Mini Theme Wardrobe: Lazy Sunday in the City, or "Wears a Kanken Backpack"

Felt inspired to do another virtual capsule wardrobe post, but this one isn't distilled down from a high concept theme like the previous ones, just a basic collection inspired by the concept of walking around a big city in the spring or fall.I went a bit more youthful and tomboyish than I usually go for in this round, but I really liked how it turned out! I think my personal favorite is still the circus one, but I would happily wear any of these because I am 100% behind comfortable outfits that feel like they came from an impossibly casually cool Instagram persona who spent some time at the library before swinging by Trader Joes to grab some groceries then going out with their equally but distinctly casually cool friends. (This is definitely a mood playing on u/pursuringbear's Lazy Sunday inspo album from reddit.)I was originally going to call this one some variant of "urban rambling", but after looking at it the main thought ended up being "this person definitely wears one of Those Backpacks".No shade to this aesthetic, I love it. But also no promo for Fjallraven – I'm just familiar with it as a sartorial trope, I have no idea whether the bags are any good.

Flavor Images

I retroactively selected these, but this fits the general vibe/setting I had in my head while curating things. Sometimes it helps to have inspo photos for reference, but when I have a clear enough idea of what I want, I just pick images out later for fun.These were all sourced within Pinterest and can be found in the board.

Items

Although this capsule doesn't involve any complex mapping of visual elements from a collection of impractical Pinterest photos, I still wanted to optimize for both cohesiveness and variety. For that, I used the same strategy of making sure that items had a wide range of silhouettes, color values, and textures within each item category. I have a PDF guide here that details how you can distill any inspiration into a collection of clothes that suits any lifestyle and balancing visual variety and keeping things cohesive enough to easily put together outfits.For color palette, I ended up going with blue-green and orange-brown as the main colors on top of a black/white/gray base, and red as an accent color. Except for the field jacket, everything is pretty saturated.As usual, I picked these items because they had conveniently collage-able flatlay images and visually worked with the aesthetic. I was lazy, so they're all from Nordstrom this time because it's easier to source from one site. This is not an endorsement of any of these items (most seem mediocre quality with cute design at best, and some had pretty bad reviews). But the links to the original items are in the Pinterest board if you want to check any of them out.Tops/Sweaters – mix of fitted and not fitted, different necklines, worked in a graphic tee and a print. I like to think there's a bit of visual reference from the green square-neck top to the subway sign picture, stripes to the stairs, and orange to all the warning signs you see everywhere in urban areas for construction, roads, etc.Bottoms – Keeping it simple here. Selected faux leather leggings to add some texture diversity while staying casual.Outerwear – Two options for medium weight jackets, with entirely different silhouettes and fabrics but both with utilitarian vibes.Accessories – Casual footwear du jour (but a slightly more advanced pair of docs than the standard black 1460s). Printed scarf instead of a plain chunky knit one for a more unisex effect rather than "I need a pumpkin spice latte to complete this selfie" (which is another aesthetic I appreciate, but not exactly what I was going for here).

Outfits

Perfectly color coordinated but with some nonchalance from the asymmetrical top and distressed jeans.Normcore foreverJK, there are some grunge vibes happening hereImage alignment didn't quite work to simulate actual layering, but I think this would look cool with the hem poking out from under the sweater in an otherwise very simple outfit.This is a cool going out look. I miss my pleather leggings (may they rest in peace).This sweater will not be ignoredWhen you look up cLaSsIc StYLe (except every few years the jeans and t-shirt silhouettes change)If it's too boring, throw some statement outerwear over itI don't have any of these exact items (but some are pretty close! I actually like my fleece bomber better than this one) but I'm really into this outfit. Life imitating Pinterest imitating life.Tbh I wasn't exactly thrilled with any of the orange sweater outfits, but I do like that it adds a bit of dgaf to everything which sets the collection apart from a lot of the monochrome-with-a-pop-of-earth-tone conglomerate of Pinterest/Instagram photos.This was another personal favorite of mine. I was pretty burned out on the longer-top-with-skintight-pants silhouette for a while but I've been coming around to it again recently.This feels like something r/MFA would be into.2 cool 4 uNah back to basicsYes there is teddy fleece and orange knitwear but can we also add some plaid?That's all, folks! What color backpack do you think would work best here? Is anyone still interested in these imaginary capsule wardrobe posts even if they don't originate from some absurdly specific and fantastical concept?