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Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Hermes scarf Archives - Page 9 of 13

Four Pack Travel Capsule Wardrobe: Green and Camel

December 20, 2014   One last look at this idea - substituting green for the burgundy with which this travel capsule wardrobe was originally presented. Other colors that would work well with camel would include rust, coral, peach, other shades of green, pretty much a whole bunch of shades of blue... lots of choices!  

 

I think by now we've all figured out that these four garments would get you through 3 or 4 days pretty easily...

 

love,

Janice     Looking back:2013: From Desk to Dinner Party: Incorporating a Gem Tone into Neutrals 2012: Two sides of the whole "color" system question ... View the Post

Choosing a Scarf to Wear with Navy

December 16, 2014  

I happen to know for a fact that one of you will buy this design scarf for yourself for the holidays, and that you are struggling to decide which color you want. I further know that your wardrobe is basically navy, so I thought I'd play around a little bit with some ensembles to show what kinds of other preferences you have that might help make the choice clearer.   First up, the most lovely Hermes Ors Bleus d'Afrique - the Blue Gold of Africa. That refers to indigo, which was commonly used in textiles of this type.  

And I picked a couple of outfits - very simple - in order to create a base for my ideas.  

First up, this scarf cries out to have the rich browns emphasized and ... View the Post

Scarves for All Seasons

December 4, 2014  

Since we had so much fun yesterday thinking about our "official" or self-determined seasonal palettes, I thought I'd pursue the idea a bit more today.   While I've been quite lucky to have been told by trained color evaluations that I'm wearing the right colors, I can easily sympathize with those who get conflicting advice, or who like other colors. Ultimately, I really believe that the happiness that you radiate from wearing colors that you love will overshadow any possible lack of compatibility between you and the garment. That's just a fancy way of saying that you should wear what you want, and you'll radiate loveliness just from being happy.   Your mileage may vary, of ... View the Post

Hermes Knotting Cards – Today’s Monday Morning Giveaway!

Leave me a message telling us all about your very favorite winter holiday food indulgence (remember, this ranges all the way from Thanksgiving through Valentine's Day - my definition of winter holiday is VERY generous...) to be entered to win these knotting cards! I'll let you know next Monday who the luck winner is.  Don't need knotting cards? These would be an excellent candidate for "regifting", you know.

ANYBODY, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD CAN WIN THIS - I WILL SHIP IT TO YOU!

Still sealed, so I can't honestly tell you what the cards will be like, but I know that they can be a source of inspiration for a new way to tie your scarves (not just for Hermes, of course!), or they can be a source of laughter when they suggest wearing a scarf ... View the Post

#2 How to Choose an Hermes Scarf: Sous l’Egide de Mars

November 12, 2014   Yesterday's post was so much fun that I thought I'd take another pass through this idea: building little outfit vignettes in order to facilitate making an expensive and/or important personal style purchase.  These ensembles here don't necessarily have to be about buying a scarf - I'm thinking of undertaking this exercise for the purchase of winter coats too...   This scarf is called "Sous l'Egide de Mars", which means (more or less) under the aegis of Mars.  It's lots of pieces of armor, as near as I can tell, and thus is all about war.  Still a madly pretty piece of work, as their scarves always are.  

  As always with me, I'm starting with a simple outfit in a solid ... View the Post

How to Choose an Hermes Scarf: Le Songe a la Licorne

November 11, 2014  

This isn't a question I get every day: a reader has decided that she wants to buy this particular design of Hermes scarf - Le Songe a la Licorne. (it means the dream of the unicorn - I have no idea why...) She stated that she wears a lot of camel/tan/beige, and was leaning toward a winter coat in either blue or rose. Whew...  

  But this is really an interesting question - how DO you choose from among a variety of colors (for anything, not just an Hermes scarf), when there's a wide variety available?   My suggestion is that you think about what the other items AROUND the potential purchase might look like. Do you already own the jewelry, or shoes, or whatever, that will make the outfit ... View the Post

Start With Art: Are you More Renoir or Laurencin?

