How to Create a Travel Capsule Wardrobe

Packing is one of my least-favorite aspects of travel. I tend to overpack, especially when it comes to footwear, and I often wear only half of what I bring or leave behind one key item.

Enter Wendy Mak, stylist and author of the book The Capsule Wardrobe: 1,000 Outfits From 30 Pieces. Wendy, who’s based in Australia, loves to travel, so it’s no surprise that she also has a travel-packing philosophy.

She shared what a capsule wardrobe really is, how to translate it to travel, and how she packs for trips so that you (and I!) can lighten our load and focus on what really matters: traveling.

OK, so the original idea of a capsule wardrobe is 30 pieces = 1,000 outfits. How does that translate to the suitcase?

You can have different capsules for different occasions. So you can have a work capsule, you can have a weekend capsule—the principle and the philosophy is the same.

Take a few really classic, basic items, make that 80 percent of the base of your wardrobe, and then in that last 20 percent you want to have accessories, fun pieces of clothing, accent colors—stuff that adds the jazz and the fun to your basic minimal pieces. And that’s the same philosophy for travel.

The great thing about a travel capsule wardrobe is that you can make it as large or as compact as you wish. The formula is simple: Multiply the number of tops by the number of bottoms you plan to bring, and that’s the number of outfits you’ll be able to create, as long as every top coordinates with every bottom. That’s the key.

As an example, you could literally travel with nothing more than six tops and four bottoms, and that will give you 24 great outfits, as long as all 10 pieces work together. If you add two or three jackets that you can layer on top, you’ll be able to create even more options.

To work out the number of outfits I’ll realistically need to get through a holiday, I start by thinking about how many nights I’ll be away, and then I consider things like access to laundromats. Then I think about how many of those outfits need to be formal or whether I’m kicking about on the beach, with just a handful of casual nights out.

How do you decide on a color palette?

Generally speaking, I’d say stay in the neutrals. Most of the time, I will say have a black or a dark color. Black may not be your choice. It might be charcoal, it might be gray, it might be navy—but you’ll have a darker sort of colorway as one of your core main colors for the 80 percent.

And then you’ll have a neutral. So whether that’s white, off-white, cream, khaki . . . whatever it is that best suits you and what you love most, you’ll have that. And then you can have another sort of base color, which might be a denim. If you are already doing a black, you might introduce a navy or a gray. So [those are] essentially three to four base colors that you’d be looking for.

Say you’re about to head out on a trip to a warm-weather place. How do you decide what to bring?

As a general rule of thumb, if I’m going away for a seven-night beach holiday, I’d pack two to three pieces of swimwear (so that they have time to dry in between), a pair of shorts and a couple of skirts, four tops that match all my shorts and skirts, and a dress in case I go somewhere special.

This will usually get me through the whole holiday as I can create at least 13 outfits from these eight pieces. If it’s a place that gets a bit cooler at night, I may throw in a light sweater or pants and maybe a couple of beach cover-ups.

I personally would suggest separates over dresses because you get a lot more wear out of separates. You can mix and match a lot more. So I would probably pack a lot more shorts and tees and shirts.

Generally speaking, you won’t get a lot of wear out of dresses. And I think that one of the things that people do tend to fall into the trap of—you know, especially for beach holidays—is packing a lot of dresses, and you only get one or two wears out of those.

What if you’re going to a place with unpredictable weather?

Layers are key. Light layers, such as a long-sleeved tee and a long-line cardigan or sweater, make it easy to adapt quickly to weather changes. Look for pieces in light, thin fabrics, which give you the ability to layer without looking bulky.

Shoes are the toughest thing for me to pare down. How many shoes do you recommend packing?

I love shoes, so I understand your dilemma. The reality, though, is that we rarely wear every pair we bring. If you’re going for a holiday where you’ll be doing a healthy amount of sightseeing and going out to dinner, I’d plan to bring one really good pair of walking shoes, a slightly dressier pair of flat shoes that you can wear to casual drinks, and a pair of heels or wedges for more formal nights out.

I work out quite a bit, so I try to find a gym wherever I travel. So I do pack a pair of trainers or sneakers that double up for both of those. So I can do my gym workout, but I can also go sightseeing and wear them with, you know, a pair of trousers or a pair of shorts, and I don’t feel like it looks totally out of place. The brand On is a footwear in that category. [It] tends to bridge that gap between fashion and being practical.

For a beach holiday, I’d bring a pair of flat sandals for daytime, a pair of beach shoes (rubber thongs or similar), and a pair of wedge sandals for nights out.

From a travel sandal perspective, it’s really important to have a comfy sandal that you can walk in and dress up; you can wear it with a dress and with trousers and shorts. Twoobs sandals—I tried them fresh out of the box when I went to India and I walked for days across all sorts of terrain. And India, you know, the streets are uneven, it was monsoon season, so it was wet, and I did not get one blister. It was just the most amazing pair of sandals.

Checked bag or carry-on?

I am a checked-bag person, and that’s because I hate fighting for luggage space. I’d rather just check my bag and not have to worry about that. I will say, though, if I was traveling for a long period and doing lots of different individual flights, and in countries where I’m not really sure if my luggage is going to make it, I would probably make a real effort to try and do a carry-on.

What did you bring on your last trip?

My India trip was one where I packed a lot of separates because it is still quite humid and warm there, despite it being monsoon season. [I brought] a rain jacket, but I did also pack a couple of dresses.

I think I had maybe two, three pairs of shorts—no more than that. One or two pairs of trousers. And that was mainly for the airport, for the airplane travel, rather than for wearing on the ground. I had three or four shirts, a couple of tank tops.

I did pack one thin jumper just in case, ’cause I knew that sometimes indoors in India, they really bump up the AC. So I thought I’d better pack that. And then I had about three or four dresses. So yeah, it wasn’t a crazy amount. And that was for about 10 days.

Are you a roller or a folder?

I am a combo. I roll anything that’s crush-free that I can roll and doesn’t wrinkle; I put that on the very bottom of my suitcase. And then I fold anything that is a little bit less crush-proof. So if I’ve got shirts—I travel with a lot of collared shirts—and dresses, anything like that, I will try to fold minimally.

If it’s a shirt, I might tuck in the sleeve and then fold it in, flip it in half, and that’s all the folding I’m going to do. And then I place that very gently on top of all my rolled items. So I’m kind of a combo of both.

What about packing cubes?

I find everything gets super crushed in them. And then I am not, I also find I lose a lot of things in the packing cube. It’s kind of like the handbag, where you just throw a lot of things into it and you never know what’s at the bottom.

How has the travel capsule wardrobe changed the way you travel?

A travel capsule wardrobe makes it fast and easy to pack. Traveling light means you spend less time worrying about what to bring and can halve your current packing time. This leaves more time to focus on the fun aspects of your trip.

This article was originally published in 2017 and most recently updated on September 27, 2024, with current information.