The first draft capsule wardrobe

 

A few days ago I took four black bags of clothes to the recycling bank. I’ve been hesitant about the next step – choosing 33 items that will form my capsule wardrobe. I’m luckier than many; I work from home and rarely venture further than the local supermarket or perhaps a lunch in Limoges once a month. I need clothes that are comfortable, warm and easy to wash and dry. Selecting those 33 items is proving to be much more difficult than I imagined. The other problem is that here in France we are between seasons. September and October can be mild, in fact one of the best times of the year. It’s a bit early to put away all the summer clothes. So I decided that the first month would be a mixture of summer and autumn, with a further revision of the capsule at the beginning of November.

My first Project 333 list looks like this:

1.       Navy blue M&S cotton trousers*

2.       Blue jeans*

3.       Craghopper green trousers

4.       Per Una black denim jeans*

5.       Grey Quechua tech trousers (new)

6.       Black Quechua trousers (new)

7.       Brown jeans*

8.       Brown cotton jacket*

9.       Grey Quechua fleece (new)

10.   Blue Quechua fleece (new)

11.   Pale blue Rohan long sleeve hooded top

12.   Pink Berghaus fleece

13.   Green Craghopper gilet

14.   Black Rohan gilet

15.   Black long sleeved t-shirt

16.   Orange Berghaus long sleeved t-shirt

17.   Lime North Face long sleeved t-shirt

18.   Lilac Berghaus short sleeved t-shirt

19.   Green Craghopper short-sleeved t-shirt

20.   Pink Berghaus long sleeved t-shirt

21.   Blue Berghaus short sleeved t-shirt

22.   Quechua long sleeved check shirt

23.   M&S check shirt*

24.   Craghopper stripped shirt

25.   Joules cardi – brown*

26.   Brown long sleeved t-shirt*

27.   Cream long sleeved t-shirt*

28.   Rohan chamois shirt brown

29.   Rohan brown blue buff scarf

30.   Grey and cream elephant scarf*

31.   Butterfly scarf*

32.   Black cotton vest top*

33.   Rohan pale blue vest top

 

 

 

The list is not Totally Technical – that’s going to take some time to achieve. About a third of the times (starred*) are what I class non-tech – cotton, cheap, wearing out, but with still a bit of life left. I’ve also decided to exclude outdoor coats, although generally I will try to stick with just one coat, and shoes, as these are both somewhat dependant on the weather and pet duties here.