denim Archives

Start with Art: Man in a Café by Juan Gris

January 13, 2021

She was looking for a foolproof color palette; one day, she ran into this gentleman:

She is thrilled - she can see black, white, shades of grey, camel, khaki, brown, and denim blue. These colors ALL go together...

She starts small, with packing for a long weekend. She knows that her denim shirt is perfect under a black sweater and cords...

Now, how can this be foolproof?

v-neck sweaters are perfect over button-front shirts, OR on their own; button front shirts are easy 1st layers or they can be worn without something over them. Now that she has found Petite sizes that have short enough sleeves, and ample enough torsos, she's all set! and black bottoms and shoes...

So this is what she ... View the Post

Start with Art: Soir de Neige a Terajima by Kawase Hasui

December 30, 2020 A Snow Sabbatical She adores snow...

She likes the clarity and simplicity of a landscape with snow! And so when she was planning her wardrobe for a quick weekend away, she decided to stick with clear, wintery colors:

She will be walking about town quite a bit, but she doesn't expect the weather to be bitter cold. And frankly, she's not concerned - she's one of those people who just does NOT get cold...

It'a gift!

In an ideal world, her sleeveless dress might be a heavier ponte knit, or maybe even wool. But she has her snowflakes with her, and her warm jammies, and slippers that she would cheerfully wear out on the street to breakfast...

She just wants a day or 2 to be away from the usual. ... View the Post

Strategically Expanding a Capsule Wardrobe: Start with Art – Blue Major Elle by Marijah Bac Cam

July 22, 2020

Well THAT went well... Yesterday, our heroine was caught off guard when she realized that she needed to pack and leave for the weekend in 5 minutes!

She managed, using this painting as her color inspiration; she felt that the swirling and diffusion in this painting accurately represented the state of her brain:

The photographer and crew from the famous food magazine LOVED her sister-in-law's B&B. They loved it SO MUCH that they're going to come back in a few days, and film a half-hour video about them for their You Tube channel.

Panic ensues. And our heroine and her partner and enlisted to come stay at the B&B for... well, for the foreseeable future!

They're both leaving everything that they packed ... View the Post

Start with Art: Portrait de Greta Prozor by Henri Matisse

April 23, 2020

She's been sitting for a REALLY long time...

She's taking her favorite painting, distilling it down to the essential colors, and then PACKING!

Black, denim, olive, and BRIGHT golden yellow! She doesn't want to work very hard getting dressed, but she's okay with people noticing her...

It's just for a long weekend... She's going to plan outfits for each day, although she won't necessarily wear every outfit. She just doesn't want to have to work; she's done quite enough work, spending so much time indoors...

Her travel wardrobe is dark, and a bit intense. That's just exactly what she wants - no worry about spilling things, no worry about putting together outfits "on the fly," and no having to shop ... View the Post

Revisiting A Start with Art: Winter Scene in Moonlight by Henry Farrer

A couple of my friends have asked me to revisit this color palette for spring and early summer - that transition time of year! It's not quite right for this snowy day in Chicago, but it's a beautiful daydream...

We first saw this heroine when she went on vacation at the farmhouse, in the dead of winter! Her wardrobe was then expanded into a true 16-piece "Four by Four" wardrobe. And THEN, our heroine added on some essential accessories to make this a more complete winter wardrobe...

Now, the weather is warming up at the farm - the tenant farming the land told her that she was seeing crocus and some daffodil sprouts! She's got to go up and investigate.

This is the painting that inspires her color palette:

It's a lovely spring ... View the Post

Start with Art: Ida Rubenstein by Romaine Brooks, or the Power of 5-Garment Clusters

July 31, 2019

She loves to travel alone....

She carries her own luggage, thank you! And she can lift her bag into the overhead bin, too. It's a point of personal satisfaction that she's strong enough to be self-sufficient... (it's an accomplishment to hold onto as long as possible, isn't it?)

In the course of planning what to pack, she grew to see that working in clusters of 5 garments would be easy to sort out in her head, and also gives her plenty of outfit possibilities! The right 5 garments can translate into 8 outfits...

It's not that she plans to travel forever, and must never EVER repeat an outfit; that's kind of silly...

