Winter 2015 Capsule Wardrobe

“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; 

candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea...

whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.” 

 -Thomas de Quincey

I've been so excited to get started on winter capsule outfit creation. Next to fall, winter is probably my favorite season. It gets a bad rap -- especially from Seattleites, who love to hate the cloudy curtain of gloom that envelopes the city around this time. As tired of rain as I'll inevitably be in March, for now I'm enjoying the solemn energy -- for peace, relaxation, and self-reflection.

... Not that any of those words describe my lifestyle right now. Since Pride & Prejudice closed, my schedule has certainly shifted gears, but I still feel busy as ever. The mental alarm bells that used to clang "Carpool!", "Showtime!", and "That's your cue!" have merely been reoriented to signal other duties of my life.

The inconvenient truth of this season is that most of my wardrobe needs are back in the "office" category. For the sake of budgeting, I pulled mainly from storage and my preexisting fall capsule. This (unfortunately) meant keeping a pencil skirt in the mix, along with a few collared blouses and my two blazers. With any luck, these items will all be worn out within a year or so, and I can invest in some better-quality blazers (not polyester-lined, for the love of Jehoshaphat!) and skirts that don't necessitate heels.

Day job obligations aside, there are many reasons I'm jazzed for outfitting from this stock:

      1) This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. January marks the start of my fabulous sun sign, baby, and that can only mean one thing: electric blues -- in the weird spirit of the Uranian water-bearer. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay. Just appreciate that little leftward pocket of cerulean dresses & tops up yonder.

     2) Sweater Weather! Every excuse I have to wear a sweater this season, I'm gonna take it. I felt a little ridiculous when I realized I'd included four gray sweaters in one wardrobe, but I'm certain that sense of ridiculousness will be swiftly trumped by my enjoying knitted coziness for FOUR DAYS STRAIGHT without the slightest reservation toward hygiene. Hello Netflix, tea, and salted popcorn. We have a date. All winter long.

    3) The ankle boot strikes back. Once, what now seems like a very long time ago, I had a pair of dearly beloved combat-style gray ankle boots.* They were gifted to me by my mom (bless her timeless fashion sense), and arrived in the mail during a particularly burdensome evening in London. I walked everywhere in them during my travels, and continued to do so when I returned to the states. After two years of use and abuse, I was finally forced to take them to a cobbler, who first reprimanded me for not investing in higher-quality shoes, then fixed them for $35. As he predicted, they fell apart again by the end of the season. For a full year, they've been sitting in a corner of our apartment, collecting dust like some kind of monument to past adventure. Well, my friends, the time has come for more adventure.

(Side note: I've never had brown boots before and am also kind of excited to scale this new frontier.)

For you graph nerds, here's a visual of where these capsule items came from:

I'm pretty proud of myself for continuing to build off what I already own. With each season's passing, my storage container becomes more and more compact. I even managed to clear an entire dresser drawer this month by nixing a grocery bag's worth of unneeded pajamas and workout gear (which I don't include in my capsule count, for the record.) It was exciting to see my old favorites come out of storage -- some of them feel brand new again! As for shopping: having just one or two things to focus on and setting a clear budget made decisions easy & regret-free. Whee!

How about you, pumpkins? Have you tried the capsule process yet? What have been your findings? What are you still struggling with? What items are you looking forward to incorporating this winter? Please tell me in the comments!



*Exhibit A, B, and C.