Start a Capsule Wardrobe With Archives - Page 68 of 157

July 2020 Six Scarves, Twelve Months, Twelve Outfits

July 1, 2020

After yesterday's birthday festivities (I'm writing this on June 30th) I don't have a ton of energy to write much! Happily, we all sort of know what these post are about...

Since so many of us are still either stuck indoors at home, working, or we're without work and stuck at home being leisurely, I thought that some shorts and tee shirts would be useful this month!

And a sunhat - you are still trying to go out for a walk from time to time, aren't you?

I think leather athletic shoes look nicer than canvas or nylon ones. I know they're not great for running, but for normal leisure wear, I feel like leather elevates the look a bit. What do you think?

As always, if you can't find at LEAST 2 ways (should ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting the Countess de Martel de Janville by Boldini

June 30, 2020

She really only planned to be in Paris for a couple of days....

yes, she's seeing more blue in this painting than is there, perhaps... but this kind of thing isn't regulated, and certainly isn't anybody's business but hers, and ours...

She was going to stock the kitchen of her pied a terre with the basics - vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, wine, wine, wine...

So she packed a good market bag, to leave there, and a couple of warm weather outfits. An extra cardigan is never wrong - she might leave it in Paris too...

She's happy with the clothes that she has with her, but....

Now she's found that she really doesn't want to go home! Paris is starting to gradually open up, and back home everything still ... View the Post

Start with Art: Door to the River by Willem de Kooning

June 26, 2020

She knew, as soon as she saw it, that the door lead to where she wanted to be...

Some other day - some other season - she knew that she would include the blue, and the darker browns and greys, in her wardrobe. But for now, for the summer, she wants lightness...

When her sister called her - at the very last minute! - to invite her to the cottage for the weekend, she knew that she had to go. She was dressed for a meeting, but decided that getting on the road was more important than changing clothes.

Besides, she knew that dinner on Friday night, at the cabin, was always pretty special! Her sister can really cook, her sister's partner is a whiz with wine, and all of the kids know that this is an important part ... View the Post

Start with Art: Pink and Black by Ed Clark

June 19, 2020

It really stuck with her, and so she decided to make it part of her life!

"It Might Not Even Happen...." They're talking about her spouse's annual corporate meeting. Always a weird few days for her, because she travels along just to attend cocktail parties and dinners... It's scheduled for late October this year, but of course that's subject to change or cancellation...

But she's going to go ahead and plan her travel capsule wardrobe because... um... why not? At least this way, she can have a good capsule wardrobe for staying home in the autumn, at a minimum!

She had planned to just pack black, white and grey, because she could NOT find any nice garments in her new favorite shade of pink, from her favorite ... View the Post

Rescuing Forgotten Accessories: The Navy Blackthorn Scarf

June 17, 2020

Maybe it's not really a forgotten accessory - maybe you just got it. Still, when a new scarf arrives at your home, it can be sort of overwhelming to figure out what to do with it!

For me, in warm weather, with a rectangular scarf, I would first off try to see if I could wear it in my hair! And then I'd play around with how I would tie it to a handbag. Then I would think about actually wearing it around my neck. The more ways you can find to wear a scarf, the more often you'll be able to incorporate it into an outfit....

Let's ponder how you might wear (or be inspired by) this scarf for the next 4 months...

First month, it's smart to make certain that you've got the necessary solid-colored tee shirts and ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Camel and Olive Green Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 16, 2020 She's NOT Happy... Business travel? NOW? Yes, she's got to go. No, her employer won't compromise. She very nearly quits... Especially when she learns that the weather where she's going is decidedly cool...

But they've said that she can fly 1st Class, and eat room service, and have any laundry or other services that she needs for her comfort...

So she starts here:

And then she pulls from her closet a tidy core for her travel wardrobe. A tidy, VERY "prone to need to be laundered frequently" core...

