How the 30x30 Fashion Challenge Helps You Find Your Personal Style
Have you ever promised yourself to start doing sport and then let your barely used gym membership expire? Or maybe you tried meditating daily, writing, or reading but never stuck with the habit long-term? I’ve been there, too, because developing good habits and integrating new systems into your already busy routine is hard.
That’s why so many capsule wardrobes fail — we approach it with the intent to stick with it forever, forgetting that it is an exercise or an experiment before it becomes a lifestyle.
If you find the idea of having an easy-to-match wardrobe appealing but are not ready to commit to ruthless decluttering and downsizing (or maybe you tried, and it didn’t work for you the way you hoped), start small. Try a 30x30 style challenge.
30x30 is a styling exercise that helps you discover new ways to wear your existing clothes, reduces the temptation to constantly buy new stuff, and deepens your understanding of your personal style.
The guidelines are super simple: you select 30 items of clothing to create 30 outfits for 30 days. Yesss, it sounds a lot like a capsule wardrobe, but it kinda isn’t because a) making everything match with everything isn’t the goal, and b) you don’t need to take a bird's view of your whole wardrobe and get rid of things — you just have to focus on a small selection of clothing and have fun experimenting for a month. It’s more of a capsule within your wardrobe than a capsule wardrobe. You know what I mean??
In this blog post:
you’ll find out more about the undeniable benefits of this styling exercise
learn the best tools for building a capsule wardrobe
and see a 30x30 capsule in action
I’ll also share two 30x30 formulas for you to replicate—one for Spring/Summer and another for Fall/Winter. So, what’s the 30x30 fashion challenge, and how does your style benefit from it?
The What, Why, and How of the 30x30 style challenge
The 30x30 challenge is a fashion experiment where you create 30 unique outfits using only 30 clothing items over 30 days.
Started by @kendieeveryday in 2010, this styling exercise helped thousands of people explore their personal style, discover new outfit combinations (you’ll be surprised!), increase their wardrobe’s versatility, and combat shopping addiction.
How to participate:
Select a limited number of items, including tops, bottoms, dresses or jumpsuits, outwear, and footwear. You may choose not to include shoes in the count if you prefer. And if you itch for a real challenge, include bags and accessories in your 30-item selection.
Plan your outfits in advance. There are many simple ways to do it, and you’ll learn about them further in this post.
Document your experiment. It’s essential to do it to make the most of the challenge and improve your understanding of what works and doesn’t work for your body and lifestyle.
*Share the journey with others. It’s optional, of course, and depends on your comfort level. People often participate in the challenge together on social media because it's nice to support each other, and the challenge promotes mindful consumption and sustainability in the fashion industry.
Creating a 30x30 capsule is much easier than it seems. I make capsule wardrobes for a living, but you won’t need my help putting together this one and having fun with it! Keep reading to discover my process and learn industry tricks for a practical, cohesive selection of clothes.
Tips & tools for building a 30x30 capsule wardrobe
Although I said it’s not rocket science to try this fashion experiment, there are some guidelines and methods to make the process easy and fun. I wish I had known about those before because I joined my first 30x30 round in 2018, and it was a disaster. My 30 pieces didn’t make sense color-wise, I was constantly under or overdressed, and the aesthetic was all over the place. Despite the frustration (and some light embarrassment, I must admit), I kept creating capsules and eventually became a certified stylist — to help you do a better job with your first 30x30 than I did back then.
Follow my tips to be 100% prepared for your first slow fashion challenge and make the most of it!
Write down your plans and activities for the duration of the challenge.
Think of everything you do in an average month. How many times do you go to work? Or do you work from home, and there’s no dress code? Do you have any special events planned? And what about other activities like sports, gardening, and painting?
You need to have an understanding of your main activities because it determines how many outfits you need for each category (work, social gatherings, running errands, etc.) You need to write down your special plans because that’s the clothes you will not include in your 30x30 selection. Sportswear, evening gowns, and what you wear while repotting your Monstera aren’t the focus of the exercise.
And if you have any trips planned like a location wedding, don’t overthink it and just pack a special occasion outfit without adding to the capsule’s count. You need to focus on the clothes you wear most of the time, not when someone’s getting married.
