There’s a flurry of activity down on Princes Street at the moment that has nothing at all to do with the Fringe.  After years of deliberation (seriously – they’ve been talking about this ever since I moved here in 2004) Edinburgh is soon to become host to its very first Primark store.  And just in time for the shopping bonanza that will be Christmas 2011.

I no longer shop in Primark for an array of different reasons (and man did I used to shop in Primark!).  Ethics are the biggest and most important of those reasons, but there are others.  For one thing, Primark clothes fall apart.  The seams burst, they lose their shape, the buttons fall off.  I dream of a wardrobe of clothes so well made that I can one day hand them down to my children.  I do not dream of a wardrobe of clothes that I’ll have to replace come Autumn because everything in it is torn, burst or bobbled.

Another thing that annoys me about Primark is that I think it massively deceitful when it comes to pricing.  Now of course, if you have your stock made in Bangladeshi sweatshops you’ll be able to sell it cheaply, but I also think that Primark marks things down for another reason: the impulse buy.  I have a friend who once spent £90 on underwear alone during one particularly ambitious Primark shopping spree.  Why did she do that?  Because the stuff was so cheap she got completely carried away.  Would she have behaved the same way in M&S or La Senza?  Absolutely, 100%, not.  Primark’s cheap price tags dig deep into our brains, probing that part of us that always wants to have more stuff into action.  It signifies a lucrative stroke of business genius for the company shareholders and, sadly, often a total loss of self-control for us.

And it gets better for Primark, because people get bored with clothing very quickly these days.  When everything is so cheap, why not just throw that three month old dress away and replace it with this nice new one?  It’s only *insert price of two coffees*.  The volume of Primark clothing I see in charity shops these days is astonishing, and it also proves my point: little about the cheap clothing industry lasts.  Not the clothes, not the giddy thrill of the purchase and not even the seductive effect of that amazing pleated skirt or those super shiny brogues.  The only thing that seems to enjoy any staying power when it comes to Primark, it seems, is its amazing ability to make us spend more money than we intended, and then go back for more a few weeks later.

The poor quality and the sneaky pricing are trifling compared to the real issue I have with Primark, however, which is ethics (or rather, lack of them).  I’m fed up of hearing fashion bloggers attempt to absolve themselves of the guilt they so obviously feel about shopping in Primark on the basis that – while of course they care about ethical issues – “it’s too difficult” to find out what the situation really is with regard to the manufacturing of all those flimsy tea dresses.

And to an extent, they do have a point.  A cursory scan of the internet just informed me that Primark’s manufacturing processes are indeed anything but clear.  In fact, they seem to be shrouded in secrecy, with directors of the company continually declining to come out and talk to the media about its inner workings.  In fact, following a BBC investigation into its methods in 2008, Primark parted company with three factories in Southern India for failing to abide by its ethical policy (note that it parted company with the factories after it was caught with its hand in the biscuit tin and became the subject of public disgust, not before).  The rest of the time, it seems that when pressed on matters relating to the manufacture of its clothes, Primark fudges the issue with talk of economies of scale and organisational complexities.

Of course information that paints Primark in a dim ethical light doesn’t come from the Primark website.  The Primark website would have us believe that the company is a shining beacon of fair trade and an ardent supporter of  living wages for every one of its 700,000 workers.  But then Primark’s very own website would say nothing less.  Every high street retailer pays lip service to ethical trading these days – to do otherwise is to commit PR suicide.  As one commentator put it (in 2008): “In 2008, having a code of conduct and an ethical spokesperson is to the fashion chain what having a supermodel in your advertising was in 1995.  Unfortunately, as we are discovering, to have a code of conduct is little or no insurance against it being breached.”

If Primark’s refusal to fully disclose its manufacturing practices should tell us anything, shouldn’t it be that those practices aren’t up to scratch?  Retailers know that ethics are important to their consumers these days.  We all want to buy with a clear conscience and no one wants to feel that they are in any way responsible for the horror that is children as young as eight years old spending their days stitching maxi dresses for the UK Summer for five pence an hour rather than playing outside with their friends.  In a world where image and reputation are all things to many people I find it hard to reach any conclusion other than if Primark truly had nothing to hide when it came to questions over its ethical astuteness it would make pretty well sure that we all knew about it.  As matters stand, Primark says little about what really goes on behind the scenes.  And as far as I’m concerned, that can only be a bad thing.

