September 16, 2026
Oh, so MANY of us right now are seeing lots of things that tempt us – my email is full of queries about what to buy, what to ignore, and what’s not to be missed!
How did Monday’s heroine miss this cardigan? If it’s still around by mid-October, when she next shops, I suspect she may have to have it!
This particular heroine is heading to her college homecoming – just for Friday night arriving late, and then Saturday night, departing Sunday after brunch.
Yes, her college’s “colors” are black and red…
She knows she doesn’t need to pack much, and so she decides to go with a foolproof approach to packing:
She starts with pants and skirts – no jeans, but cotton twill pants, and corduroy pants, are good substitutes that are plenty casual. And she chooses to pack a skirt because she plans for a nice dinner Saturday night. Others may wish to go hang out at the college bar, and try to recreate their lost youth. She would rather have a lovely meal!
Cotton twill pants – Alex Mill; dotted scarf – Ralph Lauren; corduroy pants – Coldwater Creek; pleated skirt – Nordstrom; boots – Blondo
She doesn’t have any trouble picking tops – except she makes the wild choice to include a striped shirt in the same capsule as a printed sweater!
Of course she can wear them together. It’s not always guaranteed that two prints will look good together, but in this particular case, she’s on safe ground:
Black turtleneck – L.L.Bean; scarf – Echo; white tee – L.L.Bean; red striped shirt – J.Crew; sneakers – Vintage Havana
And finally, she chooses her last two “second layers.” I really like to mix-up the styles of theses three – a cardigan, a vest, and a crewneck or v-neck pullover give you a variety of looks…
Alpaca vest – J.Crew; red earrings – Ted Baker; black earrings – Donatello Gian; striped sweater – Eileen Fisher
When you put these 9 pieces of clothing into the slot machine template, you can see that our heroine has more different outfits possible than she could wear in a month! (that’s assuming that she would wear her cardigan with no top under it, and that she wouldn’t need to layer her striped sweater either)
Our heroine will, of course, do as all wise heroines do, and assemble (at least in her mind!) a number of outfits. There’s no harm in planning, and possibly much to be gained!
I’m pondering something very much like this if I go to Paris in December… hmm…
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, we looked into the potential of wearing plum with a range of neutrals. There’s a lot of plum and purple around this year…
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I’ve only ever met up with people who were on my course once about 30 years ago, ten years after we graduated! About 20 of us met up for a meal in the city we studied in. We’ve all lost touch since.
I love decorative knitwear. I have several items. I found a lovely lightweight ivory jumper with blue/purple butterflies on it. This will be perfect for spring and early or late summer.
Yes she has more than enough clothes to extend her stay to a week for ‘sightseeing’ and revisiting her ‘youth’. However, I’m concerned about her limited footwear. Surely with a skirt, she needs a pair of dressy shoes?
Plum is a workhorse neutral for me. The only time I don’t wear plum is in the summer. I’m currently wearing plum with aqua, lilac and pink. Later in the season and the winter, I’ll be wearing it with teal and deep pink.
My goodness! I love every bit about this! When my mother and daughter go back to Stanford University for various events, this is literally how they dress. Black, white and lots of red is their way to show school spirit. I would say, however, for the ‘big dinner’, they’d both have a fabulous red dress.
My prep school and college both are blue and white, but I could see tweaking these looks to sub in Lyons blue (sort of a cross between French blue, navy and teal) for the red. Honestly, I love red so much more than my own school colors and I wear a ton of it in winter. But, I do believe this formula of black and white + your accent color would be an easy way for any reunion weekend. One of my best friends went to Northwestern and she wears tons of purple when she heads back to the Chicago area, along with black and white. So, I’m seeing this formula as perfect….just subbing in the color that you need to wear for the red, if necessary.
This 9 piece formula is the perfect solution for me, a retired person who doesn’t go out a lot but needs a few things for going out activities. Also, I love the plum article. I have a fig t-shirt and olive chinos and I just love those colors this year. Also, browns, grays and creme, snow, cloud or whatever they are calling the sort of grayish white color. These 2 articles are speaking to me today.
I love the slot machine of clothes as the basis for a small but not dull wardrobe. Factor in Start with a Scarf and some simple t shirts to go under the topsand the permutations are good for a month. IMHO it is fine to repeat a few outfits if they make you feel good
In my first job I had 3 skirts.- red(new) black cord (home made) and dark green (secondhand). 2 jerseys -1 black (home made) I beige (new). 2 blouses – I Viyella(wool/cotton mix in a red, black and green subtle Paisley print one in cream silk with a slightly boho print incorporating all the colours( both second hand)Plus 1pair of jeans and a plain mustard short sleeve top handed down from my mother that only went with jeans and black skirt. 9 garments altogether but they mainly worked brilliantly together and I never felt bored or boring
Fortunately secondhand clothes were generally better quality fabri s and yarns then – no polyester. I have never quite managed to recreate such a good wardrobe since…butthe VivienneFiles are a gesat source of inspiration….
Oh, that sounds really nice.
Back then, I also had significantly fewer clothes.
We are going to make outfit repeating a desirable behavior! How we ever got away from it is a mystery to me, but it’s a silly “rule” and one that well deserves to be binned.
Join me – one and all – in my crusade!
love,
Janice
I am all in! Absolutely!!!
Love this approach to packing. You can’t go wrong if you start with a color palette then do equal numbers of layers, tops and bottoms. So 9 items for a weekend trip as per above, 12 + a dress for a weeklong trip, etc. This is an easy palette with a dark neutral, light neutral and accent color. I agree that a third pair of shoes would be good to have. Travel influencers may get by with only two pairs but I like to do one each of athletic, flats/loafers, and then either sandals or booties depending on the season. Make either the second or third pair dressier, and you’ve covered all the options.
Pretty, even with other accent colors.
I have a red coat and bought a cute plaid scarf a while ago.
I’ll take all the pieces from the recap, please.
I love the versatility of these nine pieces. Adding some gray pieces would work well with this capsule.
Love this formula.
Two pairs of shoes works great! Booties can dress up or be chill and a good leather sneaker can be casual without being sloppy. I pack for three weeks with something similar. Love this wardrobe but I’m subbing old gold for my November football weekend Purdue v Iowa. Both teams are gold and black with Iowa being a brighter gold. From a distance we will all look the same. Also going to an October game The college bars are fine for a beer but there are wonderful restaurants and we can afford them now :) I’m just happy that I should be able to wear sweaters!! Still sleeveless dark linen in my neck of the woods.
So brilliant! Would love to see this in a warm palette for us green-eyed redheads for the weekend in Los Angeles. Black is not necessarily our neutral go-to, even though more people than you think wear black in L.A.
Love this post, but now your site has these annoying pop up ads near the top middle of the page. For a long time your site did not have these pop ups. They interfere with looking at the photos of the clothing :(
Ugh….
Ah, yes…minimalism. It’s a thing now, I like it, but I forget it’s kind of how we used to operate. I do adore those earrings!
Cece, I block cookies and the videos and whatnot go away…
I really like the slot machine concept – perfect for dressing without thinking during the stressy time I’m going through at the moment, or for a short(-ish) trip if/when I need to escape.
However, as I’ve managed to reduce my whole wardrobe to 63 pieces, I don’t have three bottoms in any of my colours! I do know it doesn’t really matter, given the larger scheme of things, but it’s a nice distraction to wonder if adding in denim (jeans or skirt) would work… or whether this a good reason for some retail therapy?! :-)
Denim would be excellent in any wardrobe! If you will wear it, it belongs there.
hugs,
Janic
Thanx Janice