August 26, 2024
It might be any kind of caregiving opportunity… but you’ve got to go somewhere legitimately cold (and with short days!), and you can’t wear any kind of wool. Dear oh dear…
But trust me, there are solutions!
Fleece is wonderful. Warm, soft, washable…
but don’t wash too often – this stuff sheds the microplastics that are found in every organ of your body now! Maybe try to find a good filter for your washer output hose…
These colors are particularly pretty, and would be cheery in a place with long cold nights:
I don’t know if “shirt jacket” is one word, two words, or hyphenated. I’m going with two separate words for now…
One of the many joys of a shirt jacket is that you can wear it both on its own and layered over other things. Hence the name, right?
Shirt jacket – Lands’ End; earrings – Kendra Scott; white tee shirt – Lands’ End; marled scarf – Lands’ End; knit corduroy pants – Lands’ End; sneakers – Josef Seibel
The real trick to finding coordinates to a plaid or printed garment is to look at offerings from the same company, with the same color name! This is cornflower blue, and Lands’ End carries quite a few garments in that color. Plus, this can save you shipping charges from multiple retailers…
Yes, you can wash a silk scarf – wear it without fear!
Bowtie earrings – H2 Studio; striped tee – Lands’ End; sweater – Lands’ End; jeans – L.L.Bean; scarf – RaluFineArt; waterproof boots – Blondo
If you know that you’re going to be in a home, caregiving and cuddling, a sweatshirt and sweatpants (as well as slippers!) are only logical. And soft. And warm!
Floral tee – Lands’ End; sweatshirt – Lands’ End; sweatpants – Lands’ End; socks – Birkenstock; slippers – L.L.Bean
A dress might never be worn, but you might be surprised! Maybe you’ll be treated to dinner. Maybe you need to attend a religious service or ceremony. Maybe you’ll just wear it unbuttoned over a tee shirt and pants!
note that this corduroy dress also comes in brown, burgundy and dark green!
Also note – cotton flannel comes in all sorts of weights; this plaid shirt is lightweight, and ideal for layering. If you want warmer, it’s out there.
These dozen garments are our heroine’s travel capsule wardrobe. If she travels in three of the garments, the rest of these will fit into a small suitcase – depending as always on what other essentials she packs.
One of the joys of caregiving is that you do a fair amount of laundry, so your tee shirt or pair of socks, tossed into a load, make no difference to your schedule or the household’s budget…
There’s almost no wrong way to get dressed here – maybe you would hate the floral tee under a plaid shirt, but you could still get away with wearing it.
I’m still – and always – going to see what other outfit possibilities exist. You don’t want to be overly dependent on just one pair of pants, and similarly you don’t want to pack something that isn’t versatile.
Let’s see:
Please note – if you’ve sent me a note recently asking for a specific wardrobe, I will try to incorporate your request into a wardrobe in the next month or so. I’ve had LOTS of questions recently!
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, I was starting to think about how I would pack for Paris for a trip with two of my dearest photographer friends. I’m going back to Paris in November – my packing won’t be a ton different!
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Great cozy and comfy outfits Janice. We are going to Canada for two weeks in the early Fall. I want to pack a capsule wardrobe in a carry on and take a personal bag as well. Autumn is my favorite season and I enjoy dressing in Autumn colors. However, I now have silver/white hair after ditching the hair dye two years ago. Therefore certain colors flatter me more now versus the golds, rusts and mustard colors I enjoyed wearing when I had dark brown hair. I am highly considering using black, charcoal gray, burgundy/plum and teal. These colors compliment my hair, skin and eye color. Do you have any capsule wardrobe suggestions? Thank you and I appreciate your time.
~Lisa~
There are TONS of great articles using those colors in the archives. One of my favorite ways to get inspiration is to go rummaging around in there! :-)
https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2012/03/packing-for-claudia-and-russian.html/
If I didn’t leave the house much, I’d be living in those slippers!
This is great! I bought a red and black buffalo plaid shirt jacket last spring, but am so excited to see what I can do with it for the fall. I pictured myself raking leaves and walking the kids to school in it, but I now could also see maybe dressing it up to go work over a dress? Thanks for the inspiration.
As someone with a wool allergy (including Merino and Cashmere!) I love this :) Thank you so much for considering that!!! Plaid has never really been my style but every Fall i wonder if i should just buy a single, oversized plaid top and just use it as a “that time of year” themed wear. I bet i could wear it hiking and it would be great. The real question is what colors should I get it in? Maybe olive and navy? And long enough to wear over leggings? I could definitely get wear out of that!
Great capsule – for really cold weather, its missing tights perhaps for the dress. Also, never under-estimate the power of whimsical house-slippers. I bought a pair with owls on them – the left foot owl has its eyes open, the right-foot owl has its eyes closed. Lands End or LLBean, cant remember which. Makes me smile EVERY day.
Yes, fleece lined tights would be perfect with this capsule! I’d probably also add a long denim or corduroy skirt, too, if there was room.
Now *this* capsule is for me! Or at least it would have been perfect last year when I was flying back and forth to my mom. Now that she is here in NC with me I won’t need a cold weather travel capsule like this, but I may still add some of these pieces for when we have our worst weather.