Of course it’s not just Primark over which an ethical question mark is suspended.  Half the high street is at it with the child labour, and as so many people have correctly pointed out, high pricing is not an indication of ethical practice.  Neither is the high street the only place for issues such as these to come to the fore.  The purchasing decisions we make every single day have an impact – sometimes a negative impact – on someone or something somewhere in the world.  The coffee we drink, the eggs we bake with, the products we use on our skin and hair.  I single out Primark simply because it’s my own personal bugbear, and the one store that I’m committed to living without.  I’m well aware that my decision to avoid shopping there has no impact whatsoever on the company’s profits.  I know that a boycott of one won’t force it to do anything about its manufacturing practices.  I also know that not everyone feels the same way about ethical shopping or, indeed, about Primark.  Nevertheless, I avoid it because I believe in avoiding it and because I genuinely do think that the world would be a better place without it.  The world, and more locally, Edinburgh.

Quote above from this article by Lisa Armstrong in the Times, June 17th 2008.

Image above from Flickr – thinkretail.

Now that Spring has fully arrived here in the UK, I thought it was high time that I wrote a warm weather update to my capsule wardrobing series.  In case you’re new to the blog, and haven’t yet read the original posts on capsule wardrobing, they are here, here and here.  And in case you’ve never heard of the phrase “capsule wardrobe” before, let me explain, in the briefest of briefs, what I think it means…

The UK wardrobe is in dire straits.  The ubiquitous “buy and wear only once” mentality that so many people are plagued with continues in its quest to stuff our wardrobes full of cheap, badly made clothes that we neither care for nor, more importantly, actually wear.  Masses of shoppers pound the high street every Saturday afternoon, feverishly searching for the latest ‘must have’ items, all the while completely forgetting the piles and piles of under worn clothes they already have at home.  Bad for the people who make the clothes (often in the most grotesque of conditions), bad for the environment, and bad for the shoppers themselves too (seriously, who has the cash for that sort of thing?!).

Enter a solution, in the form of the capsule wardrobe.  Low on quantity, high in quality and versatility, the capsule wardrobe isn’t bursting at the seams with clothes such as those I’ve described above.  The capsule wardrobe is of modest size, but everything in it is well-made, ethically sourced and incredibly versatile.  It might have fewer clothes than a wardrobe stuffed with Primark’s finest, but what it does have are the right clothes.  The clothes that fit, the clothes that last, and the clothes that go with almost anything.  Having a capsule wardrobe won’t win you prizes for quantity, but it will push you streets ahead in terms of quality, versatility and style.  Which in my opinion is a better place to be than the friend who has five hundred things in her wardrobe but is forever complaining that she has nothing to wear.

But enough from my soapbox.  Let’s talk about the weather.

Spring is a fantastic season for experimenting with our clothes.  No longer bound by the need to wear six layers to stave off the cold, it’s time to have fun with what we wear again, and to relish the fact that it’s often entirely possible to step out of the house with little more than a cardigan for a cover up.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I sometimes feel uninspired to wear a fantastic outfit in Winter – if you have to hide it away under a coat to stop yourself turning blue, then why not take it easy, wear something simple and cosy and spend the rest of your time fuelling up on porridge and tea?

Not so with Spring, however.  There’s something about a warm, sunny day that compels me to want to wear something beautiful and go outside to show it to the world.  Dressing up for the day lifts my spirits tenfold, and if I know I don’t have to bury my body away under myriad scarves, hats and coats, I’m much more inclined to be a little more experimental.

