A Summer Work Wardrobe Capsule

Check out this Wearable Wardrobe Capsule! Wardrobe Capsules are a fantastic way to simplify your morning routine. They consist of a collection of clothes that all work together, allowing you to mix and match to create many outfits with just a few pieces.

For this particular capsule, the goal was to create a week's worth of summer work outfits. It consists of 2 toppers, 5 tops, and 3 bottoms, resulting in a whopping 45 different outfits without changing any accessories or shoes. For even more variety, I could mix in other items from my wardrobe.

While capsule may not follow all of the traditional advice for creating capsule wardrobes, it still works well because the silhouettes are similar - skinny bottoms, top, jacket - and allows for easy mixing and matching. Plus, it evolved a bit organically, so it's a great approach for those who don't like following strict rules.

The Capsule

For this capsule, I wanted to create a few suit alternatives inspired by my favorite summer weight jackets in mustard and teal. I added a mustard skirt and teal pants but realized this was going to be a complex capsule since I didn't have mustard pants or a teal skirt. To ensure every sleeve length worked with every topper, I limited the sleeve length of my tops.

Since I look best in an inside column of color, I included 2 mustard-ish and 2 teal-ish tops with different necklines for variety. For the final top, I went with an interesting multi-colored leaf print top that had both teal and mustard in it but also had green and burgundy. I opted for green pants over burgundy for my final bottoms since mustard, teal and burgundy items in the one outfit felt like primary colours overload!

To these 10 items of clothing I added several accessories - 5 pairs of shoes, 4 necklaces, 3 pairs of earrings and 1 scarf.

The 45 Outfits

Checking out all 45 of my outfits side by side was a blast! I accessories each one and found much variety from so few items, even with two mustard-ish tops and two teal-ish tops.

But here's the kicker: the variety isn't just in the accessories. Nope, it's in the core wardrobe items. Can you spot how often I wore the same shoes with the same bottoms :) Hey, when you're doing 45 outfit changes in one sitting, you gotta keep it easy! But if I wasn't in such a rush, I'd definitely switch it up my shoes and accessories more.

All the outfits with mustard-ish tops.

Even though the paisley and sunset wave print tops were both mustard-ish, the different prints, necklines and sleeve lengths kept things interesting. Do you have a favourite look from all these outfits?

All the outfits with teal tops.

These outfits are proof you don’t need multiple prints or colours to create variety in your wardrobe capsule! Sleeved vs sleeveless, silky smooth vs totally textured, button-up vs boatneck are enough to create different vibes in these outfits based around the teal tops.

All the outfits with the leaf print top.

These outfits with the leaf print top are all super fun - although maybe more casual Friday than formal meeting.

Normally, I try to ensure that I repeat each colours in my outfits, but with this top, I can just pick any colour from the top and add it to one item without feeling like I have to match it with anything else. For example, the mustard shoes look great with the green pants, even without repeating them a third time in the outfit.

Bonus Outfits

Oh, and I have a bonus for you! I was wrong earlier when I said there were only 45 outfit possibilities with these 10 items. One of the teal tops is a sleeveless button-up shirt that can be worn open and layered over some of the other tops. It doesn't work with the mustard scoop neck top or the teal boatneck top, but it still opens up 18 more outfit possibilities. So, in total, you can create 63 outfits with just these 10 items of clothing!

Three of the outfits that can be created using the teal top as a topper or layer.

A Wardrobe Capsule as Part of a Wardrobe

Now a wardrobe capsule is not an entire wardrobe, and the pieces in the wardrobe capsule can be worn with this in your wardrobe that aren’t in the capsule.

Here are some outfits using the key pieces in the capsule and on other item in my wardrobe - a brown top.

I didn’t include it in my wardrobe capsule because it has long sleeves and the blue jacket has 3/4 length sleeves. However, after trying it out, I didn’t mind it with the blue jacket when I pushed up the sleeves of the top. As this goes with everything else in my capsule, f I added this top I would have an extra 3 (2 toppers + no top) x 3 (number of bottoms) or 9 outfits. A total of 72 outfits from 11 items. However, even if it didn’t I would still have a range of extra outfits that I could wear with this top.

Wardrobe Capsule Review

I think this wardrobe capsule as it works for the purpose I intended, I love colour and am high colour contrast. I would have had more variety in the outfits by only having an inner column colour of colour or an outer column of colour and not duplicating the colours between both.

The big thing I noticed was that my wardrobe capsule would benefit from a pair of nude pumps. They would work with both the mustard skirt and the crop pants and make me look taller as they elongate the legs.

The other thing I noticed in picking out the tops for this capsule was that having a jacket with a print that was also monochromatic limited me in the print tops that I was willing to wear with it. I had several tops that would have gone with a plain jacket, or plain tops that would have looked good with a print jacket.

Unless you are experienced at print mixing, I recommend limited your prints (except for stripes) to only one of you top/topper/bottoms. You can always add to your capsule if you have other prints you want to wear.

If you want to do a wardrobe capsule for yourself, you might want to have your inner or outer column of colours in your best neutrals. Repeating neutrals is less obvious that repeating the colours in this wardrobe capsule. You could then add 5 different colours or prints in your tops for lots of variety. Or if you are tall, you can avoid having a column of colour at all.

Your Wardrobe Capsules

Have you ever used a wardrobe capsule? I’ld love to know how you went. What worked, what didn’t, what questions do you still have.

If you haven’t I hope I have inspired you to try one today.

And if you’ll like a helping hand, I can help you create a Wardrobe capsules as part of a Wardrobe Edit.

Related Articles

See more articles about Wardrobe Capsules, or read the 101 Series to understand all the terms used in this post.

Credits:

Photos: Gina Kingston, manipulated using Stylebook and Canva

Model: Gina Kingston

Clothing Sources:

All clothing was purchased by Gina Kingston. None of it was gifted. Ages vary from new in 2019 to many years old. Sources of items where known are listed below.

Made by Gina: Mustard 3/4 sleeve top. All the necklaces (one was modified from on purchase from Mainstreet Shoes in Queanbeyan to change the length). Orange and brown earrings.

From Veducci: Leaf print tank top, burgundy pants, teal pants and teal jacket. The jacket was originally Black, Grey and White Print. Dyed with Kingfisher Blue Procion dye from Dharma Trading (US).

From Forecast: Mustard Jacket, green pants.

From Witchery: Teal sleeveless blouse, brown top.

From Dianna Ferarri: Leather jacket, peep toe ankle boots.

From Vinnies: Short-sleeve teal top.

From Ally: Mustard Skirt

From Mainstreet Shoes: Mustard shoes

From Target: Tan ankle boots.

From Styletread: Teal ankle boots

From Ally’s corner via Zulilly: Teal earrings.

Unknown: wave print top, scarf, mustard earrings.