travel capsule wardrobe Archives - Page 4 of 6

Start With Purple Scarves? I’m Packing to go to London!

September 19, 2025

By the time most of you read this, I should (fingers crossed) be in London. Fingers crossed TWICE that Belovedest makes it with me, and that no family emergencies interfere!

I'm packing simple things. Not a lot of them. But I'm going to take THREE purple scarves with me. You understand of course that my scarves are not these exact ones, because mine are years old. But these give you the right idea:

My travel outfit is simple and classic - I of course won't be CARRYING that jar of hair coloring with me! But I felt like it was important to convey somehow that this outfit isn't quite as monochromatic as it seems, when you include the purple scarf that is a close match for my hair color. The jar looks very ... View the Post

Want to Pack In Two Moods? Start With Two Scarves: Frances Valentine and Kurt Geiger

June 13, 2025

Happy Friday the 13th to all of us intelligent people who are NOT superstitious!

Today's question is a pretty normal one: our heroine wants to pack a wardrobe that's mostly navy, but wants a couple of different options for accents. She'd love a pretty pastel, but she's also thinking that a bright-colored option might be nice too.

Okay! let's grab a couple of scarves that appealed to me, and that will work as a perfect springboard for our heroine:

Our heroine's only going to be gone for 4 nights, and she's not going anyplace horrendously dressy. She will have to attend a meeting or two, but for at least one day she will be able to wear shorts! This is a normal trip for her, and so she's assembled a navy travel ... View the Post

Want 2 Very Different Accent Colors? Start With a Scarf: Petal Pop Silk Scarf by Artifact.

May 12, 2025

This was the other Artifact. scarf that was requested as the inspiration for a wardrobe, and I can understand why!

The possibilities here are many - there's camel in the upper left quadrant, beige in the lower left, and even a touch of denim blue in the middle of the bottom right flower! But I'm sticking with the same black and ivory that we used on Friday, to show the range of possibilities within just a couple of neutrals.

The accent color I've chosen couldn't really be more different - a soft pink and bold orangish gold. It's easy to feel like your accent colors have to go well together, but that's not the case.

I've kept quite a few of the pieces from Friday for this wardrobe. Maybe this is the same ... View the Post

A Different Take On Scarf Colors: Start With a Scarf – Fleur Royale scarf by Artifact.

May 9, 2025

The instant Artifact. came out with new scarves, I received emails about them. This scarf is particularly lovely and an interesting mix of colors. When I first looked at this, my eyes were drawn to warm colors: orange, marigold, and olive.

And the heroine who wrote to me? She wants to work with black and ivory, and pink and olive accents!

Hmm...

So I built us this color palette reference page:

My habit with Artifact. scarves has been to build three outfits, and then add four more garments. It's one of about a billion different ways to assemble a capsule wardrobe; there's no rule about how this can best be done!

These outfits are for Spring weather, or summer days that aren't blisteringly hot. A cardigan ... View the Post

Black, White and Brights! The Mondrian Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

April 28, 2025

Classic, colorful, and so versatile! These are timeless for sure:

The colors here are obvious, but it's always worth the effort to picture your plan as clearly as possible:

Our heroine already has her good core of black and white things, upon which she will build with her accent colors!

These colors are so much fun to look for in stores! And our heroine couldn't resist a black & white striped shirt; if you have a bracelet with a striped bead, a striped shirt seems essential...

Imagine traveling with this for a few days! Maybe you'd want to look for a pair of black & white spectator loafers, too?

Let's take a moment to imagine a few of the possible ways our heroine could get ... View the Post

Pretty But Relaxed? Start With a Dress – Two Piece Linen Dress in Thistle from Alex Mill

March 28, 2025

A honeymoon? Somewhere warm? Sign me up!

She's all set for what to wear for her wedding, but her travel wardrobe is still under construction. She knows she's starting here:

There's no question that the weather will be warm where they're going - actually legitimately hot during the day! She has no plans to swim, but definitely intends to be at the beach.

And for once in her life, she's NOT going to worry about laundry. It's her honeymoon, for heaven's sake! Maybe not her first honeymoon, but that's neither here nor there...

So bridal white it is!

