A Sunday morning spent sorting through my wardrobe and a quick documentation of it over on my Instagram stories led to a flurry of messages asking to share the contents of my 57-item wardrobe with you. My wardrobe has always been quite moderate; years of sharing a wardrobe with my sister, having minimal space and then a tight budget. But I finally feel like I’ve nailed it in terms of the right balance of outfit options vs. only keeping items that I wear.

Continue reading to see a full breakdown of those 57 items, why I wanted to downsize my wardrobe and how it fits in with my lifestyle. Whether this fits into the definition of capsule wardrobe or not is less important than whether what’s included works for me. 

Why did I want to downsize my wardrobe?

A few years ago, I was clearing out some of the items left at my parents’ house and felt guilty about all the clothes I had forgotten about. The bags of clothing were a reminder of items that weren’t quite right but I kept anyway, and inevitably only wore a couple of times before resigning them to the back of the wardrobe never to be seen again.

Having a small wardrobe also means it’s easier to decide what to wear each day. I subscribe to the school of thought that having a loose ‘uniform’ makes things so much easier as there’s one less decision to make each day. It doesn’t have to be as limited as Mark Zuckerberg’s jeans and plain grey t-shirt uniform; it could be rotating the same set of 5 smart trousers and 5 blouses as a work uniform week in, week out.

What does my current lifestyle look like?

I think a wardrobe should, to some degree, be a reflection of someone’s lifestyle and mine is a reflection of mine. I have worked from home for the most part over the last three years – before that I had a smart dress code at work but there’s no longer such a distinctive split between what I’d wear for work and what I’d wear for leisure. There’s no doubt that this helps me to keep my wardrobe minimal and realistic to my current lifestyle. Hobbies such as pilates and running don’t require lots of specialist clothing that takes up lots of space either.

When it comes to style, comfort is key to me as is being able to throw on an outfit with minimal thought and effort, which is why I tend to gravitate towards dresses.

What does my wardrobe currently look like?

My capsule wardrobe currently consists of 57 items (excluding underwear, pyjamas and shoes) and it is broken down to the following:

I haven’t included bags and accessories in my count but this feels equally as minimal without feeling restrictive to my lifestyle. I have four handbags; two everyday shopper-style bags that work well for holding everything à la Mary Poppins, a cross-body bag, and a clutch for weddings and special occasions (it has the added benefit of a detachable strap to transform it into a cross-body bag if I want). My jewellery collection looks like this: four gold rings that I wear everyday, one necklace, a watch and a few pairs of earrings.

I still need to work on downsizing my shoe collection at some point but as someone who found shoe shopping quite stressful growing up (the joys of an awkward shoe size!) It’s a task I have been procrastinating for too long, but we’re currently looking at 13 pairs.

What’s next?

While this current clothing selection works for me, I’ll probably do a mini review after summer when I’ve had a chance to wear (or not wear) my summer clothes. I’m currently on a no-buy year which means clothing is off limits but I hope I’m able to adopt a ‘one in, one out’ policy when it comes to buying clothes in the future. I lived in shorts last summer so I could probably benefit from an extra but I’m certainly not in a rush to buy anything. After all there’s only so much one person can wear before it’s time to do the laundry again!