cool weather Archives

Want to Pack Dark Colors? Start With Art – Red Rotation by Victor Servranckx

November 14, 2025

Monday's heroine has to travel for business - it's surprising to me how many people STILL have to show up in person, press the proverbial flesh, and breathe the same air as the people from another office...

But of course, sometimes the in-person touch is essential. You hear the whispers in the ladies room, and glances from the corner of the room in a meeting, the strange phobias about using a particular printer - office life is weird and can be illuminating!

Her inspiration? This fascinating piece:

Her "master" color palette includes four neutrals; she does include the other colors in the painting in her wardrobe, in tiny amounts - there's a whole range of interesting beige to greenish bronze ... View the Post

Ready for Leafy Autumn Colors? Start With Art – Red Rotation by Victor Servranckx

November 12, 2025

Another heroine who is going to experiment with her neutral colors, to try to change the... feel? the mood? of her travel capsule wardrobes by omitting one of her neutral colors. Let's see how this works!

First up is her wardrobe inspiration, by an artist with a name that CAN'T be typed quickly:

The core of our heroine's wardrobe is black and ivory, with definite accents of brown and rust...

After getting dressed with mostly these colors for years and years, our heroine realized that she can take one color out of her four-color palette and have FOUR new, smaller color schemes:

Women's Basketball Home Opener! She and many of her friends played basketball when they were in college; it was VERY ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #6: Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

November 10, 2025

Our last installment for this month - one of my favorite paintings!

This heroine gave some serious thought to what her holiday seasons promises to bring, and came to the conclusion that silky pants and a pretty blouse will be more than adequate for her festive needs. A couple of cardigans that can be dressed up, and some fun star and moon accessories, finish up her November shopping:

please note that "silky" does NOT equal "silk." Neither does "satin." There's a lot of... confusing clothing descriptions in the world...

When she brings home her new things, she finds that everything blends in pretty much perfectly! There is always that satisfaction when you are disciplined with your ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #5: Street Lights by Stefan Johansson

November 7, 2025

These aren't really the colors that we think of for the winter holidays, but there's more than enough red and holly green in the world...

If one is patient, and disciplined, it is possible to find lovely dressy things that are perfect with this wardrobe:

Remember that if you're looking for a holiday brooch, Talbots is where you want to look first!

The gold sequins blend pretty well into this wardrobe, and the two sweaters are just right:

This heroine has some of the BEST scarves!

And our heroine already had a gold handbag and gold sandals; in warmer weather she can wear her gold sequined garments with sandals rather than ballet flats. Choices are nice to have!

Our heroine ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4: Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

November 6, 2025 Breaking the Rules - Sometimes You Just Want To! Our heroine has this lovely painting to inspire her wardrobe choices:

Our heroine needs a dressy outfit for a VERY special occasion. She looked and looked at her "usual" colors - especially teal. But she came back, and back again, to these two (very expensive!) pieces in sequined taupish brown. And she finally caved...

Now, her wardrobe doesn't look a lot different, except she now has these two sequined garments that sort of stick out...

As always, are we smitten with her jewelry and scarves?

The shoes and bag that she bought for her event don't really blend in with everything else. This is okay; imagine the flats and bag worn with denim, or with ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3: Sun, Water Maine by O’Keeffe

November 5, 2025

I love this painting - it's not unlike the view from my window...

Our heroine's preparation for the holiday season is pretty simple - she buys a simple sweater that has sequins knitted into it! (I confess, I have a black cabled cashmere sweater with sequins, and I wear it a LOT more than I ever imagined...)

She adds in a pair of winter white wool pants, a classic Aran-style crewneck, and a navy turtleneck. Some gold accessories, and she's ready for anything her schedule might thrown at her!

She has fewer beige/ivory clothes than she has navy and green. This makes sense to me; the lighter colors aren't as versatile for many of us.

The time that I'm always tempted by a wardrobe is when I look at ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2: Of by Elizabeth Magill

November 4, 2025

I'm still able to find lovely clothes for this VERY limited color palette. Can you imagine wearing only two colors?

