Travel Capsule Wardrobe for Full-time Travel

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Traveling full-time requires a good capsule wardrobe that does double-duty for all the activities I do while living my nomad life. I’ve put together an incredible capsule wardrobe that I love and I use while I travel around the world as a full-time nomad. Each item of my travel capsule wardrobe can be worn with at least one other item, allowing an interchange of outfits. 

It all fits in my Osprey carry-on

What’s in my Travel Capsule Wardrobe?

In the my travel capsule wardrobe, there are 34 pieces of clothing, 1 wrap that doubles as a blanket and bag, 1 hat, 3 pair of shoes, 3 pair of Bombas socks, 8 pair of underwear, 3 pair of socks and 3 bras. The entire capsule wardrobe allows me to dress from about 45 degrees up to over 90 (10 to 35 degrees Celsius). It all fits into my Osprey Wheeled Transporter 40 carry-on bag. 

The basic color of the wardrobe is in the blues and purples, but includes greens and reds. I’ve gathered these clothes from around the world, focusing on bottoms that I wear until they wear out, and tops that I replace as they wear out or that I find something I like. When I buy something new, something always comes out. There’s no room for anything else.

My travel wardrobe breaks out into 4 categories; “dressy” clothes that I wear for nice dinners, going out, or on cruises, “active” wear which is for workouts, pickleball and lazing around the house, “cold” weather wear which is for days where the temperature drops lower than 65 degrees (some active wear is in this category), and “daily” wear which is for hiking, tourist-ing, shopping, and daily activities. 

In the lists below, you can click on each item to see more details about the item. If Amazon sells the item, you can find it in my Amazon store (click here to go to my store.)

Dressy Capsule Wardrobe for Travel

Let’s look at the dressy wear first. I don’t dress up much, but I do find there are places that a pair of shorts and a top just don’t feel appropriate. We use repositioning cruises to get from continent to continent, and I find that I want to look a bit nicer at the dinners. Occasionally we have a special occasion in our nomad life like a wedding, a play, or a nice dinner, and my dressy wardrobe gets called into action. 

The dressy wardrobe includes the following items (please note that links go to products similar to what I own or actual products that I own):

At least 75 outfits out of one bag!

Active Wear Capsule Wardrobe for Travel

If you’re wondering what active wear to travel with, I’ve sorted through many options for traveling. I don’t wear any tight fighting leggings or anything that form fits. There are many countries in the world that clothing like this not only isn’t appropriate, but it will make me stick out as a westerner even more. I always try to blend in as much as possible. 

So all of my active wear is functional, loose-fitting, and appropriate for most occasions. Within this category are two t-shirts that are souvenirs; it’s the one place in my nomad life that I can actually buy a trinket from abroad. So I splurge on a t-shirt I might like and when it’s worn out, I’ll replace it with another. I received one of the shirts from a volunteer activity.

Cold Weather Clothing for Capsule Wardrobe

We aren’t in cold weather much because we try to follow 72 degrees (20 Celsius) around the world. But as shoulder season appears in April and October, we’re often at the end of a location’s warm season, and I need warmer clothing for a few weeks. Repositioning cruises often will have cooler and wet days, so this cold weather wardrobe works well, then. If we find that what we have with us isn’t warm enough, we’ll drop into a thrift shop and pick up a few items to keep us warm, like a puffer jacket or a pair of jeans. Then we’ll donate these back as we leave the area.

Here is the list of my cold weather travel capsule wardrobe:

Everyday Capsule Wardrobe for Travel

The remainder of my travel capsule wardrobe is the workhorse of my wardrobe. You’ll find me in these clothes most of the time together with my active wear clothing. I will pull from the other categories as necessary, but in general, these clothes and the active wear clothes are the items I wear daily and wash weekly.

Here is my list of clothing I wear the most for my travel capsule wardrobe:

Undergarments for Travel Capsule Wardrobe

Since we do laundry once a week, I make sure I have enough undergarments to get me through the week without having to wash anything in the sink. Here is a list of my undergarments. These items are not counted as part of the total count for my capsule wardrobe for my nomad life.

Regardless of the category an item falls in, most all of them can be interchanged and matched to create different outfits. I can make over 75 different outfits from these 34 pieces of clothing. I am 5 foot 4 inches and weigh 160 pounds, wearing a size 6-8 depending on the brand for the bottoms and generally a size large top.