cardigans Archives - Page 4 of 6

Can a More Casual Work Wardrobe have Personality? Start with a Moth…

October 17, 2017

You might think it's just a flying caterpillar, but the colors are so lovely....

Your understanding is that the first interview is going to be most of the day in their offices, and then a break before they take you out to dinner; they want to make sure that you know which fork is which!

It's a kitchen gear company - why would you be interested in their job if you didn't know your salad fork from your dinner fork? Of course you're hired! For the first few days, you're going to have options to dress nicely if there's going to be a meeting, but otherwise the offices seem quite casual...

This is the the tiny wardrobe that you have before your first paycheck arrives - you can get through a week of work ... View the Post

How to Wear Diamonds – the April Birthstone; Some New Ideas!

March 27, 2017

Everyone already knows how to wear diamonds - there's a big business consortium that's been telling us exactly what to buy, and how to wear it, for decades...

So I'm looking at something a little bit different - unpolished diamonds, or diamonds as an accent with other stones, or diamonds in unusual colors. So if your birthday's in April (or the birthday of a special someone...) and you don't want to go full-on solid diamonds, I have some suggestions:

(yes, you've seen some of these dresses before! A nice dress can stand up to a lot of scrutiny, and works well with a variety of accessories...)

And this black pleated dress? I'm just saying - it's a REALLY good thing that I'm not shopping for a dress (or anything ... View the Post

How Can I Accessorize a Column of Black? Chic Sightings to the Rescue!

February 9, 2017

In the last few days, I noticed a number of women wearing simple black "columns," - a sweater and pants, or a tee shirt with pants, and at least in one instance, I think she was wearing a black dress with black tights.

But what caught my eye was the way that each woman had put her own very personal spin on the basic black core of their outfit. My eye was caught immediately when I saw this great floral tote:

This is really clever - the grey and white in the cardigan keep the outfit from looking anything at all like Halloween.

And I spotted this tote WAY across the room - I've always kind of wanted one of these... and I could love this cardigan to pieces...

Even when you're ... View the Post

How to Assemble a Warm-Weather Capsule Wardrobe – Bavarian Cream Tossed Floral Cardigan

February 3, 2017

I have no idea why it's called "Bavarian Cream." I had no idea that the cream there was in some way special...

Today is the last version of the "start with a patterned cardigan" idea, with more complete explanations of what I'm doing with these cardigans. (brace yourself - I get pretty carried away explaining my methodology here!) This cardigan was chosen because one of you who is contemplating the purchase on this one felt that the colors might prove to be too autumn-like...

For what it's worth, upon close study, I think that these colors are pretty safely seasonless; one might be reluctant to wear a pair of cream wool crepe trousers in February (nasty salt splashes = ruined garment!), but for the most part, ... View the Post

How to Assemble a Warm-Weather Capsule Wardrobe – The Burgundy Floral Cardigan

February 2, 2017

Groundhog Day! (in the US - does anybody else depend upon rodents for long-term weather forecasts?)

And you might feel like Groundhog Day, The Movie, because this idea looks really familiar. Remember the Dandelion Cardigan capsule wardrobe you just saw on Tuesday? Well, someone went wandering on the Lands' End website, and discovered this:

Bright Burgundy Floral Cardigan – Lands’ End

She was particularly interested in seeing how this worked with navy, so I thought another trip or two through this concept might be helpful...

First up, her preferred navy (which is indeed present in small doses in the cardigan) and ivory are the core neutrals, and then the vivid red (which I wouldn't have ... View the Post

How to Assemble a Warm-Weather Capsule Wardrobe – The Dandelion Cardigan

January 31, 2017

One of you has fallen in love....With a cardigan! And you're somewhat concerned that you won't wear it enough to make it worth the purchase...

This is the winsome object of her affections:

She assures me that she really loves the yellow, but has never worn it. And she's very devoted to her black and white neutrals:

I don't think she's going to have any problems at all - realistically, I think she need to maybe buy 1 thing for each of these outfits to pull everything together.In these first 2 outfits, she'll want to grab those delicious sandals, and the bracelets will be essential...