Years ago, when I was a bookstore chic(k), I wore only black and white. For years...

Of course, if you wanted to be strict to this painting, there could be much more white, and a denim-ish blue:

Her new tops are all quite festive, but her skirt can be worn for all kinds of things throughout the autumn and winter...

She still has fewer grey garments that in the other colors! Of course, I could move the white things onto the grey page...

I'm very smitten with her jewelry and scarves...

Her new clothes give her a LOT of options for getting dressed-up these next few ... View the Post

Can’t Live Without Denim? Start With Art – Prunus by Kees van Dongen

October 31, 2025

One last tour through the potential of "The Four T's" in dark chocolate brown, starting today with this lovely painting:

There's no way I will be able to match this blue exactly, so I'm just going to work with a soft, faded denim/chambray...

There's a little bit of pink in this painting; would this be a good piece of art to include in next year's "Six Paintings"?

First off, let's not forget our core of brown clothes and accessories:

The simplest four garments in denim blue - I was pretty thrilled to find both the sweater and tee shirt!

And finally three tops in ivory!

And of course, I'm going to find some accessories!

Now, our heroine's wardrobe looks VERY different than it ... View the Post

A Pretty Brown Wardrobe? Start With Art – Flowers in a Crystal Vase by Edouard Manet

October 29, 2025

This is the third post in a series; the initial post with just brown in it can be found here, and the second post, which was a brown, black and white wardrobe, is here.

Maybe you like brown, and maybe you think of it as an infinitely feminine color. Seriously, hear me out!

It's the color of soil. Which is the source of all things green, growing and fertile. That would be us, ladies...

And I'm offering up this beautiful painting to inspire us:

Of course, this wardrobe could easily include green... I'm considering this painting to include in next year's "6 Paintings" posts, and I would absolutely include a range of greens...

First up, let's get our brown clothes and accessories ready:

I was ... View the Post

Do You Want to Shore-Up Your Neutral(s)? Try the Four T’s!

October 22, 2025

Why yes, the internet outages on Monday WERE a headache...

Ten years ago, when I was visiting London, I noticed that a lot of women had worked out a really simple way to build outfits, and therefore their wardrobe. I called it The Four T's, because of COURSE I had some mnemonic to help me remember things!

But it's simple enough: tee shirt, turtleneck, trousers and tights. Look back ten years to see the original post...

Now that I'm (a) getting dressed each day for legitimate cool weather, and (b) considering what I might pack when I go to Paris in December, I thought that I should look at this idea again.

But not in black! My choices for myself will of course be black, but in the interests of variety let's ... View the Post

Want to Mix A Warm Accent into Your Cool Wardrobe? Another Look at a Camel Crewneck Sweater

October 20, 2025

One additional look at the camel sweater, for a heroine who wants to wear camel, but her entire wardrobe is cool colors...

Her favorite neutrals and navy and grey, and she wears white shirts regularly, so our color palette will look like this:

Jeans? Yes!

A great navy metallic skirt!

And OF COURSE navy cords....

If you want to introduce a warm color into a cool wardrobe (or vice versa), don't overlook the possibilities of "two-toned" jewelry. That combination of gold and silver can do wonders...

The right scarf can go a long way, too!

And the same lovely charcoal turtleneck and wool pants that we saw on Friday are perfect with our heroine's new sweater:

If, for ... View the Post

Considering a Classic Accent Color? J.Crew Burgundy Cashmere Crewneck Sweater

October 17, 2025

One last look at what one can do with a simple sweater! Simple is key - it's easier to layer, easier to pile on jewelry or a scarf, and much less likely to bore you as the years pass...

I think of expensive sweaters this way: starting when I finished graduate school (OMG years ago), I tried to buy one really good sweater each year.

Now, I'm sitting with almost 40 beautiful sweaters. People think I'm wildly extravagant, when I'm really just taking good care of my stuff!

This sweater is one that might appeal to almost any of us - burgundy is an easy color for many people to wear, and it goes with both warm and cool neutrals. Imagine this beauty with camel.... mmm...

The heroine who asked me to look into the ... View the Post