On Capsule Wardrobes, Clothing Budgets, & the One Piece You’d Die For
Laramie Dennis and I both love clothes. She ran the anti-wedding blog to end all wedding blogs, makes very good, complicated movies about very good, complicated women, and knows where to find the best tacos in every major American city. I asked her to tell me how to dress.
Meghan: Ring ring ring…
Laramie: Hey, hi!
Meghan: Hi! How are you?
Laramie: I’m good. I’m nervous. But you’ll edit this to make us both look incredibly smart and somehow effortlessly stylish, yes?
Meghan: Oh goodness yes, clearly that is the persona I have cultivated online already.
Laramie: I fucking loved your piece about Harry Styles as style muse. Is that his name, Harry Styles?
Meghan: It IS. My Harry, my Hazza, my dream.
Laramie: One Direction? I know zero about this band/phenom.
Meghan: Oh god, that is just…not something to get me started on. I’m working on a long essay about it. I’ve pitched, like, 18 think pieces. Weirdly no one wants to publish a 32-year-old woman talking about her strange obsession with a British boyband.
ANYWAY.
Can I call you Laramie? I want to call you esb still.
Laramie: Call me whatever you like!
Meghan: Laramie! Laramie. Tell the readers who you are.
Laramie: Okay, let’s see…. I’m a theater-director-turned-film-director-slash-screenwriter who took a long, strange foray into blogging. Do I mention the blog? It’s a little embarrassing, but I’ve met the raddest raddest women through East Side Bride— YOU, for example.
Meghan: That’s how I found you! What’s embarrassing about it?
Laramie: Oh, just that it was a wedding blog. And that I kept it up for so long. Women kept writing in with the most insane, amazing questions…. Some wedding-related, some not. And I love telling people what to do, so.
Meghan: But it was the anti-wedding blog, which is what made it such a dreamy respite from the pits of the web. It’s probably more embarrassing that I spent hours reading it, considering I have never even approached marriage. It seemed like it was more a rough guide for how to live your life as a give-no-fucks woman.
Laramie: I LOVE that you loved it. And that other single women loved it. You’re my ideal reader/audience.
Speaking of give no fucks! The capsule wardrobe. So basically the idea is that you can pull any combination of items out of your closet and just throw them on and look effortlessly amazing, yes?
You have to promise to edit so that I only use “effortless” once.
Meghan: EFFORTLESS.
Laramie: It’s the dream, isn’t it? TO BE EFFORTLESS.
Meghan: I’ll also edit out anything we say about French women. AN EFFORTLESS FRENCH WOMAN.
Laramie: It takes more work, as it turns out.
Meghan: What is your current wardrobe approach?
Laramie: I’m having a slouchy black silk pant + grey tank moment. I could basically wear that every day. I have this one pair of pants that are almoooost drop-crotch-y, and I just splurged on some beautiful Emerson Frys with this Japanese-y fold-over part in the front. She made a pair of black pants several years ago that I loved but I couldn’t afford, and I mourned them forever. So when this pair came up and I had the money — $225 I think? not an insubstantial amount of money — I bit the bullet.
Just upped my grey tank game, too. I really do love the idea that everything goes with everything and all I have to do is throw it on.
Meghan: That sounds very louche. I love it.
Lately I’ve settled on a blue or grey sweater tucked into high waisted jeans with a bright lip. It’s slightly utilitarian in a way that I like. It makes me feel efficient.
Laramie: Ooooh who makes the jeans?
Meghan: Yawn — one pair is a no-name Canadian brand, and one pair is from ASOS. I just bought the Madewell “Perfect Summer Jean” in a great acid 90s wash, though, which I think elevates it all a bit.
Laramie: I am wanting a pair of high-waisted Levis, but…. The tucking thing, I find that hard to pull off.
So you have three pairs. I love that.
Three seems to be an important number in the capsule game. My #3 pair of slouchy pants are BLUE SUEDE. I found them at Crossroads. I’ve worn them to work two of the last three days and no one has complimented me. I’m a little pissed.
Meghan: YOU LOOK AMAZING.
So, it seems like there are a few movements coinciding here: there’s the capsule wardrobe, which is like a small number of high-quality items that can be worn together and bypass trends; the whole Marie Kondo minimalist thing, where you only keep items you love; and the idea of a uniform, where you wear the same thing every day with maybe minor variations.
Laramie: I subscribe to all of the above.
Meghan: Can you estimate how many items you have in your closet right now?