But what if something is stranded at the laundry? What if the weather gets ... View the Post

Start with a Bracelet – The June denim blue and golden brown bracelet from Fierce Lynx Designs!

They've rented their favorite cottage for the week of her birthday. They swear that they're going to take care of everything and that all she needs to do is relax and enjoy herself...

She's going to make getting dressed for the week as painless as possible, starting here!

Her color palette is going to be the simplest possible - positively foolproof!

She stands by her closet for a moment, and then quickly grabs four chambray garments. She loves her dress for those times when wants to feel "dressy" but in a casual way - nobody understands this but her! And her cropped pants and top match, so they look somewhat like a jumpsuit when worn together...

Most people might not pack a cashmere sweater for a June trip, but she ... View the Post

Start with Art: Tete Blanche et Rose by Henri Matisse

Ride up With Me! "I'm going up to the beach house for the weekend - I'm going to drive, so you can just go with me!"

Her wardrobe palette is deeply invested in black, but for this weekend she eschewing the dark, and going straight-up pastels!

So she tossed her bag into the back seat...

She was expecting the air conditioning to be on full blast, so she pulled a shirt on over her tank top...

She doesn't expect to swim all that much, but she takes her suit along just in case! She does plan to walk along the beach a lot, so water shoes are definitely in the bag...

Generally, at least some people go out for a meal or two, or they go into town to buy groceries and browse around... She makes sure that she ... View the Post

Start with Art: Farm near Duivendrecht by Piet Mondrian

May 29, 2019

Her farmhouse doesn't look quite like this...

Gradually... Since she inherited the farm, she's been trying to decide what to do... She rents the fields - she's NOT going to start farming when she retires!

But she is going to live there. Starting just before the end of the year - she will be there by Christmas! There's so much hiking, bird-watching, and just general relaxing there...

She has committed to work through the middle of December, but she wants to start moving NOW, and she has a fairly excellent idea. Why not take things up to the house every time she visits? Some winter clothes, some bedding, some books... If she takes a car-load every visit - say maybe 9 times before the final move - she will save ... View the Post

10 Ways to Wear a Denim (or Chambray) Shirt

I prefer chambray - it's more "shirt weight" fabric, but if you can find a lovely denim shirt, grab it! It should last forever... Might take a while to break in, but worth the effort, I'd say.

This shirt seems pretty versatile. If I could find one without chest pockets, I'd be happier, but sometimes, one must compromise just a bit, right?

I have a few thoughts about what to keep in mind when you get one of these shirts. These are, of course, just guidelines! But as I often suggest, simpler is better...

One of the easiest ways to wear this shirt is to pull it on like a jacket on cool evenings...

Maybe you feel TOO dressy? Or a cool breeze kicks up? Picture this shirt tied at the waist over this lovely ... View the Post

10 Ways to Wear a Denim Jacket

When I was younger, I seldom wore a denim jacket; I had one that had belonged to my husband, but it got donated somewhere along the line... For so many years, I wore suits or suit-y clothes that were too dressy to wear with a denim jacket (I thought).

But about 6 months ago, I bought myself this jacket, and I've been so happy with it...

It's deliberately built to be roomy, which I personally love - I might very well want to pile on a shirt and heavy sweater under here, and I don't want to tear the sleeves off of my jacket trying to get it on!

I tried to think of what good guidelines might be to choosing a versatile and timeless denim jacket:

Fast forward to someone asking me last week if it was okay to wear a denim ... View the Post

Start with Art: From the Lake by Georgia O’Keeffe

March 9, 2019

Planning a wardrobe with mostly neutrals doesn't mean that your wardrobe will be predictable...

Let's start with this most wonderful painting:

It's pretty simple - we can start with the same neutral clothes that we used a few days ago...

Ah, but the accent pieces are quite different. One of the neat things here is that this heroine could have 5 neutrals... the brown and the grey would both be excellent secondary wardrobe neutrals, don't you think?

This wardrobe feels very different to me than the earlier version with bright accents:

I've kept the silver earrings, and then added in brown and aqua...

Same with the bracelets - her neutrals are still perfect for her wardrobe, but ... View the Post