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Home » Looking for Summer Accessories? Start With a 4×4 Summer Wardrobe

Looking for Summer Accessories? Start With a 4×4 Summer Wardrobe

January 29, 2025

Of course you remember our swimming heroine from Monday – a new swimsuit spawned a full 4×4 summer wardrobe plan!

This is her new suit:

Top – Lands’ End; skirt – Lands’ End

And this is the 16-piece capsule wardrobe she chose to go with her swimsuit – you have to start somewhere!

Dress – Lands’ End; tank top – Lands’ End; navy linen pants – L.L.Bean; shorts – Lands’ End; Tank top – Lands’ End; tee shirt – Lands’ End; White cotton/linen tunic – J.Crew; white gauze pants – L.L.Bean; navy cotton cardigan – Lands’ End; ruffled top – Lands’ End; Tencel skirt – Lands’ End; shorts – L.L.Bean; plaid top – L.L.Bean; Striped tee shirt – Lands’ End; lake blue tee – L.L.Bean; striped shirt – Lands’ End

So that our heroine can be sure to get all of the accessories that she needs, she’s going to take a handful of normal outfits from her wardrobe, and accessorize each of them. The most important thing might be to include all of your “bottoms” when you do this, so that you don’t show up somewhere with a lovely outfit and the wrong shoes. Worse things happen every day, but if you can avoid this…

Let’s start with the essentials – a hat and sunglasses!

Hat – Rip Curl; sunglasses – Ray-Ban; espadrilles – Soludos

For her “adult” outfit, our heroine would like a nice pair of earrings, a tote bag and comfy shoes. She’s not going to get too formal…

Earrings – Nadri; tote bag – Manhattan Portage; shoes – Sperry Top-Sider

Some heroines might not have quite so many pairs of sandals, but they’re easy to pack, comfy, and you need them most of the time when you’re outdoors:

Hair claw – Machete; bracelets – Arms of Eve; sandals – FitFlop

Hair accessories are important for many of us – especially if it’s windy, salty and sandy…

Headband – Lele Sadoughi; bandana – Chan Luu; flipflops – FitFlop

Of course her two-piece dress is pretty easy to “dress up!”

Earrings – Gold Trip; bracelet – Kendra Scott; bag – The Sak; flats – FitFlop

So now, when she starts packing, she’s got accessories!

And just for reference purposes, these are more swimwear pieces that I would be inclined to take along…

Swim top – Lands’ End; rash guard top – Lands’ End; swim leggings – Lands’ End; rash guard striped jacket – Lands’ End

There’s a TON of swimwear available right now – this is really the best time to shop for summer!

Should I share another swimsuit-based wardrobe?

love,

Janice

p.s. Ten years ago, we started with a beautiful winter photograph, to assemble a few outfits in charcoal, other shades of grey, and a stunning sky blue!

Looking for Summer Accessories Start With a 4x4 Summer Wardrobe

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01.29.25 19 Comments

Tags: 4X4 Wardrobe, navy, Start With a Swimsuit, warm weather, white
<<Need a Summer Overhaul? Start with Swimwear – Ditsy Lilies by Lands’ EndPink, Orange and White for Summer? Start With a Swimsuit – Floral Strawberry Watercolor Suit by L.L.Bean x Summersalt>>

Comments

  1. Carol S says

    January 29, 2025 at 3:20 am

    Great wardrobe & accessories. Love blues & whites in summer. Sand vibe going with the gold accessories.
    Love your comment ‘and the wrong shoes’.
    A year & half ago my doctor recommended to me that I get shoes with arch supports. At the time I bought one pair of black Mary Janes with arch support. I wear them with short sport socks – black in winter & white in summer. I haven’t yet got round to purchasing more shoes. So I have worn these shoes every day for a year & half – so in both cool & hot weather. I need me to get shopping so I have more variety.

    Reply
    • Kristi says

      January 29, 2025 at 10:14 am

      I have to wear shoes with arch support as well and for summer I love aerothotic flip flops (I have some of their Birkenstock style sandals and wear those some, but the flip flops are every day). I also wear the flip flops as house shoes in the winter because going barefoot without arch support isn’t good for my feet.

      Reply
  2. Mary says

    January 29, 2025 at 5:11 am

    I would love to see another swimsuit-based wardrobe.

    Reply
  3. Julia says

    January 29, 2025 at 5:16 am

    I’ve been trying to get away from blue as have so much of it but I do love this wardrobe. I recently bought a green swimsuit from ‘Lands End’ – they are just the best – so am going to try and resist buying blue this summer!

    Very frustrating for me though. I discovered ‘Lands End’ years ago and they have been a staple for me for many years, but I am in France and their website here never seems to have the same lovely clothes that you discover. Maybe tailored to the indigenlous population!

    Reply
  4. lena says

    January 29, 2025 at 5:25 am

    Should I share another swimsuit-based wardrobe? YES!
    It would be great to see how to use two accent colors.

