A friend said this to me in a park in April: “It was cold when we left and now the baby is sweating and so am I.” The weeks between seasons are the hardest to dress for with a nursing baby, because the day has two temperatures and you have one body that needs to open at both of them. A coat in the morning is a burden by lunch; the thing that was fine by lunch is nothing by the time you walk home.

I learned this the way most of us do, on a school run with a toddler in a coat he refused to take off and a baby in a sling under my own coat, which I could not take off without putting the baby down, which I could not do. I stood in the playground sweating in October and decided that transitional dressing was not about owning more. It was about four pieces that could be put on and taken off in any order, all of which opened.

These are the four, and the twelve outfits they make between them. They are the bones of the spring and autumn sections of every capsule I have built since, and three of the four are probably in your wardrobe already.

1. The clip-down nursing tank, as a layer not a vest

In the in-between weeks the tank stops being underwear and starts being the first layer you plan around. A clip-down nursing tank in ivory under everything means the shirt can come off at eleven and you are still dressed; it means the cardigan can go back on at four without anything else moving. One pale, one dark, long enough to tuck.

Three outfits from this piece alone: tank and wide trousers at home, tank under the open shirt for the shop, tank under the cardigan for the walk. It is the hinge the day turns on.

2. The button-front shirt, worn three ways

A linen or soft cotton shirt in white or chambray is the transitional piece that does the most. Buttoned, it is a top. Open over the tank, it is a layer. Tied at the waist over a dress, it is a jacket. It unbuttons three from the top for a feed in every one of those positions, and it rolls up when the sun comes out.

Three outfits: buttoned with jeans in the morning, open over the tank and shorts at lunch, tied over the wrap dress in the evening. Eight ways to wear a white button-down while nursing if you want all of them.

3. The wrap dress, with and without things over it

A jersey wrap dress in navy or dusty blue is the one piece that works alone when the day is warm and under layers when it is not. It ties where your waist is this week, opens at the front with no button, and takes a cardigan, a shirt or a denim jacket over it without changing anything about how it feeds.

Three outfits: alone with sandals, with the shirt tied over it, with the cardigan and ankle boots. Ten more ways to wear a wrap dress if it becomes the dress of the season.

From the capsules

The Year Round Capsule

Two hundred nursing-friendly outfits from fifty-six pieces, fifty for every season, laid out and then worn. $29 once, yours to keep.

See the capsule →

4. The longline cardigan, buttoned to the middle

The layer that replaces the coat for six weeks either side of summer. Fine knit, longline, in taupe or ivory, buttoned to the middle only so it comes on and off with one hand while the other holds a baby or a toddler’s hand. Open on a bench it is a feeding cover. Folded in the pram basket it is a blanket.

Three outfits: over the tank and jeans, over the wrap dress, over the shirt on the coldest morning. Nine ways to wear a long cardigan while nursing if you doubt one layer carries that much.

The twelve outfits, in the order the day asks for them

Morning, cold: shirt buttoned, dark jeans, cardigan, sneakers. Shirt open over the tank, jeans, cardigan. Wrap dress, cardigan, ankle boots. Tank, cardigan, wide trousers. Midday, warm: tank and wide trousers. Shirt open over the tank with shorts. Wrap dress alone with sandals. Shirt tied at the waist over the tank and skirt. Evening, cooling: wrap dress with the shirt tied over it. Tank, jeans, cardigan back on. Shirt buttoned under the cardigan. Wrap dress, cardigan, scarf.

Twelve outfits from four pieces, three bottoms you already own and two shoes. Every one opens for a feed, because every top in it does. The whole year’s version, fifty outfits a season laid out and worn, is the Year Round Capsule, and the spring and autumn sections are built on exactly these four.

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How to layer so a feed does not mean undressing

The rule for the in-between weeks: layers come off from the outside in, and the feed happens from the inside out. Cardigan off with one hand, shirt unbuttoned three from the top, tank clipped down. Nothing over your head at any point, and the layers you took off go back on in the same order while the baby finishes.

Avoid the two things that break this: a jumper that only comes off over the head, and a coat that zips. Both turn a feed into getting undressed in public. Ten smart ways to layer in winter take the same rule into the cold.

I think of that October playground every time the weather cannot decide. Not with any drama; it was a hot ten minutes and a lesson. The lesson was that more clothes was never the answer. Four pieces that come off in order and open at every layer is the answer, and it fits in one drawer.

If you want the outfits laid out so you can copy tomorrow’s tonight, the Year Round Capsule has two hundred of them across the seasons, with three pictures of you in them on the house. If you would rather someone looked at the forecast and your closet and told you what to wear, that is Anah inside the Atelier, every morning. And if the layer you are looking at might or might not open, Will it feed tells you from a screenshot, free.

Four pieces. Off from the outside, open from the inside. The focus is on you, mama.