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Spring has finally hit DC and I may actually be excited for it? (Okay, there is probably going to be one more blast of winter, but whatever.) While I’m very in favor of sweater weather, I can’t complain about getting to go for long walks without freezing my fingers off. Plus, now that E is a little older, sunny weather means that we can burn off energy at the playground!
But talking about walks and playground dates isn’t why we’re here. Let’s talk about clothing. In my last post I mentioned that going back to the office is a great time to try out a capsule wardrobe. But I didn’t really explain what that meant. In today’s post, we’re going to talk about what a capsule wardrobe is, why spring is a great time to try one, and how to build your own capsule wardrobe.
Capsule Wardrobes
What is it?
A capsule wardrobe is a limited set of clothing, shoes, and accessories that can be styled multiple ways. Within a capsule wardrobe, you pick multiple pieces that have a similar color theme or pattern and therefore allow for the greatest variety for mixing and matching. It’s a great way to embrace minimalist fashion and they’re perfect for a season or an extended trip.
Why is it great for spring?
Spring is the perfect time to create a capsule wardrobe because it’s truly an in-between season. One day it can be 40 degrees and the next day it can be 65. By creating a capsule wardrobe for spring, you can pick some pieces from your winter wardrobe essentials and some from your summer clothing to create the perfect balanced outfit.
The benefits of creating a capsule wardrobe
There are so many benefits to having a capsule wardrobe. Not only does it make getting dressed simple (you only have a few pieces to choose from), but it also forces you to be more creative. After all, you don’t want to wear the same two outfits over and over again! It’s a great way to give your style a little refresh without creating more clutter in your closet. Finally (and most importantly), you’ll cut down on shopping (yay not spending money).
Capsule Wardrobe for Spring 2025
Jackets, Sweaters, and Dresses: Lady jacket / Striped Relaxed Sweater / Short Trench / Stripe Long Sleeve Shirtdress / Midi Dress
Tops: Pintuck lace-trim Top / White Crewneck T-shirt / Butter Box-Cut Tee / Linen Vest
Bottoms: Wide Leg Satin Pants / High Waist Wide Leg Ankle Jeans / Polka Dot Slip skirt
Shoes: Sneaker / Raffia Mule Flats / Boat Shoe
Jewelry: Double-chain necklace / Twisted Wide Hoop / Pearl and stone drop earrings / Pearl Studs
Bags: Leather Convertible Belt Bag / Leather Tote
How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe
Now that you know why having a capsule wardrobe is so great, let’s get into how to build one of your own. I created a capsule wardrobe for Spring 2025 that you can use as an example to guide you through this.
Step 1: Choose Your Color Palette
For your color palette, you want a good mix of neutrals and accent colors. I personally prefer to stick to one or two accent colors and pick seasonal colors. In the fall, I like to do deeper tones (navy, burgundy, and cognac), but in the spring it’s all about the pastels. for this spring capsule wardrobe, I decided to go with some colors that are trendy this season: butter yellow and pastel pink. You also want to make sure that your colors mix and match easily. For example, in the winter, you may be tempted to pick a jewel colored red and emerald green, but you every time you put an outfit together with both of those colors, your outfit will scream Christmas.
For my neutrals in this capsule, I stuck to white, tan, and blue. I know that blue isn’t necessarily considered a neutral, but I decided to use blue as a stand-in for black (but you can totally include black in your spring wardrobe).
Best Color Palette for a Spring Capsule Wardrobe in 2025
Not sure what colors to use? Let’s talk about some of the trendy colors this spring! Pastels are always popular, but butter yellow is really popular this year. Butter yellow also goes really well with the chocolate brown items people were buying in the fall. Right there you have an accent color (butter yellow) and a neutral (chocolate brown).
Rose (or pale pink) and icy blue (a light blue) are also really popular colors this spring (and go really well with butter). Want to stand out a little bit more? Shades of gold and chartreuse have been popping up everywhere, along with periwinkle and cardinal red. Below I picked out a few pieces that match this spring’s popular colors.
Step 2: Essential Clothing Pieces for a Spring Capsule Wardrobe
When you’re putting together any capsule wardrobe, you want to make sure you have pieces from each of the following categories: tops, bottoms, outerwear, dresses, shoes, and accessories.
