Beige Archives - Page 38 of 57

A Travel Capsule Wardrobe for a Long Weekend in Chicago, with a Blue Jacket

April 9, 2015

I clearly am doing something wrong in the blogging world, because after blogging for 4 years, I just NOW have received my first "swag" i.e. a gift from a retailer! Other bloggers seem to be swamped with gifts, but that's not my experience... sigh... But the lovely people at House of Fraser sent me this gorgeous item, pictured below! It's nubuck suede, which is the best stuff available! Well-made, too... When I lived in Ireland, I remember that when you absolutely wanted to buy clothes, your best option was to hop onto the LUAS tram, and take it south to the Dundrum Shopping Center, where the only House of Fraser in the area was located. Their store was like an oasis of nice things in an absolute SEA of ... View the Post

Color and Proportion – Step 4: Some Printed Blouses and Tee Shirts

April 8, 2015

Here's where a really amazing variety of possibilities begins. I'm starting with the simplest of stripes, but even with stripes there can be all sorts of variations. Imagine, for example, a mostly beige tee shirt with the thinnest white stripe, or conversely, a mostly white top with a very subtle beige stripe. The balance of color WITHIN the top will also influence how the balance of the entire outfit works. You could get really obsessive about this if you let yourself...

One thing I hear that many of you find challenging is the "dumpy" or "square" proportions of the jeans and cardigans. Frankly, I chose these items partly with that in mind - I really wanted the colors of the garments to be what we noticed - especially ... View the Post

Color and Proportion – Step 3: Adding Print Scarves and 2-Tone Shoes to Solid Garments

April 7, 2015

Here's where the fun starts, for me! As an avowed fan of scarves and what they can accomplish to balance, accent, and just generally jazz up, I was happy when we get to the patterned scarf part of our experiment..

I've owned these black and white loafers a COUPLE of times in the past (literally, I believe they've been making these since the '80's) and I always wear them to death. And I'm embarrassed to confess that the Trotters loafers are, in fact, beige and dark brown. On my monitor, the trim looks black! I truly didn't know the "real" colors until I was almost finished.... sigh...

And you can always find deck shoes in a ton of color combinations...

I personally now really like the first two outfits, but ... View the Post

Color and Proportion – Step 2: Adding Shoes, and the Occasional Solid Scarf

April 3, 2015

For this 2nd step in my pondering about proportion, I want to introduce some shoes into the equation, as well as a solid-color scarf. I didn't find that I felt the scarf was "necessary" as often as I had expected - sometimes a pair of shoes made enough difference in the proportion of the outfit that the scarf, while fun, might be superfluous.

For these first two outfits, shoes that matched the cardigan lent enough "gravity" to the outfit that I didn't really reach for a scarf. Out fit 3 is more problematic - in screaming hot weather, white sandals might work, but white shoes made this look really "uniform", in the medical profession sense. Maybe the beige scarf and loafers would be better?

These outfits felt a lot ... View the Post

Color and Proportion – How Color Affects the Balance of an Outfit

April 2, 2015

Recently, someone wrote to me with an excellent question: she had narrowed down her wardrobe colors to black, white and beige, but wasn't sure how to combine these colors. Specifically, she was concerned about what percentage of each color could be in an outfit and still be balanced.

A question for the ages, really. There are limitless possibilities for combining simple colors. So I decided to put together the most simple outfits in those three colors, and see how the proportions felt.

For starters, I picked a plain tee shirt, jeans, and a classic cardigan in the three colors my friend mentioned. From these 9 garments, there are 27 possible 3-piece outfits, as well as an additional 9 2-piece outfits. Imagine the ... View the Post

Start with Art: Version 2 Steamboat leaving Boulogne by Edouard Manet

April 1, 2015 I really love the combination of blue and grey! (I often consider including blue as an accent color in my wardrobe...) So I decided to look again at this painting, with an eye to warm weather. I brightened up the blue a little bit - Manet gives you a whole range of blue possibilities - and I equalized the proportions of the four colors:

I haven't built a Four by Four wardrobe for a while, so I thought this would be an interesting project. First up, the core dark neutral charcoal, in linen:

One of the reasons I wanted to do a summer leisure wardrobe - I found this gorgeous blue at L.L.Bean. A perfect secondary color!

