travel capsule wardrobe Archives - Page 3 of 7

Feeling Bright? Start With Art – No. 7 or No. 11, 1949 by Mark Rothko

April 22, 2026

If Rothko couldn't choose a name for his painting (or technically a number...), then you don't have to pack with just one accent color.

I'm sure Rothko never, once, worried about what he packed. But we aren't modern art geniuses, so we think about these things!

Let's start here - this feels SO MUCH like warm weather to me:

As soon as she saw this painting, she saw this color palette...

Our heroine is committed to denim, and chambray. For many of us, that's a sensible choice. It's readily available, in every style imaginable, and if you care for it properly, denim is a true "buy it for life" fabric.

I have jeans that are going to be with me until the end...

So when our heroine has to go away for a ... View the Post

Have You Gone Overboard? Start With Art – Tulips in a Vase by Leo Oosthout

April 20, 2026

We're going to start with the painting, although this is NOT where today's heroine began her spring wardrobe adventure:

As soon as she saw this painting, she saw this color palette...

Which is a good thing, because she just recently went a bit overboard on a new accent color. I mean CRAZY. And she's already run everything through the laundry, so nothing is getting returned.

It happens. Most of us have done it - when Eileen Fisher releases purple, I go off the deep end...

But this is a lot of red:

She's going to try to make lemonade out of this... First thing is to check what's already in her closet that she plans to wear a LOT this spring and summer:

The white things are wonderful. ... View the Post

Pack for a Long Weekend? Start With Art – Hydrangea by C.F.A.Voysey

April 15, 2026

They're going to finally open their archives to the public! She's been waiting for YEARS for this...

She designs fabrics. And sometimes wallpaper, or other decorative things. And floral is her thing!

She's going to visit the archive for a couple of days. She knows that she won't see a fraction of what she wants to study; she's really making this trip to decide if she wants to come back for a lengthy (six weeks?) visit in the summer...

Her current wardrobe inspiration is this:

And her color palette is this:

It's not a long trip by train...

It might be really warm there. It might not. But she's been promised that there is NO mucking through dusty cabinets and files - everything has been ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

April 10, 2026

Our heroine is pleased with her wardrobe, and MORE pleased with her bank balance! She's trying to give up impulse clothes buying - there are many more important things in the world that she wants - like plane tickets.

Her wardrobe inspiration is this painting - of course it has letters in it! She is an expert in the combination of multiple type faces.

Her color palette includes three neutrals and two lovely, vivid accents:

At the end of March, her very disciplined wardrobe included 16 garments, and dozens of outfit options:

Our heroine gave a lot of thought to her April purchases. She knew that it would be really sensible to add a summer "column" to her wardrobe, thus she immediately chose the ... View the Post

Expanding a Small Summer Wardrobe – Start With Art: Florentine Villas by Paul Klee

March 30, 2026

I'm sure you remember back to Friday, when we met our heroine who was going to try to have a more organized "weekend and vacation" wardrobe for the upcoming warm weather.

Her favorite painting, and her wardrobe color palette, are this:

She never wears blue. Nor purple, but I still like her!

When she arrived for her first weekend this year at the summer house, she has the following wardrobe:

The weather was cool back home, so our heroine decided to wear this outfit to drive home, and then she just wore the same thing on Friday evening to come back up to the gathering family and friends at the house:

Our heroine has a pretty clear vision of how she wants to ... View the Post

Starting A Spring and Summer Wardrobe – Start With Art: Florentine Villas by Paul Klee

March 26, 2026

She likes these colors, and the angular, graphic qualities throughout this painting:

She discovered at the end of last summer that she just doesn't wear blue - not denim, not chambray, not a tee shirt...

This summer, her wardrobe is going to be these colors:

Last summer, on the last weekend they were at the summer house, she carried out enough clothes to outfit her entire extended family, plus a few neighbors! She didn't have a plan, she didn't have a clear color palette, and she forgot what was already AT the house. Not this year!

The weather is changeable, so she's starting with a mix of legitimately summery clothes, and adding in a couple of sweaters, and a pair of long-sleeved shirts...

