Olive Green Archives - Page 16 of 19

A Dressy Top: How to Dress Up a Starting From Scratch Capsule Wardrobe

November 22, 2014 Another way to dress up your Starting from Scratch Capsule Wardrobe is to find a blouse, tee shirt, sweater, or even a sweatshirt that has something dressy going on. There's a world of options around this time of year: lace, sequins, beads, jewels and embroidery are all possibilities.

The Navy and Grey Starting From Scratch Wardrobe

The lace top is beautiful with everything in your wardrobe; you could even wear it under your cardigan during the day, and then pop off the sweater at night in order to be more dressy. A pair of silvery grey dress shoes would amp up the look another bit, but you really wouldn't want to hang a necklace over the lovely lace - a bracelet would be ... View the Post

An Embellished Cardigan: How to Dress Up a Starting From Scratch Capsule Wardrobe

November 20, 2014

A frequent concern for many of us this time of year is how to take our normal, everyday clothes, and make them "party-worthy". I don't like to buy a whole new outfit for a party - I'd much rather figure out a way to elevate the things I already own through the purchase of one strategic item.

There are a couple of different ways to do this; today I'm going to explore the possibilities inherent in a cardigan with some sort of beaded, embroidered or metallic detailing.

If you don't want to buy a new sweater, this is a great opportunity to do something crafty - I've seen some amazing sweaters dressed up with ribbon embroidery, or hand beading, done by the sweater owner. In one case, the initial embroidery ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Capsule Wardrobe in Teal, Wine, Olive and Camel

September 8, 2014

Camel and olive are pretty versatile - here's a much more subtle use of these two neutrals, compared to the vivid gold and red from last week. But let's talk teal for a second: If you look around for things which claim to be "teal" in color, you get a range anywhere from an almost emerald green, all the way over to an almost navy blue. That's annoying when we're trying to describe colors, but in the case of this capsule wardrobe, this flexibility was useful for me. When I initially started working with a couple of tops closer to green than blue, I found that I had all kinds of clashing nastiness when putting the teal garments next to olive. It was basically trying to blend ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Capsule Wardrobe in Bright Gold, Tomato Red, Olive and Camel

September 5, 2014

Looking for the right items in this color combination caused me to hit the wall - at some juncture, I was at a loss to find more camel garments that were suitable for this capsule wardrobe!But then I thought about you all for a moment (as I think about you all constantly when I'm working on The Vivienne Files!), and I realized that if I was having trouble finding garments, then you must have the same experience, right? I spend hours a day working on this - you certainly don't have the time to devote to shopping that I do to my full-time job of blog creation. So rather than throw the towel in on this wardrobe, I figured out what a reasonable approach might be, and I'm sharing it with you all.

The ... View the Post

Common Capsule Wardrobe Colors: Teal

July 26, 2014

Sometime very soon I'm going to HAVE to do a capsule wardrobe based on mallards or some other duck that shows this color in a natural palette. I'm beginning to believe that I can't go wrong looking at nature for ideas. In the meantime, this is a great color to transition into the end of summer/hot days of early autumn. As much as we'd all like to start wearing fall clothing the first day of September, it's sort of insane to really consider it (at least in Chicago) until the last week of the month. A color like this at least lets you FEEL a little bit autumn-ish!These earrings are silk, and the bracelet is leather - what WILL they think of next?

By now you of ... View the Post

Common Capsule Wardrobe Colors: Coral

July 25, 2014

Coral comes in a range of tints - there are more "pinkish", less "orangish" versions out there too if those would be more flattering. But any of them will look completely appropriate and attractive with all of our neutral color usual suspects. And as we move into August, and what is for many of us the end of summer (my great-nephew goes back to school IN 10 DAYS!!!), this might be a good wardrobe refresher, as well as a low-commitment way to test drive a new accent color for your wardrobe. Please note - this tunic-length top is going to be "iffy" with some cardigans; I personally can wear a top hanging out below my cardigan without worry, but you might want to bear this conundrum in mind when ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch Step 18: One last review, considering Whatever’s Clean, and A Common Wardrobe

