Now that we've gone through what minimalist fashion is, why choose it, and how to go through your clothing, we're next going to show you how to build a capsule wardrobe from the ground up. It’s not nearly as overwhelming as it may seem. And if you’ve gone through our other blog, you have likely already taken on the hardest part of this process. For those who don’t know, a capsule wardrobe is a collection of clothing that is simple and easy to navigate. Everyone should have one. It makes outfit choices so much easier. Rather than focus on quantity, you're going to focus on quality and its ability to mix and match. You can check out this blog on tips for how to find quality clothing. We also created a spring capsule wardrobe over on this blog, and now we're going to build one for the summer with items available on Verte Mode. It’s a simple process, and we hope you’ll come along for the ride.

Again, we're going to lay out the basic pieces you'll need to get started: shorts, skirts, t-shirts, blouses, dresses.

These pieces are the foundation that will give you a basic idea of what goes into a summer capsule wardrobe. These are things anyone can find, even secondhand, so you shouldn’t be too overwhelmed. Once you know what you need, it helps you to figure out how many you need for each item. A basic capsule wardrobe for the season should be around 10-15 items, which will place you at around 40-60 garments in total for all four seasons. There's a whole range of opinions on how many garments go in a capsule wardrobe, so we're going to try our best to land on a number. 40-60 seems like a reasonable number, but by no means do you have to stick with it. Depending on what you decide, that will determine how many of each garment you'll own. I'm not going to give you a hard and fast amount for that, as it's really up to you to figure that out based on what works for you.

Minimalism and capsule wardrobes go hand in hand, as both are about paring down your wardrobe into something more manageable. The principle is choosing only what is necessary to build outfits that are timeless, quality, and perfect for re-wearing time and time again. You want to pick out items that you really, truly love because you're going to get a lot of use out of them.

With that established, let's get started!

Shorts and Skirts

These two items are what I would consider to be the base items. They are what you build everything around. You're going to want to go with neutral colors, like white or black or brown because then they can go with just about anything. Black, especially for skirts, but you can choose any solid color, really, as long as it matches more than one item. That's the key.

Shirts and Blouses

This is where we get to have a lot more fun. You can choose pretty much anything, as we've already established that our base garments are neutral and therefore are much easier to mix and match with.

Dresses

Last but not least, we have dresses. These are more standalone pieces, though they can be used as base pieces as well, such as putting a cropped or cinched t-shirt over them.

To wrap it all up, we’ll be looking at a sample capsule wardrobe that we’ve built from scratch. To note, we chose a mix of neutrals and patterns to make the most use out of this collection. Neutrals are much easier to dress up with jewelry and turn into something new with each wear. We’ll demonstrate that as we go. Now, let’s talk about the pieces and why they were chosen.

Demi Short in Coconut Milk

White shorts are great because they can go with anything and everything you could possibly think of.

 

Auckland Shorts-Taupe

Similarly, these taupe shorts are functional in their ability to go with anything.

 

There are two pairs of shorts, which should get you through the week if you also wear other garments. We chose white and taupe, which are plain enough to let whatever t-shirt or blouse you wear be the star of the show. That’s the important thing: you don’t want your base garments to take too much attention. Leave that to the tops, jewelry, and other accessories (even the makeup can be the star, too!).

Iris Camisole in Black

This black camisole works amazingly for showing off jewelry with its neutral color.

Chloe Shirt in Black

A timeless blouse begging to be worn again and again.

Reina Lavender Pintuck Blouse (Pre-Order)

Ruffled and pastel, this is a blouse that takes the cake.

Kaia Shirt

Florals are a great pattern and this shirt brings summer with it.

Lily Tank

This is another lovely piece you can use to mix and match jewelry with.

 

Here we have a mix of neutrals, pastel, and pattern. This should be a nice mix to get you started, and you can build from there. The great thing about garments like the black camisole and blouse is that you can really mix and match jewelry pieces to make your outfit shine. This is especially great if you have more of a jewelry collection to use.

Clover Mini Dress

A nice, flowing dress that works for any season.

Coral Seville Maxi Dress

This maxi dress screams summer and has the blank slate kind of look to dress up and down however you please.

Magnolia Mini Dress

This white dress can again bring a lot of potential with it, given its neutral color.

 

Lastly, we have dresses. You can choose more standalone pieces for this, though it is highly recommended that you own at least one black dress to wear with cropped or cinched t-shirts. It’s a style that is both in and easy to replicate without turning to fast fashion, so you should go for it.