camel Archives

I Love IT, but Will I Wear IT? Camel Cardigan

Oooh, this is SUCH a good garment for this kind of thinking. Camel is so lovely - rich and warm, and pretty difficult to find in a lot of garments. So you might find yourself really stuck for ideas about how to wear something cozy and nice like this:

I'm not going to offer up a single color palette for this cardigan, because I frankly don't know what the favorite colors are of the heroine who received this over the holidays. Rather, I'm going to share SIX possible "neutral partners" for camel...

When in doubt, you always know that denim goes with... everything? Is there a color that you wouldn't wear with denim and chambray? I can't think of one...

I like the possibility of wearing ivory corduroy pants (on a DRY winter day) ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Lion and Peacock Scarf by Aspinal of London, in navy and camel

She Decided to Branch Out...

She's worn navy with pastels for decades... And she's now ready for an update!

She's always felt drawn to camel. The richness, the warmth, and elegance. And she's been told repeatedly that it was a color that she could happily wear. But she starts small... something below the waist!

Success! But the real camel item that has always caught her eye is a lovely cardigan...

Now she's feeling positively emboldened! She looks closely and her scarf and sees a beautiful shade of blue; would a matching sweater and flats be wrong?

But she's not going to rely entirely new purchases - when she look in her closet, she realizes that her aqua sweater would be perfect with her new ... View the Post

I Love IT, but Will I Wear IT? Start with a Scarf: Lion & Peacock by Aspinal of London

I know, I should be showering you with holiday gift ideas and telling you about all of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. I'm NOT that blogger, though... sigh...

However, I firmly believe that those of us who are holiday shopping should treat ourselves to one really LOVELY thing for the upcoming season, and of course for the years to come. We don't buy something just to wear it once or twice, unless we're getting married or standing up in someone else's wedding!

So maybe a scarf has caught your eye, and kicked you in the heart... (I love the phrase coup de coeur...)

It's all the right colors - warm and cool, neutrals and accents...

But can you wear it? How will you wear it? You don't want something this beautiful ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting Persia, by Helen Frankenthaler

Back at the beginning of the summer, our heroine managed to finish the report to which she had dedicated 3 months of her life. Far from being chastised for her work's inadequacies, she was warmly praised, and given 2 weeks of vacation and a well-deserved bonus...

She loves this painting, and tries to use it as her guide and inspiration for her wardrobe:

The Luncheon Speaker Now, her proposals have gone corporate-wide! And she's heading to the launch luncheon at the home office to speak about her work...

The overall dress code of her company is VERY casual, but she's been advised by some of her supervisors that the home office can be dressier. Not that anybody can be specific about what that means... sigh...

So she's ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Tom Baker’s Doctor Who Scarf!

When one of my favorite people in the whole world wants me to try something, I'm there for him! EVERY TIME!!! She's An Event Coordinator... And she's being sent to another property to supervise a Doctor Who convention. Her kids bought this for her; they thought it was hysterically funny....

She looked at the scarf for a few minutes, and then had an epiphany! She loves camel and olive, and she realized that this could work...

She bought a couple of sweaters to pick up her "new" accent colors, and found that it was indeed possible to pull together a travel capsule wardrobe using a VERY unlikely color palette...

She forced her kids to come into her room before she packed, just so they could see what she had ... View the Post

Sage and Blush! A French 5-Piece Wardrobe, with Camel

I don't think I've ever pointed this out specifically - your French 5-Piece Wardrobe doesn't have to be all one color! It probably should all go together, if only to make wearing it easier, but 2 colors that are beautiful together could be a great idea...

Imagine that you've already pulled together your camel and ivory Common Wardrobe for spring...

Yes, this is the same wardrobe from Monday the 5th - and the shirt is NOT (at this very moment) sold out...

You would already have a good many ways to get dressed in the morning without really even thinking - that's handy when you're in a rush, and distracted!

When you add just the 5 new items you purchased for spring, your options expand a LOT, and you still don't have to do a ... View the Post

A French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Ash Rose (with Camel and Ivory!)

