White Archives - Page 15 of 38

Lily of the Valley! The Birth Flower for May

April 30, 2018

Well THIS was difficult - as much as it's really easy to find lily of the valley fragrances, and lily of the valley room fragrances, finding garments or accessories with lilies of the valley is pretty difficult. (if you see something, please post a link in the comments!)

But we persevere, right!

Yes, the blouse is absurdly expensive... but the jewelry is winsomely lovely...

So how can we channel our inner "lily of the valley" when we struggle to find something that obviously and specifically shows our flower? Maybe just adding a bit of spring green to our the neutral dresses that we break out at the first hint of warm weather...

The green that you bring into an outfit can be very subtle, and the floral ... View the Post

Blue by Kinuko Imai Hoffman – Revisiting for Spring 2018

April 3, 2018

You might remember that back in January I assembled a very simple, but (to my mind) fascinating little Tote Bag Travel capsule based on this work.

The palette suggested by this is very limited, but I think that's part of the challenge/fun - especially for someone who thrives by being creative with constraints:

When we left our heroine visiting classrooms, just after the winter holidays, this was her travel wardrobe:

Her visits continue through the school year, even as the weather warms... And she adheres to her very disciplined wardrobe. Her goal is to be a calming, familiar presence in the classes she visits...

The weather's getting warmer, but it's still cool enough for a long-sleeved ... View the Post

The Easiest Way to Get Dressed? Find Your Personal Uniform!

March 29, 2018 I've seen him twice in the Pedway in downtown Chicago. The first time, he was wearing black jeans, some sort of white shirt, and a RED VELVET TUXEDO JACKET. In the middle of the day, in the middle of the business district. And he looked amazingly cool...He's average height, very slender, young, and quite nice. (Yes, the 2nd time I saw him, I had to stop him and compliment him...)The 2nd time I saw him, he was wearing a white shirt and black jeans again, but this time his jacket was BLUE BROCADE. It's a uniform, and it's his!

Of course this got me thinking how this might translate for all of us...

Say you have this outfit, and you love it:

This would be so easy to build - when you see a jacket that you love, you ... View the Post

Can I Make a Capsule Wardrobe with my Gym Clothes?

March 28, 2018

It's a frequent question - does the idea of a capsule wardrobe work when we're talking about clothes for athletic activities? Heck yes! If you like black, it's really difficult to avoid a capsule wardrobe, because so MANY athletic garments are black. But even if you source out different colors, there's no reason at all not to have a plan and a structure for the purchase of your sports apparel...And this works for any sport - golf, yoga, running, weight-lifting...

So let's start with a favorite outfit - a tee shirt and capri athletic pants, with a cropped sweatshirt to top it all off. I'll assume that you have the appropriate shoes and socks, as well as any sort of sun protection or hair control ... View the Post

Strawberry Red! A French 5-Piece Wardrobe with stone and white…

March 8, 2018 It's not quite red, and it's certainly not pink. It's STRAWBERRY! (Yes, I adore strawberries...)

It's a bit soft, and a bit warm, and just not quite like any other color. I think it would be flattering on a great many people, too...So if you're starting with a simple, timeless core wardrobe in stone and white, you're already in a pretty good spot for spring. (Yes, you've seen this wardrobe before!)

Plenty of subdued, elegant outfits are possible...

But the addition of that beautiful strawberry gives you cheery possibilities that are idea for a cloudy day...

Realistically, I think almost any color would look great with this stone and white core...

love, Janice ... View the Post

A French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Palace Blue (with grey and white)

March 6, 2018

Maybe she has grey hair and bright blue eyes?

(Yes, white linen pants require "granny panties" in YOUR nude...)

She likes subtle, understated, and relaxed looks that flatter her hair...

But this spring, she decides that she's going to be ALL ABOUT her blue eyes... Just for a bit of a change - why not?

Now when she wants something bright, she has an abundance of choices! And she can still wear her subtle greys and whites when that's the mood...

I'm going to revisit each of these Common Wardrobes, but I'm going to go rogue and abandon the Pantone colors (trust me, I can't find the colors available to buy in any form I'd happy recommend to you!).

