May 3, 2018
So far, so good. While we only have 5 pieces of clothing in this wardrobe, with a pair of shoes, these are important first steps – these are pieces that will be worn a LOT…
cardigan – Eileen Fisher; tee shirt – Eileen Fisher; shirt – Thomas Mason for J.Crew; pants – Eileen Fisher; jeans – Lands’ End; loafers – ECCO
While this heroine is in need of some more clothes, let’s first get her at least a watch and a handbag! Well okay, a few accessories… You don’t really need piles of jewelry, or dozens of scarves, to make a big difference in how your wardrobe works for you.
Watch – Movado; bracelet – Anna Beck; earrings – Meadowlark; bag – Tricot Comme des Garcons; scarf – Echo
I’ve always felt that it was a safe assumption that a wardrobe should include more tops than bottoms – the tops are more visible because they’re at eye-level, they’re close to your face, and they are more likely to need laundering before a pair of jeans… So let’s pick up a couple more tops for this wardrobe, and another scarf, because I like scarves!
Sleeveless top – Banana Republic; tee shirt – Uniqlo; scarf – Faliero Sarti
At this point in building this wardrobe, there are 3 black pieces, 1 white, and 3 in that irresistible lilac/lavender color. As much as I love this accent color, a wardrobe travels on the back of the neutrals! So I’m bringing in a soft, relaxed, kind of wrinkled black “suit,” and a pair of sandals. Note that if I was writing this in September, I would choose different fabrics and probably a pair of boots. But this is a wardrobe for the next 6 months – for our imaginary heroine in the Northern Hemisphere – so let’s skew just a bit for warmer weather, eh?
linen pants – Eileen Fisher; cardigan – Cupcakes and Cashmere; sandals – Naot
With these additions, we now have 9 garments in this wardrobe – 2 “top layers,” four tops, and 3 bottoms. For many of us, this would be a pretty ideal travel wardrobe:
Because everything is closely related in color, our heroine now has 2 dozen outfits (at least) with just these few pieces. If she were to travel wearing 3 garments, she would only have to pack 6…
Tomorrow brings some ruffles, a skirt, and some additional white pieces – it is going to be summer, someday soon…
love,
Janice
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Welcome back. Your blog looks great and it is very easy to navigate on my laptop and phone. I hope this brings more financial rewards for you.
I’m so glad you’re revisiting the starting from scratch idea. I’ve been working on building a basics wardrobe, so this time I’m following along and seeing if I can plug my own things into your categories. I was thinking today that all the outfits in this post look basically the same to me, but I don’t wear a lot of black. It occurs to me that most of my outfits look similar to each other as well, just with medium denim blue and grey. It took me a long time to settle on my neutrals, but now that I’ve found them, I wear the same colors over and over.
I would like to have a wardrobe like that!looking fordward for more.
I do like your inspo capsule taken from the wise old owl, especially that beautiful blue/lavender colour. Looking forward to some ruffling tomorrow.
I expect an owl presents a more delicate palette than my rather gaudy pheasant!
Sounds like your Spring is keeping a firm hold on winter, just like here. Hugs, my lovely, x.
I love this colouring together. My only observation is that all the pants look the same on paper, so I’d probably change out the shape of one pair for a skinnier leg just so I felt I was wearing something a bit different. Love these starting from scratch posts – they are my favourite.
I too love this colour combination and am eagerly awaiting the next installment. I intend to travel to the UK in August and am using black, white and denim colour. I also want to travel for a month with your 24 piece template.
I am pretty new to your blog, so I am also pleased you are starting from scratch. Thank you for your great information!