Creating a Capsule Wardrobe and Project 333

I've been paring down the size of my wardrobe for several years now. I love the idea of Courtney Carver's Project 333 (choosing 33 items to wear for 3 months), but have never successfully completed a cycle. I usually start to count my items, and then I get overwhelmed by the limitations of a number and my enthusiasm peters out. 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about creating a capsule wardrobe. The basic idea of a capsule wardrobe is to have a collection of essential clothing items that will not go out of fashion (skirts, trousers and coats) which can be updated seasonal pieces. 

Some general rules of a capsule wardrobe include:

• Choose a color scheme - choose one or two base colors that will go with everything. Then choose one or two accent colors that coordinate with each other. You want all your items to be interchangeable. 
• Consider your body shape and shop accordingly.
• Choose classic shapes and patterns. The idea is to keep these basic pieces for many years so you want cuts and patterns that will last the test of time.
• Choose high-quality fabrics. Your few items of clothing will get lots of wear and be worn in different ways. You want to choose clothing that is well made and will remain looking good despite frequent wear.

Because I have no experience in doing this, I will not tell you want to do. Instead, I'll point you to some links that have been helpful in my understanding so far.

Last week the Minimalist Mom talked about creating a capsule wardrobe on her blog. She wrote four different posts and you can find them here.

• Building your capsule wardrobe
• Capsule Wardrobe basics
• Capsule Wardrobe accessories
• Capsule Wardrobe shoes and the rest

Courtney Carver weighed in on the subject over at Project 333 with her post - How to build a capsule wardrobe.

And there are gazillions of visual images on Pinterest if you want to SEE how it works and what it looks like.

So this is my project this year when it comes to my wardrobe. I will continue to pare down my wardrobe items in hopes of getting down to 33, and I will refrain from buying impluse items that aren't interchangeable with my core items.