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 conditions; I don’t know if that’s true, but at least we have something positive to come out of inflation…
A few of you have expressed your interest in wearing some brown, but you always feel like you need something “pretty” to go with it. I hear you – we were a generation who often heard that brown was the color of mud, dirt (ahem, that’s SOIL to the nature-lovers among us!), and other less mentionable substances. When I was a child, brown was positively shunned, as if we had enough clothes among my entire hometown to be picky about colors!
To Hades with that!
Let’s start here:
Yes, it comes in another color – mostly blue!
And then the world’s simplest color palette. It’s interesting to me that the very edge of this scarf is a quite vivid fuchsia, but the “main” pink in the background of the books is a soft, somewhat warm shade. Lots of pink options!
These are great cardigans – I have the purple one, and I really like it. The pink is lovely…
Ballet pink cardigan – Alex Mill; pink earrings – Chiarella; scarf – Echo; brown wool pants – Eileen Fisher; ivory tee – Lands’ End; shoulder bag – Jeffrey Campbell; Wallabee Chukka boots – Clarks Originals
Familiar brown shirt and pants, with the prettiest pink:
Pink earrings – Kate Spade Outlet; brown poplin shirt – Alex Mill; pink wool sweater – Alex Mill; scarf – Elizabetta; boots – Abeo; tote – Quince; corduroy pants – L.L.Bean
And yes, the brown corduroy skirt! How was I going to resist this pink Fair Isle sweater?
I’m noticing that there are three of my favorite things everywhere this year – Fair Isle, argyle, and sweater vests. Has anybody else noticed this, or is it just that I’m highly alert to such items?
Pink Fair Isle sweater- Boden; earrings – Reiss; brown cashmere cardigan – L.L.Bean; corduroy skirt – Banana Republic Factory; woven bag – Quince; deepest brown tee – L.L.Bean; Mary Jane flats – Naturalizer
Imagine is these 10 items were front and center in your closet – a week Wardrobe Valise that feels just a little bit like a chocolate-covered cherry…
One of the best things about sorting outfits ahead of time is that… well… you have complete outfits to grab from your closet in the pre-dawn darkness! But if you choose three outfits that all fit into a theme, you have LOTS of possible ways to get dressed:
I’m very tempted to do one more Wardrobe Valise using the blue version of this scarf, and with denim as a neutral. What do you think? It’s fascinating to me that you can get so much mileage out of 21 carefully-chosen items…
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, I was in Italy, and we were looking at Tote Bag Travel (the least one can pack for an overnight trip!), in black, sand and teal.
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What a lovely wardrobe! I can see myself living in this.
Yes, a post with the blue scarf and denim would be much appreciated.