She will probably only need to dress really "up" once, so she's going to need a balance of casual and dressy. She pulls her scarves out of her dresser drawer and spreads them out on the bed, and then starts to ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Teal and Hot Pink Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 12, 2020

It seemed like a good idea - take a couple of the scarves from yesterday, along with the accessories, and see how they would work for a travel capsule wardrobe. So let's go!

There are the 2 scarves that are going to be the starting point for this wardrobe:

First up, I added a tank top to both of these Accessory Families, so that the accent colors would be well-represented in the clothing for this trip...

Navy would be a lovely neutral with these 2 accents, but I thought that I'd go full-on summer with beige and white:

This would be such an easy trip - travel wearing the beige cardigan and pants, and the beige espadrilles, with any of the 4 tops. Pack the other 6 garments and the accessories, and ... View the Post

Choosing a Scarf: The PJ Studio Accessories Edition

June 11, 2020

After I looked for a while at the "Choosing a Scarf" post that I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, I was determined that I wanted to try this idea again!

To me, a scarf is the quintessence of your style. It's a distillation of the colors that you like, as well as the overall kind of patterns or prints or images that delight you...

When I was scarf hunting, I bumped into this designer, and this assortment of lovely things:

As I did before, I'm choosing to show a handful of things that could be worn with each scarf in question. I'm not necessarily suggesting that you need to own all of these things, or that you would wear them all together (that might be overdoing things a bit...).

But what I do think ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting L’Ombre by Pablo Picasso

June 10, 2020

You might remember this psychiatrist from the spring of 2017; her casual wardrobe occasioned some discussions about how professionals should dress... She Wasn't Sure If She Would Go...

But they've asked her to sit on the dais 1 night, so she feels like that's a reason to show up...

Many of the meetings will be outdoors - better for social distancing, and more relaxing. The dinner's are rather nice, but most of the conference is quite casual...

She can drive there in just a couple of hours, so there's no worry about being on an airplane. And she'll have a private hotel room, and be outdoors much of the time, so overall the conference sounds both safe and... could it be? almost pleasant!

She's got ... View the Post

Revisiting the Triple Top Secret

June 9, 2020

Watching lots of people wandering about with backpacks, this last weekend, I was wondering what everybody was carrying! I know, water bottles, spare phone batteries etc. but I wondered if they had any clothes with them...

And that got me to thinking about what you want to have handy if you're going to be out for a LONG day. Say you start out with breakfast and sight seeing early in the morning. You're going into areas that are air conditioned, and the weather might turn flat-out cool later in the evening. What to do?

This is something that I've tried to remember to do, when packing, for years - make certain that I've got at least 3 tops with me that can ALL be worn together, or in any various combination of 2, or ... View the Post

Start with Nature: Revisiting the Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

June 5, 2020

In the dead of winter, four years ago, we visited with this heroine when her friends invited her south for a long weekend to get out of the cold... I'm SO smitten with the color palette; if I were to start over, I admit that brown leather goods would tempt me!

Drive Down! Her friends have invited her back...

"We've on this kick where we have full-blown dinner parties every night. It's been the same gang of us for the last few months; we could use a new guest!"

"Since you've been quarantined for a couple of months, and so have we, can we assume that we're safe for each other?"

"My brother and sister-in-law are staying in the guest house, so you can take the upstairs suite; with the kids ... View the Post

Rescuing a Forgotten Garment: Print Sleeveless Tunic

June 4, 2020

Today's interesting warning - if you're wearing a mask frequently, be ABSOLUTELY sure that you're washing both the mask(s) and your face every 5 minutes or so. I currently have a really painful broken-out face from mask irritation. It's both ugly and sore...

But let's look at helping one of our friends get some good use from a beautiful garment, eh?

This isn't the exact tunic, of course, but it's sleeveless, and includes the colors royal blue, black and white, just like our friend's tunic. So I'm hopeful that any advice I can think of will be useful!

With a little bit of thought, this top could be worn for most of the year - I know it's odd to think of wearing sleeveless things in cooler weather, but stick with ... View the Post