The Expansion Four is usually four tops of some sort, since tops ... View the Post

Start with Art: Steamboat leaving Boulogne by Edouard Manet

March 30, 2015 To whomever requested this painting as the basis for a wardrobe - a big thank you!

From time to time, I hear from women who need only the smallest of work wardrobes, because they work as temps - employees who go into an office for a very brief period of time. A wardrobe for this kind of work needs to be very conservative and very neutral; you don't really want to make any kind of a "mark" on the organization except for the excellence of your work! I temped at a few times in the past - sometimes only for a day, and sometimes for as long as 2 or 3 weeks. This is the kind of work that allows you to have an extremely small work wardrobe, and to thus dedicate your income to ... View the Post

Start With a Bag: Longchamps Tote

March 13, 2015 Sigh... The happy owner of this lovely bag wanted me to style it with bright colors. Believe me, I've been working toward that goal for a few days, and it just never looked good... But this bag is ideally suited as a way to integrate earth tones and black into a lovely warm-weather travel ensemble. And of course... the bag's no longer available. But you really should check out the Longchamp site from time to time, because they always do special editions that are wonderful. Some day, they might have something perfect for you!

Yes, the earrings are bamboo styled. You don't want to overdo that kind of thing, but I thought a bit of matching would be sort of ... View the Post

Start with Art: Still Life with Bottle by Samuel John Peploe

March 11, 2015 Ah, this made me think of warm weather, leisure, simplicity, being outdoors...

Yes, it's a cardigan, but it's relaxed, and it's linen! When choosing loafers for this trip, I would make sure that they were low enough cut over the foot so that they would look nice with shorts, worn without socks. I'd even travel without socks, although I think I'd want some sort of little socklet/footie for in the airport. Barefoot in the airport gives me the willies!

If you're only going away for a few days, a Six-Pack is the perfect way to pack. These clothes would fit into the smallest tote... (No, this dress has not been made to measure for someone - the brand name is ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Hermes Maroon Shawl

February 24, 2015 Someone sent me a photograph of this delectable item - a shawl, no longer available, from Hermes - and asked if it would be possible to build a little something beautiful around it. Ooooh, yes, this is DEFINITELY possible...

First up, a color scheme, as always. Using camel as the neutral, there's a whole range of maroon, dark red, bright red, and hints of yellow here - lots of possibilities!

My imagination called this transition season dressing - either spring or fall. Maybe for business, or for pleasure. One dress, for a splashy night out, and otherwise dressy but not fussy separates for business or elegant sightseeing. (Note that the accessories are either angular, or have a ... View the Post

Start With a Scarf: Le Voyage de Pytheas by Hermes

February 20, 2015 A couple of days ago in this post, I included this page:

And someone asked if I could build a wardrobe around this scarf. Since I already had a clear vision about the details of the scarf, and the color scheme was familiar, it was pretty straightforward!

Maybe because I'm freezing my toenails off, or maybe because I've received lots of questions about seeing some warm-weather travel capsules, but I pictured this as a long weekend to a warm destination. (PLEASE notice that I included starfish earrings to go with the fish mosaic border of this scarf; it's details like this that keep me amused!)

This would keep you covered for a few days, ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Estellon Striped Handbag

February 14, 2015

It's so easy to do - you see a bag you adore, and the next thing you know, you're struggling to use it...

Bag - Estellon

love, Janice

PS - For more in the Maximize Your ROI series, check out the following articles:

Maximize Your ROI: Orange Boots Maximize Your ROI: Black and White Houndstooth Check Flats Maximize Your ROI: Leopard Flats Maximize Your ROI: Estellon Striped Handbag Maximize Your ROI: St. John Collection scarf ... View the Post