Tops
For your tops, you’ll want a good mix of basic tees, blouses, and tanks. Since spring can be all over the map, I decided to go with two tees, a blouse, and a tank. But you don’t have to follow exactly what I did! If you don’t like blouses, maybe you want to add a button up top. Or maybe you’ll substitute a solid color tee for a striped tee. If your city tends to be a little colder in the spring, you could substitute the tank out for a long sleeve shirt. It’s all about what works for you!
Bottoms
The options for bottoms can be endless in the spring. Everything from shorts to jeans are fair game! I would typically aim for a jean (long or short), a secondary pair of pants, and a skirt. This spring, wide leg jeans are still popular, but skinny jeans are coming back! I picked out a pair of wide leg, cropped jeans, but I also debated doing a straight leg jean. The second pair of pants is really ladies choice. Are you more of a leggings person? Go with that! Last spring I loved wearing wide leg pants, so I decided to go with a wide leg, satin pant (which I could also use for dressier occasions). But you can also do a trouser if you aren’t ready to venture into satin. I really like these pants from Everlane and these fitted pants from Spanx. For the third bottom, I suggested a skirt, but you don’t have to do a skirt if you don’t like them. I love how flowy skirts can be used for dressy or casual looks, so I wanted to include it in my capsule.
Outerwear
This is really location dependent. I chose my pieces based on DC weather: a trench for windy days, a lady jacket for nicer occasions, and a sweater when I have no idea what the weather is doing. But there are a few other pieces that I debated that would be perfect for spring. I could have easily substituted the lady jacket for a jean jacket or a lightweight blazer (I love a sweater blazer).
Dresses
The dresses you want to include in your capsule are really dependent on what you’re doing. If wedding season is starting, you may want to include a midi dress that can be worn for weddings and casual occasions (like the A&F dress I included below). If you’re including work looks in your capsule, a wrap dress or shirtdress would be a great option. None of the above apply? Casual day dresses are the way to go!
Shoes
Whenever I’m putting a capsule wardrobe together, I always make sure that it has three pairs of shoes: sneakers, flats, and a free choice. The free choice can be anything from a sandal to a heel to a boot. It all depends on your lifestyle and what makes the most sense for you. No matter what you pick though, those three shoes will cover you on almost any trip.
For your sneakers, a white sneaker (also love this one) will work perfectly with almost any outfit, but for my capsule wardrobe, I decided to use my shoes to play up an accent color (pink). I love colorful shoes, so this was a no brainer for me. The flats I chose were raffia mules which I can use for dressier outfits, but will also go great with jeans. I debated ballet flats, which are in right now, but I can’t resist a mule. For the free choice, I chose to go with a boat shoe. The preppy look is in this fall and I can’t wait to bring a pair of boat shoes into my outfits (I don’t think I’ve worn them since college!). If it’s a little colder where you are, I would suggest doing an ankle boot as your free choice.
Accessories and Bags
This is my favorite category because you can really go wild with it. I took a more minimalist approach for my capsule wardrobe for spring 2025 (four pieces of jewelry and two bags), but you don’t have to. If you want to layer the jewelry, do it! You can also incorporate scarves to have even more fun with your outfits. Scarves are great options because you can wear them in your hair, on your body, or around your bag.
Best capsule wardrobe essentials for spring 2025
If you’d like a little more guidance on what to put in your wardrobe, here are the pieces that I would suggest are must haves:
- Light jacket
- Long sleeve sweater
- White tee
- Blue jeans
- Black pants
- A casual dress
- Sneakers
- Flats
- One large purse
- One small purse
Step 3: Sustainable & Smart Shopping Tips for Your Capsule Wardrobe
Now that you have an idea of the pieces you want to buy, let’s talk shopping tips. When you’re looking for pieces for your capsule wardrobe, you want to first aim for higher quality pieces. Why? Well, when you have a limited amount of clothing to work with, you’re going to be doing a little more laundry. So you don’t want to buy anything that will fall apart after two washes. The goal is to have these pieces last and be used in future capsules.
That being said, you don’t have to buy everything at a higher price point. First, more expensive does not always mean better quality. Second, I like to do a mix of high and low (prices), whenever I’m putting a wardrobe together. This allows me to take my budget into account. I like mixing pieces from J.Crew Factory with brands like Ralph Lauren. I’ll go higher with items like trenches, shoes, and sweaters, but I’m open to being flexible with basic tees.
Step 3: How to Mix & Match for Maximum Versatility
Below is my version of a capsule wardrobe for Spring 2025. I’ve shared multiple ways to style the different pieces for different occasions. I had so much fun putting these together and I hope it can inspire you with your capsule wardrobe. In fact, if you want to just buy this whole capsule wardrobe for yourself, I wouldn’t mind!
