Pod (Simple) Dressing

My mother is a clotheshorse. She has full closets and lots of choices. When she cleans her closet, I get her cast offs, so I too have full closets and lots of choices. And, like her, I enjoy finding that next “right” classic white tee-shirt.

But a couple months ago, I ran across a blog about capsule (I like the term “pod”) dressing. The concept is basically this:

38 pieces for 3 months – the exact number isn’t important (so it could be 35 or 40 instead of 38, 3 months or 4).

Pods include clothing and pairs of shoes but not jewelry, bags or scarves, work out or painting/gardening clothes.

This interested me but not because I want to wear less clothes, but because I wanted to wear MORE clothes. Honestly, I have been in a terrible, couple year rut, wearing the same things over and over again – most everything is black too.

Mornings were a sad time at my house because I felt overwhelmed as I looked into the full closet trying to decide what to wear. There was too many choices and since much of it (a) didn’t fit (b) was in bad shape (c) were not things I loved, the daily struggle around what to wear was not the way I wanted to start my day anymore.

So as with any new idea, I read the articles ( look here and here and here and here).

But I noticed that my pod would be substantial different.

Because:

• I am a career woman.
• I am not a size 6.
• I have an artistic side so I like to have fun with my clothing.
• I didn’t want to pick one color and buy around it because I wanted more color.
• I wanted to spend less than it seems others do on this.
• I can never figure out shoes…
• But need to walk 8000 steps during the day.
• I buy too many things I don’t love just because they fit.
• I travel often (business and pleasure).

So where to begin?

I started with a couple basics – what I had that I already LOVED.  Here is my list (and a couple photos

Skirts: Black Skirts (3), Jean Skirt, Red Splash Skirt

Jackets/Sweaters: Black Striped Jacket, Blue/White/Black Sweater

Tops: 3 Black Shells, White Peasant Top, Beige Sweater Set (2 pieces), Johnny Waz Top

Dresses: Blue and White Polkadot Dress

Interestingly, while I already had all of these clothes, many of them were so jammed in the closet that I seldom saw them!  This totaled 15 pieces.

Looking at these made me think about what was missing and I purchased a couple things to put the look together. I mostly wear skirts so I knew I need a couple new things (not black) and a couple jackets (cause the old ones don’t fit or are in bad shape).

Here is what I bought:

Jackets: White Jean Jacket, Blue Soft Jacket, Poppy Soft Jacket

Skirts: Blue Striped Skirt, Blue Hawaii Skirt, White Skirt, Brown/Black/White Skirt

Tops: Blue Shell, Red Shell, White Shell (sleeveless tee-shirts)

Dress: Blue and white dress

 

Finally, shoes:

Black Slip Ons, Preaching Shoes (small heals, black), Red Sandles, New Black Shoes

Brown Easy Spirit, Black Slip Ons, Brown Sandals.

 

So how did it go? Next week –