blue Archives - Page 18 of 35

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Pigs on the Wing by wrq.e.d. Version 2

October 22, 2015

While the first colors that I saw in the scarf were greys and black, there's definitely enough beige and brown here to work with; maybe I see black and grey first because that's my personal capsule wardrobe focus?

But this time, this is the color scheme. I like giving myself the full range of the blues and browns as options, I think it works well with the scarf, and makes the blending of different shades of one color possible. While there are a few colors that need to be matched pretty closely, others can blend all over the place and work well - I think brown is one of those!

I didn't mention this, but the border of this scarf reads:

"my song was out of tune, my voice was cracked, but at least no ... View the Post

Building a CONSERVATIVE BUSINESS Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 23, 2015

One last visit with our friend who spent so many years taking care of her family...

A Well-Deserved Move Up... She put her head down, learned everything she could, pitched in wherever she was needed, and became more productive and more indispensable every day. She didn't complain about menial tasks, nor repetitious projects. She was pleasant but not ingratiating, helpful but not servile, and intelligent without making anyone want to whap her in the head. She was, in short, a dream employee.

Of course she was - she was mature enough to know what really matters!

So one day, when the manager wanted to talk to her, she had no concerns that she was in trouble for something.

And in fact, it was ... View the Post

Building a BUSINESS CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 22, 2015

Let's come back to this great painting and color scheme, and see what our wonderful care-giver is up to...

A Shift of Focus As time passed, our care giver discovered that her responsibilities gradually diminished. Her parents were in a facility that gave them the kind of attention they deserved, after their life of work and service. Her children were grown and starting their own lives as adults. And her husband - like all of the best life partners - only wanted for her to be happy and fulfilled.

So she decided to get a job...

First thing was to make sure she had something interview-worthy, so she found a navy skirt that she could wear with her navy blazer. While the fabrics are very ... View the Post

Building a CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 21, 2015 I love this painting; it lives just down the street from me at the Art Institute of Chicago. Severini isn't well-known, and I think that's a shame - his Cubist works are lovely...

This painting lends itself to a color scheme firmly grounded in versatile neutrals, but sparked with some extraordinary accent colors. In addition to the pink and blue that I've chosen, you've got some beautiful yellow, a hint of true red, and some aqua too!

Care-giving as Art She took care of them all - children, spouse, parents, neighbors, and never missed a beat...

And she always looked lovely while doing so! Never over-done or fussy, and ALWAYS appropriate to the occasion and the activities. But ... View the Post

Whatever’s Clean 13 FOR MEN – cool colors, warm weather

I particularly love working with menswear - their garments are so beautifully designed and well made that it's gratifying to put things together into outfits...For a warm weather trip, I'm still including a blazer, cardigan and sweatshirt. Maybe it's from living in Chicago, but I find that there's no destination that doesn't, from time to time, require something warm. At a minimum, the blazer or cardigan comes in handy when you want to be more "dressed" for some activities. And if you never actually need your sweatshirt, that's good!

This starts out like any other menswear wardrobe, but the blazer is cotton, and unstructured (i.e. unlined, but still meticulously finished inside.) The trousers are linen, and the tie is a lighter-weight ... View the Post

Building a DRESSY Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 12, 2015

One last look at our beautiful art, and the very unusual, but workable, color scheme that I chose from it:

You Must Always Look Elegant and Refined That's what they told her when she accepted the position. They even give her a clothing allowance any time they change the color scheme of the business, which is every 4 to 6 months, sometimes more often!

But she's clever, and knows that they aren't going to ask for receipts, so she chooses timeless, elegant, classic clothes that might be "recyclable" into a later scheme...

She knows that a simple ivory silk blouse might be usable in any number of different "aesthetic messages" that her employers choose. No frittering away of a that ... View the Post

Building a BUSINESS CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 11, 2015

Yesterday, I put together what I thought was a pretty casual wardrobe, based on this painting. It wasn't the MOST casual thing imaginable - it included skirts and nice sweaters - but it would certainly be appropriate for most non-work activities that didn't include garage cleaning, painting, or basement mucking...This is our art, and our color scheme:

In order to take yesterday's wardrobe to work, I upgraded the skirt and the pants from the more casual cotton to nicer wool pieces. Depending on how casual your office actually is, you might easily have been able to wear yesterday's pieces to work too!

For the off white - same thing; the tops were keepers, but the skirt and pants were moved to slightly ... View the Post

Building a CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 10, 2015

It's a question that comes up from time to time, and I'm long overdue to respond: "does the color scheme dictate the level of dressiness?" I don't think so, although I can easily see how it might seem logical. Often, by the time I've incorporated the aesthetics of a piece of art into a particular wardrobe, it can seem like there was no other POSSIBLE way that it could have gone. But in fact, I think that there's a lot of versatility possible in most color schemes.

Let's start with this simple, but gorgeous, little work, submitted for our consideration by Belovedest!

This gives us the possibilities of every sort of cream, ivory, off-white etc. shading through to any depth of warm grey we want. The ... View the Post

Mixing Black and Brights

September 9, 2015

One last look at how these 9 black garments can be used to serve as a base for your personal wardrobe passion - this time, BRIGHT colors!

You might be able to put together outfits with just these 9 pieces, but people would certainly see you from a long way away! If you're comfortable doing that, I think you should do whatever delights you - that's really the most important factor when getting dressed! But for those of us who love these colors in smaller doses, I have some ideas...

As always, I'm going to build around a solid, well-chosen core of neutrals. I've used black for these examples the last 2 days, but any neutral can do the trick, with a little bit of thought and ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Egypt Drawing 9 by Susan Osgood

September 3, 2015 So beautiful... the depths of the black throughout the blue, the radiance of the red shining in the distance, and are those footsteps moving up off the top of the image?

A color scheme of clarity, but with dimensions of color:

Can You Play the Game? The rules are few, simple, but rigorously enforced:

Either participant can initiate the game. You must be ready to leave within the hour! You must be able to carry (not roll) your bag...

The destination is not known by either participant until after arriving at the airport and talking to an airline representative to find the least-expensive flight (within certain parameters). No sand, no snow. Trips last ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Version 2 of Nature Morte by Georgette Agutte

September 2, 2015

We took a look at this painting a few days ago, and my result was a very dark and subdued mix of burgundy and black. THIS version is quite a bit brighter!

This is the same general scenario: a lovely woman who has to make a quick overnight trip for a (possibly) dressy event - wedding, dinner party, etc.

I've kept the jewelry and scarf from the previous iteration of this project, and black pants are still on the menu. But a change of coat, sweater, boots and tote change everything completely.

Just to refresh our eyes, here's the painting with which everything starts:

But this time, I'm going back to an earlier version of the color scheme, that doesn't include the very ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Chapter 2 of Still Life with Apples by Henri Matisse

August 18, 2015 The prequel is here. The morning after the board meeting, they called her into the Manager's office for a conversation... An hour later, she was the first, and only, Commercial Relationship Coordinator in the entire company. It is a position with a somewhat nebulous job description, but one which is going to be PERFECT for showing her diplomatic skills to their best advantage! Remember, this was her work wardrobe:

Which was based on this painting and color scheme:

She finally felt that this was the right time to break out a new, and heretofore unseen, facet of her personality. Within her there was a brightness, and a strength, which she had downplayed in the ... View the Post