How Many Colours Should Be in a Capsule Wardrobe?

When you start building a capsule wardrobe, it’s easy to concentrate on the clothes themselves: how many tops you need, whether you should own two pairs of trousers or three, and which jacket will work with everything. But the colours you choose can make just as much difference to how well your capsule wardrobe works.

Too many unrelated colours and you may still find yourself with clothes that only work in one or two combinations. Too few, and your wardrobe can start to feel repetitive.

So how many colours should a capsule wardrobe actually have?

A good starting point: 3 neutrals + 3 accent colours

There isn't one perfect number, but a simple starting point is to choose around:

• 2–3 core neutral colours
• 2–3 accent colours
• 1–2 lighter or darker variations of those colours, if needed

That gives you enough variety to make your wardrobe interesting, while keeping the overall palette cohesive.

Your neutral colours are usually the ones you'll use for the hardest-working pieces in your wardrobe: trousers, skirts, jackets, knitwear and shoes. Depending on your colouring and personal style, these might include navy, cream, camel, chocolate brown, charcoal, soft grey, olive or black.

You can read more about the best neutrals for each of the 12 colour seasons on The Colour Edit →

Your accent colours add personality. They might appear in tops, dresses, scarves, knitwear or accessories.

The important thing isn't simply how many colours you choose. It's whether those colours work well with each other.

Why fewer colours can create more outfits

It sounds counterintuitive, but restricting your colour palette can actually give you more choice.

Imagine owning six tops and four bottoms. If every colour works with every other colour, you have dozens of possible combinations.

If half of those pieces clash with each other, however, your practical wardrobe becomes much smaller.

This is one of the reasons capsule wardrobes can sometimes fail. You may have successfully reduced the number of clothes you own without creating a wardrobe that actually mixes and matches.

A planned colour palette helps solve that problem.

Your capsule wardrobe palette doesn't have to be boring

A limited colour palette doesn't mean wearing beige, navy and white forever.

You can create a capsule wardrobe around almost any colour family.

Someone with warm colouring might build around camel, olive, cream, rust and warm teal. Someone who suits cooler colours might prefer navy, soft grey, raspberry, blue and lavender.

You can also vary colour depth. A palette containing light, medium and deeper shades will often feel much more versatile than six colours of a very similar depth.

You can learn more about the 12 colour seasons and which colours work best for every palette on the Find Your Colour Season page  →

Start with the colours you already love wearing

Before choosing a theoretical capsule wardrobe palette, look at the clothes you reach for most often.

Which colours make you feel good?

Which ones receive compliments?

Which colours already appear repeatedly in your wardrobe?

These are usually much more useful clues than starting with a list of colours somebody else thinks every capsule wardrobe should contain.

And if you already know your colour season, you have an even easier starting point. Your seasonal palette gives you a ready-made family of colours designed to work harmoniously together.

If you're not sure of your season and would prefer some expert help, you can also use our Find A Colour Analyst directory to find colour analysts offering professional consultations →

If you know your colour season and want to find out more about creating a colour season based capsule wardrobe, you might enjoy our guide on how to create a capsule wardrobe for your colour season →

Use your colour season as the framework

Rather than trying to use every colour in your seasonal palette, choose a smaller group to form the basis of your wardrobe.

For example, you might select:

• three reliable neutrals
• three favourite accent colours
• one or two useful supporting shades

You can then use the rest of your seasonal palette occasionally without losing the sense that your wardrobe belongs together.

We've created a Mini Wardrobe Planner for each of the 12 colour seasons to help you do exactly this. Each one is designed to help you choose your core colours, plan the foundations of your wardrobe and create a more cohesive starting point for getting dressed.

Prefer to buy through Etsy? You can also find our Mini Wardrobe Planners in the Shop My Palette's Etsy shop →

You don't need a huge wardrobe to create lots of outfits. You need colours that work hard together.

Hero image by Sarah Brown on Unsplash