Spring Outfit Ideas with a Capsule Wardrobe
Three Outfits with Wide Leg Jeans
Lady jacket / Pintuck lace-trim Top / High Waist Wide Leg Ankle Jeans / Raffia Mule Flats / Pearl and stone drop earrings / Leather Tote
Short Trench / White Crewneck T-shirt / High Waist Wide Leg Ankle Jeans / Sneaker / Double-chain necklace / Twisted Wide Hoop / Leather Convertible Belt Bag
Striped Relaxed Sweater / Butter Box-Cut Tee / High Waist Wide Leg Ankle Jeans / Boat Shoe / Pearl Studs / Leather Tote
Three ways to style a polka dot skirt
Linen Vest / Polka Dot Slip skirt / Raffia Mule Flats / Boat Shoe / Pearl and stone drop earrings / Leather Convertible Belt Bag
Short Trench / Butter Box-Cut Tee / Polka Dot Slip skirt / Boat Shoe / Twisted Wide Hoop / Leather Tote
Pintuck lace-trim Top / Polka Dot Slip skirt / Pearl and stone drop earrings / Leather Convertible Belt Bag
How to style the dresses
Lady jacket / Stripe Long Sleeve Shirtdress / Sneaker / Twisted Wide Hoop / Leather Tote
Striped Relaxed Sweater / Midi Dress / Boat Shoe / Double-chain necklace / Pearl Studs / Leather Convertible Belt Bag
Lady jacket / Midi Dress / Raffia Mule Flats / Boat Shoe / Double-chain necklace / Pearl Studs / Leather Convertible Belt Bag
Stripe Long Sleeve Shirtdress / Boat Shoe / Double-chain necklace / Twisted Wide Hoop / Leather Tote
Three outfits for the satin wide leg pants
Butter Box-Cut Tee / Wide Leg Satin Pants / Boat Shoe / Pearl Studs / Leather Tote
Lady jacket / Linen Vest / Wide Leg Satin Pants / Raffia Mule Flats / Pearl and stone drop earrings / Pearl Studs / Leather Convertible Belt Bag
Striped Relaxed Sweater / White Crewneck T-shirt / Wide Leg Satin Pants / Sneaker / Twisted Wide Hoop / Leather Tote
Step 4: Maintaining & Refreshing Your Capsule Wardrobe
Once the spring weather is over and we move into summer, it’s time to think about two things:
Which pieces do you want to carry over to your summer capsule wardrobe?
For this, I would suggest evaluating each piece by the following criteria:
- Is the item going to be appropriate for the next season?
- Is the item in good enough condition to be worn again for another season?
- Do I want to keep wearing this item for another few months (am I sick of it yet)?
If you answer no to any of the above questions, then the item should be either stored, sent to the tailor, or donated.
How do you store the seasonal pieces properly?
For the items you decide to put away for future seasons, you want to make sure that they’re properly stored. I have two preferred methods for this. First, I like using vacuum sealed bags for anything that will be put away for the longer term. This will help you save room and avoid moths! The only downside to this method is that your clothes will need some ironing (or steaming) once you take them out. My other favorite method is clear plastic bins. I already use these for my shoes, but they’re excellent for storing anything. They’ll also allow you to easily locate items once you’re ready to pull them out again.
Refreshing Your Capsule Wardrobe
The best part about capsule wardrobes is that you don’t need to repeat this process every year. Every spring you’ll be able to pull out your spring capsule wardrobe and swap out the pieces that don’t work for you anymore. A capsule wardrobe is incredibly flexible, so you can replace items that don’t fit your body or your style. You’ll also get the chance to actually miss some of your clothing, so you’ll be excited when you get to pull them back out a year later.
Ready to make your own spring capsule wardrobe?
Now that you have all of the tools, you can make your own spring capsule wardrobe. Just remember to keep it simple, find pieces that can make versatile outfits, and remember that quality is much more important that quantity.
Do you like the idea of a capsule wardrobe, but you don’t want to do it yourself? (Or don’t have time?)
Luckily for you, creating capsule wardrobes is one of the services I offer as a personal stylist. I can put together the pieces for your wardrobe and show you all of the ways you can style the pieces (like I did here).
Interested? Please email me at Dana@SomethingGoodBlog.com OR sign up for a free 15 minute consultation call.
