Here are my thoughts on the process:
1. Why did I participate? I understand the allure of capsule wardrobes, and they are very pin-worthy, but I never had the desire to live within the confines of a capsule. I love sewing. Beautiful fabrics soothe my soul. I am drawn to print and colour, and nobody ever starts out a capsule by grabbing all their vibrant, colourful clothes. I am going on a 3 week holiday later this year, and I am thinking about doing it just with carry-on luggage, and I thought this challenge would be good practice for that. The other thing that I liked about this particular challenge is that it did not involve making or buying new clothes. It seems many of those espousing capsule waredrobes for their minimalism and anti-consumerist ethics start by purging their wardrobes and then have to buy / make new clothes to fill the gaps in their ideal capsule.
2. How did I choose the 10 items? One of my problems with this sort of challenge is that as soon as I have to come up with any sort of mix and match scheme, I default back to boring. Planning clothes is not my strength. My favourite garments are those which I have made out of creative use of remnants, whilst many of my planned garments get left unworn. I started with the most neutral clothes in my cupboard. I wanted to see if these olive green pants would work for my holiday. When I was making them, I thought they would be the most versatile garment I ever owned, but it turns out that I have not work them very often. I then chose tops to match the green pants, and went from there. Initially I had more woven tops planned, but I swapped these out for t-shirts when I realised that we were going camping halfway through the challenge. There will be quite a few days hiking on my holiday, so this change fits. I also changed a pair of white shorts for the green ones. Every time I wore the white tee I spilt food on it, so I thought white shorts might mot be so good for a holiday where I will only be washing clothes occasionally.
3. What did I learn? I did learn that 10 items is not enough for the laundry cycle in my house. I need to be able to dress for a week. One of those combos above is pretty dismal, but I had to leave the house in a hurry and just grabbed what I could find and the nearest of the 2 pairs of shoes. Accessorizing for me just means choosing a necklace. Hot weather does not lend itself to layering, or scarves, and I will not have a selection of bags on holiday. I will have a hat, but it will be a squashable sort of hat rather than a stylish accessory. I did accessorise with a jacket one time, which is sort of cheating, but it was windy one of the camping evenings, and I didn't think I needed to suffer for the sake of this challenge.
4. Will it work for my holiday? I think it is a start, but I like the idea of the "pair and a spare 5-4-3-2-1 packing guide" better. This way I can add in 1 or 2 dresses (or maybe a pretty silk top). I will take the flat shoes above, but have a different pair of sandals in mind (that I am hoping will go on sale soon), and my third pair of shoes will be sneakers for hiking and long sight-seeing days.
5. Will I do this challenge again? Actually, I think I will do it again before my holiday, hopefully to come up with more interesting, yet versatile, outfits. Improvement through practice. Our favourite boardgame at the moment is Hive. My kids, who are all very good at this game, were relying on the same moves over and over, so I changed the rules so that we can't see the pieces before we use them, or so that each team uses their pieces in the same order. I think if I did the same sort of thing with my 10 x 10 eg just wear whatever for 4 days and then mix up those clothes into outfits for the next 6 days, I might get a better result than if I planned out my wardrobe in the beginning.
2 comments:
IVE always been interested in doing this challenge, but as soon as I start choosing items, I give up. It's too restricting for me. But I think you did a nice job and you look great in all your outfits (I couldn't work out which combo you thought was dismal). I love that white tank.
Thanks Masha, I found it too restrictive. Perhaps project 333 would be a better place to start! Though, even the thought of sorting through my clothes to choose 33 items sounds exhausting. Perhaps my holiday packing approach would work better...start with everything in the last load of washing...usually it is all your favourite clothes, in the correct proportions.
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