accessories Archives

Start with Art: Adding Accessories – With My Back to the World by Agnes Martin

November 13, 2020

Friday the 13th, what might go wrong?

She's still craving calm, peace and quiet. There's quite enough upheaval in the world right now, without her adding to it!

So she finds a favorite painting, and isolates a color palette she loves:

And then she adds to her core Common Wardrobe of grey garments some accent things in each of the 3 colors; her wardrobe for the month looks like this:

In order to keep the peaceful organization of her closet growing and advancing, she decides to focus now on the accessories that she wants to wear with her wardrobe. So she chooses a number of outfits, accessorizes each of them (sort of like playing with dolls!) and then stores away all of the rest of her things for a few ... View the Post

Start with Art: Adding Accessories – Red Hills, Lake George by Georgia O’Keeffe

November 9, 2020

Remember this lovely work, and our heroine who was so uncertain about including both red and pink accents in her Garde-Robe du Mois?

Her final wardrobe was this lovely, uncommon but very practical assortment:

She's going to whittle down her "visible" accessories for the month too - put a few pieces of jewelry into nice storage bags and give them a vacation. Fold some of her scarves into a storage box... Put some of her shoes away on a shelf... A bit of simplifying for 30 days or so!

So she takes 10 outfits, makes sure she has the perfect accessories for each of them, and then tucks away her other treasures for a different month and a changed Garde-Robe du Mois...

editorial comment: I would ... View the Post

Is It Time for a Wardrobe Brightener? Pantone 2021 Spring Colors

October 30, 2020

Most of us are being very disciplined with our wardrobes right now, but I think that we (and those around us) might benefit from the occasion cheerful update. With that in mind, I tackled the "newest" colors from Pantone.

First up - if you can wear yellow, DO IT. Many of us look like a Halloween decoration when we wear it, and that's too bad. Nothing is more eye-catching and smile-prompting.

And this gingham sweatshirt comes in 4 colors, including pink. I AM tempted...

This shade of blue might be an accent for some of us, or for many it will just be some pretty new additions. I wasn't able to exactly match the Pantone color (heck, I wasn't able to match ANY of the colors exactly!) but I tried to ... View the Post

Start with Art: Adding Accessories to a Wardrobe – Poem by Bunya no Asayasu by Hokusai

October 19, 2020 She Chooses LOTS of Accessories! She has her inspiration:

And her clothes are all chosen (as well as 1 scarf!):

So she heads into the kids rooms with a handful of garbage bags, and duly loads ALL of their clothes into the bags.... It's what they wanted, and she's so happy that they're going to be away from civilization for a few months that she's NOT going to quibble about odd wardrobe requests....

And then, she walks into her bedroom. She needs to pick up some shoes, and whatever other accessories she might want for the next few months. Her first inclination is just to grab her loafers and a pair of slippers and call it a day, but then she pauses, to take the time to think about this with herself and her ... View the Post

Adding Accessories! Start with Art: Ophelia Among the Flowers by Odilon Redon

September 17, 2020

One last visit to this most wonderful of paintings (unless someone reminds me to look at it again next Spring!), to add some accessories to our Shakespeare expert's travel wardrobe:

To refresh our collective memories, this is the wardrobe on which she settled:

Of course she already has some accessories - but not nearly enough!

She's pretty methodical about choosing more accessories - she works her way through a handful of representative outfits from her wardrobe, and adds accessories that feel right for that outfit, as well as maybe some other outfits from her travel plan.

First up, she really REALLY wants to wear pink earrings, and she realizes that she's long overdue for getting her sunglasses ... 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

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 Accessories to a Navy-Based Spring Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 6, 2020

Accessories! My favorite things in any wardrobe... except maybe a glorious sweater, or something velvet...

I'm going to use just the Spring Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, and 1 Cluster of accents, for this; I've got a reason, trust me!

Remember this amazingly useful bunch of stuff?

If we add these seven Accent and Extra garments, we will have a nice tidy 20-piece wardrobe. In my world, that feels a lot like 4 5-piece clusters! (or, of course, 5 4-piece clusters! you could find a few other combinations, I'm sure...)

These are the 20 Spring garments to which we will be adding accessories:

As has been my habit lately, I'm going to assemble six outfits from this fun little wardrobe, and then add ... View the Post

Accessories! Revisiting Blue Major Elle by Marijah Bac Cam

July 23, 2020

Of course she's packing accessories!

Yesterday, she expanded her initial 8-piece wardrobe to a 16-piece 4 by 4 Wardrobe, since she and her sweetheart are going to be staying up at her sister-in-law's B&B for a few weeks...

Her inspiration?

Her clothes are all good to go - this is what she's taking (or what's already there...):

And these are the accessories that she's already got on-site:

To be sure that she doesn't miss anything, she assembles a handful of representative outfits that she has packed. And then she thinks about what she's going to be doing...

The photographers and other staff want to make it seem as if all of the guests are piled into the kitchen, helping with dinner. It's ... 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

How do You Choose a Scarf?

July 14, 2020

Why look at this! One of our very favorite scarf companies has new scarves! Some days we deserve a treat....

I strongly encourage you to click on the link above and check out all of the scarves that I DIDN'T include here...

Why do I do these posts all the time? Well, I think they're pretty, and I think that when you scroll through them and find your eye (and maybe your heart) caught by something, you might be able to learn something about your tastes and preferences...

There are SO MANY things to buy in the world; it's smart to really learn about and commit ourselves to the things that really make our souls sing!

Wouldn't this be pretty with white linen pants, or a white skirt?

I think you understand ... View the Post

Adding Accessories: Portrait of the Countess de Martel de Janville by Boldini

July 7, 2020

Our heroine needs to go shopping, again!

After she picked up a few more garments, she was left with just the accessories with which she had traveled. This isn't a bad bunch of pretty things, but she might want a few more things:

She sorted her wardrobe out into a number of outfits, and then decided to very methodically get accessories for each outfit in turn.

To start, she went completely off the rails for a pair of earrings that she could NOT resist:

Well THAT was fun! The next day was quite warm, and she realized that she wanted a good hat!

Masks! Even in a city that's beginning to reopen after the quarantine, one still needs a mask. She decides that she might as well get a few that look good ... View the Post