The secret to a good capsule wardrobe
On average, we wear only twenty percent of our wardrobe eighty percent of the time. In short: we buy too much clothing. The turnover rate of clothes is getting shorter and shorter: not only do we buy a lot more, but we throw clothes away sooner and sooner, which is anything but sustainable. The solution is simple: create a capsule wardrobe. A select number of items that you cherish and with which you can make different combinations time and time again.
The perfect foundation
A capsule wardrobe is like the foundation of your wardrobe. And on a solid foundation you can build anything. From casual to chic: with a good foundation you can do anything! Take the Little Black Dress or the white shirt. Dress it up or dress it down, with these ultimate classics you’re always in the right place. The power of such a timeless item is that with jewelry and accessories you can create endless different looks. But that is not the only secret of a good capsule wardrobe. Important criteria are that all items are comfortable, complement your figure and are easy to combine.
All-time favorites
Choose a well-considered selection of quality products per season to build your capsule wardrobe with. Timeless items that you cherish and with which you can always make the right combination, wherever you go. And it is precisely this versatility that makes it so easy to enjoy for a long time. High-quality garments have a long lifespan and you can pass them on when you no longer wear them. Avoid impulse buys and think carefully about what your new – Future Vintage – favorites should look like. This way you will automatically become a critical shopper who will soon have a closet full of beautiful things to choose from!
Caban, A cool classic
Two rows of buttons and wide lapels – that’s how you recognize the caban. Yves Saint Laurent translated the masculine marine jacket into an elegant ladies’ coat in 1962, but originally the uniform-style jacket was only worn by Breton and later American sailors. The practical length allowed sailors to move around in it with ease: to climb into the ship’s cloak, for example. The waterproof, usually heavy navy blue wool also kept them nice and warm. Classic cabans are still widely worn and some manufacturers make them according to old designs from the archives. Original details such as large side pockets make the double-breasted skipper’s coat fashionable as well as functional.
Go to the Mode ABC
Cocoon coat, Multiple lives
Long before American trend watcher Faith Popcorn introduced the term “cocooning,” Cristóbal Balenciaga created the cocoon coat, one of the most iconic garments of the 1960s with Twiggy as its main ambassador. The oversized silhouette of the gracefully draped cocoon coat was quite different from Christian Dior’s then-popular feminine hourglass shape with his New Look. Since that first 1957 design, this voluminous coat has had multiple lives over the decades. For example, the cocoon coat was simply renamed “big coat” in the 1980s, during the period when women wore menswear-inspired fashions, and today we talk about an ‘oversized’ coat.
Go to the Mode ABCLittle black dress, Chameleon
The little black dress is one of the icons in the realm of fashion classics. Every woman has at least one hanging in her closet. Gabrielle Chanel is often credited with inventing the little black dress (LBD for short), but it existed before that. When the American Vogue picked up the fashion trend in 1926, le petite robe noir was mentioned in the same breath as the designs of Chanel. Famous is Givenchy’s little black dress (well ok, it was a maxi length in this case), worn by Audrey Hepburn in the opening scene of the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). The power of the little black dress is that – like a chameleon – she can take on any shape or form, depending on the fashion of the time. The only constant is that she is always small and black.
Go to the Mode ABC