It's not easy to find camel, nor ivory, but I did my very best! And I included this print shirt (although I know I've used it before) because I like it a lot.... Sometimes that all that's required!

So before we go off in search of a pretty French 5-Piece Wardrobe for spring, let's assemble a very practical, but lovely, Common Wardrobe:

As should always be the case with a well-chosen Common Wardrobe, plenty of combinations are clearly available, for a wide range of weather and dressiness:

Here's where the fun/work starts! Even though Pantone tells us that this is one of the colors of the year, not a lot of clothing companies have jumped onto this particular bandwagon. That said, a big of persistence turned up some really lovely ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – February 2018

I'm still not sure why I always add a dress in February - a long-standing affection for Valentine's Day? Or just a desire to make sure that I'm well prepared for dressy spring events?

It's not quite expected to accessorize a classic black dress with bright spring green...

I didn't find a beige dress that appealed, so I thought that this delicious cocoa brown would be perfect with this scarf, or with a grouping of blush pink accessories.

The red is probably the most expected accent color with a navy dress, so I ignored that and chose teal instead!

This green isn't as yellow-ish as the greens used last month, but since it's a dress, it doesn't have to be "dye-lot matched" to the other neutral in this wardrobe... And it's such an easy ... View the Post

Trojan Gates by Helen Frankenthaler – Start with Art for Tote Bag Travel

Le Mot Juste* They never give awards to the translator...

Yes, it had been a particularly difficult project...

And as always, she took great pride in putting in the time and effort necessary to find the perfect word - the one that conveyed not just the meaning, but also... the nuance. The subtlety. The suggestions, and hints, and overtones that were apparent in the original language.

That's just the way she is. Others can settle for what falls to hand quickly and easily, for the "it will do fine" way of working. That's not her style...

(a close look at her travel earrings will show you just HOW much she looks for subtleties...)

She was surprised to be invited to the awards dinner; it's a quite informal evening, but it's still an ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – January 2018

It's that time again! I looked and LOOKED at the Hermes scarves for this year - I wanted to find some unique color combinations... I kept changing my mind until literally the last possible minute!

This year's focal points for gradual wardrobe building are these lovelies:

A word to the wise - these scarves are selling FAST this year - I had to go to the sites for 3 different countries to find these colors, literally just 3 days after I started working on this post! Your best option for finding a fast-selling scarf is to call an Hermes store and ask THEM to find it and send it to you. Their staff is usually delightfully helpful and nice, and it will save you the legwork of trying to mail-order a scarf from a country for which you don't ... View the Post

What IS Dressing Up? Taking a Warm Common Wardrobe into the Winter Holidays

Of course I've been thinking a lot about what it means to say that you're "dressed up." In the absence of showing more skin than usual, I think I've learned that there are four ways to go about this process:

Anything metallic or sparkly - if you can find a garment in one of your colors that's been given some sequins, some beads, or metallic thread, the dressiness quotient is automatically raised. Ruffles, bows, or other trim that you would not normally wear. Swapping out an ivory cotton shirt for an ivory silk shirt with a bow at the neck can make a world of difference, while filling exactly the same role in your wardrobe. Swapping for a fabric with more texture or shine. Satin, velvet, lace, or brocade are all instantly dressy, even if ... View the Post

Navy, Camel and Olive truly can be timeless…

I really wanted to look back at another of these wardrobes; they truly were the moment when I began to hit my stride as a blogger and see the goal of "timeless" come into focus.

Of course these clothes would eventually date - in a decade of two! As I said before - they're sufficiently timeless! These images are from a post on December 30th, 2011, and if you saw a woman wearing these clothes today, you'd admire them just as much. Eschew trends and invest in the classics is my motto...

Five pieces of clothing (a cardigan and top, with jeans, pants and a skirt), as well as a piece of outerwear - these are the neutrals around which an amazing number of possibilities revolve... It doesn't feel terribly intimidating when you break it down ... View the Post