ivory Archives - Page 2 of 9

Start with a Sweater: Sailcloth Fair Isle sweater from L.L.Bean

September 22, 2021

It wasn't a complicated request, but it has someone stumped: "Can I build a small wardrobe for going back to my office, using this sweater as the inspiration?"

My answer to most questions: Heck yes!

First things first - what colors are in this sweater, anyway?

A pretty straightforward color palette!

Let's start with a couple of outfits that our friend had in mind, and then a couple more that I imagined. You know that I'm always going to find a pair of ivory corduroy pants if at all possible:

Our friend very much wanted a light blue shirt - and I was able to find one that seems to be very close to the same shade as found in her sweater!

I love a grey shirt - I can't explain it at all! ... View the Post

Start With Art: Dance Dance by Jacqueline Osborn

April 14, 2021

She's Been Cold... for over a year. Not really physically cold, so much as missing the "chaleur humaine" - the human warmth of society...

So when she knew that she was going to finally go on vacation, this was her heart's desire:

okay, just feel free to pause right here and go admire this artist's work - I will forever be grateful to readers who send me links to new artists!

After a year of stress and tension, she's determined to be in complete control of her travel wardrobe! She decides that a "one piece at a time" approach to packing will suit her just fine...

After she gets that essential 2nd top in her bag, she starts with the easiest of packing - a dress!

She knows that she will be ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Tiger in the Grass by Echo

December 16, 2020 Channeling her Inner Tiger This is her new favorite scarf:

She loves the colors, and the image of the tiger...

The tiger is going to be VERY important to her during the next couple of days; she's going to have to be quite... tough? Assertive? Imposing?

Suffice to say that she might encounter some acrimony, and she's going to have to stand up for herself!

She's only going to be there 2 days, possibly 3. But during that time, she is going to use all of the tools and resources available to her to represent herself as strong, capable, and decisive!

The night before she leaves, she grabs her tiger scarf and assembles a travel capsule wardrobe that is perfect with it. Sometimes she's more the ... View the Post

Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe – Start with Art: White Peacock & Blue Delphinium by Jessie Arms Botke

September 21, 2020

I found this painting last week when my arms were killing me - I thought I'd find some whimsical painting that had lots of ARMS in it...

But this artist's middle name came up in my search!

What good luck is that? I'm Wearing White ALL Weekend...

The possible color combinations are many - I could easily have looked at that intense green at the top, or the deep brown of the branch...

But this particular heroine is being rebelliously dressy, so this is her palette:

They're all driving in from all around the region for the 100th anniversary of the Aviary. Her great-grandparents founded it, and it's still going strong!

There won't be any big festivities - just a special weekend for visitors, and a ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Camel and Olive Green Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 16, 2020 She's NOT Happy... Business travel? NOW? Yes, she's got to go. No, her employer won't compromise. She very nearly quits... Especially when she learns that the weather where she's going is decidedly cool...

But they've said that she can fly 1st Class, and eat room service, and have any laundry or other services that she needs for her comfort...

So she starts here:

And then she pulls from her closet a tidy core for her travel wardrobe. A tidy, VERY "prone to need to be laundered frequently" core...

She will probably only need to dress really "up" once, so she's going to need a balance of casual and dressy. She pulls her scarves out of her dresser drawer and spreads them out on the bed, and then starts to ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Working from Home with a Ferragamo Scarf

April 14, 2020 Daily Teleconferences... She's sick of them, frankly. But they're going to be the way business is conducted, for at least a while! And she knows that, even from home, she should try to look like she's in control, and in charge, and the boss...

So she went crazy and spent all of the coffee and lunch money that she hasn't spent for the last while:

This scarf will be perfect with just about anything that she's wearing these days - denim, black, and ivory. And those delicious hints of plum that she can't find right now, but when she has to go back to her office, she's going to treat herself (again!) to a couple of lovely things...

Most days she's been dressed like this:

And so she assembled another ... View the Post

Start with Art: Building a Travel Capsule Wardrobe from Rising Green by Lee Krasner

April 7, 2020

She's feeling... exuberant...