Check out the weather forecast.
Pretty straightforward. You need to know what to expect in terms of temperature to decide what layers to include (or not).
Get clear on the color palette.
One of the easiest ways to make a capsule wardrobe look more harmonious is to include matching colors in it. Take a look at the items you consider selecting, and note which neutral shades you see. That’s your base.
Now look at which colors you have in front of you. Those are your accents. It depends on how comfortable you are wearing color, but I’d keep it 3 to 5 non-neutrals to combine with the neutral base.
If you want your clothes to compliment your features, make them match your own chromatic characteristics. Book an In-Depth Style Consultation to find out your skin undertone and what colors increase your natural beauty.
Plan your outfits ahead.
It ensures every outfit is unique (although I see no harm in re-wearing your favorite fits) and eliminates the stress of choosing an outfit combo daily. Here are three different ways you can plan your thirty looks:
1. Make a spreadsheet.
The number of columns for the tops and rows for the bottoms you selected. This way, you can cross-examine which combinations you’ve already worn. If you are good with spreadsheets, you can add footwear and filter by date too! Although a simple tops x pants layout works perfectly fine.
2. Make a digital collage.
You’ll need images of your clothes, which you can quickly snap or find the same or similar items on the internet. Once you have them all in front of you in Powerpoint, Keynote, or Canva, you can start planning your outfits. And it doesn’t have to be pretty — it’s just a quick rough guide for you to follow during the challenge (and if you want pretty, I make detailed and intuitive outfit guides for my Personalized Capsule Wardrobe clients.)
3. Make an app plan outfits for you.
For my own capsule wardrobes, I’ve been using Cladwell. This app lets you quickly add your clothes (or select similar images), and then its algorithm suggests the outfits. You can add the ones you like to your favorites, dismiss the ones you don’t like, store off-season clothes so they don’t get in the way, find out your Cost Per Wear, and even ask AI for style advice (it’ll have me out of a job).
How and why to document the 30x30 experiment
Here could be something about accountability, community building, and inspiration to others, but those are not the reasons why I enjoy documenting style challenges. I’m in it for a better understanding of your personal style and creating a practical style portfolio.
A deeper understanding of your style direction comes from reflecting on how certain garments and outfits make you feel. Or how you go for certain things depending on your mood. You start noticing patterns and eventually establish clearer lines between your emotions and clothing choices.
Apart from taking notes of your mood, you need to pay attention to physical sensations too. You’ll be surprised to know how many people wear shoes and clothes that are too tight, causing all kinds of discomfort. Women especially are prone to that because, from the early age, we were taught to tolerate discomfort. As a result, sometimes we don’t even notice when something feels uncomfortable, and our brain simply dismisses it.
So documenting how you feel during the 30x30 challenge is the first step towards a better wardrobe, smarter purchasing decisions, and eventually even healthier boundaries with the world.
How can you effortlessly document the 30 looks?
It’s simple. Take selfies and make notes. You can add the pictures to your Notes app and write a few lines on how you felt wearing that fit. You can journal if you prefer pen and paper. Or you can post on Instagram and share your thoughts and feelings with the supporting slow fashion community like I do. That’s how you also build a personalized style portfolio with many delicious ready-to-wear outfits that make you feel your best!
It’s entirely up to you how you document the challenge, but I urge you to do it because self-reflection is the only way to build an authentic personal style.
30x30 capsule wardrobe example
You might be thinking, “it all sounds good, but the number seems too small to make versatile outfits that don’t look the same!” As long as you go for different shades and designs, your selection won’t look like a beige blob. Take a look at my June 30x30 capsule wardrobe that I wore in 2023, and see for yourself.
[click on the image to pop it up in a lightbox]
Two 30x30 formulas for you to DIY
I hope you are convinced and eager to try this style exercise. I put together a convenient and free PDF Guide, The 30x30 Workbook, with two capsule wardrobe formulas — one for winter and another one for summer. It also includes some helpful tips so that you have everything in one place when you start creating your first capsule wardrobe.
You can get the free 30x30 guide here or via the form below!
Thank you for reading, and let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
— Alisa
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