August 11, 2025
Our heroine travels quite a bit – visiting friends, visiting family, vacationing, working… And she wants to start packing with a plan; she’s inspired by this:
She immediately can see a color palette that would pay homage to this painting – three neutrals, with the green as an accent. Or maybe the green can be a neutral too? There are lots of possibilities:
As heroines tend to do, she keep thinking! She realizes first off that she’s really not in the mood to pack brown right now. Maybe she doesn’t own any yet, or maybe her brown clothes are heavier, and not suited to her upcoming trip.
So she can clearly see that she can still assemble a lovely palette without the brown.
And then she thinks SOME MORE! Maybe a palette without the green?
Or – really daring among my people – a palette without black!!!
Here’s where she is now:
She’s going to test out her first travel palette for a trip that start out in a warm location, and puts her for a long weekend in a place just a bit cooler.
Cardigan – J.Jill; pressed flower earrings – J.Jill; tank top – J.Jill; black linen pants – Alex Mill; suede bag – J.Crew; scarf – Artifact.; sandals – Vionic
The accessories – and that excellent striped shirt – really make this wardrobe sing:
Black and lily pad green tees – Lands’ End; necklace – Ettika; pearl earrings – Ettika; onyx earrings – rōz; black cardigan – Alex Mill; ivory barrel jeans – Lands’ End; ribbon scarf – Kueen; striped shirt – GAP; lily pad green pants – Lands’ End; black loafers – Vionic; bone loafers – Robert Zur
Her complete travel capsule wardrobe of 9 garments is pretty foolproof, which is always a great way to pack. No matter what happens to any of your clothes, you can still get dressed; spills, tears, lost laundry are not as big a worry!
As much as our heroine knows that she’s going to be able to get dressed for anything that her friends thrown at her, she still mulls over what complete outfits will look like. This is always smart – it’s good to be sure that you have the right shoes and accessories!
I want to do two more wardrobes for this heroine, in her two other “seasonal” palettes, and then toss EVERYTHING together to see how it looks. What say thee?
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, we looked into the possibilities of A Common Wardrobe in warm colors. Classic clothes that you could certainly still be wearing!
Like this wardrobe? Save to Pinterest~
What a fabulous painting! There’s something appealing about trees and snow! It reminds me of one of my favourite paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder ‘Hunters in the Snow’!
I would pick out the dark rusty red, brown and green and leave out the black!
I like the idea of the seasonal palettes, slight variations on a theme! Food for thought!
Thanks! xxx
Yes, please, on the two other seasonal wardrobes. What a great idea! Can’t wait to see how the entire concept comes together. This capsule is already so versatile and I love the color scheme.
This is an incredibly practical wardrobe. I can see this working for a variety of women, in a variety of climate, covering a variety of body types. I personally would love to see a ‘core of four’ in the brown, too, so I hope that you revisit this one! While I’m not a fan of the big shirt from Gap (it reads as too pajama to me), this would be an easy one to find a more feminine silhouette for…black and white is a great base color palette.
Have a fantastic week, everyone!
I’ll take all four colors, of course.
I bought a long sage raincoat on Saturday at a huge discount.
This lovely green is my neutral (based on the amount I own). I love wearing black as an accessory.
Morning! Personally these colors are just “meh” for me. Probably not helped by the fact we are having a touch of a heat spell – forecasting 90-93 tomorrow and I just can’t look at what I would consider to be fall clothes right now. And fall is my favorite. It’s just too hot!
same! It is hot as heck here, and even the tank top looks too warm since it appears to be a sweater-like material. I looked up the striped shirt to see it on a human. The arms are odd – like a man’s shirt was cut down to fit a woman. I think it would fit weird under a sweater or jacket. If someone buys it, let me know how you like it. The stripes are cool with the large and small print.
Yes, please, to doing the additional wardrobes! This cool toned olive is one of my neutrals and usually quite hard for me to find. I like to wear it with denim, cream, and purple.
The pressed flower earring link leads to an “Oops!” The earrings may be sold out.
They are indeed gone! Good heavens…
hugs,
Janice
Love the painting. The colors extracted for it are so versatile! Yes, please to the expanded version!
I’m loving this color palette and can’t wait to see where it goes!
I would say: go for it!!
What a beautiful painting and wardrobe. I would love to see more of it.
I look forward to seeing how this all works out. I did have a wardrobe failure last week. Not because what I brought to CT didn’t work but bc I went from there to a funeral in MT and couldn’t go home first bc of the timing. I ordered a dress and pair of shoes on Amazon and they fit so I was able to be appropriate without too much difficulty. The shoes definitely work into my overall wardrobe and so that was a win. The black dress not so much, as I’m moving away from black, but I have sneakers, sandals and other pieces to make it work so it will get worn. Sometimes no matter how well we plan, things go awry!
I’m not sure you should think of this as a failure – you can’t pack for EVERY possible thing that will happen! It would be miserable if we all packed for a funeral every time we pulled out our suitcases…
hugs hugs hugs,
Janice
Diane Feinstein, the senator from California , told her granddaughter to always pack a black suit, because ‘you never know when you might need it!’ Her granddaughter told the story at Feinstein’s memorial. I have wondered if a black or navy suit could be a useful addition to any travel wardrobe if chosen well…
It wouldn’t have to be a suit in the way that Diane Feinstein wore suits – a matching cardigan and pants or skirt could get you a long way with the right shoes…
love,
Janice
Love this concept and the painting. This is such a practical way to use your closet. Win Win
Love this concept and the painting. This is such a practical way to use your closet. Win Win
I’ve been looking for a black cardigan in that shape. Just ordered!
There’s no way to go wrong when you get to mixing the three palettes. You’ll have the luxury of adding one “dressy” outfit. I’d place a bet that this will get at least 100 outfit.
These colors, with the addition of deep teal and brick/rust red, are my colors. I’ll look forward to the other palettes.
I love looking at all of the color combos you come up with and the paintings are a bonus. I’ve been looking back at the Navy/Pink Common Core Wardrobe you and was dreaming of a spring/summer fall/winter version of fabrics would be easy enough for a restart on a casual travel/retirement wardrobe.
I would love to see the other two wardrobes! These colors are lovely, but the green would be too subdued for me. Too bad. When this blasted hot weather departs, I plan to pull out the fall items and see what I come up with following your ideas. Right now I just want a cool drink and the air conditioner
I love these colours! This might be my favourite post to date. I was excited thinking we were going to see brown, until I kept reading. Ha ha. I look forward to seeing each of the variations! Wonderful!
I say do it!!! These four are my colors, I believe. They echo the fallen oak leaf, pine needle spray, and dark gray/light gray piece of tree bark I picked up together one chilly fall day.
Camille
Let me hasten to add that my wardrobe is chock full of black items! But as I age, I’m thinking of migrating to charcoal gray…
First the positive, I love, love, love the color scheme and that scarf and bag. But, why, oh why, is everything short and boxy or tunic length? I’m just a girl who likes nice tailored cuts. Shopping is so frustrating.
I think this heroine would do well with some nephrite or jadeite jewelry!