Seasonal Capsules and Winter Accessories

There seems to be a great divide when it comes to seasonal capsule wardrobes. Some people think storing away out-of-season clothing is a great idea, inherent to the capsule wardrobe concept. But devout followers of Marie Kondo and her The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up as well as many minimalists out there insist that it’s best to keep everything out all year. I definitely see the benefits and drawbacks of both ideas, and while I’ve always kept everything out all year, I’ve been thinking about experimenting with the seasonal storage approach. Marie Kondo says in her books that it’s unnecessary to store things away because when you have the right amount of clothing, you don’t need extra storage. I’d agree with this, and add that storing things away can lead to forgetting what you have, and then buying things you don’t need- especially when the season starts to change and you’re bombarded with summer sales announcements in your inbox. But I guess the main reason I’ve always done it this way is that I just like to know where every item I own is at all times. Maybe a bit obsessive, but that’s just how my brain works.

Now there are loads of people doing the seasonal capsule wardrobe instead of just a minimal wardrobe. Caroline Joy of the blog Un-fancy was one of the pioneers of the seasonal capsule concept that most people are familiar with online. She recommends a capsule of 37 pieces every 3 months, storing out-of-season clothing away for the rest of the year. But she also suggests a strict no-shopping policy for the 3 months of each season. Her idea is to only use the last 2 weeks of the season to shop for the following season, having assessed what you already have in storage. This sounds like a reasonable and deliberate approach that allows you to not stare at your bulky puffer coat every day of a blisteringly hot summer. I think this system also helps you touch base with your wardrobe and declutter as necessary, maybe even clearing things out at the end of each season when you’re most familiar with what worked and what didn’t. One other benefit to the seasonal storage idea is mentioned by Jennifer L. Scott, who introduced the Ten-Item Wardrobe in her book, Lessons from Madame Chic. She suggests that switching items out each season can make you feel like you’ve just gone shopping. I love this idea- seeing your seasonal items with fresh eyes could absolutely help with those “summer sale” urges. Why buy new items when you’ve just been reunited with an old favorite?

For the time being, I’m storing out-of-season sweaters and hats and gloves in my chest of drawers, where there’s plenty of room to do so. And so, for the final installment of my capsule wardrobe/minimalist closet inventory, here are my 8 winter accessories:

First are the 4 items for everyday wear:

1 grey cotton slouchy beanie

1 grey wool oversized beanie

1 blue velvet 1920s style flower hat

1 pair tan leather gloves (Lands’ End)

And then 4 more items for cold-weather exercise:

1 Under Armor striped grey and turquoise beanie

1 Old Navy grey fleece scarf

1 pair black Under Armor liner gloves

1 pair grey Under Armour flap mittens

(The scarves are in their own category, but to reiterate, I have 2 winter scarves: an oversized cashmere grey cable knit scarf and a blush Calvin Klein logo scarf.)

I bought the grey cotton slouchy beanie this year, but I’m afraid it’s been a mild failure. I was trying to replace the hand-knit wool beanie due to incessant fuzziness, but that’s proved difficult. I finally settled on the cotton one from TJ Maxx, but it’s just not warm enough, so now I have both. My other strategy with the wool hat’s fuzziness was to have at it with a depiller comb. Note to self: this does not work on chunky knits. In fact, it makes it worse. So then I carefully skimmed over it with my husband’s electric clippers. This gave acceptable results, so I ended up keeping the hat, but it seemed premature to get rid of the cotton one. The blue velvet hat is from a street vendor in Times Square. It’s my fancy winter hat. The leather gloves were a gift from my husband and have those fingertips where you can use your phone with your gloves on. I hesitated to wear them much this year out of fear of losing them, which is ridiculous. The running hat and scarf are both warm and easy to throw in the wash. The liner gloves go under the flap mittens, so you can just slip your fingers out of the flaps to change songs mid-run. I’m packing all these into the bottom drawer with the sweaters for now. We’ll see if I feel like I just went shopping when I pull them out next year.