Navy Blue Archives - Page 20 of 60

A Final, Personal Evaluation of a Full Year Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 18, 2020

One last look at this seemingly massive wardrobe. It's funny how gigantic this seems when I'm trying to squeeze everything onto a page! In reality, most of the world would be thrilled to have this much clothing, but I suspect many of us have a lot more than this!

Bring out the magnifying glasses, everyone!

As I sorted through this mass of goodies, my thinking was "what would I take with me if I got to go to ____ for a year?"

My blank is probably going to be filled in by Ireland, or Paris, as I'm sure you're shocked to hear. But I think that many of us might be able to test-drive this kind of possibility. Maybe it's just a chance to live someplace where COVID-19 restrictions aren't quite as erratic and ... View the Post

A Navy and Camel Winter Weekly Timeless Wardrobe – Adding Accessories

August 11, 2020

Ah, winter... My favorite season, with my favorite clothes!

Let's look back - our mythical heroine has chosen this Weekly Timeless Wardrobe as her starting point:

And she's very smitten with camel, right now. So she's going to supplement her 13-piece wardrobe with these additional seven pieces - they give her a refreshed color palette, and a lot of new options:

Our heroine is thus starting her winter with these 20 garments (and, of course all of the other garments from the 3 other seasons!):

So let's assemble, for our heroine, a half-dozen representative outfits from this wardrobe, and add some accessories to each outfit!

First up - WARMTH! I can vouch for the waterproof, comfortable warmth of ... View the Post

Accessories for an Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe + Burgundy Accents!

August 10, 2020

Ah, Autumn clothes! Is there a more fun season for beautiful clothes?

Let's do some building around this Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe core:

Just for the sheer fun of it, I found some burgundy (ish?) garments to add to this 7-piece Accents and Extras!

Now, our Autumn 20-piece wardrobe is together - it looks VERY fall-ish, doesn't it?

Let's start enjoying accessories!

When you're wearing burgundy, garnets seems like the most obvious stone to look for in jewelry. Garnets don't have to be insanely expensive (although there are some eye-wateringly dear pieces out there, of course!).

And a couple of timeless navy leather accessories...

This cotton scarf is small - a neckerchief, I believe ... View the Post

A Navy-Based Summer Weekly Timeless Wardrobe – Adding Accessories

August 7, 2020

Let's look at summer accessories! I love this stuff...

First up, let's start with the core "Weekly Timeless Wardrobe" for summer that we've been studying for a while:

To this handy, tidy little wardrobe, let's add the bright blue accents we saw before:

So our Summer heroine is going to start choosing accessories by assembling outfits from this 20-piece capsule wardrobe:

First, why NOT wear floral canvas shoes?

This heroine got her sunglasses back in the Spring Accessories assortment, but she certainly could still use a good hat! (the crown collapses on this hat, so it can be packed - such smart people...)

And of course we all need masks... sigh...

A pretty dress deserves some nice ... View the Post

Adding Accents to a Cool Weather Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 5, 2020

I tried, SO HARD, to find enough burgundy pieces to use burgundy as an accent color; J. Crew has a perfect crewneck sweater in burgundy, (it comes in FOURTEEN colors!) but that was about as far as I could get!

So.... camel and teal! Not too bad a compromise, eh?

Let's get back to our starting Autumn and Winter Weekly Timeless Wardrobes:

I can't believe how many times I kept looking at navy dotted shirts, and dotted skirts... I'm obsessed, I fear....

When we break this wardrobe down by garment, we're pretty well balanced, but could certainly use some more colors!

Let's attack that camel idea that I had...

I've had a feeling about this heroine for a few days - I think her life requires a ... View the Post

A Spring Wardrobe! A Navy & Beige Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

July 31, 2020

One more season! The difference between the Spring wardrobe and the Winter is so pronounced - I thought that I was doing something wrong, until I stopped for a minute and remembered that... well... Spring IS DIFFERENT from Winter.

And I thank Buddha for that, every lovely April day...

You can clearly see that Spring is where my personal preferences shifted to pink WITH A VENGEANCE!

As always, there are 3 clusters here - these could be arranged in a different way if it works better for you! The whole point is that it should work for you...