Spring-ifying your capsule

The simple way to shift a capsule wardrobe in the direction of Spring is to harness the dual powers of layers and accessories.  An idea that I took rather a long time to get to grips with.  I used to have so many clothes that I couldn’t actually fit them all in my wardrobe at once.  I had to divide them up by season and rotate the entire thing once a year.  Not something I was particularly proud of.  These days, after a long period of selling, donating and selling again, everything I have fits in the one modest cupboard.  And with the exception of items that are obviously related to one season, such as heavy jumpers and sheepskin-lined boots, everything is worn throughout the year, adapted to the changing seasons either by adding or subtracting layers and changing my accessories.  Helped along by a few Summery staples, it’s goodbye to wardrobe rotations and a beaming hello to fuss-free dressing.  My essential Spring/Summer capsule wardrobe pieces (and everyone’s will be different) are as follows:

• A lightweight, non-black trench coat.  Mine is an amber shade from H&M and is one of the best jackets I’ve ever bought.  I can throw it on over anything and it instantly looks at home.  Low maintenance, high wearability, and the perfect defence against those impromptu April showers.
• One beautiful, feel good, God-I-CANNOT-stop-wearing-this dress.  Last year’s was the purple and yellow square neck floral I’m wearing in my picture.  I wore this everywhere last Summer: to weddings, to uni, to the beach – I even wore it on a roller coaster in Las Vegas!  The best part of the story is that I bought it in a charity shop for £8.  One of my all time favourite capsule wardrobe pieces.
• Sandals that go with everything.  My chosen colour is tan.  I bought mine in Clarks last year (I cannot rave enough about Clarks shoes – one pair of those at £45 really is worth all the £2 flip flops the high street can throw at you).
• A large, brightly coloured scarf.  My favourite is from H&M.  It’s square, which means I can tie it into a top or even a mini dress, as well as wearing it around my neck and over my hair.  When travelling last year, it morphed into a shoulder bag, a pillow and a beach cover-up.  Multi-functionality at its very best.
• One bikini/swimming costume that fits and that makes you feel great.  I once went on holiday for a week with a different bikini for every day.  And I ended up wearing only two of them.  Why?  Because those were the only ones I really liked and felt comfortable in.  The other five were a complete waste of money (and seriously, who needs seven bikinis anyway?).
• Sunglasses.  Finding the right pair of sunglasses is a daunting task, and not one that I’m particularly fond of.  I prefer classic styles to the bluebottle trend that seems to be forever in vogue, and don’t get me started on the John Lennon, “look at me I’m so creative but soooo pained”-type.  No one will ever suit John Lennon glasses apart from the man himself.  Leave them for Strawberry Fields and opt for something simple.

Basics

Basics are the most crucial part of the capsule wardrobe, whatever the season.  Underwear that fits and that makes you feel good.  Basic tops and vests that keep their shape throughout the day (again, H&M’s are the best affordable option I’ve found).  Tights and leggings that are ladder-free and big enough to avoid the horror of the sagging crotch area (it’s happened to us all at some point!) and a handbag that carries all of your junk but still looks the part.  If your basics are in good shape, the rest of your Spring/Summer dressing will be a walk in the park.  Leaving you with plenty of time to actually walk in the park, or do something equally as enjoyable.

Shopping

All this renewed joie de vivre that comes with the arrival of Spring can have unwanted side effects.  When the clocks leap forward I always have to fight the temptation to rush out and buy armfuls of dreamy, candy coloured chiffon blouses and deliciously long, floaty floral skirts.  Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of reasons why that wouldn’t be a good idea.  For one thing, heady spontaneity often leads to regretted purchases later down the line.  We all know what it’s like to buy on impulse, and I bet most of us know what it’s like to wish we hadn’t done so later on.  The second reason is that while Spring may well have arrived, it isn’t actually particularly warm out there yet.  So while you might get away with shedding a layer or two, all out Summer dressing when it’s not even April yet could well lead to a belated case of the frostbite.

Don’t give up on your wardrobe as the weather gets better, or denounce it as plain, or too black, or too boring.  Chances are that there are more things in there suitable for Spring than you know, and it might just be that all you need to do is shed the long-sleeved top you normally wear under that dress, or wear your jeans with ballet pumps as opposed to those clunky Winter boots.  Have fun with the weather, and your wardrobe.  Because really, that’s what it’s all about, innit?

What’s in your Spring capsule wardrobe?

Image above from Flickr – TheLittleRooster.

