from Scratch Archives - Page 11 of 11

Capsule wardrobe in navy & brown, with lavender accents

Blazer – A.L.C., Cardigan – John Smedley, Blouse – Golden Goose, Tee Shirt – Dorothy Perkins, Pants – Theory, Skirt – Theory, Jeans – J. Brand, Scarf - Etro

The lovely Anonymous asked "I would love to see your creative French style on a wardrobe capsule which uses: Navy, Chocolate Brown and Soft White ( base colours) with Soft blue, Soft pink and Lavender as accents." This is my best effort - I hope you love it! Brown leather goods are SO beautiful...

blouse – Joseph Paolina , Trench coat – Weekend by Maxmara, Winter coat – Etro, Dress – Missoni, Pants– Bodkin, Suede skirt – Burberry Brit, Sweater – Crumpet, Leather jacket – Haider ... View the Post

Wardrobe: carefully curated and deliberately distilled for warm coloring

July 18, 2011

Jacket – Gucci , Cardigan – J. Crew, blouse – Fanfare, tee shirt – Proenza Schouler, Pants – Gucci, Leather skirt – Jitrois, Jeans – J. Brand, Scarf - Hermès

Blouse - Chloe, Trench coat – Paul and Joe, Winter coat – Weekend by Max Mara, Sweater dress – Alexander McQueen, Pants – Proenza Schouler, skirt – Vince, sweater – Snobby Sheep, Leather jacket – Matthew Williamson

Dress – 3.5 Phillip Lim, Cardigan – The Row, Shirt – Modstrom, Tee shirt – Yves Saint Laurent, Sweater – Acne, Pants – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Shirt - Aubin & Wills, top – Burberry Prorsum

The ... View the Post

Wardrobes mantra: Carefully Curated and Deliberately Distilled

So far, all of the wardrobes I've built have been posted under the heading French Chic, and I'm frankly becoming a bit uncomfortable with that. We've wandered quite a distance from what the original guidelines of Susan Sommers' iconic book, and I'm not sure that I should continue to exploit the title which is so indelibly hers.

Thus, I'm just going to call them wardrobes. And with that decision, I thought I should share with you the mantra I use for the building of these little gems.

First: Carefully Curated. Each garment has to make the cut. I've heard some fairly harsh criticism recently that "good enough" is really okay for one's wardrobe, and I have to disagree. Yes, in some circumstances we do have ... View the Post

French Chic: if you’re really exotic and work in advertising!

Blazer – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Cardigan – Acne, Blouse – Yves Saint Laurent, Tee Shirt – Topshop, Pants – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Bermuda Short – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Jeans – Alexander McQueen, Scarf - Hermès

One of my friends has long black hair, an outrageous personality, and works in advertising. This is for her!

White blouse – Marc by Marc Jacobs , Trench coat – Dolce & Gabbana, Winter coat – Maxmara Studio, Dress – Alexander McQueen, Pants – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Leather Skirt – Helmut Lang, Sweater – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Leather jacket – Helmut Lang

Dress – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Jacket – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Tank – 3.1 Phillip Lim, Tee ... View the Post

French Chic: Expanding on the core wardrobe

So as lovely as the garments above are, this is certainly not going to be enough clothing to even get you through a week. Most of us would want at least five separate tops and bottoms (or a dress) to get through the week. Even if you wear black pants repeated each week, it's nice to have more than one pair.

Thus, I decided to take it upon myself to determine what additional garments Vivienne would want in order to consider this a complete wardrobe. Realistically, I think most of us would do this exercise twice - once for cooler weather, and once for the sweltering misery that passes for summer on much of our planet. But for starters, let's just round out this core wardrobe with a few of the ... View the Post

French Chic: The core of the French Chic wardrobe

One of the things about the book French Chic (Susan Sommers) which intrigued me was the list of garments which included "The seven essentials no well-dressed Frenchwoman would be without". That list included:

A black straight skirt a V-neck or cardigan sweater a suit a pair of jeans a silk shirt a couple of white tee-shirts an Hermes scarf

The idea of a list of essential clothing fascinates me; in a world that tries to compel me to over-consume, that finite-ness of a list like this, in which I could have some discipline and some structure, seems heaven-sent. Knowing that I was going to buy a fixed number of garments would give me the freedom to determine how much I wanted to spend, in what areas I ... View the Post