12 Months - 12 Outfits Archives - Page 3 of 5

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

Always one of my favorite days of the month!

For no good reason I can explain, the earliest glimpses of spring make me want to wear a skirt, but not really get dressy. It's hard to explain, but I'm a firm believer that a skirt in a casual fabric can be a great substitute for shorts or pants; the world will think you're all dressed up, when in reality it's just a simple garment switch...

So - let's see what I found this month:

I really tried to find the perfect brown, black and grey scarf in "current production," but I finally realized that this Missoni scarf was going to be my choice. It's second-hand (but probably never worn, as is so often the case!); I have confidence that Missoni will do this color scheme again next fall...

I ... View the Post

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

I'm back in time to work on this! I'm so happy... I love these growing wardrobes...

For reference, and just to savor, these are our scarves around which we're building our wardrobes:

As always, I have to remind you that you don't have to buy an Hermès scarf (or any scarf at all!) to use this approach to building a wardrobe. Just choose any focal item, or color scheme, and start from there! And if you do want an Hermès scarf, you certain don't have to buy one new - there are a number of reputable secondhand sellers on the internet. If you're unsure about something you're considering, send me a note!

Here's a link to last month, if you want to flash back to the January items...

This black, grey and brown wardrobe is going to be so ... View the Post

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

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 still think they're the best scarves for our illustrative purpose, thought!

For what it's worth, these can sell out REALLY fast, so if one of these captures your heart, please don't hesitate. I prepared this initial file on a Wednesday, and when I went to post it TWO DAYS ... View the Post

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

The wardrobe is as far from colors that I wear as is physically possible, but I still think it's really nice - very well-balanced, lots of attractive choices, and a wide range of ways to pull outfits together.

I'm always surprised to see how organized these wardrobes turn out to be, even though I made choices for a lot of months based on things that just interested me, or that I found attractive. In this wardrobe example, the Four by Four wardrobe possibilities were really easy to find:

When we look at this wardrobe in terms of how well it serves the owner for a range of activities, through a full year of weather, the only real "blanks" I see are in the area of very dressy activities. This heroine might need to look seriously ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a A Black-Based Capsule Wardrobe – An Evaluation

Ah, this one is closest to my normal capsule wardrobe, and to what I would buy if I had to start all over... Remember, we left this wardrobe on the first of November like this:

You can see the outfit-by-outfit progression of this wardrobe here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

Because this wardrobe is so close to my own, I wasn't really concerned that things wouldn't be reasonably well balanced. The easy assembly of a "Four by Four" capsule wardrobe supports my thoughts:

I wasn't quite as certain that things would be as well-balanced for seasons and dressiness - I tend to love cold-weather clothing more than warm, and to like dressier things more than casual. You ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Grey Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

Back on the first of November (which seems like it was YEARS ago...) we left this capsule wardrobe looking this way:

If you need to track back and catch up on how we got to this point, the earlier posts can be found here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

I had a hunch that this wardrobe was in pretty good shape, and this is borne out by the way that the Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe fell into place so easily:

I noticed something sort of interesting when I graphed the garments on the basis of season and dressiness - the cooler weather clothes were more casual, and the warmer weather items skewed a bit more dressy.

This makes sense, when you think that a lot ... View the Post

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

This seemed like it was going to be a really impractical, too pastel, too feminine exercise... but upon analysis, it's turned out quite well! This was where we left it on the first of November:

If you want to go back and catch up on earlier posts, check here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November. Here was the first signal to me that this was a pretty well-constructed 11-month shopping adventure; I was easily able to pull out pieces to assemble a really functional Four by Four wardrobe:

This layout, on spectrums of weather and of dressiness, might suggest that this heroine could use something dressy for cool weather...

And when I arranged all of the garments according ... View the Post

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

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 quadrant is pretty sparse:

And finally, ... View the Post

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

Back in November, when we left this wardrobe, it was in pretty good shape. Eleven outfits had been collected into a pretty coherent, and pretty comprehensive, capsule wardrobe that would see most people through a great many of their activities:

As I've said before, no wardrobe is ever really finished. Clothes wear out, or get damaged. Our sizes change, and sometimes, we just plain get completely fed up with a garment that we've worn a lot, and feel the need to replace it. So it's useful to have a few different ways to really look at a wardrobe and determine what might be needed, or useful, or helpful, to add. I thought of a couple of different ways to evaluate things...

First off, I thought that it would make sense to see if there were ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: November

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:

For this wardrobe, as soon as I saw the kimono, I knew that this woman has holiday parties in her future, but that she's NOT particularly interested in a dress...

These wardrobes are now so large that I need to break them into two pages - one for clothing, and one for accessories. You can see how well the 3 ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: October

For October, I decided to be really, really practical; I looked at the capsule wardrobes as they are currently assembled, and tried to think of what I would be missing, right now, if this were my wardrobe. First off, there are NO JEANS!!! 2 other basics that I also felt would be useful were a v-neck sweater, and another button-front shirt, in a light neutral color if it's not already present.

So let's plunge in!

(The previous months of this lovely project can be seen here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September)

First off, as always, the scarves upon which we are basing our color schemes and thus our capsule wardrobes:

In addition to the 3 pieces of clothing mentioned, I looked for a ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: September

It's really starting to sink in with me how big this file is! 31 pages of images, all but 1 of which gets changed each month... But it's such a fun exercise!

As always, let's first look at the scarves around which we are building the 6 capsule wardrobes:

For all six outfits for September, I included a flannel shirt, corduroy pants, shorts boots, gloves, a scarf, and some kind of vest. Within those fairly strict guidelines, I still was able to pull together some wide-ranging looks!

And yes, I would wear a plaid scarf with a plaid shirt. In a heartbeat...

Only 21 pieces of clothing, but it just feels like more, doesn't it?

The new additions are going to integrate nicely into the previously existing wardrobe:

After ... View the Post