Well whaddaya know – the lovely and talented Carly from Carly Makes Stuff has tagged me as a stylish blogger – honoured I am, I tell you!

The rules of the game are thus: all ye who are tagged as stylish bloggers have to spill seven interesting beans about yourselves before passing the baton of nomination on to seven others.  The world becomes a marginally happier, more knowledgeable place, blog friendships are developed and sealed and everyone gets a unicorn.  Well not quite, but it’s a bit of fun at least, right?

So in the spirit of full disclosure, here are seven things you might not know about me:

1) I am one of five children.  I have one older sister, one younger sister and two younger brothers.  I can clearly remember the day my youngest brother was born as I threw a colossal strop when my parents informed me that I couldn’t go out that night because they were off to the hospital.  The thirteen year-old and profoundly childish me was apparently unable to concede that having a new little person come into all of our lives was far more important than me being allowed to go and watch trashy horror films (of the ‘I know what you did last Summer’ variety, cringe) at my friend’s house.  A charming little madam, I’m sure you’ll agree.

2) I’m a secret singer.  When I’m home alone I often sing so loud that I’m sure the neighbours must hear and reach for the earplugs.  I’ll sing anything, but show tunes and anything by Annie Lennox are my two favourites.  I also love a blast of ‘Over the Rainbow’ a la Queen Judy herself – it doesn’t half get those lungs a-pumping!

3) I used to keep a stack of books twelve high on my bedside table and read bits of them at random.  I kicked this habit as part of my quest for a simpler life and now I strive to read one book at a time without deviation, which is often quite difficult as I’m very easily seduced by new ones.

4) I wear trousers roughly once every three months, and less frequently if I can get away with it.  I’m a skirts and dresses girl to the absolute core of my being.

5) I find choosing food a real battle.  Sometimes I’ll walk out of the supermarket without buying anything, simply because being faced down by so many different options freaks me out to the extent that my powers of selection are paralysed and I feel a chronic, biting need to escape.  This can happen with the simplest of things, such as a chocolate bar, a flavour of ice cream or a bottle of wine.  Don’t get me started on the difficulties I have in restaurants.  Funnily enough, when it comes to clothes and shoes I’m ultra decisive (as well as very, very particular).

6) I am stupidly passionate about cycling and libraries, both of which I consider to be extremely important, potentially life-changing things.  I am also, however, stupidly passionate about a whole host of unimportant things, such as floral prints, battered tan leather, mismatched crockery and wicker baskets.  It’s all about balancing them up, you know?

7) I can happily drink twelve cups of tea in a day.

So there you have it.  I’m a skirt-wearing, multiple sibling-ed, tea-dependent, choice-phobic, vociferous bookworm.  Among other things!  I hereby pass the stylish blogger award on to the following ass-kickers…

• Rachel of Go Placidly
• Charlotte of Blueskies Blog
• Rebecca from Bexpress Yourself
• Ginger Jane from Self-conscious Posturing
• Sarah from From the Rooftops
• Grania from Crumbs for Dinner and…
• Red Boots

And…you’re welcome ladies!  I look forward to reading lots more about you!

Yesterday I had cause to make my first visit to Hobbycraft, the UK market’s latest attempt to convince us that retail parks are cool places to hang out. In case anyone hasn’t heard of Hobbycraft, I think it can be accurately described as a sort of supermarket for creative types. This place sells every kind of material, tool and accessory the would-be crafter could ever hope to purchase, and then some (anyone who has ever struggled with having too much choice would be well-advised to steer clear, by the way).

What struck me as I entered the floodlit aisles of this stadium-sized mecca was just how many ‘hobbies’ (I’ll try to use the term loosely) it caters for. It doesn’t only sell sewing, knitting, cross-stitch and crocheting materials by the truckload, but it also does a remarkable trade in cake decorations, model aeroplane kits, art supplies and stationery. Hobbycraft seems to have opened up a colossal umbrella and is now attempting to usher anyone who has ever done anything even tangentially creative beneath it, promising to cater for their every need, past, present and future. It seems to think that people who paint, people who build models and people who bake cakes are one and the same, and that it’s therefore more than acceptable to bunch us all together like sheep from separate flocks. We’ll all end up at the slaughterhouse in the end, who cares that his fleece is marked blue and mine red?