The word you are looking for is “shacket’, and has been all the rage the last couple of years! Bought a couple and now I’m excited to try some of these combo ideas. I have a sweater dress that would be perfect under one.
I love that corduroy dress, I just wish it came in colors that look good on me. Shopping for cool weather clothes can be so frustrating when you are a bright/clear winter! Fall clothes, especially, are mostly warm, dark, muted colors.
I have a question about silk scarves. I have collected a few beautiful ones that I love to wear and build outfits around. I will occasionally wash one gently and hang to dry, which works fine. But they always come out wrinkled. I am afraid to iron them, so how do I get them unwrinkled?
Thanks for all you do for us, and how exciting that you get to go back to Paris! I am a little jealous.
Just iron them – silk is a delight to iron! Just start cool and add heat gradually. You’ll be so happy afterwards – nothing irons as sleek and lovely as silk!
hugs,
Janice
When I wash silk scarves I “stick” them flat and smooth to the shower glass when wet. They may fall off when dry but they will be smooth.
About ironing silk scarves…
Suggest you use a cool iron (1 dot on the iron settings).
You could use the steam setting as well.
If you are worried about ruining the silk put another fabric on top of it before applying the iron.
My mother always did that with delicate materials.
Best of luck.
Susan
My mom did too – it is now my default for silks/delicates. it also avoids the occasional “iron decides it wants to spew water on your item”.
Iron on the hottest steam setting as follows: silk item; hand towel over it; iron the towel. check the silk item to see if the wrinkles have gone; move towel; continue. its surprisingly soothing for me, even though i don’t like to iron!
I love this wardrobe too!
My question, though, is also about silk scarves. I fear ruining them. I like the iron-with-another-layer-on-top idea. I’d forgotten that.
What about washing? It’ll be by hand, I’m assuming. What kind of detergents are safe?
Anything else we need to know about the care and feeding of silk scarves??
Thanks, Janice! Your work is a live-saver! (in a way!!) =)
Camille
Cold water. Try a corner in the water, to see how color-fast the scarf is. (if it starts to bleed, I don’t know WHAT to tell you!). I generally use some gentle shampoo, or delicate laundry detergent. Silk itself is tremendously strong – it’s the colors that you have to baby!
hugs,
Janice
I believe the fashion trend people have shortened shirt jacket into shacket. We no longer speak in real words; now we take some words, mash them together and make up words that everyone is supposed to just know what the contraction means. I’ve always used shirt jacket as 2 words, not hyphenated.
I love wearing soft, fuzzy, warm, cuddly clothes. Thank you.
Louise
I’m NOT going to use “shacket.” Maybe the rest of the world will see me as behind the times – a recalcitrant old lady – but I think it sounds like a small shack…
hugs,
Janice
Haha. Excellent!
I love this. Basically navy and white with a muted blue that suits me better than the bright blue in the Magill. Thank you!
We call them shackets here in Scotland too. Horrible word. I really love this wardrobe. It is soooo me! Imagine my dismay in finding that NONE of the lovely Lands’ End clothes or colours are available on the British website.
Yet I received my autumn catalogue through the post just last week. I have been told that companies often run out of the online stock which comes from a different warehouse to that ordered by post. I haven’t tested the theory but I do like the floral ditsy print blue top.
I’m in the all-wool-itches camp, so I appreciate seeing alternatives to the wool pieces that are beloved of many TVF readers. There are many good engineered fabrics that can sub in, and fleece is an absolute favorite in Minnesota winters (which fit the description of “legitimately cold”). I like this take on the “shades of blue” capsule oriented for very casual, practical use that nevertheless has femininity to it.
I am a bit wary of the ankle boots in this capsule, just because I personally find this style of boot (which I wear fall, winter, and spring for work) is not well cushioned enough for my on-my-feet needs. Now for all I know, this particular boot is terrifically comfortable for the purpose, but I would have to evaluate that carefully. Because it’s waterproof, maybe it’s intended as the option to wear outdoors as well as with the dress?
The dress is an interesting choice, not one I would have thought to make, so it’s great to see that as an option to consider. I think this is a real “know your destination/situation” thing because unless there is a known event to plan for, I’ve literally never found myself needing a dress when visiting family (in the US). And I would find a shirt-jacket (“shacket” is, ugh, not a word I like the sound of) as long as a dress to be very awkward to wear in a caregiving situation – too much extraneous fabric.
I’ve had good luck using Soak scentless no-rinse detergent in cold water to hand wash silk scarves in the sink. Their website offers guidance for how to wash, dry, and iron silk.
Thanks Janice! This is just what the doctor ordered. Since I live in Nor Cal I don’t have a tremendous need for cold weather clothing. The wool problem is quite vexing for cold weather clothes. You are the answer to a Grandmas prayers!
All the best, Annie
I was just thinking that I needed sweatpants since I haven’t had any in quite a while and now I know why – $70 for sweatpants?! I don’t view them as an investment piece like I do my merino wool tops (I’m lucky and can wear wool) so I don’t think I’ll be buying any. (I love your blog and all the different colors you put together though! I just can’t afford to shop at very many places ;-(
Carol,
Check out Quince and Walmart for sweatpants. I can’t attest to the quality of the sweatpants but all the clothes I’ve purchased from Quince are very nice. And I have a sweatshirt hoodie from Walmart that’s very nice and toasty.
