Minimalism vs Maximalism - Topic of the day 3/10/25
Both minimalism and maximalism are very popular in the cultural zeitgeist these days. Which one are you? What defines minimalism vs maximalism?
17 Replies
real fashion gamers in the fashion gamer chat room know how to minmax
i love covering myself head to toe in logos
There's a bunch of ways to tackle both minimalism and maximalism in style. A clear example is that you can have a minimalist style but a huge wardrobe because you wear the same type of item all the time but have each item in every color. I wouldn't call a wardrobe with +24 OCBDs in different colors and +36 pairs of trousers just in different colors and fabrics a maximalist style but it's a huge wardrobe.
You can also have maximalist pieces and style while having a small wardrobe.
The idea of having a "minimalist capsule wardrobe" isn't nearly as prevalent as it was 5-7 years ago but that line of thinking always seemed to land with having to wear simple and boring clothes which I think is a silly way to approach it.
Sure the fuds on styleforum and on the blogs suggest buying a middle of the road navy or charcoal suit but you could certainly have a Tommy Nutter or Edward Sexton suit to wear to the weddings and stuff that you need. "Buy less. Buy better." doesn't have to also mean "Buy boring"
This is probably one of the most tired takes in the maximalism vs minimalism debate tho
Hardly a well formed thought here but an outfit intentionally zeroing out color and texture to focus entirely on silhouette is being more honest about what minimalism is and can be than the capsule wardrobe stuff imo. At some point minimalism got construed as a philosophical category rather than an aesthetic one and treated as sort of coterminous with an ethical consumption, and that feels kinda like an unforced error on both fashion and ethics fronts lol. Most “minimalist” fashion/gear/whatever content online is just self-congratulatory overconsumption anyways
Both can be very cool, of course. I think sometimes minimalism gets dismissed as boring, since it’s harder to see the editing process that went into it. I would say I tend toward maximalism in texture, but don’t really have an allegiance otherwise.
Minimalism is a very cool aesthetic/artistic movement that has been claimed by people with zero imagination
Like this is cool!
This is not!
I think that's a great point that the buy less. buy better doesn't have to be boring clothes, I got into fashion trough the raw denim and GYW subs and it for sure drove me to buy some very boring and tbh just bad clothes under the excuse of "its gonna last forever" and "I only need one pair". But minimalism doesnt have to like that
Both of these are fashion examples that i would personally call minimalism in a great way with clothing, both fits are very close to monochrome and use shape and fabric to make the fit.
And approaching it from the other angle, you can also have a maximalist capsule wardrobe.
In fact I would argue that "easy to pair" becomes less of a concern once there are fewer items to pair stuff with.
bro what is that 😭 😭
its a classic gif you silly
The clothes are maximalist but you make sure they all kinda work together. Lots of things like patterns, colors, textures, etc. A "capsule" is a kind of weird term imo since it means so many different things to different people but the base assumption is that all/most pieces can be worn together.
I doesn't have to be just accessories though. I'd expect the clothes to also have plenty of intrigue
A maximalist capsule sounds amazing, but very difficult to execute. Does anyone know of any good examples out there?