Archives for February 2014

February 2014

Start with Art: From Mount Darling by Peter Simpson

February 28, 2014

So this is your dream:

And maybe this is your current reality:

All the more reason you should consider shopping your dream, and at least wrapping your immediate self (i.e. your body) in the calm, soft, organic and tranquil colors of which you dream.

Start small - a simple silk tunic that can be worn with any pair of pants you own... This tunic, all on it's own, could raise your spirits for a few days! Maybe some blue shoes, or a bag. And your next pair of jeans could certainly be green rather than something more predictable and conformist...

So many shades of blue from which to choose - but you don't really have to choose! Just as the sky blues all blend into beauty, in the same ... View the Post

Struggling with a “Good Deal”

I get lots of offers, and I'm sure you do too. Often, I find myself thinking about the offer a whole lot more than I really should, and a LOT more than the offer deserves... How to sort this out? Advice welcome; let me share with you my current dilemma.

I just received this in the mail. I have a very well-documented love of Eileen Fisher clothing and design, so seeing this in my mail will of course immediate spark my interest - at least to see what she's got new and interesting for this season called "spring", which I don't understand, here in sub-zero Chicago...

Flip over the mailer, and I get more intrigued:

If there's ANYTHING I like more than a tidy list of garments, I don't know what it is. ... View the Post

Chic Sightings: Variations on a Sweater Theme

February 26, 2014

Yesterday's double posting was, in fact, a mistake on my part - the pattern mixing post was supposed to be this morning's post. But I'm having well-documented issues with Blogger, and they chose to give you the gift of two posts yesterday; who am I to argue?

So today I thought I'd share a small post with a few quick observations I made in New York.

First, most women in New York are NOT amazingly beautiful and well-dressed. They might be slimmer than the national average, but that might just be because one walks a lot in New York. (and if you take the subway, you climb a LOT of stairs...)

Secondly, pretty much the entire city wears black coats. Maybe grey. Possibly denim... It's a dark, dark, DARK crowd. ... View the Post

Dabbling in the Trends: Pattern Mixing

February 26, 2014

I saw mixed patterns in almost every window display in New York - along with color blocking, it was the ubiquitous fashion suggestion for spring.

You know perfectly well that I'm not a big believer in the following of trends, but sometimes a fleeting style element might catch your fancy. There's nothing wrong with buying one or two things that clearly demonstrate your connection with the here and now, and that indulge your love of the trend in question.

Pattern mixing is tough... It requires a pretty astute eye to pull together different garments in different patterns. That's why I really like the idea of buying one garment in which the patterns are mixed for you. Let the designers figure out the hard ... View the Post

Start With Art: An Interior from Architectural Digest

February 25, 2014

This photograph was sent to me as a suggestion for a wardrobe - and what a great idea. This photograph prompted, in me, ideas of wood, stone, natural fabrics and textured fabrics. While I'm going to start with mostly colors in the beige/brown/grey families, there are definite hints here of green, blue and orange that would be great accent colors here.

Another question I've been asked is about the possibility of purchasing garments one at a time, so this is something we're going to try here. And the idea of not matching colors exactly - the colors in this wardrobe (with one exception) won't be identical matches...

So here we go! First off, wouldn't you like to be sitting in this room with a good book and a ... View the Post

This is Why I Blog

Thanks so much to the reader who steered me to the New York Times Magazine article: Sign of the Times/Slaves No More by Cathy Horyn. It ends thus:

...a woman of indeterminate age who knows what she likes and has shrugged off what she no longer has any use for, and maybe never did. If that sound rather limited, that's the point. I'll stick with the same paint colors and my lovely old kilt, because, it turns out, there's a surprising amount of harmony in unremarkable choices."

(emphasis is mine)

Timeless. Elegant. Classic. Simple. Unique. Beautiful. Maybe not the words by which I live, but definitely words that inform and illuminate my style choices. ... View the Post

When Starting With Art goes Haywire: Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles

February 20, 2014

One of my readers has been shopping with this great Van Gogh painting in hand... She's got a solid core of gorgeous gold items:

And she's picked up some light blue clothes too, which she doesn't like to wear with the gold:

And she's also picked up a few tee shirts in the accent colors of the painting:

So now, she's got this assortment of clothes. Everything, on it's own, is beautiful, but she's not finding that this is as versatile as she would like.

One of the charms of Van Gogh is that he combines difficult colors in innovating ways, and isn't terribly dependent on neutral colors. It's a glorious way to paint, but not an easy way to build a wardrobe.

The right person could ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting With Art: Shopping with a Van Gogh Seascape

What a gorgeous painting! And the colors are so perfect for warm weather... (of which I dream right now, as I watch the white-out snow storm outside my window...)

A few of you have expressed a concern about wearing light colors below the waist, and so for this wardrobe I'm going to avoid that. Also, I've been asked to include a maxi skirt in capsule wardrobes, so today I've found one!

A dark core of four - useful for most of the year, and an essential base upon which we're going to build this plan. Navy is so perfect for warm weather; if you're concerned about the colors matching, plan to buy all four items at once, and maybe from the same place.

Yes, this is the second grouping of four green garments that you've seen in two days. ... View the Post

Start With Art: Jackpine by Tom Thomson

February 18, 2014

This painting has such gorgeous colors, and for a summer travel wardrobe the options are wonderful...

I'm starting with a core of four - I'm a really strong believer in the usefulness of having a core of neutral garments around which everything else can revolve. The colors don't have to be dye-lot matched, but they should be chosen with an eye to being wearable together. And getting your shoes taken care of frees you up to go just a bit wild later on in your second and third waves of shopping!

For summer, shorts and capris. Then when you branch out into tee shirts, this painting gives you a wide variety of colors from which to choose.

A really WIDE variety of colors from which to choose... ... View the Post

Start with Art: Abstract by Nicolas de Stael

February 15, 2014

Start With Art posts are among my most popular, and certainly ones that I love to do, but I've recently received some emails that expressed concern about how to actually get started with implementing a focused wardrobe based upon a work of art. So this is one possible approach...

This beautiful work is Abstract, by Nicolas de Stael, and these cool, subtle colors are amazing for the upcoming summer. If you're comfortable wearing white, or if you have a good relationship with your dry cleaner, I would start with the crisp clarity of white for the initial four summer garments. Sandals that pair white with silver, and some silver loafers, might be all the change you need to update your existing wardrobe in this ... View the Post

How to Pack for Slushy Streets

February 14, 2014

Lucky me - I'm going to New York for a few days next week! Belovedest has to go to a series of meetings there, and we had a free plane ticket, and so...

But this is a particularly dicey time of year to travel - there's no telling what I'm going to find for weather. So the first thing we have to always plan is what the "drop dead" plan is for cancellations, i.e., at what point do we go back home after a number of delays. But once that's settled, I also have to face that fact that I'm not going to be happy slopping around Manhattan unless I have serious footwear - specifically, my Bogs. And they're... bulky... really, really bulky...

I could wear them on the plane, but I'm going to assume that I don't have to, ... View the Post

A Variety of Colors: A Simple Summer Wardrobe

February 13, 2014

I've been thinking a lot about how to plan a wardrobe that gives you options for a wide variety of accent colors. There are other way to go about this, and I'm going to figure them out, but my very first thought was the following. Here's what your summer wardrobe will look like, after we've worked out way through the steps.

Assuming that you're going to be carrying over a few garments from your cold weather wardrobe, I've pulled together this core of four in grey. I'm also including neutral footwear - canvas sneakers, and a simple pair of suede loafers.

As much as I know that the point of this is to introduce lots of accents, I think it's pretty important that we start this wardrobe with a ... View the Post