Experience The Freedom of a Capsule Wardrobe
How We Got Here
One dreary Wednesday back in 2015, I opened my closet and had the same thought I’d had a thousand times...
“I have way too many clothes. I also have nothing to wear.”
That Saturday afternoon, I took every piece of clothing I owned out of my closet and laid it out on my bed. I stared at the overwhelming mess of clothes, and the overwhelming mess of clothes stared back.
Sorting through my clothes on that fateful Saturday, I discovered something new. Sure, I identified some favorite pieces and the colors that I loved, but what I really discovered was the ability to let go of a past that was no longer serving me.
What started as a way to clean out my closet ended in a journey that would shape the next 5 years of my life.
Which brings me to today.
Earlier this year, we transitioned Cladwell from a venture-backed startup to an independently owned company. We did this because we realized our community had evolved. Cladwell has never been about having an app in the app store. Cladwell exists to change hearts and minds. We’re showing the world a better way to live by showing them a better way to dress.
We used to describe Cladwell as being about “personal style.” But really, we’re all about the capsule wardrobe. Personal style is an aspect of who you are, but it is the art and science of capsuling that actually gives you the freedom to be who you truly are.
When we break free from the world around us -- a world that continually screams “more is better” -- we create a transformative opportunity for a new era of clothing, a new global fashion community built on justice and compassion.
And that, we realized, is the core of Cladwell. Cladwell is about Freedom.
Freedom
We’ve been sold a story about our clothes, closet, and ourselves that has deeply affected our culture and the way we live our lives. This story says that a bigger closet equals a bigger life. This story is not true.
It’s also a fairly new story. In the 1980s the average American bought 12 items of clothing each year. Today, that number has increased over 500% to 68 items a year, half of which are worn 3 times or less before they’re thrown or given away.
In the last 40 years, we have traded feelings of freedom and connection for the traps of conforming and consuming. Most of us shop for fun and buy clothes without ever stopping to think about how this consumption-driven approach to clothing impacts us (and the world we live in).
We’ve stopped trusting our own instincts and instead followed the leader. And the leader is everything from ads to social media to our inbox.
The more we buy, the less whole we become.
When we buy clothes, we vote for the company that makes them AND their labor practices. When we listen to the messages of advertisers and act on those messages, when we click, swipe, and when we give in to trends, always buying the latest thing, dressing for others instead of ourselves, we become part of the problem.
A capsule wardrobe is an invitation to explore what’s keeping us from living out the truest form of who we are. Today, it’s never been easier to amass more clothes for a bigger closet, to buy everything you need to look like someone else.
What if instead, we worked to build a community of people who want more life and less clothes.
Meet the New Cladwell
Clad means being clothed or covered.
Well comes from wellness, wholeness, and balance.
To bring to life who we are as a community, we’ve re-imagined every single element of our web and mobile sites.
Cladwell is a symbol for those who think differently about clothes and who want to tell a new story about how we dress and how we buy.
Redesigned from the Ground Up
A new style is about more than the outfit. It’s also how you think and feel.
So we wove every ounce of our values into the fabric of Cladwell. Our shared experience of freedom through a capsule wardrobe is the backbone of this community, moving people from stuck, to freed, to guiding others towards freedom.
Every page on our website has been recast to create a better experience for you.
An overhaul of the Cladwell app is next, coming soon in early 2021.
Everything from the calming, laid-back, free-spirited visuals to the optimistic intentional, and grounded tone.
We’ve released our new “Capsule Wardrobe Program” and the “Cladwell Membership” to inspire everyone to live more with less.
Cladwell is a 6-week guided course towards a smaller wardrobe and a bigger life.
It is a proven way to build a closet full of clothes you love and wear everyday. We’ll show you how to clean out the clutter, discover your unique style, and make lasting changes to the way you buy, wear, and care for your clothes.
What you get in the Capsule Wardrobe Program:
8 guided video sessions walking you through every step of the process
Custom-made tools, templates, and resources
3 months of daily outfit recommendations through the Cladwell Outfits App
A passionate and knowledgeable community of people sharing the journey with you
The Cladwell Membership entitles you to:
Daily outfit recommendations with the Cladwell Outfits App
Your Outfits App closet, outfit history, and shopping list viewable on a desktop
Comprehensive Brand Index — with over 300 places to shop intentionally
Exclusive content to inspire you along the journey, including interviews, how-tos, and stories
A community of thousands of people like you who are supporting each other on a journey to live a bigger life
We just launched the new Android app and the new version of iOS. We’d love you to try it out or join the Capsule Wardrobe Program.
Stories of Change
At the end of the day, there’s no better way to exemplify who we are than telling the stories of people in the community. Cladwell has given me the privilege to meet thousands of people across the globe, and to help many of them live a bigger life with a smaller wardrobe. These are the stories I want to tell, and these are the stories I want you to hear.
Hello Community
By reimagining every aspect of Cladwell in light of our new mission, we’re making many important changes both big and small.
First, we will be removing the Explore feed from the app.
Over the past few months, Cladwell members have reached out to me personally to share how the Cladwell community has come together and rallied behind them, truly supporting these individuals in times of life-altering challenges.
Cladwell is and has always been a community. That has been proven to me time and time again. But by recognizing this, we need to now decide what kind of community we want to be. It was never our intention to become the next social media platform. Nor are we naive enough to think that “belonging” can be achieved just by sharing photos of our super cool outfits.
That’s why we’re rethinking our approach to community, returning to a place where we can foster relationships with one another. We want the Cladwell community to be a way to connect with those who are learning to live more by owning less. Those who are exploring what it means to live fully and freely. To share the journey of transformation with others is more than just a worthy cause, it’s a way of life.
So with that, we will be saying goodbye to the Explore section as we know it, and hello Community. We’ve created an entirely new space to connect, inspire, and even share outfit photos, and we want nothing more than to have you as part of it.
(Don’t worry, you can still snap photos of your outfits, save them in your Outfit History, and -- coming soon -- get a link to share those photos in the Community.)
We have a whole lot of exciting announcements and updates back to back over the next few months. In the meantime, thank you for being part of this adventure with us.
Explore the new Cladwell.
With love,