Start a Capsule Wardrobe With Archives - Page 59 of 157

Start with Art: Locus 87 by Susan Osgood

July 7, 2021 The Call Came... and she's expected to be in the office 2 or 3 days a week, starting in September...

She can't wear her old work clothes - her size has changed in the last while, working at home!

And she's overall not thrilled about the whole "back in the veal feeder pen cubicle" office environment. At least they aren't "hot seating" in a bench environment...

She's going to be as super-professional, organized and mature as she can manage!

Starting with an inspiration that will leverage her navy and grey wardrobe core - almost mandatory in an office that's mostly men, and in a conservative industry.

She loves her colors...

Her office isn't non-stop suits, but she still has to be pretty serious some ... View the Post

July 2021 – Six Scarves, 12 Months, 12 Outfits

July 2, 2021

I've got a special treat for us today - the kind people at Echo are offering a FREE scarf (of your choice, of course!) to one of you...

How to win? Leave a comment, and I will choose a random number on Monday morning; the reader who left the comment that corresponds to that number will have a new, beautiful scarf!

And if they let me know which one they choose, I will do a travel wardrobe based on it, too!

Pretty nice, eh?

And if you're an Instagram person, DEFINITELY follow Echo Scarves there, too...

Let's get started!

It occurred to me that these wardrobes do not yet have a dress! What is one to wear to the weddings and other festivities of summer?

How about a simple dress, with a sparkly ... View the Post

June 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Tropical Hibiscus Bracelets

June 25, 2021

please note that all sorts of things are selling out at a shocking rate; I literally chose our hat at 11 a.m. and by 1 p.m. they were GONE... Seize the day indeed! She's going to sit under an umbrella...

and watch everyone else get sunburned, and get sand in their creases and crevasses...

Her color palette is easy - bright and summery! (even though cool evenings are always possible...)

It takes about 90 minutes to get there on the bus; she's ready with her mask and something to read!

Once she's there, she can hang up a few things, grab another book, and head down to either the bar, the deck, or the nearest reaches of the beach...

Her friends don't expect her to have a vast wardrobe with her - ... View the Post

June 2021 – Six Scarves, 12 Months, 12 Outfits

June 2, 2021

In building these wardrobes, I was trying to follow the Starting from Scratch guidelines... but the next items in order would include a jacket...

So I'm skipping over THAT step, and moving on to the "complete outfit" step. With warm weather coming, I could neither find nor face jackets!

And I'm introducing some prints into these wardrobes - not a moment too soon, eh?

This wardrobe only had the lone gold tee shirt to represent the yellow/gold accent color, so when I saw these pants, I knew this heroine might want to branch out in this direction:

This wardrobe offers 2 distinctive accents - the brightness of gold, or the gentle prettiness of pink...

And her new garments blend seamlessly with her ... View the Post

May 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Desert Lynx

May 28, 2021

They Might Buy a Camper... But they're renting one for a long weekend first, to see if it's what they're hoping for...

Limited clothing space, for sure! So she's planning carefully...

There's no point in calling just 1 outfit "In Transit," since quite a bit of their time will be on the road! But one must start somewhere, and this is where our heroine is starting:

She's sticking with cropped pants - no shorts because she does NOT want the back of her thighs sticking to the seat!

And driving shoes, because she might get to drive. Maybe...

So for the 3 or 4 days that they're away, our heroine will have this wardrobe from which to choose; frankly, it's difficult to put together a bad outfit ... View the Post

Start with Art: Winter Solstice by Dame Barbara Hepworth

May 26, 2021

They're having an anniversary party... and this year, she can go!

She will leave after work, spend all day Saturday and Sunday with her relatives, and then go back to work on Monday morning!

Life got much easier once she realized that she could wear the same cardigan and skirt on Monday that she wore on Friday, and that NOBODY would notice...

Since the party is during the weekend of the Solstice (more or less!), she's using this as her inspiration:

The big constraint for her in warm weather? She will NOT expose her arms. Not to anybody, for any reason, unless it's a moment of true intimacy...

Everybody has something that concerns them, right?

