Archives for October 2026

October 2026

Must Have Denim? Start With a Scarf – Bookworm (in blue) by Echo

October 23, 2026

Does it seem as if October will never end?

So let's imagine a scenario - someone who's convinced that assembling her clothes for the week ahead is a good idea. Someone who is willing to try arranging a "Domesticated Valise" in her closet at the beginning of the week. (her plan is Sunday evening, for less than a half hour, get everything in one place).

But she MUST HAVE DENIM. It happens to most of us, from time to time...

How about starting here?

With this color palette?

Her favorite shade of green is hard to find, but if you get your hands on ONE great sweater, and some amazing accessories, you will be able to include this color in more outfits than you may expect:

If you're ever going to ... View the Post

Want to Brighten Up Navy? Start With a Scarf – Hungarian Folk Florals Scarf

October 21, 2026

It's time to bring out the bright colors, if you have them! The crowds these days are pretty drab (and I don't really do much to help that, unless I'm wearing some purple!)

Maybe this will help?

If you have a good core of navy (and a few white tops of some sort), this color palette is pretty straightforward. This does NOT mean that it's easy to find this year; it's a "muted" year in the clothing world!

Well... This year, both orange and turquoise are VERY difficult to find. But I had some success, finally! The snappy handbag is hard to resist...

This top is described - rightly - as a tunic. Some of us will just let the hem hang out under the bottom of the sweater! But I suspect that if this ... View the Post

Loving Brown, but Needing Pink? Start With a Scarf – Bookworm by Echo

October 19, 2026

So, in essence, this is the same post as I did on Friday. No clashing accent colors, but still starting with a scarf and wearing lots of brown. Many of the same garments and accessories. My goal here is to make it really clear that a handful of basic garments, and a handful of excellent accessories, can look distinctive, even if the clothes don't change a lot.

And I know it must feel like I show brown every other day, but this is the first winter in just about FOREVER that brown has been so widely available. When you start at the "home page" of Nordstrom, there's a whole happy family with their holiday gifts, and THEY'RE wearing brown! It's a thing.

I understand that this is a reflection of the poor economic ... View the Post

Are Your Favorite Accent Colors Incompatible? Start With a Scarf – Saffron Flowers by Silk & Soul

October 16, 2026

It's a question you send me more often than I would have ever expected, 16 years ago when I plunged into this adventure: "What do I do when my two favorite accent colors don't go together?"

WELL... I could, of course, launch into a diatribe about how "all colors go together - if they exist in the world, they are meant to be together..."

Which is small consolation when you still don't feel like they look right together!

Let's start with this gorgeous thing:

To me, the most prominent colors here are orange and purple! They look so good here; there's something to be learned from that.

And - again to me - it appears that there's both brown and black in this scarf, so we have two neutrals, as well as ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

October 14, 2026

Our last heroine, but NEVER the least! In my next life, I'm going to major in French, and make my living translating arcane French documents buried in the Bibliotheque Nationale...

And I will use this painting as my inspiration, just as our current historical architecture expert does:

When she left for her autumn term teaching in Paris, she had this wardrobe. I suspect that she packed everything - 40 garments isn't insane for 4 months if you're in one place, and can unpack, hang things, and do laundry:

And I'm QUITE certain that she took all of her accessories with her - they're the fun part!

This month, the first thing our heroine wanted was another black dress. As much as her sleeveless dress is ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

October 12, 2026

She's a statistics expert, and she works with BIRD data - what a great combination of technology and nature! Her inspiration for her personal style is this dapper creature:

Going into full-tilt autumn, our heroine felt that she was relatively well prepared for most of what life had to offer:

I have to share this with you: in the year of my birth, 1960, the average woman's wardrobe (in the US) was 42 garments. That would be the wardrobe above plus two.

And when I really try to remember what I wore through high school and college (when I was not interested in clothes much at all!), I may have had this many pieces. But I don't think so...

Now, the average wardrobe is OVER 150 things. What has changed so ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

October 9, 2026

Our heroine, the professional listener, is overwhelmed by how many clients she has right now... Calmness is in short supply!

So let's draw our own personal relaxed mindset from the muted colors and soft focus of this beautiful painting:

At the end of September, our heroine's 40-piece was this:

And this was her accessory collection. There's something particularly wonderful about brown shoes - I can't come up with the right word!

Our heroine didn't have a clear idea about what she wanted to buy this month. Well, she had been pondering the idea of a flannel shirt, if she could find one that would fit in and be worn a lot. And another skirt - wearing a skirt to work seems to make her feel ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

October 7, 2026

Our aspiring bank employee is our heroine today! I particularly love this woman; she's doing things MUCH more cleverly than many of us did 40 years ago when we were trying to take over the world...

Her inspiration is this lovely painting:

At the end of September, our heroine had a 40-piece wardrobe. She's never had any sense that anybody at her office every notices that she wears a lot of navy, a few accents colors, and nothing else. Clothing isn't nearly the most important thing at work!

This is her current collection of accessories. She knows that her co-workers have noticed these - especially her scarves! There are occasional questions about where she found something, and also occasional ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

October 5, 2026

Let's drop in our landscape designer, and on her favorite Georgia O'Keeffe painting:

At the end of September, as the weather began to turn grey and misty, our heroine had this 40-piece wardrobe:

and these accessories:

Our heroine has decided that she needs to go visit a couple of ongoing work sites; heretofore, she's only met with clients in the company offices. But she's been asked, and she will go!

And she really wants to get into the mood of the season - grey mist and fog with bright sunshine breaking through.

And she's seen a scarf that really calls her name. At a distance, the scarf seems mostly soft greenish-blue, but up close, there are lots of sunshiny details. The heart will ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

October 2, 2026

OCTOBER! I don't know why the very sound of the word fills me with relief - it's not as if I absolutely hate hot weather...

Our heroine this month is travelling to New York two weeks out of four, for the foreseeable future. And those New York types do a LOT of dining out, so she's thinking about hitting the holiday clothes early this year!

I'm almost nauseated by how much new clothing just hit the stores in the last two days; does EVERY store need to bring in literally hundreds of new garments each month? Sigh...

First and foremost, let's admire, yet again, the beautiful painting that is the inspiration for our heroine when she goes shopping for clothes and accessories:

Our heroine's current 40-piece ... View the Post