The accidental capsule wardrobe

Heyday Judy dress - my old faithful! - and
chazza cardi

Capsule wardrobes, in my mind, go with minimalism: something that sounds like a great idea, but that I know in my heart of hearts I’d get bored of even if I ever managed it. (Do you ever look at the advice given to women in the 1940s/50s about how many of each item of clothing they needed and think about how small the number of items seems?) Somehow, though, I took very little on holiday for the week back in September, and it was fine. I feel like I’ve learned an important lesson in holiday packing somewhere along the line.

I did buy a lot before my holiday. This is more brand-new clothing than I’ve bought at once in years. My reasoning was simple: I’m fed up of looking like a sack o’ crap, and half the reason I look so awful is that very little of what I own fits well. It was time to bite the bullet, accept the gym hadn’t made enough difference in time, and buy stuff that fitted. As well as what’s listed below, I bought new, properly-fitting bras, which make a massive difference.

Anyway, let’s look at the externals – I’ve marked off the brand-new things.

Tile print skirt – new, Boden, in sale
Poppy print skirt – new, Boden, in sale
Navy/white striped linen trousers – new, Monsoon, in sale
Navy suit

Poppy print top – new, Boden, in sale
White blouse Pink T-shirt – new, M and S
Baby blue T-shirt – new, M and S
Dark blue linen top – new to me, charity shop
Red cardigan – new to me, charity shop
Heyday Judy dress

Black loafers
Black brogues
Black crossbody bag

Maybe the brogues weren't the best-looking
choice, but we did some serious walking
that day and they were comfy.

And that’s it. I travelled in my suit with the poppy top, as it was uncrushable polyester so wouldn’t look horribly shabby after a plane trip, and the jacket would’ve taken up too much room in our one shared suitcase anyway. The T-shirts were a compromise; I’d wanted navy and red strappy tops with built-in bras from Bravissimo, but they’d shifted to their winter range by the time I went in and I’d have had to mail-order the colours I wanted. I’m not a T-shirt wearer, but these aren’t awful, just not really my colour or shape. (They’ll be going to India next year nonetheless.) They both went with both skirts, or with the trousers, and the red cardigan went with pretty much everything, and could also have served as a top on its own if I’d needed it to. (It goes with lots of my winter stuff too, and might just represent my best £6 spend of the year.) I’d rather have had navy shoes and bag, but as I hadn’t found navy loafers and brogues before going away, I decided it was better to keep the accessories black.

Tile-print skirt, chazza top and cardi. (At the Origami Museum.)

As you can see, it’s not vintage, nor mostly even pretending to be, but I did enjoy the break from my usual wardrobe. We returned to autumn, and I am revelling in my tweeds and vintage brooches again, and, wierdly, hankering after more gothy stuff, though Halloween could be to blame for that. I ordered a dress covered in witch doctors from Lindy Bop today. Not going to be slimming down to a capsule wardrobe full-time any time soon...