Summer Capsule Closet | My 10 Item Wardrobe

Nicole style tips fashion, style 0 Comments

The principle of the “10 Item Wardrobe” by Jennifer of The Daily Connoisseur is to create a seasonal wardrobe consisting of ten core items- tops, bottoms and dresses- which form the staples of your wardrobe. Then to these pieces you add the “extras” which include cardigans, t-shirts, leisure wear, shoes and accessories. It’s not so much focused on having a certain number of items, like a capsule wardrobe often is, but rather on choosing items which can be easily dressed up or down, and layered or simplified as you need them to. In 2024 I posted about my Winter capsule “10 item” wardrobe, so now that spring is over and summer is half finished, it’s about time I shared my summer capsule/ 10 item wardrobe!

For the past few years, my summer wardrobe hasn’t been quite as “mix and match” as my winter one is, but I have recently added a few new items which have filled it out quite well, and I think I might have more options now for summer. While my winter wardrobe is predominantly black and brown, I noticed that my summer wardrobe has more blue and brown, which makes sense as we often gravitate towards cool colours in the hot seasons.

Firstly, for the core pieces, I have seven skirts, 5 are patterned and 2 are solid.

A cotton hummingbird patterned wrap circle skirt, a peach sheer gathered skirt with a floral pattern, a cotton sateen border print pleated skirt (new this year), and a cinnamon coloured gingham 1/2 circle wrap skirt.

A tan button front 1/2 circle skirt, a polka dot linen wrap circle skirt and a rose taupe 1/2 circle skirt (also new this year).

For core tops, I only have two, since t-shirts are counted as “extras”. My summer wardrobe is currently very casual, which is fine most of the time, however I would like find or sew a few more blouses. I am finding it difficult to wear some of my accessories, especially my vintage hats, when the majority of my wardrobe is very casual in a modern way.

A button up navy blue broomstick/crinkle cotton shirt and a cream lace top.

For dresses, I have two at the moment.

My new graphic print black and tan rayon wrap dress, and a navy printed cotton day dress. The navy one is the same dress I include in my winter wardrobe as well.

Those are all of the eleven “Core Items”.

Now for the extras. I have more casual tops than blouses, and I wear them more often too. During the hot summer days it’s just easier, and cooler, to wear a t-shirt. I’ve got four rayon tops, and three cotton tops.

A brown rayon t-shirt, a black kimono sleeve top, a slate green shell and a black and tan irregular polka dot patterned t-shirt.

A navy blue cotton t-shirt, a sage green flutter sleeve top, and a solid black cotton t-shirt (the same style as the navy).

It was a bit cooler of a spring, so I actually did have several opportunities to wear some layers. I have a three cardigans in slate green, black and navy blue.

For coats there are two options. I love the pink one, but it doesn’t coordinate with a lot of the tans I wear, so it would still be nice to find a green or beige coat.

There is also another part of the “extras” section, and that is leisurewear and work clothes. I like to keep my good clothes separate from my working clothes. This is kind of an old fashioned idea, but I like to follow it, otherwise pretty soon my entire wardrobe would become “work” clothes! However, this does not mean that I wear ratty and ragged things around the house on days when I am just at home. While some of these items have been demoted from my capsule, they are still in good enough condition that I wouldn’t be embarrassed if someone stopped by unannounced, but they are not so precious that I’m afraid to ruin them by getting dirty while cleaning or working outside. I also have some clothes that are more comfortable to wear sitting at my desk for long hours. I wear these “leisure” pieces year round, not just in summer. I also do sometimes wear these pieces out and about in public, and sometimes wear my 10 item pieces at home. It’s more that I have given myself permission to treat them as my “hardworking calicos” rather than my “Sunday best”.

For bottoms I have the ever practical and comfortable harem pants/Thai fishing pants, an upcycled white and blue striped skirt with an elastic waist in the back. (This one I thought would be good for long periods of sitting at my work desk, but I am rethinking whether it’s a good “at home” choice, as white is a magnet for dirt, and I’ve already spilled my tea on it…). The other skirt is a navy and orange wrap skirt (which does not show dirt or tea!), and then my chambray dress that I demoted from the “good” clothes because, while I still love it, it’s faded quite a bit.

