Capsules, considered

Writing in The Guardian, Jess Carter-Morley says, "A fabulous capsule wardrobe is the sustainable way – which is to say the modern way – to raise your fashion game", citing exemplars like Sade and Audrey Hepburn.

Why, she wonders, do so many women agree, but not do it? Pick me to answer! We are programmed more toward cornucopia than capsule; dazzled with choice, our Inner Magpie darts to the new. Driven by emotion more often than need, we receive hefty cultural reinforcement for yielding to that urge—there are still plenty of trophy-shopping blogs around.

Lately, the capsule-focussed designer offers pre-selected sets for travel (e.g., one month in a carry-on), or for the spare wardrobe consistent with a minimalist aesthetic. Such makers include Helene Clarkson, the Canadian-made encircled, Vetta  (who offer ten capsules, such as Elegant, Edgy, Minimalist). Others, like A Day, offer capsules as part of their collection.

Their designs tend toward the unstructured, often made from poly-cotton interlock or synthetics for seasonless wear and easy layering; some are reversible. You will not find bold patterns, which are too identifiable as "that same top she wore yesterday". 

Some makers emphasize multi-purpose garments:

Left: Vetta's tiered wrap dress unsnaps from midi to mini length. 
Right: Helene Clarkson's Zia dress is reversible, from a print to a solid, and you can turn it one way for a scoop neck, the other way for a crew. (I am not sure why you'd want to do this, but okay.)


Luxury minimalism

Carter-Morley mentions wardrobe. nyc, who deliver a box containing a blazer (shown in ecru; the black blazer is similar), shirt, t-shirt and pair of leggings for $US 1, 950, the sartorial equivalent of going to Canyon Ranch to figure out how to eat a sandwich. (There is also an 8-item option.)

They introduce themselves rather grandly ("wardrobe.nyc is a conceptual composite of luxury essentials, distilled into their purest and most desirable form...") and deliver strict, natural-fibre, Italian-made pieces that are the walking definition of sprezzatura.

One could copy their approach without spending so much, or by adding a piece at a time. To their credit, sizing is up to 2XL.

Photo: wardrobe.nyc

What, I wondered, is the benefit of an ecru wool blazer that must be drycleaned frequently? I'd consider A Day's washable Strategy blazer, $US 235. (A Day's size range is limited and off. Large—for them—is a US 10! I call that Medium.)

Photo: thisisaday.com

Uniform or capsule?

An important distinction: is one is interested in being a uniform dresser or a capsule dresser?  You can be the former without being the latter, says the woman who once owned fourteen pairs of black trousers. Once you choose the capsule, even if it's generous, you must delimit your territory.

I don't believe any capsule works for all seasons either, unless you live in a terrarium. Two—fall/winter and spring/summer—is the minimum for most zones.

Photo: The Vivienne Files: "Starting from Scratch" article

There there is no finer resource for creating a capsule of pieces you choose than Janice Riggs' blog, "The Vivienne Files". Her stealth agenda is to offer an alternative to scattershot buying, but she understands the emotional role of our clothes and loves colour—so she's not hard-line. To create capsules, see  "Starting from Scratch", her illustrated series of articles. What a generous, talented stylist!

I predict the designer capsule-makers' market will shake out; the apparel business is overcrowded in this shaky economy. I like that their navy blue will match across seasons (and years), but buying everything in one place results in looking like a flight attendant, calmly coordinated but rather tight.

Whether self-built or pre-packaged, capsule collections are a valid slow-fashion strategy unless we are the sartorial version of my neighbour Emilie, who has at least three dozen different nutritional supplements on her pantry shelves, and has taken 90% of them only a few times. 

She literally has too many capsules, but each seemed "the one" when she bought it!