July 16, 2014

Many of you have been following the concepts of A Common Wardrobe, or a Whatever's Clean wardrobe, and you've expressed great curiosity about how those ideas work with this much larger capsule wardrobe-building concept. So let's see if we need to make any last tweaks to our wardrobe to be as inclusive and versatile as possible...First off, remember this bad boy? This was the original Common Wardrobe - garments that I saw day after day on my co-workers from international advertising agencies. These garments and accent items were combined in all sorts of different ways, and accessorized like mad:

I threw my analytic brain at this, and defined each of these garments functionally, i.e., the first is ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch Step 17: A Few Finishing Touches, for now…

July 15, 2014

Many of you have written to me to ask how this capsule wardrobe compares with my earlier 24-piece wardrobe - excellent question!Just as in the 24-piece wardrobe, this Starting From Scratch includes to two core "Four by Four" assortments in your neutrals, it works with two accent colors and a light neutral, and it includes the concept of the "bridge" garment, which is something that incorporates both of your neutral colors and allows you to wear piece from both neutrals seamlessly.

So I decided to look at each wardrobe one last time (for now - I'm sure we'll be back to revisit this concept when trench coats hits the stores, and when there are other requests/needs), and see how things stacked up in terms of a 24-piece ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch Step 16: Evaluating and Balancing our Neutrals

July 14, 2014 BIG BIG BIG EDIT: THIS IS ONLY STEP SIXTEEN... If you are going to make a typo, make a really big one! I had medical tests this a.m., and have been asleep all afternoon; I am so sorry for the delay in fixing this inexcusable error! We're very close to wrapping up our capsule wardrobes, but there are a couple more things we need to do to make sure that our choices will work as well for us as possible. So far, we've added pieces within our color scheme, but we've not been particularly rigorous in making sure that we have a balance between our neutrals. To address this, I've looked at each wardrobe and tried to find the "Core of Four" (two tops and two bottoms, that will ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch Step 15: A Versatile Dress and an Accent Cardigan

July 11, 2014

Many of you have pointed out that we really need something dressy in the capsule wardrobe that can be worn in warmer weather, and many of you have asked specifically for a dress, so that's what we're doing today! These dresses are paired with accent cardigans, which dramatically pull together all sorts of looks... Very neutral, comfortable sandals will be wardrobe workhorses - make sure that they're appropriate for more than just one dressy occasion...Can you see turquoise jewelry here? And this dress with the simple beige cardigan and gold necklace would be lovely.

If you're not mad for sleeveless, just look for a dress with an elbow or bracelet sleeve.

No, this dress and ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch Step 14: Leisure Wear

July 10, 2014 As much as it's fun to dress up and go out into the world, sometimes we just want to stay close to home. This does NOT mean that we shouldn't still be elegant, comfortable and beautiful... Please, if you choose to wear leggings (and don't get me wrong, I wear leggings very often and adore them), bear in mind the extremely revealing nature of such garments around your... more... private... areas. (ahem...) Easily the most shocking and unattractive things that I see on my daily city hikes involve inappropriate and immodest ensembles including leggings. You know what I mean...

As with everything else that goes into your well-considered wardrobe, your leisure apparel will be ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch Step 13: More Accessories!

July 9, 2014

In my one-woman crusade to encourage the wearing of jewelry, today we'll look at some possible additions to various Starting From Scratch capsule wardrobes.

This addition doesn't necessarily mean shopping; it's entirely possible that these beauties are already lurking in jewelry boxes or dresser drawers. Let's bring them into the light!

And you all know that I'm a firm opponent of the "it bag" phenomenon, but I do believe that having more than one bag is entirely reasonable. A bag in one of your accent colors, or in each of your neutrals, isn't outrageous, especially if the bags serve different purposes, or if they make you really happy! (which, after all, is the whole point of your ... View the Post