At this point, she decides she's going to pack all pretty pastels. It will be the last time in her life she does this, so she's going to do it ... View the Post

Adding a “Difficult” Color to Your Wardrobe – Alex Mill Moss linen shirt and skirt

March 26, 2025

Sometimes, you just love something, even though you know that it might take a bit of effort to incorporate it into your wardrobe. This two-piece dress might be a good example:

I searched for HOURS to find other garments in this shade of green/brown. A cardigan - a tee shirt - maybe a pair of shorts? Not to be found in my world...

But there's still a way. There's ALWAYS A way!

How about finding a scarf that's both perfect with the olive dress, and gorgeous?

If scarf designers are happy putting colors together, we can be pretty confident about using those colors in a wardrobe!

Note - for leather accessories, a color like this one is a good match with bronze leather. And the entire scarf-based color ... View the Post

Love Soft Accents? The Impressionist Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

March 24, 2025

Beautiful bracelets! Always such a treat, and such an inspiration to the imagination...

There are four accent colors here, but I'm passing on the dark green and vivid gold for today - in the autumn, our heroine could certainly assemble an entirely different wardrobe in navy with those accents! How fun is that?

But for today, for Spring, we're going with pretty pastels:

Let's get our heroine started with some grey basics; any time you've got silver in jewelry, you can easily translate that to grey clothes. I suspect our heroine might have some grey hair? And blue/green eyes?

The weather's not all that warm where our heroine is, but her heart is set on pretty colors! She manages to find four tops that ... View the Post

A Two-Piece Dress is ALSO Two Separate Garments!

March 21, 2025

Let's take a second look at this two-piece dress, or camp shirt and skirt, as you wish!

You can - of course - wear these pieces separately. The only thing you want to be sure to do is launder them together always, so you don't have a really soft and faded shirt with a still crispy and bright skirt!

I'm going to start with fairly obvious ways to wear the pieces, and then branch out into more adventurous ideas...

There's no color that you can't wear with beige - some go better than others, but all are worth at least trying!

Same with white - I think that this shade of blue, with white, looks lovely for summer:

If you want to cover your dress for some reason, having this shirt handy works well. I ... View the Post

Want A Different Way to Pack? Start With Sandals – Ellen Backstrap Sandals by Keen

March 14, 2025

Sometimes, you're inspired by something that might not speak to many people. That's fine - you're one of a kind, and your inspiration will be unique!

How about these?

I didn't find all of these colors readily available right now in summer clothing, but it's always good to know colors to keep in mind...

Our heroine's dashing off for a quick weekend somewhere casual - and the weather promises to be unusually warm for March! It can happen - yesterday was shirtsleeves weather in Chicago...

So she's driving off like this:

It's very likely that they will go out for dinner - somewhere nice, but not stuffy or prim... Otherwise, she expects to walk and look out over the water, or to sit, and look out over ... View the Post

Ready to Pretend That It’s Spring? The Marion Bartoli scarf by Echo

February 21, 2025

If you find any errors send me a note or leave a comment; I was on the phone with the Internal Revenue Service today for 90 minutes, and I'm not fully recovered!

With weather like we've been having recently - at least in my neighborhood - it's not a bad idea to pretend that it's already spring. Just don't go outdoors in a sundress, and you should be fine...

The colors in this scarf help get me in that frame of mind:

I didn't put a neutral color in our color wheel, because I suspect that almost any neutral would be lovely with these:

Our heroine and her sweetheart are going somewhere warm for a long weekend. Well, it should be warm. Unless it's not. But they're going to go, no matter what!

You ... View the Post

Love Black and White with Pink and Purple? Lucinda by Sofia Bonati

January 22, 2025

She's a specialist in flowers. As they appear in medieval manuscripts, as decorations for big fancy capital letters, or inserted as a border, or a section break. Many people don't realize that the choice of flower in each location is important, and has meaning!

She's a rare person...

She's recently written a guide to flowers found in documents from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. It's not really a technical book - more of a guide for the layman who finds these sorts of things fascinating! Her publisher has invited her to New York for a couple of days for some final proofing of the cover design and the "blurbs" that will be on the back cover. Dinner will be an event, every night she's ... View the Post