I learned about the 10-item wardrobe while I was living in Paris as a foreign exchange student. But before you ask your French friends to explain this concept to you, I must tell you that Parisians don't call it the 10-item wardrobe. They probably don't even think of what they have as capsule wardrobes. They just inherently have less clothes than we do. Maybe it's because Parisian closets tend to be very small. Or maybe it's because they like to spend their money on higher quality clothes and so they don't buy as much.