Now that she's free to travel again, she's going to do things differently. She's had so much time to plan, and she's going to be so much more organized!

This is her color palette:

She's not going to be reckless - she's still wearing her compression socks, and waterproof loafers. But she's finally going to start wearing the scarves that have been living in a dresser drawer for ages...

Before, she would NEVER have considered packing pants that were lighter than dark navy. She wouldn't have consigned lovely scarves to a suitcase, nor would she have traveled with cashmere sweaters.

Now, she realizes that life is for living, and the things that we own are for using ... View the Post

Start with Art: Building a Travel Capsule Wardrobe based on Mountains and Sea by Helen Frankenthaler

March 24, 2020

I think we're going to have an art week; art transcends all things...

It's Truly Summer... Now that she's free to travel again, she's going to get on the train and go someplace she's never been. She randomly chose a train stop, and now she's spending a long weekend in a small city she's never visited!

She's decided that she wants to feel summery, and light, and free...

Everything won't go together perfectly. Things will get dirty. She doesn't really mind; laundry can be done, outfits can be repeated, and she's okay with this. She knows what's important...

She packs her favorite things, and she's going to be perfectly delighted with her travel wardrobe:

Once she checks her plans for the ... View the Post

Start with Art: Building a Travel Capsule Wardrobe based on Icebound by John Henry Twachtman

March 20, 2020

The first day of Spring! And our anniversary...

Quite Enough Solitude, Thank You... Now that they're free to travel again, they're making plans...

Their favorite apartment in their favorite city is available for a few days, and they are OFF!

No more wearing sensible sweatpants and warm shirts while working from home. No more being sensible PERIOD, for a while....

They've walked miles every evening in their neighborhood; they've exhausted pretty much any avenue of exploration left to them! Now, in their favorite city, they're going to go down every alley, every turn that seems uninteresting, any corner that appears to lead to a dead end...

This will eat out - of COURSE they will! But they will ... View the Post

I Love IT, but Will I Wear IT? Ivory Cardigan

January 24, 2020

I was despairing of what I was going to post, when I got an email asking about a cardigan of a different color! I'm so grateful for you all...

My heroine didn't tell me what her favorite neutral is, so yet again I'm going to experiment with this sweater worn with a handful of neutral colors. There's pretty much no color that this wouldn't go with; I might hesitate about wearing it with pure white, but then again...

I love the way ivory looks with chambray - it makes it feel sort of dressed up. Definitely not the way denim colors usually look!

I like ivory and grey together - they're both softly muted... The scarf actually looks a lot better tied than it does laying out flat, but I couldn't find a ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – January

January 10, 2020

Time for another great bracelet! This is a special thought for all of you who love brown and all warm colors...

That little touch of the rust in the beads is lovely...

Just a Small Change of Habit... She quit buying coffee during the day at work. There was never any good reason to go downstairs and wait for coffee, when there's a perfectly decent coffee maker just down the hall. But SO many people used coffee as an excuse to be out of their office for 20 minutes, and it never occurred to her that it wasn't a good idea...

'Til she looked at her monthly expenditures! A couple of months of "office coffee" and she could take a long weekend someplace... warmer. Not necessarily beachy, but somewhere that was ... View the Post

Start with Art: A Holiday Rebel Six-Pack with Azalea Garden by Patrick Heron

November 27, 2019

Their Calendar...

They both work on computers, so when they have something to schedule, they put the event onto a computer calendar that they share...

One of them decided to glance ahead to December, just to see what was planned... And realized that, between them, they had committed to attend FIVE different events in a 3-day period. All of them downtown.

The obvious answer? A hotel room, some late mornings with room service, and a tidy holiday travel capsule wardrobe with NO black velvet (this woman is a heretic, in my world!), nothing red, and nothing green.

Red and green really aren't her colors, and standing out in a crowd of friends makes her happy...

I personally can't ... View the Post