Capsule wardrobes are as ubiquitous as avocado toasts recently (or chia puddings, for that matter), everyone and their pet iguana is doing it. If you don’t spend your days on Instagram, let me try to be helpful and recap: capsule wardrobe is a limited collection of seasonal clothes – usually around 33-37 pieces – that should be easily combined and consequently make dressing quick and painless. There are several methods, some include accessories, some don’t, but the focus is on reducing shopping, appreciating quality and finding pieces you really love.

This sounds perfect, you say? It does. I suspect most people have this secret longing for a tightly curated wardrobe full of fitted blazers and silk shirts and cashmere, probably in tones of navy, cream and tan. I certainly have these fantasies and I even have several of those clothes in my wardrobe. Don’t get me wrong, you CAN have that wardrobe, it’s absolutely doable – for some people. But I’m sure you can see this coming: I’m not one of them.

There are many elements of the capsule wardrobe approach that I sincerely admire and subscribe to (Unfancy is a nice example). It absolutely makes sense to clear out your closet once in a while, to stop shopping for the wrong reasons and when you do shop, to shop better and with longevity and sustainability in mind. Reducing the number of clothes and thinking about your wardrobe in a structured way will likely help many people to waste less and enjoy their clothes more. I especially like that there is a lot of focus on finding things you truly love, that are essentially YOU.

That is, of course, also the weakness of this approach. Because what if you are a person whose style is defined by eclecticism, by wearing neon and oversized hoodies on weekends, vintage to cocktails and tailored pantsuits to work? What if you love colour and strange shapes? My wardrobe has a very wide range, from distressed jeans to sheath dresses to floor-length gowns, from yellow to grey – and it’s all me. Capsule wardrobe rules regarding the number of items and the requirement of combineability (very likely not a word) make it very difficult to follow the programme if your style is not very focussed or clearly defined – and especially if you don’t want it to be.

My problem is that capsule wardrobe rewards uniform dressing. It will always make sense to buy that black bag or beige sweater instead of anything in coral pink or lettuce green. Even if you love that orange polka dot dress to death, it will clearly not be the thing that will effortlessly go with everything else you already own (see my thoughts on the 3 Piece Rule here). You can still buy it, of course, most capsule wardrobe advocates will stress that you can use the method whatever your style and you can also make exceptions. But I dislike that it discourages being bold, unconventional and experimental. It just goes against my style ideology, as I think people need more – not less – encouragement on that front. While uniform dressing will be perfectly fine for some people and they’ll look wonderfully French doing it, it will suck all joy out of dressing for others.

There is also a very practical bit about the concept that I don’t like and that’s the ban on buying clothes between seasons. Ideally, once you’ve put together your wardrobe for three months, that should be it. Again, I very much approve of keeping one’s shopping under control and I know that this rule helps some people to do it. For me, it would be counterproductive. I need to space my buys out to manage my craving for the new. If I buy all my new pieces in the beginning of the season, I’ll be restless by week three and suffocating by the end of the second month.

In addition to ideological and practical objections, I also have a philosophical – or maybe a moral one. Capsule wardrobe should be a helpful tool, not an additional source of stress. If you keep counting your t-shirts and feeling guilty about owning more sneakers than you’re “allowed”, it’s not working. Most of high-profile capsulewardrobers (definitely not a word, this one) seem perfectly nice people, but there can also be some smugness and superiority – or they are easy to imagine, when your wardrobe doesn’t measure up. While the raison d’être of CR (cannot be bothered to write it out any more) is to make things easier for women, to free up some space for other things, it’s just a couple of steps away from an obsession with the perfect wardrobe.

The last thing we need is another item on the list that women are supposed to have: the high-flying career, a loving partner, happy children, amazing quinoa cooking skills, the pilates body, the Goodreads reading challenge in three digits… and a fantastic capsule wardrobe. It’s perfectly OK to just have some nice clothes you quite enjoy wearing. And maybe also some horrible items you panic-bought when he wasn’t calling – that’s OK, too.

Btw, would you like a more in-depth look into my wardrobe? Would that be interesting?

This is dedicated to J, who took the pictures of our wardrobe this morning, as I had forgotten to do it myself while still in Brussels.