On top of this, I really found myself struggling to work out how Hobbycraft managed to dream up its catchphrase which if I rightly recall was something along the lines of “the home of great ideas”. I doubt I’ve ever found myself in a place that’s less inspiring, and the only idea that came to my mind as I wandered up and down the soulless aisles was that I wanted to get out of there fast. And that was before I discovered how freakishly over-packaged, not to mention wildly overpriced the stock is. £10.99 per metre of printed cotton fabric (I regularly buy similar stuff for less than half that in my local fabric shop). £9.99 for a modestly-sized bag of what can really only be described as odds and ends for the sewing box – the type of thing you can glean for gratis from old clothes, nice packaging and left-overs from other projects. Hobbycraft seems to think that going to the trouble of putting all those little scraps of fabric, ends of ribbon, feathers and beads into a plastic bag and then presenting them to the customer in clean, warm surroundings somehow justifies their charging a tenner for what is essentially a pile of scrap that anyone with a talent for re-using could throw together for free. It’s the complete antithesis of thrift, and it’s laughable.

I also really hate to think of the impact that the Hobbycraft presence is probably already having on the many independent haberdashers, art suppliers and stationers there are to be found across the country. One of my favourite shops in Edinburgh is the fabric store, an Aladdin’s cave of material, ribbons, buttons, lace and sewing supplies, all reasonably priced, and all piled high on ramshackle shelves in a profoundly chaotic but somehow completely beautiful fashion. It’s a family business, and I seriously struggle to think of an occasion on which I’ve come across a set of retailers with a more robust knowledge of their own trade. These people barely need to measure the fabric when they cut it for you, so keenly trained are their eyes. They also know pretty much every single price off by heart, which is admirable given the vast array of things they stock. It’s a pleasure to linger in such an environment, and I often find myself staying for well over an hour, just to soak it all up and let the ideas flow.

Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, the same can’t, at least in my short-lived experience, be said about Hobbycraft. While the staff seemed nice enough, they displayed little enthusiasm for their work, and their faded, cheap-looking “Hobbycraft” sweatshirts spoke volumes. If Hobbycraft really is the home of great ideas, why don’t they start by creating a staff uniform that’s a little more original and a little less DIY store? A decorative badge wouldn’t go amiss at the very least – it’s not like they don’t have every type of material conceivable to the human imagination at their very fingertips. If these stores are supposed to be places to feel inspired before you go off and spend hundreds of pounds on supplies for projects you’ll never get round to, the least this company can do is put some effort into its presentation.

But it’s not about inspiration, is it? Not really. They might want us to think so, but Hobbycraft is really little more than a cynical attempt on the part of the market to capitalise on the recent renaissance of craft-based hobbies and creative enterprises. The ‘make do and mend’ culture has never been more popular, and as a result, never has it been so potential a profit-spinner. I doubt Hobbycraft will ever attempt to brighten up its stores, or inject even a modicum of enthusiasm into its staff. Those things cost money, and are therefore diametrically opposed to the spirit of the entire operation. Better to pay the workers minimum wage (I’m guessing), churn out the cheapest and most generic-looking stores and uniforms possible and just watch, cigars in mouth and brandy glasses in hand, as those monetary savings morph into nice, chunky dividends. Like magic, right? Who needs creativity when there’s money to be made?

And therein lies my biggest grievance about Hobbycraft’s very existence. It’s a sham. It’s not about creativity, it’s not about flair, originality, inspiration or ideas, much as its tagline would have us believe. Hobbycraft is about making money, and making it hand over fist, to absolute hell with the annihilation of everything many of us creatives hold dear.

And that, in itself, is why I won’t be going back.

Image above from Flickr – mrjoro.

Some of you might have noticed that Part 2 of the capsule wardrobing series was mentioned in the Guardian last week (the link is here in case you want to take a peak).  This was a complete surprise to me, and a real delight – it’s absolutely lovely to see something I’ve written endorsed by a publication I hold in such high regard – I’ve had a grin the size of Scotland on my chops ever since!  A big hello to any new readers who have found the blog as a result of that link.  I hope you enjoy your time aboard HMS Thrifty Chick wherever in the world you are and please, do feel free to drop me a line and say hi!

