cool weather Archives

Adding Accessories to a Wardrobe for a LONG Trip

July 28, 2021

It's fun to look at cool weather accessories when the upper Midwest of the US is under a heat bubble...

Let's flash back to Friday, when this wardrobe, for a multi-month trip to Poland, was our focus:

We were told specifically that our heroine already has silver slip-on sneakers, and intends to pack short boots. The conversation in the Comments made it clear that she would also need warm, waterproof boots...

So to get enough accessories, chosen to go with this wardrobe, let's look at a bunch of outfits and see what might be pretty with each of them!

Starting - I'm ALWAYS going to suggest a watch. I think it's not lovely to constantly look at one's phone - and I'm a big offender at this...

So she has ... View the Post

Packing for a Long Trip – with only Skirts!

July 23, 2021

I've been asked for wardrobes including only skirts for a while now... So when a question was sent to me about packing for a three month visit to Poland, using only skirts, I figured it was time to address this!

A long trip can be daunting - about 20 years ago, I traveled for work for six weeks, on a trip that included six countries, and temperatures from shirt-sleeve warm to light snow!

This is what I packed:

My clothes were mostly from Eileen Fisher, and by the time I got back to Chicago I was SO SICK of every stitch of them!

But I was traveling alone, with a gigantic laptop, and so this was how I carried all of my clothes:

I was lucky - as soon as I got to a new city, I sent at least 1 outfit of ... View the Post

Start with Art: Locus 87 by Susan Osgood

July 7, 2021 The Call Came... and she's expected to be in the office 2 or 3 days a week, starting in September...

She can't wear her old work clothes - her size has changed in the last while, working at home!

And she's overall not thrilled about the whole "back in the veal feeder pen cubicle" office environment.

So she's going to be as super-professional, organized and mature as she can manage!

Starting with an inspiration that will leverage her navy and grey wardrobe core - almost mandatory in an office that's mostly men, and in a conservative industry.

She loves her colors...

Her office isn't non-stop suits, but she still has to be pretty serious some days, so she starts with the "the Board of Directors is ... View the Post

Chic Sighting, and Rethinking the Role of Linen in my Wardrobe

June 30, 2021

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had to go shopping...

I had my eye on a linen dress from Eileen Fisher...

When I got to the store at Water Tower Place, the lovely young woman who approached me was wearing the EXACT dress I was looking for, but she was wearing it with a much more "cool weather" feel that I would have imagined. The store was very cold, of course...

This is how she wore the dress:

Okay, you wouldn't wear this out into a blizzard, but this outfit would be more than acceptable in the early autumn, or late spring...

It reminded me of the way that women in Paris wear their summer dresses with sweaters, tights and warm shoes or boots - long past the time of year when most of us would have ... View the Post

Searching for Balance: Start with Art – Meadow by Mainie Jellett – The 2nd Version!

March 5, 2021

Let's take another look at this painting, with a heroine who is looking for a balance of light and dark, soft and bright...

The original post is here...

Here color palette is more like this:

you'll notice that this heroine has chosen quite a few of the same garments as our heroine from a couple of weeks ago; I'm interested to see if this will work!

The pants that she's chosen as the base of her March (ish) wardrobe are a mix of darker and lighter:

From here, our heroine is going to choose 5 small, 4-piece clusters, and these 20 garments (plus 1 Wild Card choice) will make up her Garde-Robe du Mois for the next 30 days, more or less!

This will look familiar; with a great scarf or jewelry (or on ... View the Post

Acessories! Adding Balance and Interest to Start with Art: Meadow by Mainie Jellett

February 24, 2021

This may or may NOT change your feelings about this wardrobe; I suspect that I'm going to revisit this at least twice! Maybe once use darker brown and olive to balance the red, and a second try to incorporate the mauve pink in place of the red...

This is where we started:

I already feel like the wheels are coming off - the red accessories that go so well with this outfit won't be worn with any other outfits except maybe an all camel ensemble...

This outfit screams "reading on the sofa for 5 hours" to me...

If you haven't had a haircut in a REALLY REALLY long time, a pretty hair clip might be smart...