This is what the original Spring wardrobe looks like when it's broken into 3 Clusters:

Am I going to be able to make this work in navy and ... View the Post

A Winter Cluster Wardrobe in Navy, Beige, Green and White

July 30, 2020

If you're tasked with finding a winter wardrobe right now, I wish you all KINDS of luck. This is not a year during which all of the retailers have rushed to thrill us with cashmere, velvet, tweed, and lots of boots...

Nevertheless, we persist...

Remember this wardrobe from week 26 of The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe? I love this one...

So what IS a cluster, anyway? To me, a cluster is a group of clothes - 4, 5 or 6 at the most - that all go together, that give you a range of ensembles, and that are built around 1 or 2 "bottoms."

My logic is that if you have a couple of spare tops to wear with a pair of pants,

you aren't stuck when you're traveling and someone spills coffee on your shirt; if the weather ... View the Post

Building an Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe using Clusters!

July 29, 2020

This is the wardrobe that I would be working on right now - although it's still a good time to find nice summer garments, late summer is the best time to find autumn clothes! (well, in a normal year...)

Remember this from 39 weeks ago?

These garments divide pretty neatly into 3 clusters; this isn't the only way the clusters could sort out, so if you have a different preference, go with it!

This is what the 3 clusters would look like - it's easy to see a ton of possible outfits from these:

So, with our color scheme from yesterday of navy and beige as neutrals, forest green as the accent (and white as the "spare" light neutral that keeps our heroine from having to wear beige shirts!), let's ... View the Post

Building Your Weekly Timeless Wardrobe by Clusters!

July 28, 2020

Yes, the series ended yesterday, but my ideas about it could go on for a long time...

The world's easiest flashback - remember these 13 garments from yesterday's post?

It's been pretty evident to me for a while that these 13 garments arranged themselves into 3 clusters pretty neatly. Actually, you could arrange these pieces in at least a few different ways, but for now I'm looking at this:

If you're not inclined to want to analyze your wardrobe on a weekly basis, maybe shift to a monthly basis, and look at clusters rather than individual garments!

Plus, this is a really easy way to pack - if you pack clusters, you know for a fact that you have garments that go together! (you do of course have to be sure ... View the Post

Accessories! Revisiting Petit Matin by Joan Mitchell

July 16, 2020

Our heroine's headed to the country for the rest of the summer! She's going to be staying at an inn very near a manor house with huge open gardens - even though she'll be working in their room for part of the day, she's going to be able to visit the gardens EVERY AFTERNOON!

That sounds better than being cooped up indoors, doesn't it?

This is her inspiration:

She already has quite a few accessories with her - including FOUR pairs of shoes. But she's going to be staying at the inn for at least 6 weeks...

She's going to have a 4 by 4 Wardrobe with her - happily, the inn is delighted to do laundry for her. They're giving such a great deal on their room that they don't really mind paying for occasional ... View the Post

Expanding a Travel Capsule Wardrobe: Start with Art – Petit Matin by Joan Mitchell

July 15, 2020

A few months ago, one of our heroines was heading off to a lovely manor house, with lots of gorgeous gardens...

Her wardrobe for this trip was inspired by this completely confusing but very beautiful painting:

For their relatively short visit, she packed this most lovely travel capsule wardrobe - it sort of radiates the feeling of flowers...

WELL! One day, out of the blue, the got a call from the inn where they stayed back in April. They were pretty desperate for business, and because they knew our heroine and her partner, they were willing to give them an AMAZING deal to come up for the REST OF THE SUMMER...

Essentially, they understand that having anybody in the inn, even ... View the Post

Adding Accessories to a “Two Mood” Travel Capsule Wardrobe

July 10, 2020

Yesterday, our heroine was getting ready to head to the lake, with a packet of relatives, for the rest of the summer!

For her packing inspiration, she started with this painting:

She has her clothes all ready to go!

But she doesn't have... well... shoes? earrings? a bag or two?

Let's do this!

She really likes her square earrings because they're called Lily Pad earrings! Although she's never seen a square lily pad...

She knows that she needs rubber flip flops - her feet will be wet fairly often! And sunglasses - you ALWAYS need sunglasses...

Next, she grabs her sunhat, and her Keds. Even if the Keds get wet, they'll be fine within a day... And even though ... View the Post