But anyway, back to our capsule wardrobes.  The subject matter of Part 3 is shopping…

As much as I enjoy and appreciate clothes, I’m not a big shopper these days.  It hasn’t always been that way, but ever since I discovered the joys of a life based around thrift I’ve shopped on only a fraction of the scale that I used to, the majority of the time in charity and vintage stores as opposed to on the high street.  These days, I only really venture to a shopping centre when I’m in dire need of something, and even then there are a whole raft of stores that I’ll no longer go anywhere near for reasons of principle (that’s right Arcadia, I’m talking to you).

The capsule wardrobe isn’t a tirade against shopping. Plenty of people like shopping, including myself, and while excess consumerism is never going to be something I’ll hold my thumbs up to, a moderate level of considered and – where possible – ethical shopping most certainly doesn’t make you a bad person.  The problems only begin where shopping becomes a mindless game: an attempt to shore up flagging confidence levels by spending lots of money on new handbags and ‘wear once’ dresses.  If you can’t feel good on a night out unless you’re wearing something brand new and shiny, then that, to me, is when trouble abounds.

But what’s the code of capsule wardrobe shopping?  Well, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s both simple and largely based on common sense.  Common sense which can be distilled into three simple, albeit golden, rules:

1. Buy what you need
2. Buy what fits
3. Buy what you like

1. Buy what you need

A capsule wardrobe should cover all of the necessary bases: balance is key.  Like I said back at stage 2, there’s no point in having a ten cutesy summer frocks if you don’t have anything to layer either under or over them on cold Winter days such as these.  If you have the correct quotient of all of the things you need in your wardrobe, you’re ten times more likely to find that it works for you in exactly the way you want it to.  Keep the idea of balance in mind when shopping, and always, always ask yourself whether you really need something.  The answer should tell you whether to buy it or not.

2. Buy what fits

Clothes should fit.  Period.  Don’t cajole yourself into buying something unless you feel completely comfortable in it and DON’T make the mistake of promising yourself that you’ll drop a couple of pounds in order to fit into something you really like.  If it doesn’t fit perfectly at the time you try it on, for the love of God don’t buy it.  All that will happen if you do is that the item will languish, unworn, in your wardrobe for months making you feel terrible every time you look at it.  A waste of money and a colossal guilt trip.  Don’t fall for it.

3. Buy what you like

Only buy things you like.  A wardrobe that’s full of clothes you love and enjoy wearing is worth a thousand wardrobes that are full of fashion fads, bought because they featured in Cosmo or your friend looked good in one last week.  The logic is simple yet powerful: if you like something, you’ll wear it, and if you don’t, you won’t.  And if you’re not sure, why not give it a week and see how you feel?  If you find yourself immersed in regret, wishing you had bought whatever it is, then you’ll know you actually did like it so you can go back (unless you saw it in a charity shop in which case it’ll likely be long gone).  And the converse is also true: if you don’t give it a second thought after exiting the store, you were right to leave it on the hanger.

Simple right?  OK I lied above: we’re not quite finished yet.  While those three rules are what I consider to be the bread and butter of capsule wardrobe shopping, it’s worth bearing some of the following in mind as well…

• Beware of shopping in groups – Have you ever bought something because the person you were shopping with demanded that you should, even though you yourself weren’t actually sure?  Yes, you’re nodding, I’m nodding.  This is the group effect.  Unless you have a shopping partner with whom you can be brutally honest (and who can be brutally honest with you), don’t shop in groups.  We impulse buy a lot more; we cave in to the desires of others as opposed to ourselves and we often don’t feel like we can spend as much time deliberating over whether to purchase or not.  Having five friends waiting at the door for you intermittently checking their watches is a fast-track way to making a bad decision.  Be brave and go it alone!

