Love the idea. Can't be done.

Recently I've been studying Noboru Kakuta, probably a master of the minimalist wardrobe. Navy blazer. Navy shirt, Navy jeans. Brown chukkas. Every available photo of him collectively features maybe 10/12 items. For me, totally on point. You could walk out in any of that every day and nail it. For yourself and anyone around who cared.

I stepped out in the above clobber just yesterday. Within hours I'd purchased light brown chinos, off white socks, a cotton pastel yellow cable crew and another pair of brown loafers.

I have a mental picture of young guys turning for their first day in college, done up in blazer, collar, tie and chinos derived from the capsule wardrobe their parents have furnished them with. Only to find that they stand out like sore thumbs because everyone else is dressed in jeans and sportswear.

Noboru Kakuta only gets photographed wearing the same small selection of items. But one wonders what he wears when he’s nipping down to the Japanese equivalent of Tescos for a packet of noodles.

The idea of the capsule is alluring and there are undoubtedly men who wear the same few basic smart clothes all the time. When a coat wears out after 20 years, they go back to the shop they bought it from to try and buy another, or something as similar to it as possible. I discussed this with the proprietor of the English Hatter shop in Amsterdam and he confirmed that he had returning customers of that ilk, but then added that he was glad that not all his customers were like that! I suppose the truth of it is that such men aren’t really interested in clothes, if they were they would have more - like us.

Leaving aside  ‘consumables’ like socks, underwear and sports kit, I can’t really recollect the last time I actually wore a piece of clothing out and had to throw it away, the exception being vintage shirts that were beyond redemption, which of course were partly worn when I got them. Apart from a few coats I’ve acquired in recent years, I’ve bought very little vintage clothing for some time.

Yes, I think you're right.  Thanks, Robbie.  Didn't the chap have (for example) a shearling?  Tennis shoes?  Something formal? 
My little blue book vanished during my extra-marital troubles/travels/travails and I've yet to replace it.

HaHa. I'm back in Finland, minus the little blue book. An oversight on my part.

JFM maintained a capsule wardrobe.  Only the capsule was about the size of Windsor Castle.  He was forever lighting his stub of candle, venturing quaking into the attic, kicking aside the bones of his ancestors, chancing upon those two dozen boxes of pristine Troy Guild shirts that had completely slipped his mind.

Not that one.  Some chap in a study, looking mean, moody and magnificent.  I'm only going on my increasingly unreliable memory, you understand.

You might mean this though :-

http://www.ivy-style.com/long-live-the-old-esquire-man.html

I am - and always have been - a minimalist at heart: one in, two out (perhaps).  Same with books and CDs.  I do not hoard. 
I'm currently trying to reduce to no more than a dozen shirts, the majority of which have been with me for years: mostly Brooks Makers.
I own far too many sweaters but have reduced to a single (chunky, with football buttons) cardigan.
College scarves I have a number of.  Also scarves from Brooks and Press. 
I'll keep working on it.