8 Pieces, 30 Ways

Of these eight pieces, the only ones I am not wearing during my current 30-day wardrobe challenge are the brown tank dress and the brown tank top. The others are part of my six for the Six Items or Less challenge.

Though at the time of this writing, this challenge is the third cycle Six Items or Less, it is only my second time participating.

The biggest challenge for me is the outfits I'm expected to create with just the tank tops or the tank dress by themselves. Would that be a problem for you, too?









So that's 7 outfits I would miss out on because my arms are not quite ready for prime time!

One suggestion I have read elsewhere is to use a wrap in colors similar to your core wardrobe to create more outfits than you could otherwise. That might be something that would work here as a plus size style tip!

For instance, these J. Jill scarves might work as wraps (I'll have to try them that way)...

I counted 14 outfits! And if you add that to the 7 we found before, wrap added to each, that gives us 21 outfits, so far. Which makes me wonder how Good Housekeeping came up with the other 9 outfits they boasted about in their article...

Here's what they did...

THEY CHEATED! Well, not exactly. But they counted the suit as one when it is really two pieces. So they actually had nine.

(1) One thing they did was add one of the tank to the dress. Worn underneath but seeable, that would add four more outfit possibilities. They also suggest adding two belts ( a no-no for me but possible for some plus-sized fashionistas) in two of the core capsule colors they are working with for this 30 day wardrobe challenge. So six new outfits.

(2) They also feature a button-down cardigan and suggest wearing it as a shirt. If I could wear the brown cardigan that way, it would add two more outfits.

(3) I decided to show you the Good Housekeeping picture for this one. Notice how one of those outfits is a white blouse worn as a jacket? That's a possibility if you make one of your eight a button-down blouse. Adds one more outfit possibility...



(4) In another example, they pair the white blouse with the red tank peeking out from underneath, adding one more outfit.

So adding all of these together, we get ten variations that, added to the 21 possibilities I came up with, would make more than 30 possible outfits! However, your mileage may vary.

It's all going to depend on the versatility of the pieces you choose. Plus, they added in an extra "bottom" so you can add in one, too :).

NOTE: If I added in an extra "bottom" --let's say a skirt, since they had one and I didn't-- I would add 12 more outfit possibilities. Try it and see. Mentally add this skirt to all my combinations up there.



That would give me (or you) more than a month's worth of outfits, but you'd be starting with nine instead of eight. If you have a suit as part of your capsule, you've already got the extra, or ninth one, built into it.