What Is The Optimal Number Of Clothes To Have In A Wardrobe?

Ever since I started using apps to inventory my clothes and log my outfits, I am honing in on my own unique style. I was very attracted to the idea of a "capsule wardrobe" and had fun trying to recreate some of the outfits I found in capsule wardrobes. I like minimalism, and tried to create my own capsule without buying a lot of new things. At first when I tried to whittle down my wardrobe into a capsule for one season, I felt I had a bit of a hodgepodge. That was winter 2023. By winter 2024, I had three "collections" that each worked together. My style was becoming more cohesive, but I found that I had too much and didn't fully utilize what I had.

I started using the Indyx wardrobe app in November 2024 and it has been a total game changer! You can create collections, or capsules, within your wardrobe to organize your clothes and come up with outfits. There are a lot of fun statistics, too, like cost per wear (this has become a challenge for me, because like my fiancé says, the cost per wear for most articles of clothing should be pennies.)

It's getting warmer here in Cincinnati and I am planning my summer capsule wardrobe for workwear. I thought it would be fun to think about how many pieces of clothing are optimal. Obviously, this number will be different for different people, and of course it can change. But I think numbers are fun!

Step 1: Determine the different activities you wear clothes for. For me, I work in an office Monday through Friday, so that it was I am focusing on first. I also do errands, go out for dinner or brunch, lounge around the house, go biking, hiking, running, and play tennis (tennis clothes are just the cutest). So if I was looking for a total number of clothes in my wardrobe, I would look at all those different categories.

Step 2: If you live in a place with seasons, when you change the types of clothes you wear, estimate the number of days in each season. For example, the way I dress in Cincinnati weather I would estimate:

Summer - 4 months
Fall - 2 months
Winter - 2 1/2 months
Spring - 3 1/2 months

Step 3: Calculate how many days (or outfits) you think you will wear for a particular category in a particular season. For example, summer has 4 months, or about 120 days. I usually spend 70% of my days at work, so there are about 84 work outfits I will wear during the summer.

Step 4: Break down the types of clothes you like to wear in that season. Focusing on one pieces and bottoms first, for summer work outfits, I like to wear 40% dresses, 40% trousers, and 20% jeans. Then calculate your number of tops you will need (40%+20%=60%).

Step 5: Now you will come up with the total number of "wears" for your one-pieces, bottoms, and tops:

84*40% dresses = 33 days or wears
84*40% trousers = 33 days or wears
84*20% jeans = 16 days or wears
84*60% tops = 50 days or wears

Step 6: Next think about frequency of wear for each category of clothes. Since I'm trying to decrease my cost per wear, I have a goal of wearing each top, bottom, and one piece at least 5 times in a season. With that in mind, I would need 6 or less dresses (33/5); 6 or less trousers (33/5); 3 pairs of jeans (16/5) and 10 or less tops (50/5).

I took inventory of what is feeling like a summer work collection, shown in the photo below, and I think I may be close to having what I need, which is less than the calculated numbers. Blazers/outerwear, shoes, and accessories can be added to pull outfits together, and to change up the same pieces.

It is worth noting that I followed the "Style Workshop" series available through the Indyx app, and it helped me refine my vision for my style, as well as select a color theme. I also found the season color analysis to be helpful to see what colors look best on me. True autumn here! To my surprise, less really is more.

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