Archives for August 2016

August 2016

One Navy Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear it With Brights

I always intended to do 3 posts with this dress, yesterday's pastels, today's bright colors, and on Friday I'm going to look at some muted shades... (tomorrow is the first of the month - time to revisit those "1 Outfit per Month" wardrobes!) So today, I changed the shoes, but kept to the same general theme of working through a range of colors.

(These seven images look really great together on my computer; I don't often notice this, but I've got this lovely rainbow running down the side of my desktop right now...)

The color spectrum isn't quite the same as yesterday, but I still worked my way around the color wheel. Doing this ensures that I don't miss any possibilities; it's something to consider when you're looking for just the right ... View the Post

One Navy Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear it With Pastels

This is a great dress - it appears to be fairly trimly cut until it reaches the hips, and then swish!

I took a little bit different approach to this dress - I found simple, classic navy shoes that I've included with all of the pastel colors. And there's a pretty straightforward formula for these - I looked for scarves, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and bags in the accent color, and then chose the pieces that I liked the most! My criteria were pretty much that the accessories should be as close in color to the cardigan as reasonably possible, and that they share a feeling or aesthetic. (that last part is hard to define, but I know what I like when I see it!)

This is an obvious color scheme, if you spend a lot of time studying the color ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Wing of a European Roller by Albrecht Durer

Durer was, unquestionably, a genius:

There are only about a TON of colors here (yes, ton is not a number, but you know what I mean...). I actually went back to the Internet to look at photographs of the actual bird in order to get a sense of what they really look like!

Uncompromising

She knew that she had some... difficult... preferences.

Even though her wardrobe is largely black and white, she prefers brown leather. She doesn't care if anyone else thinks it's a good idea...

Her favorite accent colors are two different shades of blue, which don't particularly work together. Her friends tell her that it isn't very efficient to stick so stubbornly to both colors...

She's been known to wear both silver AND gold ... View the Post

One Dark Grey Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear It

I could wear this dress a lot...

At its most basic, you can approach this dress with simple metallic silver accessories, or you can combine silver and shades of grey:

I love the contrast between the deep, cool color of this dress and the equally strong, but warm shades of camel or caramel. Mixing warm and cool colors isn't off-limits, if you balance the strength or intensity of the colors.

Truly, I don't think there's a color in the world that doesn't look good with navy. I particularly like the subtle contrast between these 2 dark colors...

Back in the '80s, there was an approach to dressing that encouraged you to find your best lipstick and blush colors, and the to find clothes that matched those colors. Not ... View the Post

Essential Accessories for a Travel Capsule Wardrobe: What I’m Packing: Italy, September 2016

As of 6 pm Chicago time on Wednesday, I have no news about the town that I was going to visit next week. It is about 50 miles from the epicenter of the earthquakes, so I suspect that it avoided much damage. Nonetheless, we are considering the possibility of just staying in Rome for a week, and avoiding the region entirely. No decisions have been made yet, though... Of course, let's keep the earthquake victims, (and all victims, everywhere) in our hearts.

Let's jump right in! I've known for weeks what my travel outfit is, including shoes, so let's start building around that:

Someone asked about finding pants that don't get really droopy after a long time sitting down - I can highly recommend these from Eddie Bauer. They have a side ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Approaching Storm by Eugene-Louis Boudin

I hope these ladies don't have to sprint too far to escape the storm; they're not dressed for the 100 yard dash...

But it's a beautiful painting, and it so vividly evokes that feeling when the weather is about to turn. I was particularly drawn to the simple, neutral color scheme:

Other Things on Her Mind

She travels with a lot of gear...

Actually, she's ALWAYS carrying bags and bags of photography equipment, even if she's not traveling. Photography is what she does, and she does it well.

So she decided ages ago that she was going to be very disciplined in her wardrobe. Not drab. Not boring. Just in control. For example, she wears jeans. Only jeans. If someone thinks she needs something else to wear, ... View the Post

My Travel Capsule Wardrobe Packing: Italy, September 2016

We're leaving for Italy in less than 2 weeks, which means I need to get this travel capsule wardrobe sorted! I'm notorious for having my suitcase out a month ahead of time...

