June 13, 2025
Happy Friday the 13th to all of us intelligent people who are NOT superstitious!
Today’s question is a pretty normal one: our heroine wants to pack a wardrobe that’s mostly navy, but wants a couple of different options for accents. She’d love a pretty pastel, but she’s also thinking that a bright-colored option might be nice too.
Okay! let’s grab a couple of scarves that appealed to me, and that will work as a perfect springboard for our heroine:
Our heroine’s only going to be gone for 4 nights, and she’s not going anyplace horrendously dressy. She will have to attend a meeting or two, but for at least one day she will be able to wear shorts! This is a normal trip for her, and so she’s assembled a navy travel core that she often repeats:
Tank top – Lands’ End; cardigan – Lands’ End; earrings – Sierra Winter Jewelry; bag – Talbots; skirt – Lands’ End; chino ankle pants – Lands’ End; shorts – Lands’ End; loafers – Lands’ End; sandals – Naot
Next, in order to figure out what else she wants to pack, let’s assemble a couple of little “accent clusters” that includes a couple of tops and some other accessories.
This heroine carries a tote bag EVERY day, and she likes to switch them out! Fabric bags are easy to pack…
Earrings – Fable England; Bermuda Blue mini-striped shirt – Lands’ End; scarf – Frances Valentine; Bermuda Blue tee – Lands’ End; bracelet – Fable England; sandals – J.Crew; tote bag – inara
Interesting. I didn’t really notice that the border of this second scarf is pretty much the same shade of blue as the first scarf! THAT’S convenient, isn’t it?
Earrings – Molly Olivia; orange tank top – J.Crew; bracelet – AWNL; scarf – Kurt Geiger; tote bag – Lost Pattern NYC; pale banana blouse – J.Crew; yellow sandals – beek
This is our heroine’s travel capsule wardrobe; you can clearly see that there are some things that really DON’T go together, but also you can see lots of outfit possibilities:
Even though our heroine’s only going to be away from home from Sunday night till Friday afternoon, she’s got at least 10 possible outfits to wear drawn from her travel capsule wardrobe:
I find this a fresh and relatively simple way to pack; would you like to see the navy wardrobe accent with a different pair of scarves?
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, we were packing with navy, green and beige. I never tire of thinking of the possibilities in a suitcase!
Like this wardrobe? Save it to Pinterest!
I always love it, Janice, when you create a post that I can assemble (or very closely assemble) from pieces I already own. This is one such post. Other than the specific scarves, I have pieces all very similar to the ones you’ve showed here. I love navy as a base neutral, especially spring through fall. I am going to be very limited in the clothing I have for a several months, as we transition from our current house to a rental for a few months and then into the new house this fall. I’ll need summer fun wear, pieces to go back to work in late August, as well as ideas to get me into the fall. It’s a big ask! However, this post really is inspiring me about what I can imagine, in terms of dressing pieces up for work and events, but dressing down for moving and lazy Maine summer days.
I’m going to start playing with my pieces today, to see how I can create a capsule, that will meet these varying needs.
Maybe several small capsules, that work together well as a moderately larger capsule? There are lots of wonderful ideas for larger capsules back in the archives!
Oh yes, please show the navy with 2 more scarves (or even more). This is so helpful! You are truly an inspiration. Thanks for making my day!
Agreed! Navy is both the core of my wardrobe and my go-to neutral. I don’t wear yellow or orange, but would love to see a capsule based on a red/white/navy/light blue scarf and/or one in navy/English tan (like classic Sperry topsiders)/natural (like a canvas boat tote).
This is fabulous. I love the pops of color. I have a hodge podge in my closet and have some time this summer set aside to coordiante it better, using your posts as part of my inspiration! Thank you so much!
I really like these ideas. My core neutral is Navy with blue and green accents. I am especially interested in the accessories. I have to say that I always need a third layer, even in summer. If I am going to be outside, it may be a tank with a short sleeve shirt.
This is what I call a Short Trip Wardrobe with 9 garments. Add a dress and you have the Perfect 10 Travel Capsule. Although typically I would do a dark neutral, a light neutral and an accent, it’s interesting to flip it with a dark neutral and two accents as in one core and two clusters. The only change I would make would be to swap one of the tops for a layer or pivot piece.
So, yes, show us more of this easy and practical approach.
Yes please. A bold change of colour with two different scarves makes a big difference in the look. I would go with two different scarves that weren’t so similar in order to get a really different feel to the look. That great navy base can handle it.