But she loves to wear sandals, and she really ... View the Post

Start with a Cardigan: Birdcage Print Cardigan from Talbots

Ma7 21, 2021

Just in the last few days, 3 people have contacted me about cardigans from Talbots! These kinds of "confluences of interest" happen often - I find them fascinating...

But the cardigans are pretty amazing too! Some lovely prints...

excuse the image quality - I had to do some scary digital magic to get this together!

I love this sweater - some of us were debating the merits of using bright colors for accents, and this cardigan sets us up for a summer of black, white and brights:

Let's assume for working purposes that our heroine already has her black and white Common Wardrobe all sorted out...

Now, she decides that she's going to base her accent colors for this year on her new cardigan!

First up, ... View the Post

Start with Art: Girl with a Tinsel Scarf by William John Leech

May 19, 2021 She Knew It... As soon as she handed her 2 (very large) suitcases to the airline staff, she knew she wasn't going to see them again ANY time soon...

But she's an inspired woman!

Because she's taking SO much stuff with her, she doesn't really have a clear palette for her entire travel wardrobe, but for her carry-on, she has ideas...

After she thought about it for a few days, she realized that she could, in her carry-on bag, bring along enough clothes to get her through a few days if (when?) the rest of her bags go roaming without her...

So she started by establishing a color palette for this segment of her overall travel gear, and chose lightweight clothes and flat shoes to pack more easily.

This ... View the Post

Start with a Shirt – Fresh Mint Seersucker Popover

May 12, 2021

I'm sure you don't think about these things, but my schedule is always a mixture of looking back (at blog posts upon which you are currently commenting, but which I prepared 2 or 3 days ago) and forwards - what I'm going to post Friday, Monday, next month...

I share this, because BEFORE I EVER PUBLISHED MONDAY'S POST, I had an impassioned request for a wardrobe based on this shirt!

Our friend has her color palette selected; she's not worried about getting dirty because she doesn't live that kind of life! She's focusing on 3 pastels, with chambray/denim blue and white as her neutrals:

She's even got ONE outfit chosen - this is where she began to experience "wardrobe planning block"...

I'm VERY sympathetic ... View the Post

Can Accessories Tie Together a Wardrobe? Start with Art – Courtesans Strolling Beneath Cherry Trees by Utamaro

May 7, 2021

Ah, it looks relaxed and pretty, if being a courtesan is your thing!

You may remember the 16-piece Four by Four wardrobe that we assembled, based on the colors in this painting:

The big question from many of you was that I hadn't really mixed the rose with the neutrals in the outfits that I showed last week. I think that those "mixed" outfits felt naked to me without something to blend the rose accent with the neutrals. So that's what I've looked at first!

For example, these sandals that seem to be silver, with a gold buckle, and splotches of color on them, are perfect with this simple tee shirt and shorts:

And these next sandals have rose and black in the striped part! And yes, this is a pretty dressy ... View the Post

May 2021 – Six Scarves, 12 Months, 12 Outfits

May 5, 2021

This month, we're finally adding skirts to these wardrobes! (yes, you can easily substitute any other bottom for a skirt if they're not your thing...)

Some wardrobes are getting pretty coherent outfits with the skirt, and for a couple of wardrobes I filled in some blanks and fell prey to prettiness...

This is a pretty somber outfit, but this heroine did not yet have a black tee shirt - that's almost heresy in my world!

Not surprisingly, these garments blend in beautifully:

And each new garment lends itself to at least a couple of new outfits - I suspect I could easily find more!

Now, the color palette that just screams Spring - to me at least!

This is a lovely outfit for warming weather - ... View the Post

Start with Art: Courtesans Strolling Beneath Cherry Trees by Kitawaga Utamaro

April 30, 2021

This post is for those among us who are deeply smitten with a particular color for their spring and summer wardrobe; I think that one can wear quite a bit of their favorite color without sacrificing a coherent wardrobe!

OH, she's got cherry trees...

She's got all KINDS of trees under which she plans to sit; she has a STACK of books that need to be read this summer!

And she has her eye on a particular color that she wants to wear this summer; when she saw this painting she began to formulate her plan:

She eschews the almost green shade of beige, and she chooses to believe that the darkest kimonos are black (while it's possible that they're navy...)

This is what she's starting with:

And this is her ... View the Post