How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe When Starting from Scratch

Introduction

There may be quite a few reasons you could be feeling “meh” about your clothing options and needing a playbook on building a capsule wardrobe from scratch. Life happens, and things change! 

Maybe you might have increased or dropped a few dress sizes or moved to a place where the weather is entirely different. It could be that you’ve accepted a new job offer or joined a new organization and are looking for clothes that feel a bit more “adult” to match this new stage of your life. Perhaps your style has changed, and you want a fresh start. 

Wanting the outer representation of yourself to match how you feel on the inside is a perfectly valid reason to upgrade your wardrobe or build it from scratch. This process does not have to be overwhelming. It should feel exciting! So let’s get into the skinny on how we can get started.

Get Organized

In my previous post, how to build the perfect capsule wardrobe for work, we introduced the concept of a 10-piece wardrobe. Though it isn’t a mandate to only have ten core pieces that make up your wardrobe, the idea of organization is still crucial! 

When shopping for a wardrobe upgrade, it’s essential to plan and take things slowly so that the process doesn’t feel haphazard.

So how do you start rebuilding your wardrobe from scratch? The first step is to take inventory of what you already have in your closet that can be useful to you. From there, you want to make a plan of action for what you need next!

It can be effortless to get carried away with the organization process; it’s best to think in categories to simplify this process. 

Once you decide on the critical categories (consider pants, dresses, undergarments, outerwear, accessories, fragrance, etc.) You’ll want to write down the pieces that you’ll need to fill each category. 

Pro tip: it’s best to start with a small number for each, ideally two-three, so that you aren’t overwhelmed. 

I’ve created a checklist of all the essential categories for building a capsule wardrobe that can help you on your shopping journey to make this even easier! You can find it at the bottom of this post.

Create a system to keep track

Brainstorming and note-taking are all good. However, the most crucial piece of the self-improvement journey is taking action no matter what area of life we focus on! 

When it comes to rebuilding our wardrobes, Taking action involves making intelligent, budget-friendly purchases for new clothing. It is even better to create a system that allows us to keep track of these purchases to level up our efforts. 

Some great options for “inventory management” of your wardrobe include creating an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your clothing wishlist and purchases.

You can organize your Excel Shopping Spreadsheet into categories such as: 

1. Item
2. Website
3. Price
4. Occasion
5. Season
6. Purchase status: yes or no

You can also accomplish a similar level of organization this information by using applications like Notion, which will allow you also to input images! The choice is yours – choose the route that works best for you and your style. 

Execution: In what order should I purchase clothing?

You might be wondering which items from your list you should purchase first. Making this decision is entirely up to your discretion! I would suggest taking a step back, creating a priority list, and going in order of importance. 

If you have a few items in your wardrobe to start, you should figure out what areas your wardrobe lacks. For example, if you have two pairs of suitable pants but no shirts to wear to events, you should begin your shopping journey with tops.

Suppose you start from scratch and have nothing to wear; purchase items to create a complete outfit. For example, you might want to buy one top, one pair of pants, and one dress. 

Pro Tip: Be open to being “brand agnostic.” 

When rebuilding your wardrobe, being open-minded is key. Allow yourself to experiment with brands that you haven’t tried before! However, I will say that if you haven’t heard of a brand before or the prices seem a bit too good to be true, do a quick search before handing over your card information. Shipping times may be extended, and quality could be questionable! 

A great tool to help with expanding your brand awareness is Google Shopping. 

If you know that you are looking for a black silk button-down, you can enter these keywords into Google and see what comes up! From there, you can filter by price, style, brand, size, and many other options. 

Google Shopping is also beneficial if you are pulling inspiration from places like Pinterest or Instagram. 

Ultimately, you’ll want to go with the option that has the best quality for your budget. 

Things to keep in mind when rebuilding your wardrobe 

Make sure that your purchases match your lifestyle. 

Are you in fitness classes five days a week? Maybe you might want to divert your attention to Lululemon or Nike to purchase a quality sports bra and pair of sneakers before shopping for 5-inch heels. Suppose you’re more of a homebody than a dinner and drinks kind of gal. In that case, you’ll want to purchase quality loungewear before you build up your collection of LBDs. 

