Accessorizing Archives

A Cool Weather Wardrobe Accent – 10 Sweaters, with Accessories

August 28, 2023

Let's assume, for the sake of fun, that we know what our core neutral wardrobe color will be for upcoming cool weather (in the Northern Hemisphere, of course!).

But most of us are going to want to add something to accent our wardrobes for the upcoming 6+ months of sweater weather...

I've already found mine - I bought the Lands' End Velvet Plum Heather cashmere cardigan THE MINUTE it was available. I didn't wait for it to go on sale, because it had real, serious whappage, and that means grab it now!

I could have purchased the crewneck, but I already have a purple crewneck sweater - in a different purple! - so this filled a wardrobe gap, and also sang sweet songs of cashmere to my heart...

But there are ... View the Post

Accenting Navy with Bright or Deep Colors

This is called: "I have NO IDEA what the day, or date, is this month!" Please understand that I will NOT have another post tomorrow morning!

August 13, 2023

Hi! Someone made a great point in Friday's comments, that I want to address. They pointed out that there are a LOT more ways to mix a neutral and an accent color than just "column of neutral + accent cardigan + accent scarf and shoes."

Of COURSE there are! But I've tried to keep these outfits as similar as possible, with the only variable in the accent color, so we can focus on the effect of the color and not be distracted by things like necklines and drapes and lengths and all of the other dozens of variables in clothing.

I'm always more than happy to approach these ... View the Post

Accenting Navy with Pastels

August 11, 2023

Okay, we're going to have THREE posts about navy, because I want to look into the pretty potential of pastels (death by alliteration!), as well as what might be interesting and useful in the world of bright accent colors...

Let's go!

I might have found a softer/lighter pink cardigan, but I really love the sleeves on this one! And it's just right with the scarf...

If you prefer a warmer kind of pink... Well, this is technically called Peachskin. Yes, all 1 word.

Yellow was hard! Really REALLY hard. Maybe as the weather cools down, and we have more sweaters available?

I don't wear pastels, but I could easily be tempted by mint green! I don't know what it is about this color...

Light blue ... View the Post

Accenting Navy with Other Neutrals

August 9, 2023

Ah, let's see what kinds of lovely ensembles we can pull together with this as our base:

I'm not going to interject a lot of remarks for this post, because (a) I don't wear navy anymore, and I'm more interested to hear what those of you who DO wear navy have to say, and (b) I'm dashing off to have someone poke a needle in my wrist, after which I shall NOT type for the rest of the day! I'd say I deserve a break after that, eh?

Editorial update: NO SHOT!!! And no more visits unless the pain dictates... Woo hoo!!!

First, an all-navy ensemble, accented with labradorite earrings and a lovely small scarf:

You don't wear scarves? A nice olive necklace will do the trick...

If you want a less "all dark" ... View the Post

Accenting Olive Green with Brights and Strong Colors

August 7, 2023

Ah, back to seeing the possibilities in olive green!

Please note that there were other colors that I wanted to include, but just couldn't find a cardigan that would do... I had to look for a shockingly long time to find a red cardigan! And there wasn't nearly as much pink in the world as one might believe, now in the Barbie times...

But we still have beautiful options!

Rust is my first thought with green; red is technically the compliment color to green (i.e. it is opposite to green in the color wheel), but I really feel like orange/rust is just a natural fit...

Turquoise! I love turquoise so much that I'm going to do another, brighter one below.

My thinking here is that if you're wearing an ... View the Post

Accenting Olive Green with Other Neutrals

July 31, 2023

Olive! Oh, do I have advice...

If you really want to build a core wardrobe in olive green, be prepared to work with colors that blend, rather than match perfectly. Couple the difficulty of even FINDING olive clothes, with the way that different companies call all sorts of different colors "olive," and you've got a project on your hands!

My approach would be to buy a couple of rolls of packing tape, and then mail order a BUNCH of olive garments, and then return anything that didn't work.

