Navy Blue Archives - Page 4 of 60

June 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2 – Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

June 3, 2025

Every month, I look at this painting and think that this would be how I would dress if I was starting from scratch (well, the wardrobe based on this painting or on the Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay!)

Navy appeals more and more, beige is timeless, and blue/green accents call my name. But at this point in life, I'm NOT re-doing my wardrobe! Sometimes you just have to admire the painting and the clothes, and stick with what's worked for you for the past 40 years...

So let's admire the lovely colors and fluid, relaxed lines of this masterpiece:

This heroine is also going to try to stick to her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe for a while, when shopping. At the end of May, her garments fitted into the template like ... View the Post

Building a Wardrobe Gradually? Start With Art – Abstraction Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

May 30, 2025

We've visited this painting twice before, with our heroine who has the lucky habit of dashing into the city for a last-minute date! Opera, or maybe ballet or orchestra - the opera season doesn't last all year, sadly...

First, she was headed to a ballet matinee on January, and then in March they were able to snag some opera tickets!

In all cases, she packs her tote bag full of beautiful things based on this color palette:

Back in January, she used a navy cardigan/skirt/pants trio as her core, upon which she added four tops:

When our heroine considered what she might add to her bag if they decided to stay in the city for a few more days:

In March, when they went to the opera, this is what ... View the Post

May 2025 Start With a Bracelet – Art Deco Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

May 21, 2025

Today's heroine has such a lovely inspiration:

She's particularly excited because she's about to break out of her navy and white routine. Her travel capsule wardrobes usually look like this or this.

So she's making just a little bit of a change; if you're one of us who've dressed in a monochromatic wardrobe for YEARS, you understand what a big change this is!

Our heroine's core wardrobe is based on her navy suit. When you buy a suit, you should assume that it's going to be worn a lot, in a variety of ways. (Suits are expensive!)

For short trips, during which our heroine might only have one "serious" meeting, this is typical of her travel wardrobe:

It's going to take our heroine all summer to ... View the Post

May 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3 – Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 25, 2025

If all goes as planned, I will be in Ireland when you read this!

Let's look for a moment at this quintessential summery painting:

When we last visited this heroine, her 20-piece wardrobe looked pretty great - this is another one of those collections with which one could travel for a really long time!

This heroine is SO ready to be outdoors, but she's also smart enough to realize that it's not all that warm, yet. A sweatshirt is always handy, and a long-sleeved shirt is almost 12 month clothing. Sleeves can be rolled!

And is the bracelet perfect for her?

Her 24-piece wardrobe feel exactly the same. More garments, more functional, but the same personal style!

And her accessories are - as is ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4 – Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 4, 2025

This is such a great painting to look at when it's still SO COLD here in Chicago; it feels like water, and growing green things, and sand, and sun...

I always picture this wardrobe as something for someone who lives all year at a place that's a big summer vacation destination. She is always in touch with sand, sky and water, but wearing some warmer fabrics! This was her wardrobe at the end of March:

She was quite smitten with the navy dress post here from the end of March, so a navy shirt and pants seems like an easy way for a "non-dress" person to replicate that idea. As I said before - a navy column is a navy column!

Are the striped shoes too much? She was smitten, and sometimes you're going to buy ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1 – Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

April 1, 2025

No, I don't do April Fool's Day jokes. Just not my style...

What I DO is look for a long time at beautiful paintings, and then dream of ways that we can internalize the beauty and colors from the paintings, and express that in our wardrobes! It's pretty fun...

Let's start with this beauty:

As March ends, with wind, rain and cold in Chicago, our heroine has this 16-piece wardrobe:

Maybe Spring has completely sprung where you live, but here in Chicago, we know (well, we TRY to remember!) that we aren't going to be consistently wearing warm-weather clothing until May. But that doesn't mean that we can't start looking at linen, and cotton sweaters, and SANDALS!!!

If we fit these new garments into our ... View the Post

10 Ideas for Wearing a Navy Ponte Knit Dress

March 31, 2025

It's a question that many of you ask - do I really need to own more than one dress? If I pick something really simple and classic, can't I just wear it for every "dress event" that I have?

To which I am - of course - going to reply "Heck yes!!!"

This dress is a wonderful candidate. Simple. Flattering. Ponte knit, which travels well, sheds wrinkles nicely, and has enough of a "neutral personality" that it can be dressed up or down with equal ease:

There's no real pattern or system to the ten ways I'm accessorizing this dress - I honestly just scrolled through all of my usual suspects for finding sweaters, shoes, scarves and jewelry. When I saw something that appealed or sparked my imagination, I proceeded!

First - ... View the Post

A Weekend Away? Start With Art – Abstraction Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

March 12, 2025

Remember our heroine from January, who was traveling into the city to go to a ballet matinee? Her inspiration painting is this luscious wonder:

Her wardrobe is solidly based upon blue, and this is her preferred color palette:

Friday afternoon... she's working from home. Wearing something... comfortable.

"Put on something pretty - I've got EXCELLENT tickets for tonight's opera!"

"I thought they were sold out???"

"Yup, but my boss has tickets, and she can't make it. She knows how much we love opera, and she's GIVING them to us..."

"celebratory noises..."

"I will be home in just a bit, so I can change clothes; we'll drive into the city and stay over 'til Sunday..."

She knows exactly what she's ... View the Post

The Fifth of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 7, 2025

My favorite sunny, warm, watery painting...

At the end of February, our heroine had this wardrobe; it has a couple of warm sweaters, to get her through her (short?) winter. I'm assuming that this heroine does NOT live in Maine, no matter where her favorite painting was painted!

This heroine is moving 100% into a warm-weather state of mind; she even has the good sense to grab a hat that she really likes early in the season. Heck, it gets sunny in March!

And if you like boat shoes, they're back "in style." As if they ever went OUT of style... Sheesh...

This is what our heroine's Weekly Timeless Wardrobe looks like now; I can see the merits of taking out the column for Winter and maybe duplicating the ... View the Post

The Second of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 4, 2025

A painting that I love, and a wardrobe that grows on me every time I look at it:

At the end of February, our heroine had this very tidy and versatile (as well as lovely!) 12-piece wardrobe:

Our heroine decided that she was going to try to fill in some of her cold-weather basics, before they vanish from stores in favor of bikinis! She knows that - even though it seems like it's the end of winter - there are still at least a few more weeks of weather plenty cold enough for a turtleneck.

If you've been looking for wool pants that are lined, I found these; you see them pretty often here, but they're a rare species of garment here in the 21st century...

Now, when she looks at her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe ... 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

The Last of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 10, 2025

This painting to me just cries out to inspire a wardrobe for someone who lives near water, and probably has a pretty long "warm" season and just a short winter. Anybody else feel that?

There's enough navy here to dress her for cold weather, and plenty of shades of sand, lovely sea blues and sea green for warmer weather. I could be so tempted...

At the end of January, our heroine had a wardrobe that was pretty great for weather that might be all over the place! She was really trying to find shades of blue and green, so she veered into that very summery tee shirt; sometimes you grab what's available if it's perfect for you, even if it's not "in season." The seasons will change, what's available in stores ... View the Post