Not superstitious at all. My husband and i were married this very day 43 years ago! Friday the 13th was lucky for us lol.
I like navy but some navies are so dark they may as well be black. What is the point of that. I try to find lighter navies which has been hard lately. I seem to be on a turquoise/violet run lately with some green thrown in. Would love to see your navy core with a few more scarfs, so yes please. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
It seems that you always avoid green like the plague. I guess I notice since green is my favorite color. Please try to include it a little more if possible.
Thanks!
Janis,
I recall two recent posts geared primarily to green. June 3 and May 26. Both lovely. Maybe you missed them?
I always love seeing you do wardrobes based on navy! Hopefully you will be able to find some lovely patterned pieces one of these days. I know there are prints in the accessories, but I’ve soooooo been missing them in the actual clothing of late. Maybe try BloomChic, or ChicWish, or even Funbibi. They have lots of really lovely prints of all kinds right now. Solids are great core pieces but goodness do I miss the days when we had bridging garments, lovely floral tops, and interesting geometric or art inspired patterns.
ChicWish has WHAPPAGE! Thanks for sharing!
Great ideas as always. I went through my scarves last night and moved the cotton squares to the top. I think they add so much to the top of a tee shirt and cotton is cooler to my skin than silk in the heat of summer. Boy your look backs really make a point. Ten years later and they still look great. So even if some of the items were a bit spendy worth it in my opinion.
Brilliant! This is so versatile. You could sub in many colors, including green and lavender as mentioned by others. I am not a scarf person, so I when I can find one I sub in a pretty print in a top. Looking back, I wish I had a photo of my wardrobe pre TVF and now. It is a constant evolution but I do have a neat color coordinated section that is TVF based. On a separate note, I have found many great second hand quality purses and totes on ThredUp so our heroine could indulge her tote bag needs there. Their prices seem to be up lately, though. Yes, please on additional scarves for this group.
I love this one, but would substitute the green for the orange in the wardrobe – I think. The possibilities with a navy core are many!! Great scarves!
Thank you for a wonderful post today. I love a navy base and usually start my travel capsules with it. I just got back from Paris and Germany and did a capsule of navy, light blue and white/tan. It was the most versatile travel capsule I have put together. I love your ideas for accessories and the ones that have shopping links attached. I would love to see more navy with other colors too!
I also love the navy based capsules. I could def come up with the starter navy pieces in summer items although I would have a denim skirt rather than navy pants. Along with others I would love to see repeats with other pairs of scarves. Could I make a request? The echo Eifel Tower/Paris scarf in the aqua and the Kate spade Road Trip scarf! I bought them both because…..Whappage!!!
It’s easy for me to use the Road Trip scarf but the Paris one is more challenging. I bought an aqua cardigan and it works if I squint The cardigan is green aqua and the scarf is blue aqua. The orange is too strong for my coloring but I do have several orange accessories. I would like to use both on the same trip! Maybe you could link to your previous posts on these scarves for the other readers? Thanks for your work! Happy weekend!
I have several floral bags which are light to carry and foldable. However, as my husband often ends up carrying it when we are out together, I really must buy a more masculine bag in green and brown to go with his clothes.
The Fable earrings with the tiny blue forget-me-nots are delightful. Having experimented with navy and light blue last year (Magill painting), it is now becoming one of my favourite combinations and certainly draws lots of compliments. I would probably use a floral top as a bridge piece to add another accent. Adding a pair of lighter neutral trousers/shorts would make the warmer colours more adaptable. I too would swap one of the shirts for a light jumper.
Isn’t there a saying “Blue and green should never be seen”? I would argue that the right green can look sensational with navy. Lavender/periwinkle and pink geranium are additional accents that I wear with navy. My navy is a lighter hue.
Love the scarves! Wish you would show us how to wear them!
This dark blue is a pretty base.
For me, I would have added the light green. Or burgundy, or… So many possibilities.
Janice, could we have a post featuring sun hats, please? My doctor tells me they’re important to prevent skin cancer
If I need to build a new base color, do you recommend buying from same company? Was curious how hard it will be to find same navy color for different fabrics and seasons?
I would strongly suggest getting a core of items from one company, although I don’t even think that’s a guarantee of matching colors. One thing I’ve learned – especially when visiting London and Dublin – men don’t seem to worry about matching their shades of navy. Their suit will of course be all the same color, but their topcoat might be somewhat different. Nobody seems worried; oh, to have the confidence of mediocre men!
love,
Janice