I do not think this comes as a big surprise, but it is the conclusion I've drawn for myself after doing the two rounds of capsule wardrobes during winter & early spring last year and documenting them for this ol' fashion blog. You can find the outlining articles and outfit posts here. Like many other things in life, personal style is an evolution and some things are tools that help us along the way. Alas ...

A Capsule Free Spring & Summer ... or why I won't repeat the Capsule Wardrobe Experiment.

Short answer: It is just not for me.

Okay, so as promised, here is the new limited "Funky Shopping List", starting officially Round 2 of the modified Five Piece French Wardrobe. Since it is already April, I'll run it until April 2018. Buying only 12 major pieces between clothing, shoes and accessories is the goal.

As with last time I did this, replacements of basic articles like simple t-shirts, longsleeve or tank tops, underwear, socks, that simple black pair of leggings are fine. However just like last year I will try to avoid buying socks since I didn't really make a dent in my stash. Could, sure by tossing some out, but I don't see the point in being wasteful either. Swapping clothes doesn't count towards the limit as it's not a purchase of a brand new item.

Honestly, with continued practice, not buying seems to become easier, so I have hopes of being able to do better this time around. I've been to Germany over Easter and I can proudly say I didn't buy a single piece of clothing or accessories. So the money I saved can go towards one really fancy thing from my wish list. And thus, without further ado, here it is:

So, if you follow me on Instagram, you cannot help but have noticed that my style has changed quite a bit in the last year. And I'm obviously not talking only the hair color here. For which, by the way I'm still unsure what to do. Keep them blond or go back to red? Right now I don't even know if I want them short anymore. They are a mess.

When you start reading about capsule and minimal wardrobes, sooner or later you will come across the so called "French 5 Pieces Wardrobe". And it's not what you might initially think. It just means that, starting from your base wardrobe, you are only allowed to add 5 new and/or trendy pieces "per fashion season". Which amounts to 10 per year if you don't count "Resort" and "Pre-Fall" as fashion seasons.



At first, that sounds truly drastic, doesn't it? 10 new pieces per year only? Yikes, there have been months where I went over that mark. But then you read on and see that it actually excludes a lot of items. For example, replacements. Or essential basics that are part of the core of your wardrobe. Which you get to define what they are.

Two more outfits from my winter capsule. There's one more, then I'm onto the March/April one. the full list of items that went into it can be found here. If you are following me on Instagram, you might already have caught a glimpse of the current selection at work.

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Zwei weitere Outfits von meiner Winter Capsule. Ich habe noch Bilder von einem weiteren, danach geht es dann los mit der Maerz/April Capsule. Die Liste der Kleidungsstuecke findet Ihr hier. Und wenn Ihr mir auf Instagram folgt, dann konntet Ihr vielleicht schon den ersten Einblick der aktuellen Capsule in Aktion erhaschen.

On March, 1st I started round two of the Capsule Wardrobe Experiment. This time, the duration will be 60 days. I'll officially be done by the 30th of April. Honestly, I'm a bit ambivalent about the time frame. The weather could be anything from mildly crappy to unusually hot, so I may have to update the capsule list on the fly.

As I said in the last post, I'll not be limiting the number of sweaters I can use, because I want to find out which ones I'm organically wanting to wear. Longsleeve tops will be counting from this capsule onwards, since they are no longer hiding below sweaters only. T-shirts will move to the layer category (I basically didn't wear them at all during winter months) if needed, tank tops will continue to stay in the layer category.

After 45 days of living with a limited choice wardrobe, I can say that it was one of the better things I've done for my personal style. And sanity. Both of mind and bank account. I will definitely keep going for another couple of rounds. With a some modifications, which will reflect what I learned for myself during this first experimental phase.

This is a shameless remix & repeat from an outfit I've worn last year. And why not? It works. I feel good wearing it and in my opinion it looks good wearing it. Unfortunately, the necklaces broke. Too soon.

As far as the capsule goes, this might come as a surprise. The biggest inspiration for me here isn't some celebrity or blogger, but my son and his wardrobe. It's small, fits in a couple of drawers. My son loves the color blue, so the majority of garments are some shade of blue. He loves stripes, so there's a lot of stripes. 

Remember in December? Where I was talking about how much lace intrigued me as a big player for the New Years Eve outfit? Well, I did go with lace. Knowing myself and my dressing habits fairly intimately by now however, I opted for a button down shirt/blouse with a lace front for my look. A dress would have been ace, mind, but honestly I would have hardly ever worn it afterwards and the shirt/blazer combo is far more me, don't you agree?

I am very fuzzy about my bags. For one, except for the couple of clutches I have, they must come with a shoulder strap. Of cross body length. Not one of those larger handles where you just so manage to squeeze your arm through and wedge the bag between arm and body. The reasons are fairly simple. First, I'm paranoid. Second, I have a kid. Third it makes shopping way easier if you don't have to pay overly much attention to your bag because it isn't attempting to slide off as soon as you move your arms to grab something.

After about half of time I've set myself for "The Capsule Wardrobe Experiment" passed, I wanted to share a brief "so far" reflection. I must say that I really like it even more than I thought I would. I don't feel deprived or unable to express my creativity at all, especially since I didn't set any limit on accessories & shoes. Which doesn't mean I went out to stock up on those. Quite the contrary. Thanks to doing the capsule project, my shopping during our holidays has been almost inexistant.

Hello! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays, whatever form they take for you. We've had "big family" meals here in the last two days, so excuse the silence.

As far as the capsule wardrobe experiment goes, things are going great so far, just a few days in. However, I'm travelling so the wardrobe is even more restricted. On the upside, having had the whole capsule planned out already in advance, packing was a breeze. I don't think I've ever been done so fast. On the down side, my new coloured leggings didn't arrive yet. And it is way warmer than anticipated.

Here's what I wore for the travel and then to go watch Star Wars VII with the hubby. We went to see it in original version, that is in English, at the cinema in Landstuhl.

The idea of a capsule, or maybe I should say small wardrobe, has been a slight obsession of mine, as you know. I mean, I keep harping on about it every so often. Maybe because I associate a small wardrobe and not too many belongings in general with the idea of being free to just pack and go wherever or whenever the wind of life moves you. Maybe it is because I associate less items also with more mental freedom.

And I've been feeling restless for a couple of years now. It only never really struck me quite as so urgent as this summer. I guess I might be moving towards a small mid-life crisis. Or maybe I just become more myself.