But seriously, I should start setting things aside so that (a) I don't forget anything, and (b) I don't carelessly wear something that I want to pack, 2 days before we leave, and find that I have to do laundry at the last minute. There'll be quite enough laundry the last morning, because we like to return home to clean sheets, clean towels, and as little in the laundry bags as possible!

As always, I start with what I'm going to wear on the flight. I'm still undecided about accessories (probably an upcoming blog post?) but I know that I'm going to wear comfortable but ... View the Post

One Red Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: Fourteen Ways to Wear It

I love doing these... and this dress just calls my name. How can I NOT own this in black? This dress also comes in yellow (remember last week's post about a yellow dress?), black, and raspberry, which is a gorgeous rich hot pink... sigh...

It probably doesn't amaze you to learn that when I do similar blog posts, I reuse the original template, and just make the appropriate changes. So after I went into this template and changed the dividers in the middle from red to yellow, I removed the yellow dress from every page, and just plunked the red dress in...

And didn't have to change ONE THING, for these two options! How many different colors could work here? Certainly the black dress would be perfect here, if even a bit drab, and the ... View the Post

Building a Wardrobe of Bags – Accessories for the Capsule Wardrobe

A couple of weeks ago, Belovedest and I were wandering around Chicago when we happened upon a store called The Shudio. Yes, it's a "hybrid of a retail shop full of eco conscious goods... combined with a metalsmith jewelry studio." And yes, this is some fun... I could have purchased a lot of things, but I'm trying very hard to avoid that kind of reckless madness (especially with THREE big vacations coming up in the next year!), but I did buy a lovely little black leather wristlet, from a company called CHC. They donate 10% of their revenue to a local organization for homeless women, and all of their materials are local. Pretty nice; I was happy. But when I got home and dug out my bag for our upcoming trip to Italy, I realized that my ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with… Antique Ceramic Tiles!!!

An upcoming "trailing spouse" trip for one of you... and some amazing colors, inspired by ceramic tile! As if we needed a reminder that capsule wardrobe color palette inspirations can be found literally anywhere...

I'm going to assume that the little dot of red is going to be nails and lips...

Our trip is to a destination that will be cool-ish (Oslo!), so sweaters are going to be important! While I'm working with navy as the core of this wardrobe, I chose to use this cardigan, although it's a more "marled" blue. It blends well with all of the colors, and it's cozy cashmere, which could be helpful for this trip.

And flying in a skirt? Well, it has a "hidden comfort waist," and it can't be as binding as a pair of jeans would be... ... View the Post

One Yellow Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear It

One of you recently bought a yellow dress... It wasn't this one, but it was an equally simple, beautiful dress...

What to do with such a nice dress, in such a statement color? Work your way through every color in the rainbow, and test them in your mind (in a PowerPoint presentation, or on Pinterest?) to see how they'll work...

First up, knowing that the purchaser is a woman who wears "cool" colors and accessories, I thought I'd take a look at putting some black with it. Some people might feel that this is too much bumblebee, or University of Iowa, or Pittsburgh Pirates, but I think that it's a striking option.

In the first example, I used a bit of white (or of skin, showing through the sandals) to unify the accessories. And the 2nd ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Arlequin by Pablo Picasso, Version 2

I have to admit, when I first saw this painting, I thought of colors of denim:

Can you see it, too?

Oh, So Wrong...

"She never wears anything but jeans..."

"Well, you know, some women just don't care about pretty things... they just don't see the beauty around them the way we do..."

She knew that they said these things about her; she didn't care.

She gardens, she hikes, she works with her hands. She thinks that being appropriate is pretty attractive...

"Of course, nobody grows more beautiful roses than she does..." Are they blind to all subtlety?

Silly, silly people....

love, Janice ... View the Post