the fun an unique patterns and they always make me smile. 


Geometric

While I currently don't have any geometric fabrics in my wardrobe, I do love the look of geometric fabrics and would love to add some geometric prints to my wardrobe in the future. 


Here are a few things that I noticed after examining my prints:
  • I tend to enjoy smaller scale prints vs. larger scale prints.
  • I don't have any floral print fabrics in my closet (I find them to be too froufrou for my tastes).
  • Most of my printed clothing items are in black/white.
In other news, I just ordered the Coco pattern from Tilly and the Buttons and can't wait to sew a high neck collar version of the shirt. I just need to pick out my fabric.
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What's Making Me Laugh: The Three Network's #SingItKitty

Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Three cell phone network has done it again, making a fantastically cute and funny advertising follow-up to their dancing pony commercial. Someone needs to give those advertisers a high-five. 


And just in case you have no idea about the dancing pony advertisement, check out the video above.
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What I'm Listening To: The Strypes- "Hometown Girls"

Saturday, March 8, 2014

This week I'm listening to Irish band, The Strypes (not to be confused with the White Stripes) whose sound is more comparable to The Hives than the aforementioned band. Check out their song "Hometown Girls" and rock out!
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The Wardrobe Architect Week 6: Organizing My Palette

Thursday, March 6, 2014
Last week was all about creating a unique wardrobe color palette.



This week on Coletterie's Wardrobe Architect series we're organizing this palette into a wearable color palette to determine what colors I need more of. To do this I divided last week's color palette into four categories: neutrals, near neutrals, statement colors and metallics.

Neutrals
These are my basic colors that can be worn with anything. I'd also add denim blue to this mix.

Near Neutrals
These are colors that can be worn as a neutral as they can easily be combined with other colors but they have a little more visual impact.

Statement Colors
These colors don't necessarily go with everything and have a lot of visual impact. 
Metallics
Metallics are largely found in jewellery and accessories, but I also own a copper sweater that I love.
silver

copper
gold
As a lover of prints, I feel like I have a large amount of statement colors that I like as compared to the neutrals and nearly neutrals. However, I feel like my closet is mostly composed of neutrals and statement pieces with not very many nearly neutrals. Perhaps that's where my closet disconnect is.
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