Laramie: Hmmm. 20 or 30 items hanging? A stack of t-shirts. A stack of jeans that don’t fit in a way that pleases me but I’m not ready to give up. And then there’s like a zippy storage bag at the top of the closet of things I’d like to transition out… Sometimes I have to put them away for a minute before I’m ready to give them away.
I’m obsessive about getting rid of clothes.
Meghan: That’s capsule-esque! I definitely have more than that, which makes me itch to go purge again.
Laramie: Do you wear all your clothes?
Meghan: No, definitely not. I’m getting better, though.
How often would you say you purge?
Laramie: Two or three times a year for sure. I have this dream that I could look at my closet (it’s exposed, so I can see it from the bed) and just….love everything in it.
Meghan: That is the ultimate capsule dream. What does your purging involve?
Laramie: Lately, I’m trying to get rid of anything in a color that’s not flattering. Anything that makes me feel “meh” when I wear it. And any non-natural fabrics. That last one is the hardest. I’ve got a few 50/50 tees I’m reluctant to let go of…. But they don’t feel good. They feel like wearing plastic.
What’s the most embarrassing thing in your closet?
Meghan: Oh lord. I had this bedazzled crop top from Club Monaco that was $200+ that I had only worn ONCE. That is the kind of thing I am embarrassed about. It is crushing, to look at something like that. I wanted a crop top, I had this outfit in my head that I was determined would work, I bought the top knowing it was too expensive. And it didn’t fit, because my boobs are way too big for most crop tops. It doesn’t work. I know that. I know that! I’m 32! I know that!
So I actually just last week gave it to a friend. She is model-sized and wears it like a glove.
Laramie: I have never dared a crop top.
Meghan: I blame Taylor Swift. It just represented such a manic lack of judgement on my part. It’s one thing to make that mistake over a $20 shirt, but $200?!?!
Laramie: I try to make a rule that if I wouldn’t want it for full price, I’m not allowed to buy it on sale.
Meghan: That is a great rule. Truly a genius rule.
Laramie: Been thinking I could go for a sleeeightly cropped tee with my blue suede sweatpants, which are pretty high-waisted. Have I mentioned my blue suede sweatpants? Why has no one complimented me.
What’s your favorite thing in your closet right now?
Meghan: I’m pretty googly-eyed over this dress I got last year at Anthropologie, of all places. It’s my ball gown, or what I call my ball gown. Floor-length silk. I think I love it for its absurdity.
Laramie: Is there tulle involved?
Meghan: Do you have a favorite/most embarrassing?
Laramie: IS THERE TULLE INVOLVED
Meghan: Hahaha, I wish. Frankly I’d wear tutus all the time if I could. Like, full ballerina style. Layers and layers like a delicate French pastry.
Laramie: I’ve ditched most of the embarrassing stuff, but I do own two kaftans that I will definitely never wear in public. Turns out kaftans are really hard to wear 😕
Favorite thing is probably the vintage faux leopard coat my dad bought me on Haight Street when I was 13.
Meghan: WOW. Do you wear it often?
Laramie: Every once in a while… Doesn’t fit the capsule wardrobe, but fuck it.
Okay, what’s your dreamy most secret wish of a thing you would buy if you had all the money in the world?
Meghan: I would track down a mint-condition, pristinely white Edwardian gown. Like, awash in lace made by tiny children in Venice, that was worn only once at some exquisite summer picnic.
Laramie: Ooooooh, I’m picturing you in that. I love it.
Meghan: What about you?
Laramie: Mine is so boring, and soooo capsule, but I really want a perfect fucking grown up minimalist black wool coat. I recently tried one on at Wasteland — it was Costume National and I LOVED it, made me feel like Patti Smith — but the clasps were kinda broken and it had moth holes.
Moth holes are against the rules, esp at $175.
Meghan: How often do you shop? Do you have a sense of how much you spend a year?
Laramie: I probably spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200 a year.
You? Do you know?
Meghan: I would say last year was my worst (best?) year, because I was living in NYC and making real money for the first time — I probably spent upwards of $2000.
Gahhhhh.
However, now I am freelance and barely leave my apartment and so I have spent nothing this year and will likely continue to spend nothing.
Laramie: Walking around New York makes you want/need to buy clothes all the time. So does a full-time job! I still can’t go into Banana Republic. I get flashbacks.
Meghan: Not shopping also, for me, helps with purging — I get so ruthless because I can’t have anything new and am forced to stare at my closet dregs and become filled with such aimless rage.
