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 wardrobe is this:

And these are her accessories:

 

Our heroine has been diligently looking – every month – for clothes in “her” shade of blue or green, and hasn’t been finding anything…

Combine that with the fact that she’s traveling a lot, and spending a lot of time in a big city, and we reach the point where she’s decided that buying versatile black things is her best option. And when she ran into a black velvet SUIT, she was set!

There’s a similar cardigan here, which is the one I own. Highly recommended…

Yes, our heroine bought two “second layers” this month, and when she updates her 56-piece template, all is back to normal! Of course, if you don’t fill in anybody’s template perfectly, you will be fine – these things are designed to help, not to boss you around.

Her wardrobe has now gotten big enough that it’s much easier to review it if we split clothes into tops and bottoms, and split accessories into jewelry and scarves vs shoes and bags. You may choose to do this any way that works for you.

Allowing more visual space for accessories is really useful – being able to see things in better detail makes it somewhat easier to see what you need:

But how does our heroine plan to wear her new purchases? You know she’s given this a lot of thought:

I’m really loving this wardrobe – it’s unfortunate that her accent colors are so scarce. But as those of us who love purple (or brown!) can attest, just be patient and some day you will be overwhelmed with choices!

love,
Janice

If you’d like to go back to all of the earlier posts in which this heroine is featured, you can find them here:  Christmas Eve Preview, January 2026, February 2026, March 2026, April 2026, May 2026, June 2026, July 2026, August 2026, September 2026

p.s. Ten years ago, I started with Van Gogh, and a 9-piece Wardrobe Building Blocks set, and experimented with adding accent colors to an existing wardrobe.

p.p.s. I know, I never talk about cosmetics. Or nail products. Or any of that kind of thing… but I’ve started using Manicurist Blur on my nails, and this stuff is amazing. Miraculous. My nails look great, and I swear even my cuticles are improved. I couldn’t NOT tell you…