Personal Experiences of a Capsule Wardrobe

Abstract

In recent years, various capsule wardrobe projects have been emerging in the U.S since the great interest in sustainability has increased with the growth of fast fashion. The ultimate goal of a capsule wardrobe is to urge people to purchase fewer apparel products of higher quality so that they will not discard them so frequently and easily. Moreover, creating different daily outfits through playing around with limited items of the capsule wardrobe provides people with an opportunity to enhance their creativity. The purpose of this study is to examine the personal experiences of a capsule wardrobe and how this daily practice of creating and dressing with limited clothing items can have an impact on creativity and sustainability. This study seeks to explore the motivations, benefits, and limitations of engaging in a capsule wardrobe project as perceived by a sample of volunteer participants. This study had seven female volunteer participants who were junior or senior students in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. All of them were living in Minnesota and had lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years. They had no previous experience of creating and managing their capsule wardrobes. In this study, multiple data collection methods including an online survey, creativity tests, daily journals, and pre-and-post interviews were used to achieve methodological triangulation. Based on the online survey and daily journals, merged patterns for creating different ensembles with limited items were found. The data from creativity tests, daily journals and pre-interview were analyzed and interpreted to discover how the daily practice of dressing with a capsule wardrobe affect one’s creativity. Findings from pre and post interviews were used to examine the benefits and limitations of a capsule wardrobe perceived by participants of this study. This study suggests feasible and accessible solutions to waste, pollution and over consumption. Since there are few studies on how dressing strategies can influence one’s creativity and how the capsule wardrobe can empower individuals to reduce their impact on this planet, the researcher believed that this study would have significant meaning educationally, academically and socially.