Brown Archives - Page 22 of 42

Build an Overnight Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Before the Parachute Opens by Tullio Crali

April 20, 2017

Such an amazing painting - from such an unusual and compelling point of view!And I've noticed that the central color of the jumper is dark brown on my main computer, but that she is more olive green on my laptop! No wonder we have so much trouble talking about colors - we're not even necessarily seeing the same things...

But since I've found a few nice brown pieces, I thought that I'd stick with my initial impression that she's mostly brown. Maybe I'll re-visit this painting and use olive instead - what do you think?

My only style thoughts were of a strong respect for the sky, space, flying, and birds! But this color scheme could really work for a long time, although it would take a long time to find ... View the Post

How to Accessorize a Capsule Wardrobe: Head by Pablo Picasso

This is really growing on me! Remember, on Friday, we started with the painting, "Head" by Picasso (which you may or may not really love - that's certainly up to you!):

Which, through a couple of steps of planning and shopping, gave us this 13-piece capsule or travel wardrobe. This is a wardrobe that's extremely versatile, giving you appropriate things to wear for every activity from a nice evening out to a hike in the park!

Cardigan– Scaglione; long-sleeved tee – Uniqlo; sweater – Uniqlo; tee – River Island; skirt– J. Crew; pants – J. Crew; jeans – L.L.Bean;

capris – L.L.Bean; shorts – Patagonia; long-sleeved tee – Uniqlo; shirt – Lands’ End ;sleeveless top – L.L.Bean

I also ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe with a Backbone by Starting with Art: Head by Pablo Picasso

February 10, 2017

Since I've had a lot of time to think recently, I've been tinkering around, in my mind, with different approaches to building a capsule wardrobe.

Many of us like to keep the bottom half of our body dressed in neutrals, either because of concerns about our bodily contours, or just because we like the way it looks. So I pondered the possibilities of putting together a wardrobe that was based upon a core of neutral "bottoms."

This is how I'm picturing it:

My thesis is that we can put the solid bottoms down the middle of this template, to form the "backbone" of my capsule wardrobe, and then fill in the accent pieces on either side. And just for fun, let's use a particularly excellent color scheme, based ... View the Post

My Year Without Shopping – February 2017

January 30, 2017

So far, so good for my year without shopping!

I bought one thing in early January, using a gift card that I received for Christmas. I've been searching for a hands-free way to carry essentials when I travel, and I never have much luck with crossbody bags. When I saw this very modestly sized - but not twee - backpack, I knew it would work well. It holds my travel toiletries, my tablet, and my backup phone battery, so it's just about perfect. So far...

I really like it's low key look - just the one logo, simple leather zipper pulls etc. And I'm the kind of person who always gets confused when I have a bag with lots and lots of pockets. "You'll be so organized..." Nope, I'm just rummaging around trying to remember ... View the Post

Build a Whatever’s Clean 13 Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dragonfly by Miro

January 18, 2017

Such an interesting email....

Say you live outside the United States. You're retired. The weather's always reasonably warm and nice. You only shop every year or two, when you visit in the US...

And THIS is your inspiration:

I'm really liking these colors, and this WHOLE scenario!

In the interests of establishing a solid basis upon which we can build, I'm going to assume that our heroine either owns or already plans to purchase these pieces:

Tee– L.L.Bean; cardigan – Lands’ End; capris– L.L.Bean; pants – L.L.Bean

At this point, we've got a solid starting point, and a lot of fun things to find!

I'm ALWAYS going to recommend that you buy the sweater or tee shirt or top that goes with ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe 1 Piece at a Time: Soir d’Octobre by Maurice Denis

January 5, 2017

You wanted to revisit the Soir d'Octobre, the most beautiful of paintings, and I receive an email which sets the stage perfectly:

One of us bought some leather pants, just before the cold weather really kicked in! And she's only got one way to wear them, so far:

But she's recently retired, and wants to build a casual wardrobe! This is a PERFECT scenario for gradually building a wardrobe, and for adding 1 piece at a time...

First up, the white shirt is a great starting point, but these pants also need something a bit more relaxed. To me, nothing fills that bill better than a classic chambray shirt.