Another pair of yellow sandals might be overdoing it. Maybe. And the yellow tee shirt - assuming ... View the Post

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

January 2, 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:

Black - Hermès Carré en Boucles; Beige - Hermès Flanerie à Versailles; Navy - Hermès au Bout du Monde; Olive – Hermès Collections Impériales; Grey - Hermès Etude pour un Iris Arc-en-ciel; Brown – Hermès Chemins de Corail

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 ... View the Post

One Navy Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear it With Muted Accents

September 2, 2016

One last adventure with this dress - this time, with muted accent colors like olive, burgundy, and mustard! (I have been hungry 24/7 for a week...)

You might notice more or less immediately that I'm reusing a TON of accessories from the recent post with the grey dress. I'm not doing this because I'm lazy, (well...) but because it all fell into place, unexpectedly.

When I put together posts like this, which are variations of previous posts, I reuse the original PowerPoint file. For this, I went through each page, deleted the original grey dress, and pasted in the navy dress. Then I changed the color of the divider stars... It was only when I went to the next step - changing the accessories - that I realized that I ... View the Post

One Navy Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear it With Pastels

August 30, 2016

This is a great dress - it appears to be fairly trimly cut until it reaches the hips, and then swish!

I took a little bit different approach to this dress - I found simple, classic navy shoes that I've included with all of the pastel colors. And there's a pretty straightforward formula for these - I looked for scarves, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and bags in the accent color, and then chose the pieces that I liked the most! My criteria were pretty much that the accessories should be as close in color to the cardigan as reasonably possible, and that they share a feeling or aesthetic. (that last part is hard to define, but I know what I like when I see it!)

This is an obvious color scheme, if you ... View the Post

One Yellow Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear It

August 17, 2016

One of you recently bought a yellow dress... It wasn't this one, but it was an equally simple, beautiful dress...

Dress – Who's Who

What to do with such a nice dress, in such a statement color? Work your way through every color in the rainbow, and test them in your mind (in a PowerPoint presentation, or on Pinterest?) to see how they'll work...First up, knowing that the purchaser is a woman who wears "cool" colors and accessories, I thought I'd take a look at putting some black with it. Some people might feel that this is too much bumblebee, or University of Iowa, or Pittsburgh Pirates, but I think that it's a striking option.

In the first example, I used a bit of white (or of skin, showing ... View the Post

Chic Sightings: Navy Columns with Shades of Green in the Capsule Wardrobe

July 13, 2016

I had a few of these ideas lingering in my head, and I've FINALLY figured out how to present them in a somewhat unified manner. What unites all of these outfits is that they're based on the simplest navy "core," either a dress or a matching tee shirt and pants.The key, to me, for wearing accent colors successfully is to give them a sense of looking intentional, rather than just grabbed at the last minute. While you might not want FOUR pieces in your accent at one time, wearing 2 or 3 green items - shoes, jewelry, bag, or sweater - makes it look like the green was a purposeful choice on your part. Plus, it lends a sense of balance to your ensemble!

Using a hoodie and canvas shoes gives your dress more mileage ... View the Post

Chic Sightings: Black and Pink in the Capsule Wardrobe

July 8, 2016

Everybody says that a little black dress (LBD - it even has its own acronym!) is a capsule wardrobe essential... and for me, that's certainly the truth! But of course I'm not going to tell you to wear black, NOR am I going to tell you that you must wear dresses. That said, I've seen a lot of black dresses recently in downtown Chicago, and some of the freshest looks have paired their black with pink!

If you own an amazing handbag, it's well worth building at least one entire outfit around it. And if you're going out after work, a few pink touches make your work-wardrobe black dress more than appropriate for a romantic dinner:

Earrings – Ippolita; short-sleeved dress – Lands’ End; open cardigan – ... View the Post