You want to strike up a balance of dressing for your current life vs. the life you want. It’s great to visualize the person you want to become and use clothing to show up as her, but you also need to be realistic. Buying many items that don’t serve your current lifestyle habits will only mean wasting money and not getting the cost per wear you should.

Dress for your budget

Keeping up with the Jones’s is so last season! Not fetch at all. You do not need to spend an arm and a leg when it comes to rebuilding your wardrobe from scratch. There are plenty of stores that provide exceptional quality for a better price. 

Brands like Italic, Quince, and Everlane come to mind. You can even shop at more “outlet-like” stores such as Nordstrom Rack and Saks-off-fifth to get the look that you desire from designers you love at a fraction of the cost.

We want to invest without overwhelming ourselves. As you progress in all areas of your life, not just fashion, you’ll be able to shop accordingly. For now, try your best to live within or even below your means.

Dress for your current body size

I’ve heard many stories of women purchasing jeans that are a size too small because it will “motivate them to work out.” 

Let’s be honest. The only thing this strategy will do is motivate you to be unhappy! Weight loss and Weight gain are not linear processes. You can calculate your eating and workouts down to a science, but you cannot always control how your body reacts. Purchase clothing that fits your body at the present moment and makes you feel confident and beautiful. If you know that you are on a weight loss or weight gain journey, control the number of purchases you make to accommodate these anticipated physical changes.

Make Quality over Quantity your Shopping Mantra

I love a discount as much as the next gal, but one saying that I live by is, “you get what you pay for.” Think about craftsmanship before you make a purchase. Are these items mass-produced? Are they ethically produced? A lot of these factors can play a role in the quality of what you receive. Remember, the price of an item can tell a story. Sometimes it means that you are paying an extremely high markup for a label and brand heritage. It can also tell you that you are paying for something mass-produced in an unethical manner. Think before you buy!

Resist the temptation to impulse buy

Unsubscribe from those emails and resist those sales. As I’ll repeat time and time, the process of building your wardrobe from the ground up should be taken slow and steady. Getting caught up in the sales emails that brands send daily can be easy if you don’t have much self-control. 

Can I let you in on a secret about sales? Sometimes brands strategically mark up items so that they can sell an item at a target price. They may want to sell an item for $35 and mark it up to $42 and market it as 20% off. As a result, you think you are saving money during the sale. Still, you are secretly falling victim to a mind game—introductory human psychology. 

However, you can outsmart these brands by having the willpower to fight the good fight. Declutter your inbox by unsubscribing from this flood of emails and resist the urge to purchase items when you don’t need them.

If you’d like to wait on a specific item to go on sale, that is a different story! There are plugins like Karma that can monitor price decreases on your behalf.

Practice Self-Control with Pinterest

I love a Pinterest board as much as the next girl. However, any platform that feeds you content in a “feed” (which is most platforms) can expose you to too many ideas at one time. You become victim to the paradox of choice. You see too many stylish women in too many stylish outfits, which will put you in a state of analysis paralysis. 

Analysis Paralysis is the condition of feeling overwhelmed by the number of options presented to you and can no longer make a decision. It’s great to use sites like Pinterest as a source of inspiration for the direction of your style. However, please don’t feel you HAVE to do things exactly as they are presented to you. 

Give yourself freedom and flexibility. Choose what feels good for you when you shop. All that you need to do is think about how well items fit into your overall wardrobe and the direction you’d like to take it in.

 Overcomparison is a massive thief of joy! Creating this unattainable benchmark for yourself will put you in a lack mindset. You think you don’t have enough or need to buy more simply because you do not look like the women on your screen. You deserve better than that!

Conclusion

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this post, but my closing message to you is to take your time!

Remember that building your wardrobe from scratch is a marathon, not a sprint! You may feel a rush to have the perfect Pinterest-worthy wardrobe, and trust me, we’ve all been there. But succumbing to these feelings will lead you to rush what is meant to be a beautiful process, a form of self-discovery even. 

Not only will you overspend, but you will also put yourself at risk of purchasing items that don’t even resonate with your true style. Remember our mantra: Quality over Quantity when it comes to shopping. We are building a timeless and chic collection! Not a trendy moment of stylishness. The goal here is to transform into a stylish woman, not the girl who served a cute look one-day last year.

Slow and steady will always win the race!