CAPSULE WARDROBE
The hundreds of clothes jammed into her small closet, were, as she puts it, “overwhelming”. Dozens of graphic T-shirts and trendy blouses that seemed like a good idea at the time now collected dust and wrinkles.
“Thinking about what I was going to wear was exhausting,” says Suzette Schermer, of Edina, Minnesota.
Tired of staring into a defunct mess of clothes and coming up with nothing to wear, the 44-year-old PR consultant and hospice caregiver did something drastic.
She traded in her shopping habit and joined the capsule wardrobe movement.
The anti-shop-till-you-drop trend is exploding on social media as more women choose a minimal, environmentally sensitive lifestyle. Some are reducing their clothes by up to 90 percent, keeping just a handful of simple, versatile items they love. Bloggers who once flaunted endless wardrobes of fast fashion are now touting the latest style trend du jour. Clothing designers promise that their latest simplified collections will remove the unnecessary stress of dressing for your day.
“Women are saying, ‘I have all of these things, but it takes a great effort to manage all of it,’” says Marilyn DeLong, professor of apparel studies at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. “Putting an outfit together with so many options requires some creative thought and if that doesn’t appeal to you, you’re stuck with nothing to wear.”
A capsule wardrobe uses a mix of tops, bottoms, dresses and shoes to create outfits for all occasions. The number of items in a capsule wardrobe varies, yet many women subscribe to the “333” rule, a fashion challenge made popular by social media. The idea is to pare down a wardrobe to 33 items to be worn over the course of three months. Workout clothes, accessories, handbags, swimsuits and undergarments are typically not included in the 33-piece limit.
After college, Kitty Cotten got into fashion blogging. Soon after, she could barely get into her closet.
“I was buying a lot of stuff,” says the 31-year-old expectant Minneapolis mother. “I wanted something cute, new, now. But the quality and aesthetic of fast fashion goes out of style so quickly.”
Despite the rise of fast fashion, research shows that women typically wear the same few combinations of clothes on rotation anyway. The capsule wardrobe concept encourages women to spend more money on a few items they love.
Cotten admits that constant exposure to the latest fashions on social media makes it difficult to stick to a capsule wardrobe.
“I find myself getting that consumption itch of wanting to buy things,” she says. “We are programmed to want to consume the newest best thing, and saying no to that is like a muscle — you have to keep strengthening it.”
Can getting rid of clothes you don’t wear often really trim a lot of unnecessary stress from your day? While it sounds too good to be true, style experts and mental health professionals say the hype is real.
Decision fatigue is a real modern-day issue afflicting overworked, stressed-out Americans, psychologists say.