And get some paint swatches, or lengths of embroidery floss, and keep them with you at all times! You never know when the unexpected craft show will offer up the perfect scarf, or necklace...

But I finally managed to get some ... View the Post

Accenting Black with Your Favorite Color

July 27, 2023

So after we determined on Wednesday that it's possible to accent black with just about any other neutral, I want to see if it's possible to accent black with your favorite color...

There are, of course, lots of colors that I'm not including here! All colors are not easily found in this current "in between" season of clothing - not enough summer clothes, and not enough fall clothes... sigh...

But I always feel confident that a pretty shade of blue will look great!

Burgundy isn't a color that one expects with black, but the scarf makes ALL the difference... And adding a 2nd accent color with turquoise earrings... why not?

Hot pink? This scarf is irresistible! You don't have to have the earrings AND the ... View the Post

How to Wear a Blue Dress – 10 Ideas

July 24, 2023

I heard from quite a few of you, asking if this dress could be worn with... well... navy, black, green and pink, so far!

So I decided to give this dress the attention it deserves, and see what the possibilities might be...

My gut instinct tells me that this dress will be great with any neutral, and with just about any other color that is of a similar intensity. Let's see!

Navy - of course! This would be a great dress to wear to a stuffy office environment, and then out for dinner:

I think this is a lovely combination - the green is soft, but equally saturated, so that it stands up to the blue:

If the weather is hot...

If autumn is approaching, and you feel like a darker color is the right ... View the Post

Year 2 – Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Taisho – Large Heat

July 21, 2023

Why yes, I DID miss the previous season - July 7, Small Heat. This year, Chicago is having a VERY cool summer, unlike so much of the world. It makes thinking about warm-weather clothing sort of difficult!

But let's pick up with the current season...

At this point in the year, when major retailers are pushing cool-weather clothing at us, we can at least find nice dresses...

If I were to only own 1 dress, this might be a candidate. The dark background would make it easy to wear dark tights and flats, with a navy sweater, in cool weather:

Similarly, this dress is made to be worn with a cardigan or blazer:

I'm currently wearing the black version of this dress, with amethyst jewelry to match ... View the Post

Does a Different Neutral Color Make a Difference? Pantone London Autumn/Winter 2023-24

May 31, 2023

When we left these five accent colors, from the Pantone London Autumn/Winter 2023-24 colors, I think we had determined that many of us like all sorts of different combinations! But the question was posed that different neutrals might make a difference in how we felt about the various accent colors.

Good question!

The London neutrals were the following five colors:

I made the executive decision that I am NOT going to try to find Forest Night at this time of year! I don't know if I could tell it from Lava Smoke, unless the description of the item specifically mentioned that it was green and not grey...

When you look at the colors - especially when you look at the digital description of each of them - ... View the Post

Part 2: Pantone London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2023-24

May 24, 2023

Finally, I'm getting around to sharing the 2nd 5 of the London Fashion Week colors!

I've been thinking a lot about how one chooses their core neutral color - what if you chose it based on your favorite accent colors? Maybe you're really drawn to black, but your favorite accent color looks... wrong with black, to you.

Would it be wrong to put the accent colors cart(s) before the neutral color horse(s)?

Let's look at each of these 5 colors with black:

and with navy - almost identical garments, and I'm going to show them in the same positions etc....

Yellow and black? One either really likes it, or hates it!

And yellow and navy will forever feel like high school to me!

I couldn't find ... View the Post

New Colors! Pantone London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2023-24

May 15, 2023

It's sort of hard to conceive of this coming winter, since summer has just started, but the people at Pantone are always way ahead of the rest of us...

Today, I'm only showing you 5 of the 10 colors, because many of these colors are proving to be... elusive... If I'm successful in finding the other 5, I will share!

Let's start!

This persimmon is a pretty compromise between orange and red...

In order to see if these colors will work well for some of us, I want to add each color to a simple navy or beige outfit, and see what happens!

You could of course wear your new sweater with either pair of these pants, but I thought that the best look was bringing Persimmon accessories into simple, neutral ... View the Post