Archives for January 2026

January 2026

Green Always Feels Fresh: Start With Art – In Northern Mists by Erik Werenskiold

January 30, 2026

One last visit with our traveling heroine, and the print that she uses to inspire her wardrobe:

Her color palette focused on the pastel colors in the sky, although she could easily include both black, white (stars!) and a soft grey in this palette:

They're not at all sure that the Northern Lights are still a possibility, but they do know that there are flowers starting to sprout, and leaves just beginning to show... (use your imaginations, all of us still in single-degree cold!)

So her accent color is green, and her theme is leaves!

As a reminder, this is the travel capsule wardrobe template that she's using to choose her six garments for each trip:

She knows full well that spring can ... View the Post

The Impact of a New Accent Color: Start With Art – In Northern Mists by Erik Werenskiold

January 28, 2026

Monday's very pink wardrobe was a success - except there was cloud cover the ENTIRE weekend she was with her friend.

So they're going to try again...

Remember, this is the illustration upon which we're basing all of this week's travel capsule wardrobes:

Our heroine has a denim-focused wardrobe, with three pastel accent colors:

They're trying to encourage clearer skies, so our heroine is focusing on yellow, and sunny earrings!

As a reminder, this is the Six-Pack Plan that she's going to try to select for her second weekend with her new friend:

She's not trying to convince her friend that she has an endlessly large wardrobe, so she packs a lot of the same clothing as before. People who ... View the Post

Thinking About Six-Packs: Start With Art – In Northern Mists by Erik Werenskiold

January 26, 2026

Just a quick idea - if you want to save both electricity and water (not necessarily for you personally, but for the world), when you're searching for something on the Internet, type -ai at the end of your search. Voila, NO Artificial Intelligence responses!

I've been thinking a lot about the logic of what actually goes into a Six-Pack travel capsule wardrobe. So I'm going to start with this most excellent illustration, and conjure up three travel capsule wardrobes this week...

Honestly, could this be more timely? So many people in the Northern Hemisphere have been able to see the Northern Lights for the first time in their lives. Bless the overactive solar storms, eh?

To me, this print just looked like ... View the Post

An Inexpensive Way to Try an Accent Color

January 23, 2026

One last - for now - sampling of colors!

Many of us aren't comfortable plunking down a lot of money on a piece of clothing that may not work out. So I thought that inexpensive tee shirts might be the best way to approach this...

Normally, I'm NOT going to suggest that you buy a garment that's essentially "fast fashion," but in this case it might be excusable. If you buy one of these tee shirts right now, and wear it every week or ten days until the end of the summer, you very well might wear it out! And that would be fine - you would either get the color out of your system, or have discovered a new accent that you want to wear long term.

If you're not sure about choosing a color, let me suggest that you look at ... View the Post

Maybe It’s Time for an Accent Color That Will Last Into Spring…

January 21, 2026

This post started with a BUNCH of emails in which I tried to encourage some of you to at least try a button-front shirt from Lands' End. For literally decades, I avoided button-fronts like the plague, because I'm short, short-armed, short waisted, and generous endowed...

You know how this works out - buttons that gape, sleeves that hang down to your knees. That feeling that your body is not built for this world!

These shirts might work. They do for me. I wear Petite Large, and everything is just right...

Seecond, the temperature is punishingly cold right now. A bright color or two might be nice, eh?

Finally, I realized that the clothes that stay in my closet all 12 months are my button-front shirts, which I ... View the Post

Ready for a Fresh Accent Color?

January 19, 2026

Please note, some things are selling really quickly! I do my best, but you might miss things here if you hesitate at all...

Now that we're all hunkered down with our wardrobes for the rest of this season (winter for us in the north, summer in the southern hemisphere), some of us will soon be ready for just a bit of something fresh and different...

The easiest way to do this is to find a versatile piece of clothing in a color that appeals, and then add one or two accessories (or maybe a layering piece for your new addition) to bring some brightness to your days.