    Reply
  5. carol says

    January 29, 2025 at 5:36 am

    great post! I immediately went on Lands End and bought swim leggings for myself my daughter and granddaughter! Who knew they had such a thing??? And yes to more bathing suits yes to everything you do!! Thank you!!

    Reply
  6. Ellen S. says

    January 29, 2025 at 5:54 am

    I’m always happy to see a swimsuit based wardrobe! LL Bean has some great ones!

    I am also here to say how amazing FitFlops are. These are truly the most comfortable sandals of all times. I have three pair myself and I wear them all. They’re the only thong sandals that I can wear (sensitive feet) and I cannot say enough good things about them. I have them in black, silver and coral. However, those navy print ones are calling my name!

    Thank you, Janice!

    Reply
  7. Ellen S. says

    January 29, 2025 at 5:59 am

    I own this suit from LL Bean and lived in it all of last summer. Any chance you’d be interested in creating a summer wardrobe around it? Please!

    https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/129708?page=womens-llbean-x-summersalt-the-ruched-sidestroke-womens-regular&bc=12-27-624-503314&feat=503314-GN3&csp=a&attrValue_0=55996&pos=31

    Reply
    • Kim says

      January 29, 2025 at 10:31 am

      That is gorgeous! Hope Janice will choose this one to do next!

      Reply
    • Janice says

      January 29, 2025 at 12:17 pm

      Oh my… I may have to!
      hugs,
      Janice

      Reply
      • Ellen S says

        January 30, 2025 at 7:18 am

        Hooray! You won’t regret it. I just love this suit and I can attest that it is fabulous quality.

  8. Liz Custer says

    January 29, 2025 at 6:46 am

    Love this! Yes do more swimsuit based wardrobes!

    Reply
  9. Nancy Davis says

    January 29, 2025 at 7:15 am

    Yes, please do another swimsuit based wardrobe! Maybe around the Land’s End Rich Olive Green suit.

    Reply
  10. Beth T says

    January 29, 2025 at 7:45 am

    My favourite outfit is the blouse and skirt. It would be so adaptable. Tuck the blouse in and disguise the gap with woven belt – a dress. The top would look good over linen trousers. I always have to wear a cardigan with a skirt to even up my proportions.

    Thank you for the lookback. I love blue and grey. One of my favourite outfits in summer is a navy tee over a pair of silver grey linen trousers.

    Reply
  11. April in Sugarland says

    January 29, 2025 at 7:56 am

    Love this! Navy and white fill my core and the denim blue is perfect. I think where I felt a little twitchy about the navy and white with bright blue wardrobe from last year’s 6 based on art is the bright blue felt like it didn’t quite fit. I noticed most of the sample outfits combine white with the bright blue or white with navy. Nothing wrong with that but I had hoped to see blended outfits similar to what we saw with the shades of brown from 2 years ago. This shade of denim blue seems to work much better with the navy and white together. Thank you!
    I purchased a solid navy suit at the end of the season last year. So this gives me inspiration for finding a swim skirt. I think I could just about make this wardrobe from items in my closet.
    Regarding packing failure. I had a major one on a short trip to my daughter’s prior to Christmas. I didn’t plan ahead, didn’t write things out on paper…..ended up there without shoes to match my skirt for church on Sunday and didn’t have a blouse that worked either. And I was accompanying her musical number and needed to look decent. Fortunately, sweet daughter was able to loan me a blouse and shoes too! Lesson learned!!!

    Reply
  12. Christine says

    January 29, 2025 at 9:35 am

    Yes. Please share another swimsuit wardrobe. Most swimwear is black and it looks horrible on me so hoping you could find a striking wardrobe in a muted shade. Also, I wish there were more manufacturers/choices in this lane. I LOVE lands end, and it is very hard to find a better quality and fit, but it would be nice to see another brand..

    Reply
  13. Debra Indy says

    January 29, 2025 at 9:51 am

    Yes to more swimsuit-centric palettes, nice to discover new options. Will definitely look into the rash guard items from Lands’ End, especially the leggings, all the items could be used for multiple purposes.

    Love the throwback photo from ten years ago. Could even pull brown, beige, periwinkle and cream from that one to create a different palette.

    Reply
  14. penelope more says

    January 29, 2025 at 11:07 am

    Love a swimsuit based wardrobe! As a frequent traveller to tropical waters, I find an omission. I always like to include a one piece cover up. It is much easier than struggling into multiple pieces over a damp suit. There are tons of cute ones out there.

    Reply
  15. AK says

    January 29, 2025 at 6:04 pm

    This really shows how easy it can be to plan out a wardrobe and accessories. You always show, with great clarity, how the right accessories shift the direction of an outfit!!!!

    Reply

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The Vivienne Files is a unique personal style blog with carefully-selected capsule wardrobes based on color palettes drawn from works of art, nature, and more. It helps women buy less clothing, and to love what they buy. Read more...
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