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January 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Sophisticated Lynx

January 15, 2021

Not sophisticated like swishing around a boudoir in a silk negligee and fluffy maribou-trimmed mules! (is that really sophisticated?)

Sophisticated as in appreciating subtle things. Quiet good taste. Details that set the excellent apart from the everyday...

Stones with soft color gradients, and subtle beaded trim:

The nuances of color are deeply hidden in the stones, revealing themselves only to the attentive observer:

In cold weather, a gentle touch of rose pink is so flattering... The right earrings and mask bring a feminine touch to a classic outfit:

I almost never show vintage pieces here, because only one of you can buy it, but I could NOT resist this most perfect of ... View the Post

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 a Scarf: Summer Palms Silk Square by Echo

January 11 2021 Feeling Summery in the Winter

Yes, the weather is cool, but she can still think about palm trees and warm breezes...

So she starts with a palm-printed scarf, and isolated the colors she loves:

Let's pause for a moment to think about the math behind a really efficient Six-Pack travel capsule wardrobe:

Well, enough of THAT technical stuff!

Her long weekend away is pretty casual - mostly family activities. But she still likes to look nice, and feel like she's made an effort!

Spills are possible. (both the liquid kind and the bodily tumbling onto the ground kind!)

Some relatives keep their homes... very warm, shall we say.

She's prepared!

If 1 or even 2 garments are soiled, torn, ... View the Post

Introducing A New Accent Color into an Established Wardrobe – The Visit by Marie Laurencin

January 6, 2021

A new year, and our heroine has decided to incorporate a new accent color into her (already pretty lovely, I'd say!) wardrobe:

If you'd like to look back at the earlier posts based upon this painting, they are:

April 29, 2020

May 8, 2020

September 11, 2020

January 4, 2021

Before she impulsively wanders off into the world of all things green, she pauses to collect and sort her current wardrobe. First up, her cardigans, dresses, and "bottoms." (I just don't love the term bottoms - someone suggest a useful alternative, please!)

Frankly, although this looks like the motherlode of grey pants, they're all very different fabrics, and at least a few different silhouettes...

Now, her ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting (AGAIN!) The Visit by Marie Laurencin

January 4, 2021

I get happy just TYPING 2021...

We've visited this lovely heroine a couple of times already, last Spring in the early days of working from home, and then later in the autumn when she had to take a road trip to sign some legal documents...

Now, she knows that she's going to be working from home for the rest of the winter (at least), and she wants to be organized. Spending time each morning thinking about what to wear is SUCH a waste of time, and she wants to stop doing it!

This is such an enigmatic painting, when you look at it - why is the woman on the wee balcony handing keys to the woman on the horse? Is she coming in to visit them? What is going on here? Can't she just get off her horse and come in? Or is 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

Choosing Accessories: Painterly Architectonic by Liubov Popova

December 7, 2020

Remember this most difficult group of colors?

Although it's a challenging work of art, it does include three easily-available neutral colors, and 2 really nice accent colors. Our heroine finalized her wardrobe with this, and it seems pretty practical:

But she wants, and needs, accessories! Let's accessorize a dozen outfits for her, and make some effort to use some things more than once. It would be sort of fun to have completely different accessories for each outfit, but that's not exactly practical...

First off, for those of us spending the majority of our time indoors, what's not to love about a pair of wool clogs? You could certainly dash to the mailbox, or around the block with the dog, wearing ... View the Post

Can You Build a Wardrobe with Colors that Clash? Start with Art: Painterly Architectonic by Liubov Popova

November 27, 2020 She Really Loves This Painting...

And she has all of these colors in her closet! So she figures that she will pull together her "Garde-Robe du Mois" (wardrobe of the month) for the end of November and the start of December based on this...

First, she's trying to figure out how often she will wear things, based on the "How Many Pieces of Clothing Should I Own?" worksheet.

She starts with 31 days - a longer month, perhaps.

And then, because she never leaves her home these days, she knows that she only wants to wear 1 outfit per day.

She will probably evenly split between 2 and 3 garment outfits.

And finally, she plays around with the "How many times do you want to wear each piece during your time ... View the Post

Start with Art: Adding Accessories – With My Back to the World by Agnes Martin

November 13, 2020

Friday the 13th, what might go wrong?

She's still craving calm, peace and quiet. There's quite enough upheaval in the world right now, without her adding to it!

So she finds a favorite painting, and isolates a color palette she loves:

And then she adds to her core Common Wardrobe of grey garments some accent things in each of the 3 colors; her wardrobe for the month looks like this:

In order to keep the peaceful organization of her closet growing and advancing, she decides to focus now on the accessories that she wants to wear with her wardrobe. So she chooses a number of outfits, accessorizes each of them (sort of like playing with dolls!) and then stores away all of the rest of her things for a few ... View the Post

Start with Art: With My Back to the World by Agnes Martin

November 6, 2020 Calm...

She wants accents for her wardrobe this month to be calm, relaxed and gentle - like this:

Her core wardrobe is grey - she loves it. She looks good in it, she likes the way it looks in her closet, and it just feels like her!

But this year, she wants a little bit of gentle color! And so she starts with yellow, including a skirt that might not be a perfect fit in her wardrobe, but which she chooses NOT to resist...

Sometimes, you have to break out a little bit!

The next color isn't at all easy to find! It doesn't make it any easier when it's called all KINDS of names - mineral blue, light turquoise, silver blue, aqua...

But she persists and is delighted:

She originally thought ... View the Post

Start with a Sweater: Boden Fair Isle Crewneck

October 23, 2020 I'm the ONLY Person Available?

She knows the answer... When the tech who works at the clinic finally took a few days off, there would have to be someone on-site in the data center, and there really isn't anyone else who knows how to repair things. ("Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?")

So she's going to suck it up and wear her new sweater! In fact, she's going to build her entire travel wardrobe around the colors of her sweater. Why not? She's going to either be in the data compound or quarantined in her room at the visitor's center...

She starts with 3 outfits that she knows she wants to take with her:

They've already seen snow, so she's wearing her serious boots for the ... View the Post

Start with Art: pink mineral by Elizabeth Magill

September 23, 2020

Oh my, did I find a new artist for us!

You're Going to WHAT??? Yes, she's going to the Oil Industry Convention thing... She's a mineralogist, but her big specialty is showing the damage that's done by fracking...

These guys, and they ARE mostly guys, don't love her...

Still, it's her responsibility to try to find a little bit of headway, an occasional conversation, that will keep environmental concerns visible in this crowd. It's not easy!

So she takes the soft power route...

Yes, her scarf is a breast cancer fund-raising item...

Happily, she only needs to dress up just a wee bit, for the dinner the last evening. The other 2 days are seminars, and LOTS of meeting and greeting types of ... View the Post