Instead of Pantone, I'm just going to show you ... View the Post

A French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Blooming Dahlia

February 28, 2018

Maybe black and white isn't your thing... maybe now that warm weather is approaching, you're in the mood for LIGHT...

And maybe you're very casual. Not a scarf person. Really, VERY casual, relaxed, leisurely...

Maybe start with this:

You've got every kind of white top from sleeveless to long-sleeved, and everything to cover your legs a little, a bit more, or all the way! Layer on a sweater or a sweatshirt and you're good to go.

This is NOT boring.... this is subtle!

You're ready for an update, and a bit of an accent color for the upcoming warm weather. But nothing overly dressy - why buy things you won't wear? You can update just as easily with canvas shoes, tee shirts, and a fresh ... View the Post

A French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Tomato Red

February 27, 2018 When the weather gets warm, many of us get the urge to shop! And so let's think about limiting our purchases to whatever essential, core items we need, and then a French 5-Piece Wardrobe to freshen and update our classics...First, every change of season has me dreaming of tossing out all of my clothes and buying an entirely new wardrobe from Eileen Fisher. (NOT going to happen, but a woman can fantasize, and then use that fantasy to create a better reality, right?)This is what I'd be buying, if I was going to do such a madcap thing:

Of course, when you look at this wardrobe for a few minutes, you realize that you don't need to buy ALL 10 pieces to get the desired effect - maybe just 2 or 3 of the real signature ... View the Post

Daffodils – the Birth Flower for March! How perfect…

After watching the Six Nations rugby yesterday, and seeing daffodil hats, and lots of daffodils pinned to coats, it seemed only perfect that today we look at them as the March birth flower...(Daffodil Days are a Cancer Society fund-raiser...)

For many of us, yellow feels like an inherently difficult color, but never discount the impact (and the fun!) that you could have with a yellow pedicure, or yellow sandals... but you can always wear the image of the daffodil in silver - no worries about unflattering yellow!

And I'm convinced that the flower in the middle of that very bright scarf is a narcissus...

Disclaimer - Yes, I'm using the same pants and shoes for most of these outfits. This is NOT because I'm bone-deep lazy (although ... View the Post

Adding Just Enough Accessories

February 21, 2018 Yesterday she managed to wrestle her wardrobe into shape, so today she want to be certain that she has enough accessories. She's not mad about having tons of stuff, but it is pretty important to have at least some appropriate shoes! Her color palette looked like this when she was finished:

She thought for a bit, and chose gold as the metal color for her jewelry (maybe just for this season - who knows?)

And she's going to rely a bit on navy as a "cooling" influence on her wardrobe, as she moves away from those warm olive-ish greens that made her feel drab. So she drafted a 2nd color palette, like this:

Now that her colors are all settled, she things for a minute about what she's going to look for in ... View the Post

Another Wardrobe Disaster…

February 20, 2018

This is almost the same wardrobe that we saw back on February 7th; I've made a couple of changes so that our new "dilemma" is clear...

This is her starting wardrobe; there's nothing really WRONG here - they're all perfectly nice clothes, but she struggles, and often feels that she doesn't look... pretty...

So she goes through the same exercise that we've seen before - does she have the right general assortment of pieces? Yes, this seems fine...

Is it the colors? She feels in her gut that she's got a color "issue..." She's always been told that she was an Autumn, but the colors feel muddy and heavy to her... She's got blue eyes, and freckles, and she feels more... light? than the colors that are ... View the Post

“Fixing” a Wardrobe that Just Doesn’t Feel Right…

She's worn navy forever, and really, legitimately loves it. She also really feels comfortable with bright colors - she doesn't mind the high contrast. But, for some reason she can't quite put her finger on, she's not quite "right" with her wardrobe...

This is what's she's got for spring:

She really doesn't know what to do to feel more comfortable with these pieces, so she just started getting dressed as normal, but changing 2 small things:

She pulls out and wears what she really "feels" like wearing, rather than trying to carefully rotate everything in her wardrobe. If she focuses on what she most likes, it might help her learn something, and She keeps careful track of what she wears.

After three weeks, she sorts ... View the Post