Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature
August 8, 2013
One very striking dress, and one utterly simple and classic dress:
A great printed tee shirt with exquisitely well-matched shorts, and very fun zippy red moccasins. And a shirt covered with tiny red hearts, accented with red leather accessories, and white capris.
All shirts have sleeves rolled up, this time of year...
love,
Janice ... View the Post
June 27, 2013 As soon as the weather warms up, white clothes are a common choice, even in Chicago. I personally would be more likely to go out naked than to wear white - especially a white dress, but I admire many of these choices. They bring a freshness to summer, and color to the streets. And note that there are, indeed, a pair of leggings in the mix here. Worn, modestly, with a tunic that covers all of the anatomically graphic bits...
Pink cardigan – L.K.Bennett, Earrings-Shanny Alon, White pique dress- Damsel in a dress, Pink ballet flats-Ras, White sheath – Dorothy Perkins, Purple belt – Ralph Lauren, Purple tote – Lacambra, Purple jacquard sandals – ... View the Post
July 24, 2013 Navy and green summer outfits - some for quite warm weather, and others that I saw in the more spring-like transitional coolness a couple of week ago. All of them were fresh, pretty, and stood out in the crowd.
I don't know if anybody noticed, but if you liked the way these colors looks,replicated a few of these outfits in your own wardrobe, and were a little bit rigorous in sticking to one shade of green, you'd have a pretty nifty capsule wardrobe, or a pretty organized suitcase full of clothes:
love,
Janice ... View the Post
June 21, 2013
There were lots of black dresses on the streets of Chicago yesterday, and lots of all-black outfits. But a few really stood out from the crowd by virtual of their carefully chosen metallic accessories. From the young lady in the spikey necklace and woven flats to the executive with her Ferragamo shoes and bag, (and great silver sunglasses), black and silver caught the eye.
The first woman I saw who really got me noticing the all-black outfits with metallics was wearing a simple sleeveless top with shorts, but her accessories really elevated what might have been a very stark outfit. Right behind her was a lovely person in a sleeveless dress with gold flower jewelry - uncluttered, but very charming.
In the Loop, ... View the Post
June 19, 2013 I experienced a sunscreen breakdown while we were in Toronto; I believe one of my temperature irregularities is to blame - too much blotting of the radiant visage lead to loss of sunscreen, and now I'm sporting some freckles. While cute, they are indeed a sign of sun damage...
So when we walked past Goorin, it seemed obvious that I'd best hasten in there and get myself a good sunhat. The above lovely critter is now sitting on my desk. The fact that it has Bogart in the name is just a bonus (I adore Humphrey...); it's a great hat, fits perfectly, and shades me exactly as I needed. The weather in Toronto was a bit warmer than we had been promised by the weather ... View the Post
We're back! And Toronto was wonderful - what a great, vibrant, busy, diverse city. We will definitely go back, and I have much more to share with you about this trip. But I received a lot of questions about how I packed - so I've got snapshots of the process!
The bag - empty. Those are my ghastly workout shoes next to the bag, so you can see how small the bag actually is. This is the Tumi Riggs carry-on - no wheels. I didn't even realized that they MADE one with wheels... Maybe Tumi should give me one of those, eh?
There's about 30% of my packing capacity already - my shoes "bumpered" on the sides of my bag, and my pajamas rolled up and slid in between the shoes. ... View the Post
Belovedest and I are off to Toronto for a long weekend of rugby and rest. I packed pretty easily from the Project 333, except I had to jump ship for the rugby match - nothing but jeans and a jersey will really be appropriate!So I hauled everything out and assembled it on my nifty hanging rack:
The obnoxious plaid thing is my pajamas... Far left is my black jacket - I might wear it on the plane, or pack it, depending on what the weather does. Then you can see my jeans, and my rugby jersey, and then my sweaters and scarves, tee shirts, and pants.
Everything lays out like this:
It is quite a bit more clothing that I would normally pack for 3 nights, but the rugby match requires very special garments, and the way ... View the Post
May 15, 2013
Yesterday was the first truly spring-like day here in Chicago. This was the kind of outfits that I saw often on the street - bright colors, floral sleeveless tops, and metallic flats. Bright and springy, but still very appropriate for most offices!
orange and pink tank - Topshop, orange cardigan - Mango, Pink chinos- Levi's Made & Crafted, gold flats - Rocket Dog, yellow and green tank - Madewell, green cardigan - Paul Smith, yellow capris - Erika Cavallini
blue tank - Uniqlo, blue cardigan - Dorothy Perkins, hot pink capris - Miu Miu, green tank - Uniqlo, mint cardigan - Dorothy Perkins, lavender capris - Mother Denim, silver ... View the Post
An apartment in Paris, abandoned before World War II, and untouched for 70 years.The article is here.
... View the Post
May 2, 2013
As soon as I saw this available for sale, I knew it was going to go onto the Style Shelf. Aside from the fact that I'm terribly tired of book covers in hot pink (every "chic lit" novel in Ireland had either a pink or a lavender cover, I swear...), this is an interesting addition to the wee library.So here, in my less than expert translation, is what the authors have to say about cleaning out closets:
ARRANGE YOUR WARDROBE
"We have a tendency to choose the first clothes that are on top of the pile. It's easy, one does not waste time, and takes no risks, and one gets dressed automatically. What a pity for all of those treasures which have been sleeping for years, and upon which you lavished such care ... View the Post
Another hard-to-find, but really fascinating book. The author guides one step by step in a process of identifying favorite color palettes. The book has a definite Japanese feel, and once in a while you'll run into a word used in a way you wouldn't have expected (I would guess because it's been translated), but overall it's an eye-opening new way to think about colors. I'll post more from Colorist, because it is out of print and rather expensive to purchase. But if you really like to be challenged in your ways of looking at the world, I recommend this book highly.
Below is the 2nd exercise in the book. You could of course get all deconstructionist about this and start debating what he means when he ... View the Post
Released in 1993, published by Express (yes, the clothing store), and a fund-raiser for DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation for AIDS). Full of... interesting... tidbits, like the table below. More to follow - this book is very hard to find, and just too much fun to pass by!
... View the Post
