The sentence I get in my inbox more than any other: “I have a closet full of clothes and absolutely nothing to wear.” If that sentence is yours, I want to tell you what took me three babies to understand: the closet is not the problem. The closet was built for a body that did not need to open, and now you need to open it eight times a day.

After my first I kept trying to make the old clothes work. After my second I bought a drawer of nursing clothes that only looked like nursing clothes. After my third I finally did the thing I should have done the first time: I picked ten ordinary basics, every one of which opened or lifted or clipped, in colours that all went together, and I stopped shopping. The relief of that was out of all proportion to how simple it was.

This is that list, in the order I would buy it. You almost certainly own some of it already. Pull those out first, put them on one rail, and only buy what is missing. A capsule is not a shopping list; it is a decision you only have to make once.

1. Two wireless nursing bras

Before anything else. A soft wireless nursing bra that clips with one hand, in a nude and a black, is the piece under every other piece. Wire digs into a chest that is changing size twice a day; a wireless one holds, stretches and does not hurt at 3am.

Buy two so one is always clean. Everything below assumes you have them on.

2. Two clip-down nursing tanks

The tank is the layer that makes every ordinary top a nursing top. Clip down, feed, clip up, and the shirt or cardigan over it never moves. One pale, one dark, both long enough to tuck into a soft waistband and stay there.

If you buy only two new things from this list, buy these. Ten outfits around one nursing tank show why.

3. A relaxed V-neck tee in ivory

Not tight, not a tent. A relaxed V-neck in a soft cotton that lifts from the hem over the tank. Ivory is the pale thing near your face that makes a short night look shorter. It is the top for the sofa, the doorstep and the first walk.

Buy it a size up from before if the one you have pulls across the chest. Comfort first; the shape comes from the relaxed fit, not from being small.

From the capsules

The Soft Landing Capsule

Twenty soft pieces, twenty-five outfits for the first weeks home, every one opening for a feed. $14.99 once, yours to keep.

See the capsule →

4. A button-front shirt, linen or soft cotton

One shirt that buttons all the way, in white or a soft chambray. Undo three from the top for a feed, pull the side back, the tank does the rest. Worn open over the tank and joggers it turns loungewear into an outfit when someone comes to the door.

Eight ways to wear a white button-down while nursing if you want to see the range in one piece.

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5. A wrap top

Every capsule I build has a wrap top, because a wrap opens at the front without a single button and ties exactly where your waist is this week. Pick the colour that is kind to your face: dusty rose, soft blue, burgundy in the cold months.

It is the piece that makes you look dressed when you have been awake since four. Wrap top, soft trousers, slides, done.

6. Jersey lounge joggers with a drawstring

The first bottom. Not leggings yet; a jogger in a thick soft jersey with a drawstring that sits below a scar and above nothing that hurts. Espresso or navy so a leak is nobody’s business. These are the trousers of the first six weeks and they will still be in the drawer in year two.

Ten casual outfits around a pair of joggers if you need convincing that joggers can be an outfit.

7. Wide-leg soft trousers in taupe

The second bottom is the one that looks like you tried. Wide, with a wide soft waistband, in a fabric with enough weight to hang. Taupe rather than black, because taupe with an ivory tee looks like a decision and black with everything looks like a uniform.

Tank and these for the house. Shirt open over them for the shop. Wrap top with them for lunch. Three outfits, one pair of trousers.

8. A fine-knit cardigan

The layer that lives on the back of the chair. Fine enough to wear indoors, long enough to cover what you are not sure about, in ivory or taupe. Open, it is a feeding cover on the sofa when a visitor arrives. Buttoned to the middle, it comes off with one hand.

It is also the piece that goes over the wrap top and the joggers and makes the whole thing look intentional.

9. A button-front or wrap dress

One dress, because some days you want one piece between you and the world and nothing at the waist. Button-front so you can undo from the top for a feed, or wrap so you can untie at the side. A soft jersey or a crisp cotton, in navy or dusty rose, long enough to sit on the floor in.

This is the dress for the registration appointment, the first visit to the grandparents and the day you want to feel like a woman rather than a feeding station.

10. Slides or slippers you can step into

Nothing you have to bend down for. Cushioned slides for the kitchen and the doorstep, a slipper for the rest, and later a clean white sneaker for the first walks. Your hands are full and your back is tired; the shoes should know that.

Ten pieces, two bras, two shoes. Together they make twenty-five outfits for the first weeks, and I laid every one out and then put it on a body in the Soft Landing Capsule, which is this list with the outfits already decided.

I want to say the quiet part. The reason you have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear is not that you have let yourself go. It is that your clothes were designed for a body that did not have to feed anyone, and you are doing the hardest job there is in them. Ten basics that open is not a style project. It is taking one thing off the pile.

If you want the outfits already worked out, the Soft Landing Capsule has twenty-five of them laid out and worn, each with how it opens, and three pictures of you in them on the house. If you would rather someone told you each morning what to put on from the clothes you own, that is what Anah does inside the Atelier. And if you are not sure which colours are yours yet, First Look reads your colouring from one photo, free, before you buy a single tank.

I did not get my old body or my old closet back after any of my three, and I stopped waiting for either. I dress on purpose now, in ten pieces that open. You can start tomorrow with the two you already own.