Good luck.
I just checked out the Quince website and saw some things I liked! I wish they carried petite sizes since I’m only 4’11”, but some reviewers said the items worked for their height so I need to look around there some more. Thanks! (And I have bought clothing from Walmart before, it can be surprisingly good quality – but with the recent store resets they seem to have done away with most of their petite clothing.)
I use a Guppy Friend washing bag to launder my husband’s fleece vest. The microplastic fibers that shed during washing stay inside the bag!
I was going to say it would be extra useful in the travel situation because you could keep.all your things together when adding to the household load.
Perfect! I have very sensitive skin, particularly with wool of all types, I love the colours, and I live in England, so it’s ideal for me.
I used to have a care-giving wardrobe challenge, which was going from sub-zero outside into an overheated care home. Layers were essential, and hot flushes were guaranteed.
Last year I found a lightweight grey and white buffalo plaid fleece shirt jacket, and found it quite useful. Cozy and warm around the house, and a change of pace from hoodies and cardigans.
Love the wardrobe. Particularly love the inspiration. We have shackets here in NZ also. I think it’s a cute word. Some contractions and abbreviations are not so appealing. But if we didn’t consider using them, there’d be no hoodies, also a cute word!
When I saw this post this morning I was taking a break from hanging laundry. And just looking at the colors in my wardrobe I know I could pull together something similar to this in minutes. These colors are literally half (or slightly more) of my wardrobe, the rest being gray, pink and periwinkle purple.
Love it!!
And I will definitely be doing that at some point soon, since winter in Minnesota lasts seemingly forever. lol!
Thank you for this lovely inspiration Janice!
All the hugs!
I love this! My life tends to be a bit dressier, but with this palette and basics, how lovely it would be to incorporate a nice navy skirt, a light blue print bloused, a lovely cotton (or fleece) blazer and a navy dress. I honestly just ordered this one from Talbots…and it could even be dressed down with the shacket over it! https://www.talbots.com/easy-travel-long-sleeve-dress/P243079210.html?cgid=apparel-dresses&dwvar_P243079210_color=INDIGO%20BLUE&dwvar_P243079210_sizeType=MS#start=1
Well I’m loving this and it fits right in with the Magill wardrobe that will hopefully make an appearance next week. Mentally, I have toned down the Magill, so the cobalt blue is a bright navy. I have been experimenting and wearing a lot more navy, varying shades of blue and white/ivory over the past eight months. Although I do add in silver grey to give it mileage.
I’m not sure about ‘shackets’ because they remind me of lumber jackets. I do like a plaid shirt and have a navy and blue plaid shirt for winter. I found a photo of me, at the weekend, taken 25 years ago. I was wearing a navy and ivory plaid pinafore that was one of my favourites. In my youth, I wore a lot of blue. I also cut labels from clothes which makes them more unlikely to be used by a charity shop. I’m not keen on feeling wool next to my skin.
Blue will no longer languish at the back of my wardrobe or just be an ‘boring’ neutral against a more interesting tops. I could now create an ‘urgent care’ wardrobe not that anyone is in desperate need. I’m finding that shades of blue also provide stress-free dressing. I just wish that I could find a ‘shades of blue’ scarf that I really like.
I do like the Lands End ditsy print floral top. It is such a shame that the Lands End UK online site doesn’t have the range of the US site, even though it was a British company to begin with. However, the printed catalogue that came last week has the ditsy print top right there in a range of colours. Online on the UK site, only black or teal are available. I have yet to try ordering by post to see whether I get the order or ‘Sorry this is not in stock’.
Last week, I saw a navy and white floral top but was undecided about the high crew neck on me. I liked the monochrome floral pattern a lot which got me pondering on the idea of regarding monochrome patterns as neutrals within a wardrobe. I have several tops that have a base colour and the pattern is created with white or ivory. I do find them successful additions to my wardrobe. They look good on their own or with another accent colour.
I believe Lands’ End was founded in Chicago.
Unfortunately, “shackets” are not attractive on all body types. I’m not heavy, but I’m petite and curvy–they cover my waist and make me look like a rod from shoulder to hip! But I think they’re great on tall, thin people. I have two fitted, but loose, plaid flannel shirts from Land’s End and wear them as I would a “shacket,” I find it a great option for fall, especially at an outdoor event or cool indoor gathering–not at all dressy, but more put together than a lumberjack look.
I love this, but from your 12 Months series I found out how much I love blue and white. I always have, but I don’t wear white bottoms and used to buy too much navy, so I thought it was limiting. That series showed me the key was a variety of blues and whites in the tops, with black pants and skirts and an ecru sort of basic pant to vary the all-navy bottoms. I like blue and black together, and when I add some accent pieces in shades of orchid and rose, it gives me a lot of variety for a small wardrobe. Thank you for all your work here, it’s such a help. I know you’ve had some hard times lately and you are in my prayers.