Minimalist Summer Wardrobe |Feminine & simple

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Create a minimalist summer wardrobe that is both functional and beautiful.

In this blog post I’m going to show you what my favorite pieces of clothing are, and my number one tip to keeping your entire wardrobe pared down to only your favorite pieces.

I will try to give you a link to as many pieces as I can but some were purchased at small boutique shops without an online presence. In that case I will find a close match and link to that instead.

What are the pros of having a minimalist summer wardrobe?

For starters, the laundry. You won’t have piles and piles of laundry to wash.

Keeping a minimalist wardrobe for every season will ensure you only keep quality items you actually like to wear.

Having too many clothes creates clutter, and It’s a well known fact that clutter adds to our anxiety and stress.

Having a minimalist capsule wardrobe will free up time every morning and keep money in your wallet.

It ensures your wardrobe consists of timeless, quality pieces. No more trying to keep up on ever changing fashion trends.

Albert Einstein was famously known for having a set “uniform” of his choosing. According to Einstein and other brilliant minds, having too many outfit choices wastes valuable decision making power.

How many Items are in a minimalist summer wardrobe?

I personally don’t believe there is a magic number of items you need to limit yourself to. The important thing is to ONLY have pieces you truly love and feel comfortable in.

If you feel more comfortable having an exact number, here are some great guidelines for you to follow.

Project 333 was created by Courtney Carver. Courtney challenges you to dress with 33 items or less for three months. The 33 items includes pairs of shoes, accessories and clothing items. This option would work great if you live in a state where you have true seasons like we do here in Utah. You could swap out 33 items of clothing for every season. When summer ends, pack up your summer wardrobe and put away for next year. Then pull out 33 new pieces for fall and repeat for every season through the year.

Of course many of those pieces could be moved forward to the following season.

The 10-Item Wardrobe is a guide that many people living a minimalist lifestyle like to stick to. The idea is to select 10 core pieces you can mix and match with each other to create a handful of outfits. These 10-items don’t include things like shoes, outerwear, or accessories.

Or you can do the KonMari method which is the famous only keep what “sparks joy”, and ruthlessly declutter all else. She uses this method for every area of the home not just clothing.

How do you make a summer capsule wardrobe?

• Start by taking a day to go through your entire closet. Put aside everything you wear during the summer months. Every other piece of clothing you took out of your closet put in plastic bins and take them to the basement. We’re not going to worry about any of those right now.
• If you need to, try on all the hot weather clothes you own and start two piles. Everything that fits well and you still like, put in one pile and everything that doesn’t fit or feels uncomfortable, or you just don’t like anymore, in pile number two.
• When you’ve gone through every article of clothing take pile number two and put it in a black garbage bag. Take it out to the trunk of your car in that very moment. The next time you’re out running errands, drop it off at goodwill.
• Now that you only have one pile of clothes you truly like, figure out what you need to supplement it. For this you might need to really think about your personal style and day to day life. A stay at home mom will have different clothing needs than a mom who works outside the home.
• Since we want to be intentional about the amount of clothes we have and each individual piece, write down your plan. For example, my ideal minimalist summer wardrobe only includes enough outfits to get me through eight days of the week. I’ll share more on that a little later.
• Now that everything is written down, check off all the pieces you already have and shop for any new pieces you still need.

Plan out your own summer capsule wardrobe

There’s a couple of different ways you can do this.

You can choose a color palette where every piece will mix and match perfectly together. For example, you can choose all earthy neutral colors, or you can have a couple pairs of jeans or white maxi skirts that all brightly colored and pattern tops will go well with.

The older I get the less I want to look like my usual frumpy stay at home mom look I rocked for an entire decade.

This season of life has me embracing femininity and the ease of one piece staples in my summer minimalist wardrobe.

Flowy summer dresses, and jumpsuits are my favorite during the hot summer months. Shorts, skinny jeans, tee shirts, and tank tops also made the cut, but the one-pieces really are my favorite for ease and comfort.

What To Look For When making your own capsule wardrobe collection

A few key things you want from each single piece in a well curated seasonal wardrobe:

1. Classic cuts that will work for your body shape.
2. Versatile pieces you can mix and match for both a casual look and more special occasions.
3. High-quality pieces.

Clothing ideas for a minimalist closet:

• One piece complete outfits like a linen dress or jumpsuit.
• light jacket, like a denim jacket for spring and a leather jacket in fall.
• natural materials t-shirts
• pair of shorts
• pair of jeans
• light cardigan
• black pair of pants
• black or dark colored dress
• tank tops

Minimalist Style accessories ideas:

• hats
• sunglasses
• stud or hoop earrings.

My Minimalist Summer Wardrobe Outfit Ideas

Like I mentioned above, my ideal minimalist summer wardrobe only includes enough outfits to get me through eight days.

This allows me to do my entire laundry in just two loads every week. I simply put everything from the waist up in one load, and everything from the waist down in the second load.

That’s just my personal laundry though, don’t you go thinking that’s ALL the laundry I have to do. I still have a husband and three boys, plus bedding and all the extras around the house.

Eight Day Minimalist Summer Wardrobe

So here’s what my entire minimalist summer wardrobe consists of:

Four tank tops, four cotton shirts all in different colors.

Two dresses, one romper and one prairie skirt.

Skinny jeans, bermuda shorts, and a pair of Nike active shorts.

Nude ballet flats, Black faux leather sandals, Nike Tennis shoes, and White Tennis.

This doesn’t include pj’s, underwear and other things like swimsuits and loungewear.

My absolute favorite place to shop for ballet flats, built-in bra tanks and the cotton shirts is at J.CREW. Their clearance events are the best so make sure to wait for a good sale. Plus when you shop through this link you will get $20 off your $50 purchase!

Take it one step at a time

So where are you in your capsule wardrobe journey?

If it feels too intimidating my advise is to start with one thing at a time.

If you have ten pairs of jeans, declutter just the jeans. Keep only the pairs you truly love how they fit, and donate the rest.

After that move on to the shoes. So you have a few shabby looking shoes that have seen better days? Donate them.

Keep going like that with everything else in your closet. Shirts, dresses, coats,…

One of the main problems people face when decluttering their closet is seeing all the money wasted on things you no longer love or no longer fit. I understand, I feel the same way sometimes. But keeping it in our closet out of guilt is not going to put the money back in our wallet.

How else can I help you with this? Would you like to see my winter capsule wardrobe for inspiration? Let me know in the comments below.