khaki Archives

What Pants Go With my Warm Neutral Tops?

Last Friday, I sang a small serenade in praise of stone-color cotton pants, as a vehicle for getting more mileage out of a LOT of garments... And some of you asked - rightly - if they would work well with warmer colors...

Yes, but not as well as these:

I think that these pants will go with almost any other color, but I particularly wanted to see how they would work with these neutral colors...

Some are more successful than others - of course! - but I think that these pants are a good possibility if your wardrobe has some "orphaned" tops in warm shades...

These colors are perfect together:

If you're moving from cool colors - especially black - to warmer colors, these pants might help you transition some of your ... View the Post

I Want a Different Pair of Pants…

When you focus on a color palette for your clothes and accessories, you spend money smarter, and you have a much more versatile and coherent wardrobe. But sometimes you might want something... different? Some variety? A change of pace?

I'm feeling that way these days... I'm happy wearing blue jeans, black pants, and the occasional pair of white linen shorts... but what could I add to my wardrobe that might be practical and useful?

This color is called "stone," and is a relatively cool color... So I thought about what other neutral colors could be worn easily with a pair of pants in this color...

If you already have your core sweaters, tee shirt and other pieces in your neutral colors, these pants fit in pretty ... View the Post

A French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Blooming Dahlia

Maybe black and white isn't your thing... maybe now that warm weather is approaching, you're in the mood for LIGHT...

And maybe you're very casual. Not a scarf person. Really, VERY casual, relaxed, leisurely...

Maybe start with this:

You've got every kind of white top from sleeveless to long-sleeved, and everything to cover your legs a little, a bit more, or all the way! Layer on a sweater or a sweatshirt and you're good to go.

This is NOT boring.... this is subtle!

You're ready for an update, and a bit of an accent color for the upcoming warm weather. But nothing overly dressy - why buy things you won't wear? You can update just as easily with canvas shoes, tee shirts, and a fresh backpack...

Everything just looks a little ... View the Post

Another Wardrobe Disaster…

This is almost the same wardrobe that we saw back on February 7th; I've made a couple of changes so that our new "dilemma" is clear...

This is her starting wardrobe; there's nothing really WRONG here - they're all perfectly nice clothes, but she struggles, and often feels that she doesn't look... pretty...

So she goes through the same exercise that we've seen before - does she have the right general assortment of pieces? Yes, this seems fine...

Is it the colors? She feels in her gut that she's got a color "issue..." She's always been told that she was an Autumn, but the colors feel muddy and heavy to her... She's got blue eyes, and freckles, and she feels more... light? than the colors that are suggested for her...

She ... View the Post

My Casual Wardrobe is a Disaster….

She got really sick of the struggle - it wasn't like climbing Mount Everest, or building your own home by hand, but it was still a bother...

She has some things that she really likes, but just can't seem to get dressed for evenings or weekends...

This is approximately what she has right now:

What to do? Is the problem that she doesn't have enough of a particular "category" of clothes - not enough tee shirts? or sweaters?

Nope - her ratios are pretty good, and there are no glaring omissions. Is it a question of color?

Immediately, when we see that mass of warm green with some "outliers" of cool green that just don't blend in, we can start to see the issue...

And here's the gut-check moment - does she really prefer warmer colors? ... View the Post

“Fixing” a Wardrobe that Just Doesn’t Feel Right…

She's worn navy forever, and really, legitimately loves it. She also really feels comfortable with bright colors - she doesn't mind the high contrast. But, for some reason she can't quite put her finger on, she's not quite "right" with her wardrobe...

This is what's she's got for spring:

She really doesn't know what to do to feel more comfortable with these pieces, so she just started getting dressed as normal, but changing 2 small things:

She pulls out and wears what she really "feels" like wearing, rather than trying to carefully rotate everything in her wardrobe. If she focuses on what she most likes, it might help her learn something, and She keeps careful track of what she wears.