November 10, 2014   Two of my favorite artists, and two subtly different approaches to the feeling of romance and femininity. Renoir is very traditionally (late 19th century) soft, ruffly, dainty floraly kind of feminine. Laurencin, very much like Chanel who is the subject of this painting, gives us a little bit sleeker vision of womanly grace and beauty.  

How do these subtle differences translate into your personal style - your choices of accessories and garments? Both are beautiful and appealing, but there are substantial differences, if we study the paintings long enough. These were some of my thoughts:

For jewelry, Renoir art gives me the feeling of delicate, carefully jeweled pieces with a lot of detail, and a ... View the Post

Travel Capsule Wardrobe Packing with Scarves: Les Ailes de la Soie, or difficult colors

November 1, 2014   What to do? You have a wonderful wardrobe of cool neutral colors of charcoal, slate, silvery blue and ivory. But you fall irrevocably in love with a scarf that has some really pronounced warm colors in it; how can it be worn?  

 

Happily, this scarf includes lots of cool tones too - this is the color scheme I pulled together from this beautiful thing...  

  So the lacy wings of the butterflies in the scarf put me in a lacy sort of mood - this coat, scarf and bag all echo the lace motif without being overwhelmingly girly. I balanced them with a really simple ivory sweater and grey trousers, as well as simple black boots.  

In the bag are some soft garments, in ... View the Post

Choosing a Scarf: A Black and White Hermes

June 5, 2014  

It was a great question - thanks for sending it on - "I want an Hermes scarf in black and white, but there are SO MANY of them - how do I choose?"  

Note that she also let me know that she's pretty committed to a strict black and white wardrobe...

I've chosen these six scarves to use as our possible purchases. I strongly encourage you to click through and admire the details on these scarves if you have the time. There's a reason that these scarves are so terribly expensive - they are exquisite.

For illustrative purposes, I'm going to use a couple of simple outfits - a very neutral black dress, and a white silk blouse and black silk pants.

The first scarf, Fleurs et Papillons de Tissus, ... View the Post

Choosing a Scarf: Hermes in Orange

May 24, 2014  

 About a year go, I wrote a pretty popular post about how to isolate the perfect scarf from among a range of similar items. My thesis is that your new purchase should feel as if it's coming home to be among it's relatives...

Someone sent me a question - they love this particular scarf design, and they've got a few orange garments. But how do you make the final choice?

You've got garments kind of like this to wear with the scarf that you finally choose.

 

  Are you fond of the high contrast between the orange and cooler tones of greens and blues?

Or is the base of your wardrobe mostly subtle beige and ivory tones?

  Maybe you love orange because you love ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting With a “Difficult” Scarf: Sepia and Light Grey

January 24, 2014   One of my friends asked me specifically to suggest some ways to wear this scarf - Musique des Spheres, from Hermes. The scarf came out... at least 10 years ago? And thus is only available on the secondary market, but as you can clearly see, it's a stunner. There is NOT a pink patch in the upper left corner... I struggled to find the best image of this scarf I could, and this was what I found.   Identifying the adjectives that convey the aesthetic of this scarf is difficult - I had to think and study for quite a while. But I found that I kept coming back to the ideas of contrast (the clarity of the lines against the background), balanced with an overall sense of muted coloring (the scarf is not pure white, ... View the Post

Start With a “Difficult” Scarf: Black and White

January 22, 2014   This scarf, currently available from Hermes, is incredibly beautiful - much more interesting in person than any photograph can do justice...  

  But it's easy to see how you could fall into the routine of wearing this scarf pretty much exclusively with black and white garments - it just seems reasonable.  So I'm proposing a mental "reframing" of the scarf that might expand your comfort zone with it...   First off, think of the adjectives that characterize the unique beauty and appeal of this scarf.  To me, this scarf is clear, graphic, and linear.  This gives you a basis upon which to think about the sort of outfits that might benefit from the addition of this ... View the Post