For some reason I don't understand, these kinds of quarter-zip tops are a BIG THING right now. I know that a lot of the hype has been around sweaters in ... View the Post

I’m Using a 28-piece Wardrobe Template to Refine My Wardrobe…

January 16, 2026

My wardrobe feels pretty stable, but I'm always looking for things in it that I'm no longer wearing on a regular basis. We don't have mountains of room (although compared to my sisters in Europe, I'm wallowing in space!), and I don't like to keep things that might be of use to someone else...

So I initially thought I would use a 30-piece, six cluster template to organize myself:

But then I made a critical aesthetic adjustment to the 28-piece, seven cluster template (yes, they do indeed get confusing!):

Having the bottoms longer than the tops just makes good sense, doesn't it?

I'm hopeful that you can "right click" on these and copy them, or print them. They're useful if you're just writing on them, or ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

January 14, 2026

Ten years ago, her friends invited her for the weekend. A bit of bird-watching, sitting on the veranda... Just a relaxing time in a warm climate with people she loves...

After spending so much time admiring these birds, she decided to take her wardrobe very much in this direction - with the addition of the snappy red accent!

Well, her relationship with birds has taken on a whole new meaning! First thing - when she left her morally bankrupt corporate job, she almost immediately found a position helping coordinate worldwide bird censuses.

It requires both a knowledge of data base administration, and bird species! Who ever knew that SQL and birds could co-exist?

She does get to travel from time to ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

January 12, 2026

She's a professional listener...

She doesn't want to be invisible - that would be creepy! But she does want to appear warm, unobtrusive and comfortable. Her clients will speak more freely if she doesn't look as if she's going to rip off their head...

So she chose this most calm and reflective of paintings, and an assortment of colors from brown to bone, with accents of rust and a pretty greenish-blue that matches her eyes:

She started building her new work wardrobe with the most classic of ivory and brown, but in soft textures of cabled cashmere and corduroy:

She knows that finding her favorite green is going to be difficult, so she has to jump on anything she finds that suits. And although the ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

January 9, 2026

She doesn't have to wear a uniform anymore! She didn't really mind - it's a good job - but it does get tiring to wear Oxford grey, pale pink and pale yellow ALL THE TIME.

Not to mention that everyone on the street knows where she works...

But she's been promoted to back-office support and auditing, and she can wear pretty much whatever she wants! And this is where she's going to focus:

She really wants to have navy as her wardrobe core; she's noticed that ALL of the top executives wear navy a lot. Since she's pretty ambitious, she figures that she may as well accustom herself to owning and loving classic navy.

But she's going to give herself the choice of four accent colors! One for each season - more or ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

January 7, 2026

A surprise painting that I snuck in on everyone - almost including myself!

But I always want to include the wardrobe visions of those among us who have a desire for their wardrobe to remain in the background - subtle, nuanced, and quiet...

Her color palette might change in proportion - she's feeling like she may want more grey, and ease back on the gold/yellow. These things are a work in progress, NOT a rule!

She's know what career she wanted ever since she was a small child, and watched people digging up her favorite flowers from her front yard - what's wrong with dandelions?

And she's been fully focused on her desire to redeem the reputation of native plants for pretty much her entire life; her ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

January 5 2026

Our second heroine also has a black base to her wardrobe, along with denim blue and bone (thanks to whomever pointed out that I'd complete SKIPPED the beautiful bluish grey...):

Our heroine is a graphic artist; her specialty is working with designs that incorporate multiple typefaces. She's the absolute master (mistress?) of mixing serif and sans-serif fonts! And it's not as easy as one might think; persuading clients that she's right about things can be difficult. Therefore, she tends to dress in a pretty timeless and neutral fashion, so that clients will concentrate on what she shows to them, and not on her.

But she does plan to include both turquoise and bright Kelly green in her wardrobe, in moderate ... View the Post