A ... View the Post

Report From England, March 2026

March 25, 2026

The jet leg always gets you on the second day...

England was a delightful spring-like wonderland compared to the cold that greeted us when we got back to Chicago!

There were flowers everywhere:

We weren't in London for all that long; we bracketed our rural driving adventures with time in London, but not nearly ENOUGH time. I think London is like Paris (or New York, or Chicago...) in that you can spend a lifetime getting to know the city, and you'll still fall short!

Everything I'm sharing today is kind of random stream of sleepiness, as opposed to stream of consciousness; I'm not completely awake, so my stream of consciousness might just drop off...zzz...

First up, I did very little shopping, and bought ... View the Post

How Fast Can You Pack?

March 20, 2026

If you've never had to pack in a hurry because of an emergency, count yourself among the lucky. It could be a family illness in another place, a weather thing, or a man-made disaster of unimaginable awfulness...

But since we are clever heroines, we have thought about this ahead of time, and when we have to address this challenge, we have a pretty good idea of how to proceed!

First and maybe foremost, have you taken a look at your toiletry kit recently? It should be ready to go all the time. Take a few minutes in the next few days and check if you need a new bit of toothpaste, or if your face wash bottle is nearly empty. Is anything that might have an expiration date still current?

When it comes to clothing, I can ... View the Post

The Simplest Packing I Can Devise! England March 2026

March 16, 2026

Cross your fingers that I'm in London while you're reading this! We're flying into London, hanging around for a couple of days, then driving around Suffolk for a few days, then returning to London for a last night, and coming home. It's going to be pretty whirlwind - four hotels in 8 days. So I'm not going to be seeing people over and over again, not that this really matters!

One of the towns we're visiting:

Changing subjects: what was your closest friend wearing the last time you saw them? Do you remember? What will you think if they're wearing the same thing the next time you see them?

See? Repeating outfits isn't going to make you a pariah. If you know people for whom this is a "thing," don't cater to their ... View the Post

Start With Art – Wall of Light Orange Yellow by Sean Scully

February 27, 2026

True story from my trip to Paris in December: Belovedest and I were walking down a side street near our hotel, and saw art in the distance! The doorway of the gallery was glass, and the entire structure of the building was open so that we could see ALL THE WAY THROUGH to a large room in the back of the building. And facing us, we saw 3 Sean Scully paintings, in shades of blue. We would have had no idea that they were there, had we not been able to see them from the street. A delightful 10 minute detour!

I think my lesson is that looking in all of the doorways is a good idea!

Today's heroine is going to have to visit with us every couple of months for a while, because she has found an intriguing color combination ... View the Post

Looking for Absolute Simplicity? Start With Art – Les Colombes by Maurice Denis

February 23, 2026

More often than I would expect, I hear from someone who's looking for a foolproof travel capsule wardrobe. Some people want dressier, and other want more relaxed, but everybody seems to be looking for a simple way to pack for a whole BUNCH of trips...

So let's start with a tranquil, simple but arresting work of art:

This offers us a palette for our travel capsule wardrobe that's timeless, and SO easy to find:

Freshly Retired! She's got plans - lots of them! For the next 3 months, she has EIGHT trips planned - most of them relatively close to where she lives. Some travel will be driving, and some by train. She's going to catch up with a couple of friends, visit a couple of old favorite towns, and check ... View the Post

Interested in a Bright Accent for Spring? Start With a Yellow Cashmere Cardigan from Alex Mill

February 18, 2026

If you look good in yellow, treating yourself to a truly lovely yellow cardigan could be a wise move. You can wear it pretty much all year (okay, except for the dead heat of the summer!), and it's a color that brings cheer to anything you wear with it!

For today's experiment with this sweater, I've chosen navy (and dark-ish denim) as our neutral, and included both white and stone. And because a chambray shirt is among the most versatile garments you can own, I included it too!

So this is our palette - chambray isn't shown here, but I think we can assume that every wardrobe includes shades of denim blue, eh?

Here's an example of how versatile chambray and stone can be - I don't believe that there's a ... View the Post