Just to shake things up, early on, let's introduce one of the really pretty accent colors:

As much ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – January 2017

January 2, 2017

Yaaaaay!!! It's that time again... The new scarves are chosen (FINALLY...) and the first outfits for this year's capsule wardrobes are assembled!!!!

First up, the scarves:

Black - Hermès Carré en Boucles; Beige - Hermès Flanerie à Versailles; Navy - Hermès au Bout du Monde; Olive – Hermès Collections Impériales; Grey - Hermès Etude pour un Iris Arc-en-ciel; Brown – Hermès Chemins de Corail

I looked at LOTS of scarves, from literally dozens of sources, but in the end, I came back to Hermès, because of the richness of the patterns and the creativity of the color schemes. This is a little bit self-defeating on my part, because if you DO buy a scarf from Hermès, I get no commission. I ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Brown-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 2, 2016 If you want to go back and catch up on how we've arrived at this point, the earlier posts are here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.The second of our six wardrobes looked like this when we left it in November:

As I did yesterday, my first project is to try to fit these pieces into the Four by Four template. It seems to me that this wardrobe still could use a casual skirt. She already has 2 skirts, they they're both pretty dressy - maybe khaki is an option.

When I look at the existing wardrobe in terms of weather and dressiness, I find the same thing that I did yesterday - a shortage of simple tee shirts. That bottom right ... View the Post

Can I Wear Warm and Cool Colors Together?

November 22, 2016

It came up yesterday - can the capsule wardrobe based on grey be combined with the capsule wardrobe based on beige that I showed back on Friday? The larger question here revolves around combining warm and cool color palettes, so it's well worth addressing.Of course, I believe that it's more than possible! If you have clothing in both of these colors, it's quite desirable that you wear them together if necessary to wear them frequently, with the goal of eventually wearing them out...

Our original painting inspiration combines warm and cool to great effect:

So what if we just try combining the neutrals? As a reminder, these are the two groups of Capsule Wardrobe Building Blocks (aka simple, ... View the Post

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe Starts with Art: Little Harbor in Normandy by Georges Braque (Version 1)

November 18, 2016

I've never really accepted the idea that women can, uniformly, only wear warm colors or cool colors. I know that for many of us, it's a great guideline for wardrobe discipline, and helps coordinate things beautifully, but I still wonder why someone who loves black and white as much as I do would have gold and orange highlights in their eyes... Oh well, it's a great subject for conversation...

But I think of these things when I look at this painting, which skews two very different directions, color-wise:

I seriously considered sawing the painting in half (metaphorically, of course) and using the bottom half for today, and the top half on Monday for a study that includes grey... But I think we can all manage to ... View the Post

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe Start with Art: Poppies and Butterflies by Vincent Van Gogh

November 16, 2016 As the days get shorter, and we spend a LOT more time in the dark (in the Northern Hemisphere, of course!), a painting like this is a cheering thing to study:

For those who worry that a "warm" wardrobe - one that's ideal for those with Autumn or Spring coloring - might be too dark in the cool weather, I offer some ideas!

I love these pieces - you could literally get dressed in the dark with no worries about not matching! A couple of pair of warm brown/tan shoes, some lovely gold jewelry, and you'd be well set for the day.

Cream tee – L.L.Bean; sable sweater – L.L.Bean; shirt – Lands’ End; Sand tee – Lands’ End; cardigan – J.Crew; silk blouse – J. Crew; Camel cords - L.L.Bean; ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: November

November 1, 2016

Since these capsule wardrobes are becoming rather complete, I decided this month that I was just going to browse clothes in the colors of the capsule wardrobe, and see what caught my fancy!The earlier months of this series can be found here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

First up, here's a reminder of the six scarves that we're using as the basis of these six capsule wardrobes:

Navy– Hermès Voyage en Etoffes; brown – Hermès Tyger Tyger; beige – Hermès Le Voyage de Pytheas; olive – Hermès Cheval Mirage; grey – Hermès Cheval Surprise Remix; black – Hermès Au Pays des Oiseaux Fleurs

For this wardrobe, as soon as I saw the kimono, ... View the Post