For tops I have several plain t-shirts in shades of blues and greens. I actually have duplicates of the green one because they didn’t have another colour I liked, and I realized that it is perfectly acceptable to own multiples of the same garment in the same colour. I also recently got this white tank top from our church swap group. In the picture it looked pink, so it was a surprise when I got it and found out it was actually white. It’s not the best colour for my wardrobe, but it’s a good style for summer days, so I put it here to match my blue and white skirt. These pieces are the workhorses of my closet, but as they are more casual, I won’t include them in the styling section.

Now for the more exciting accessories; this is where you can really change up your outfits when you have a smaller wardrobe. There is much more opportunity for styling layers in the winter than the summer, so in the hot months I simplify accessories down to mainly shoes, purses, jewelry and sunglasses.

For shoes, I have had to slowly accept that flats are better for my feet, although I still love the look of high heels.

So I mostly have flats now: a pair of striped canvas shoes, my most worn tan leather ballet flats, black loafers, a dressy tan ankle strap sandal with a low heel, a high heeled brown sandal, and a flat pair of cognac sandals.

Some of the accessories I have for summer are purses, especially straw and wicker ones, hats, lightweight scarves and sunglasses.

All of my main wardrobe pieces are fairly easy to mix and match and I can get a good amount of combinations from them without repeating too often. I’m not a mathematician, but if I was, I could figure out the number of unique combinations and I’m sure it would be in the hundreds.

I’ve been keeping track of my outfits over the past couple of months and not once have I repeated an outfit in its entirety. I’ve realized over the years, that while it was fun to have lots of clothes, it’s much nicer to have fewer pieces that work well together and are easy to accessorize. Not only does it make it easier to dress in the morning, but is also easier to shop, launder and maintain. Having parameters doesn’t have to stifle creativity.

Here are some of the outfit combinations I have been wearing over the past couple of months, using pieces from my summer 10 item wardrobe.

When I found this skirt at the thrift store, I wasn’t sure what I was going to pair it with, as it’s a different shade of blue from all the other pieces in my closet (except for this scarf I just thrifted) but it pairs well with green and cream. I would tie the scarf onto the bag- have you ever styled scarves like that before?

This is my favourite button front skirt that coordinates with pretty much every top in my closet, and can be either dressed up or dressed down. I’ve probably worn it with every single top I own.

Very similar, but a slightly rosier colour, this 1/2 circle skirt is also on constant rotation and pairs well with most of the things in my closet for both dressy or casual outfits. It’s the most basic skirt pattern that it’s almost boring, but that versatility is the reason we have “basics”!

I was originally going to make this gingham fabric it into a dress, but after colour draping and finding out that it is too warm for my skin, I am so glad I made it into this wrap skirt instead. I wear it a lot more than I would have a dress.

I love this floral hummingbird patterned skirt. Originally a dress I sewed over 10 years ago, it has since turned into another wrap skirt. What can I say? Wrap skirts are just so perfect for summer! It pairs so nicely with my pink coat, so I wear it whenever I know it’s going to rain.

This floral peach skirt I have also had for a long time. And this one I can stretch into the fall as well, just by switching to more cold weather accessories. It works so well for summer though, and pairs nicely with the greens I have in my closet.

This tan dotted linen wrap circle skirt is one of my nicest sewing projects- the fabric just hangs really nicely, and the subtle pattern goes well with almost all of the tops in my closet.

And finally, the two dresses I currently have and how I have styled them recently.

Well, there are 16 outfits to start with, and I didn’t even feature all of the accessories! Mapping out all of these outfits is definitely helping me see some clear patterns. Like the fact that I love neutrals, which is no big surprise. It’s mostly a palette of brown, tan, black, green and navy blue, with a couple small touches of pink and cream. I would like to add in some more pink, but pink is a tricky colour for me to wear- it can easily be too bright, or blend into my skin tone, so I am still looking for the right one.

As I mentioned before, I would also like to add in a couple of simple button up blouses with a vintage style. Something patterned, like a vintage floral would be nice to fill in the gaps in patterned tops. The problem with wearing “slow fashion”, though, is that it is also slow to find the right new pieces!

And more dresses would also be nice. Dresses are so cool and comfortable to wear in the summer, but they are also time consuming to sew, hence why I’ve just sewed skirts lately. I do have the fabric for a couple though, so I should finally do it…

And other than wanting to find a few key pieces, I am really happy with how my capsule/ ten item wardrobe came together this season. Having so many pieces that coordinate together gives me so many options to easily put together outfits, without getting bored.

Have you ever heard of the 10 Item Wardrobe? Do you have a capsule or seasonal wardrobe? Or do you wear the same things year round?