"I don't think the Chinese market is ready for a capsule collection based on the idea of streamlining one's wardrobe or simplifying life," says Yi Guo, a Shanghai-based stylist and former style editor of Vogue China. "The market is still learning and enjoying playing with Western fashion, as well as their own."
The capsule wardrobe - a collection of a few essential pieces that can be mixed and matched, worn from day to night and updated using key items - was popularized by American designer Donna Karan. Her capsule collection, which debuted in 1985, was comprised of a bodysuit, skirt, blouse, coat, leggings, jacket and dress. It was called "7 Easy Pieces".
This has since been seen as a sensible way for women, especially working women, to organize their wardrobe, allowing them to go from work to socializing by merely adding accessories, says Willie Walters, course director of BA Fashion at London's Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design.
It's also a more eco-friendly and less time-consuming way of staying fashionable, says Jacqueline Rezak, a Los Angeles-based celebrity stylist and owner of the online boutique Rad+Refined. For example, a solid black blazer, she says, can be worn three days of the week just by changing the top under the blazer.
Since capsule pieces never go out of style, this wardrobe can be quite economical. On the heels of the 2008 global financial crisis in Europe and the United States, consumers have adopted "apparel diets", in which they do not buy new clothes for a year, says Lorna Hall of fashion trend analysis and research service WGSN.
"For some, the trigger for this was simply the need to pull back discretional spending in difficult times," says Hall, the group's head of retail and strategy. "For others, it was a backlash reaction to rampant consumerism and a credit-fuelled boom, together with the growing realization that for an increasingly environmentally aware consumer, fast, throw-away fashion was inconsistent with a more sustainable lifestyle."
In the United Kingdom, for instance, the average household owns 4,000 pounds (39,500 yuan) worth of clothes, yet 30 percent of clothing in the average wardrobe has not been worn for at least a year, according to WRAP, a British organization that promotes recycling.
An extreme form of capsule dressing, practiced by some bloggers, Hall says, is to wear the same piece of clothing every day for a year. Although their move is a reaction to the exhausting, mind-boggling array of clothing choices, the bloggers make their point for simplicity while remaining trendy with the help of accessories.
Sun Yumiao and Wang Mingming might not have shrunk their wardrobes that much, but they know by now that looking good does not mean owning and spending more.
This is the most real, most helpless and most motivate life expense of Beijing!
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