The green puts our heroine in the mood for 4-leaf clovers, and who could blame ... View the Post

February 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Confident Lynx

February 22, 2021 You Could Go By Yourself... She looked at her favorite bracelet - the Confident Lynx...

She's going to do this - she's been anticipating this Cathedral Tour weekend for ages, and she's not going to miss it just because nobody she knows wants to go too!

So she starts to plan...

It won't be bitter cold by the time of the tour, but she knows that she wants to dress rather warmly, because old stone buildings are never toasty...

Since she's going to be alone (well, there will of course be other people on the tour!), she wants to make sure that she can lift her own luggage and manage it without having to resort to the kindness of strangers! So she arranges a tidy black core of clothes, and ... View the Post

Start With Art: Meadow by Mainie Jellett

February 19, 2021 When Accent Colors Lead You Astray... She wanted to start with this painting, and who could blame her?

She is in the process of shifting her preferred neutral from navy to camel, and her accent colors from cool and bright to warm and muted - it's quite the project!

This painting is perfect for her... After some study, and some thinking, she chose these colors:

Her plan is to assemble her 21-piece wardrobe - Her Garde-Robe du Mois - this way:

yes, this is only 20 garments - she's going to toss in her camel dress, when it's clean!

Since her closet is sort of "betwixt and between" right now, she decides to start with pants; this is a pretty good idea for most of us, since these are the clothes ... View the Post

Stress Dressing Mini-Wardrobes for Cool Weather

February 12, 2021

We've looked back at the original Stress Dressing post, and quite a few of us realized that this might be worth revisiting in our wardrobes for this "dead of winter, middle of pandemic" situation...

I didn't include dresses this time - I think that the probability that one of us is going to need a dress isn't all that high! And since so many of us are still spending so much time at home, I didn't include a bag either...

My goals were warm, comfortable, somewhat versatile, and uncomplicated. Let's look!

Loosely speaking, this is a list of what I might look for when I build this for myself:

Even though we're home most of the time, there's still no guarantee that our wardrobes will be ... View the Post

Start with Art: Lunar Halo over Snowy Trees by Goran Strand

February 8, 2021

Yes, it could be "Start with Nature," but I feel that this images owes a LOT to the photographer, and thus to me it is art... A robust discussion is welcome! It's supposed to start snowing by sunset... And so she's packing and going to be on the road by lunchtime!

Her favorite Bed and Breakfast has her favorite room available...

So she pauses for a second, and closes her eyes:

She's not really planning to do much of anything except walk outdoors, eat when summoned to do so, and read...

Okay, maybe a nap...

So it's pretty simple to get things together!

She can wear what she already has on, swapping out her slippers for good boots:

So long as she has her charging cord for her books (what ... View the Post

Start with Art: Untitled 2019 by Jeremy Stenger

February 5, 2021 The Lake is Frozen... Better get ready... She stops to focus for just a couple of heartbeats on her current favorite painting and color palette:

She knows that she needs to pack, and she knows that she doesn't want to spend much time dwelling on that, so she remember her current color palette...

What she's wearing will be fine for the drive - she just needs to get on her shoes...

She's agreed to fix dinner TONIGHT - this gets her off the hook for meals the rest of the weekend! So before she even walks NEAR her closet, she pulls out a big grocery bag from her stash, and starts assembling the ingredients for a big pot of soup...

And then she cuts the dry ingredients for biscuits together ... View the Post

Start with Art: A Garde-Robe du Mois based on Moonlight, Winter by Rockwell Kent

January 20, 2021

She's decided to plan a Garde-Robe du Mois, based on the clever and very useful suggestion made by Fiona Ferris in her recent book, The Chic Closet. (Fiona is VERY chic...)

She knew she wanted navy and white - they're her favorites! But beyond that, she was stumped! Something warm? Something with a bit of an organic feel, and a sense of radiance, to combat the darkness of deep mid-winter?

She scrolled through all sorts of museum websites, and art websites, and WHAP! - there it was:

The colors were obvious, if not something that was usual for her:

This is going to be a process that takes a few iterations, so she starts slowly - a small, 9-piece Common Wardrobe that includes all of her favorites - a ... View the Post