Laramie: What are you wearing right now?
Meghan: Old lounge-y pants from Target, a sleeveless Everlane button-up, and Everlane cardigan.
Laramie: Ooooh can you vouch for the Everlane tees? I’ve been eying. They have my colors this season. Although I’ve already gone over the budget I set for myself for the next three (fully-employed) months…
Meghan: I can! Especially if you are less busty than me. I usually buy men’s tees because I find the fit of women’s tees really unforgiving. But the quality is great on all of their stuff, I’ve found, and it makes me feel good in that millennial way to support their ethics. Their ethos is definitely in-line with a highly edited wardrobe.
What are YOU wearing? Please say the suede pants.
Laramie: Duh. With a grey tank and black rubber Birkenstocks.
Meghan: Clap clap clap. The Birks! I haven’t gone Birks.
Laramie: They’re rubber, so they don’t count.
Meghan: You were also the first fashion lady I know to go back to Tevas.
Laramie: Flatform Tevas. I’m now coveting another pair of, like, Adidas slip-ons. Like we wore in the 90s. With slouchy pants? Boom.
Meghan: The shower shoes? Would you classify that as capsule or trend?
How do you balance the two?
Laramie: Oh, yeah, those probably aren’t capsule are they? I mean, even pant silhouettes go through phases. I was all about the “jogger” for a while there. And the boyfriend jean. I still can’t let go of that.
Meghan: I maintain it is basically impossible not to be trend-influenced to some degree. Like can you even BUY bootcut jeans now? If you wanted to for some incomprehensible reason?
Laramie: Cropped fucking bootcut jeans are popping up. THE WORST. And watch: We’ll be wearing them next year.
Meghan: I can’t with those.
Laramie: I know. But yeah. There’s no escaping trends.
Meghan: Are you more of a minimalist now than you were, say, five years ago? Capsule, minimalism, etc — even that is a trend. I was a total trend-whore as a teenager/in my early 20s, which I think came from insecurity.
Laramie: No, I don’t think so. I’ve always been a purger. Always had this dream of the tiny perfect wardrobe.
Meghan: That’s evolved. You are evolved. Clearly, if you were wearing vintage leopard at 13.
Laramie: I tweeted recently (and please forgive for quoting myself): “i have this mistaken idea that shopping is a surmountable task. like, if i just find that one more perfect striped t-shirt i will be DONE”
Meghan: I think I liked that Tweet!
Laramie: When I was in college, I wrote a paper for my Marxist theory class about the J.Crew catalogue.
Meghan: You’re a fucking icon.
Laramie: Something about them peddling the idea that if you’d only buy the rollneck sweater in ONE MORE COLOR your life would be perfect. The man, the golden retriever, the hanging out on the dock by the lake. (This was the J.Crew of the 90s.)
That color would have been, of course, periwinkle or cranberry or “snow.”
Meghan: “Peach fuzz.”
It’s not dissimilar to what we’re aiming at, though — the idea that our closets will someday be a carefully edited assortment of 12 perfect items and we can finally rest.
Laramie: IS THAT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK
Meghan: If you could only have three items in your closet for the next year, what would they be?
Laramie: Meg, that is so easy.
1. The black silk Emerson Fry pants.
2. J.Crew (ugggh) vintage cotton tank.
3. New Balance sneakers plus Hasbeen t-strap clogs to switch em out with.
4. Vietnam-era army shirt/jacket for when it gets chilly.
Meghan: Cheater.
Laramie: You?
Meghan: 1. Dusen Dusen high-waisted black and white cropped linen pants.
2. Everlane sleeveless black silk top.
3. The black leather bomber I have yet to find/purchase.
Laramie: Shoes?
Meghan: I want these Loeffler Randall silver lace-ups… This is turning into less of a “what is currently in my closet” and more of a “how do I get the things I want” game. Not the point of the goddamn capsule.
Laramie: Yeah, give me three items you already own, that you know work together.
Meghan: Fine, fine. Dusen Dusen pants, Everlane top, Bensimon sneakers, with a sub-out for Rachel Comey platforms.
Laramie: BOOM.
Meghan: We fresh as fuck.
Laramie: I love us. We are very stylish.
To read: One of my favourite minimalists.
Cuyana’s Lean Closet Movement.
Do you have tips for creating the perfect capsule? Have you nailed your uniform? Are you TRULY EFFORTLESS? Please share.
