How to pick a 4-color capsule palette that never clashes
The reason most closets produce 'nothing to wear' is not too few clothes, it is too many colors that do not talk to each other. A working capsule uses four: two neutrals, one mid-tone, one accent.
Pick your two neutrals first
Choose one dark and one light: black and ivory, navy and white, charcoal and cream, chocolate and beige. Test against your skin in daylight - the neutral that makes you look rested wins. All bottoms, layers, and shoes come from the two neutrals. That is what guarantees interchangeability.
Add one mid-tone
The mid-tone sits between your neutrals and does the quiet work: olive with navy and white, camel with black and ivory, denim blue with charcoal and cream. Knits and one bottom can live here.
One accent, used sparingly
The accent is the color that gets compliments: burgundy, forest green, rust, cobalt. Cap it at three pieces in the whole capsule - a sweater, a scarf, maybe a bag. More than three and it stops being an accent.
The test before any purchase
Hold the item next to your two neutrals. If it clashes with either, it is not a capsule piece, no matter how good it looks on the hanger. Prints are allowed only if every color in the print is already in your four.