• Work out price per wear – It always amazes me that people are willing to spend £100 on a dress they’ll wear only once, but only a fraction of that on the shoes they wear every day of the week (the less said here about those £4 fall-apart-at-the-very-sight-of-rain ballet pumps the better).  It’s vastly more economical to invest in the things we use and wear a lot.  Try thinking about the price per wear on the things you buy: if a dress is £100 and you wear it twice, that’s a price per wear of £50 (divide the price by the number of wears).  Now if that £100 was invested in some sturdy winter boots, worn every single day for four months, then that’s a price per wear of roughly 80 pence.  Think about that, and don’t be afraid to take a calculator to the shops!

• Observe the three outfit rule: the essence of the capsule wardrobe is versatility.  And that means that things work together.  No one item of clothing should be permitted to stand on the sidelines, eschewing the collaborative process.  When shopping, I find it’s useful to bear in mind what I like to call the three outfit rule.  If I can’t picture three outfits in my wardrobe involving whatever it is that I’m contemplating purchasing, then back to the rail it goes.  The capsule wardrobe only works because the clothes in there are open to mixing and matching; anything that doesn’t tick that box belongs elsewhere.

• One in, one out - Some items are bought purely to replace others.  If that’s the case, make sure you actually carry out the replacing bit!  That means throwing out or recycling the old, ladder-infested tights and the dull, washed-a-million-times work shirts as opposed to simply stuffing the new ones on top.  Replacing things will help your wardrobe to remain streamlined and smart, and you’ll be able to manage it better.  The same logic should apply to gifts: I got two new pairs of pyjamas as Christmas gifts, so recycled two existing pairs.  Neater wardrobe, less clutter, liberated mind.

• Look at the washing instructions – Be honest with yourself: if the top is hand-wash only, are you really going to hand-wash it?  Or are you simply going to wear it less often on the basis that it’s high maintenance?  And if you have an aversion to ironing, should you really be buying trousers that simply can’t be worn without at least a quick once-over?  Always look at the labels on clothes before you buy them, and answer any questions that arise honestly.  Remember that the motto of the capsule wardrobe is wearability: if you’re not going to invest in clothes that are wearable to you, you’re defeating the purpose of the entire exercise.

• Accessorise – Finally, if you’re really feeling low about your wardrobe and find yourself wishing for change, consider bringing in some new accessories to brighten up your existing threads.  The difference a change of necklace can make to the way you feel about that dress or that top is phenomenal.  And shaking up your accessory collection is a much cheaper way to keep your capsule wardrobe interesting than buying vast swathes of new clothing every time you get bored.  You could also try having an accessory swapping party: get a few friends to come round with a bunch of their own accessories and have fun swapping.  You don’t have to keep things forever, but a couple of weeks with some new-to-you jewellery and a scarf or two is bound to generate some new ideas and get you feeling excited about your wardrobe all over again.

Above all else, the biggest piece of advice I feel I can give in relation to shopping for your capsule wardrobe is to ignore fashion magazines.  Under no circumstances should you ever buy something simply because Glamour, or Cosmo, or Vogue says you should.  Fashion magazines need to sell advertising space to designers in order to make a profit.  Telling people not to buy those designers’ vastly overpriced “pay for the name rather than the item” products isn’t conducive to securing future ad business, whereas the opposite most definitely is.  Worth bearing in mind when they’re busy nagging you to pay over a small fortune for the must-have item of the season I think.

And anyway, the most stylish people are who they are because they do their own thing and they don’t pay the blindest bit of attention to what’s hot and what’s not.  So throw caution to the wind and your stack of Vogues in the recycling bin: tread your own sartorial path and wear whatever you want, whenever you want.  Only buy things you need, like and that fit.  Find joy and creativity in using your capsule wardrobe to its maximum effect by mixing and matching.  Layer, layer then layer some more and don’t be afraid to experiment.  Blaze your own trail by clashing colours; mixing fabrics and piling on accessories.  Clothes are meant to be fun, not something that’s ever worth getting upset or stressed over.  And the next time you find yourself moaning that you have nothing to wear (which should never happen if you have a capsule wardrobe), remember that for millions of people in the world, deciding what to wear isn’t an option.  You are fortunate enough to have that option.  So be thankful for it and have fun.

Image above from Flickr – HowardLake.