After three weeks, she sorts things out based on ... View the Post

Does Your Wardrobe Work for You? Some Ideas for Figuring Out What You Need…

December 18, 2017

Friday we looked at the first three of the "12 Months, 12 Outfits" final wardrobes, and found some interesting "holes" in the wardrobes... I'm interested to see how the second 3 wardrobes look, when evaluated through a series of arbitrary, but not worthless, criteria.

This was the 4th wardrobe - a pretty challenging one to assemble, because olive green isn't the most common color in the world, and orange is every bit as difficult to find!

As has been true for all of the wardrobes, this wardrobe has a LOT of bottoms - an issue inherent in building a wardrobe through outfits. The learning here might be that a few more tops, and maybe another 2nd layer, would be useful additions...

This ... View the Post

Do Accessories Really Make a Difference?

December 4, 2017

I think you already know my answer to this one! But let's revisit the Van Gogh seascape, and the 4 by 4 Wardrobe for cooler weather that we based upon the colors and overall style of that painting:

I didn't actually try to figure out how many outfits are possible from these 16 garments, but I'm pretty comfortable asserting that there are at least a couple dozen... Some will have a "balance" that you like more than others, but it would in theory be really tough to put together an outfit that was completely unacceptable to the general public!

To show how much accessories can add to this wardrobe, I've put together 10 outfits - 2 for each of the "bottoms." I've made the clothes somewhat small, and the ... View the Post

What are Good Accent Colors for Denim and Khaki? How about Teal and Camel?

June 26, 2017

Denim and khaki go with everything - I'm convinced! - but some of you wanted to see a capsule wardrobe with a very different feel than the relatively soft and cool pastel version that used mauve pink and dark pastel blue...

How about this for colors?

I don't have any really exotic travel vision for this heroine - she's more someone who wears a uniform most of the time, and only needs a relatively small wardrobe to accommodate her "not work" activities outside of her home.

So I'm starting with the six neutral pieces that were in last Monday's wardrobe, and I finally grabbed a pair of dark navy loafers for her. (although with brown in a wardrobe, don't discount the gorgeousness of beautiful brown ... View the Post

Four Ways to Wear Denim and Khaki in a Capsule Wardrobe – Start with Art!

April 4, 2017

So our four friends from last week are meeting up at their hometown, for a high school function that none of them really wants to attend, but which none of them can gracefully avoid!(You can meet these four - the landscape architect, the psychiatrist, the cake decorator, and the day care manager - on the earlier posts from last week...)

To keep themselves amused, they agreed that they were all going to pack the same core wardrobe, and coordinate what they wore to various functions, just for the heck of it! They were pretty certain that nobody would notice, and that was going to be part of the fun...

The first evening, when everyone arrived, there was a sort of informal get-together at the local pub, bar, restaurant, ... View the Post

How to Wear Denim and Khaki with a Variety of Accent Colors: Start with Art – Saint Bride by John Duncan

March 31, 2017

I love this painting... What a wealth of details, and vivid colors - plus being carried across the sea by angels sounds like a most privileged (and hard-earned) way to travel!

The range of accent color possibilities here is pretty vast, but I narrowed us down to just four:

She Really IS In Charge... Although you might find her sitting on the floor, happily coloring with a group of 4-year-olds...

Yep, she runs that HUGE day care facility. Inspections, regulations, paper work and MORE paper work...

If she's going to have time for the fun stuff, she's got to be meticulously organized:

Because she's ALL about the fun, especially when there are little children involved!

Happily, it's ... View the Post

How to Accent Khaki and Denim with Softer Colors – Start with Art: Hafen mit Segelschniffen by Paul Klee

Just plain pretty:

A wardrobe full of denim and khaki would still have a lovely feminine feeling with these accent colors!

She Builds Flowers All Day... ... using cake frosting! Some may think that this is just a routine grocery-store kind of job, but she loves it...

Just because her work is very temporary in lifespan doesn't mean that she can't be meticulous, and filled with pleasure at the sight of her finished products!

She's given quite a lot of freedom to choose her own color schemes and other design elements...

So she spends quite a bit of her spare time learning how to construct new flowers - if a customer wants a cake decorated with something specific like hydrangea, or lilacs, she can happily oblige!

Her love for ... View the Post