navy Archives - Page 31 of 46

Building a CONSERVATIVE BUSINESS Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 23, 2015

One last visit with our friend who spent so many years taking care of her family...

A Well-Deserved Move Up... She put her head down, learned everything she could, pitched in wherever she was needed, and became more productive and more indispensable every day. She didn't complain about menial tasks, nor repetitious projects. She was pleasant but not ingratiating, helpful but not servile, and intelligent without making anyone want to whap her in the head. She was, in short, a dream employee.

Of course she was - she was mature enough to know what really matters!

So one day, when the manager wanted to talk to her, she had no concerns that she was in trouble for something.

And in fact, it was ... View the Post

Building a BUSINESS CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 22, 2015

Let's come back to this great painting and color scheme, and see what our wonderful care-giver is up to...

A Shift of Focus As time passed, our care giver discovered that her responsibilities gradually diminished. Her parents were in a facility that gave them the kind of attention they deserved, after their life of work and service. Her children were grown and starting their own lives as adults. And her husband - like all of the best life partners - only wanted for her to be happy and fulfilled.

So she decided to get a job...

First thing was to make sure she had something interview-worthy, so she found a navy skirt that she could wear with her navy blazer. While the fabrics are very ... View the Post

Building a CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 21, 2015 I love this painting; it lives just down the street from me at the Art Institute of Chicago. Severini isn't well-known, and I think that's a shame - his Cubist works are lovely...

This painting lends itself to a color scheme firmly grounded in versatile neutrals, but sparked with some extraordinary accent colors. In addition to the pink and blue that I've chosen, you've got some beautiful yellow, a hint of true red, and some aqua too!

Care-giving as Art She took care of them all - children, spouse, parents, neighbors, and never missed a beat...

And she always looked lovely while doing so! Never over-done or fussy, and ALWAYS appropriate to the occasion and the activities. But ... View the Post

Whatever’s Clean 13 FOR MEN – cool colors, warm weather

I particularly love working with menswear - their garments are so beautifully designed and well made that it's gratifying to put things together into outfits...For a warm weather trip, I'm still including a blazer, cardigan and sweatshirt. Maybe it's from living in Chicago, but I find that there's no destination that doesn't, from time to time, require something warm. At a minimum, the blazer or cardigan comes in handy when you want to be more "dressed" for some activities. And if you never actually need your sweatshirt, that's good!

This starts out like any other menswear wardrobe, but the blazer is cotton, and unstructured (i.e. unlined, but still meticulously finished inside.) The trousers are linen, and the tie is a lighter-weight ... View the Post

Whatever’s Clean 13 FOR MEN – cool colors, cool weather

September 14, 2015

You asked for it, you get it: a Whatever's Clean 13 for men - the first of at least a couple...

Menswear is SO EASY; pick a color scheme and stick to it like glue! I've sold menswear two different times, as well as selling men's shoes, so I can safely admit that I have some experience in this area...

First up, the finished product, designed to carry you through a vacation that will range from rather nice dinners and other events (a concert or opera?) through to a cool weather morning walk in the park.

I started with a navy blazer, just as I would start with one for almost any man building a wardrobe from scratch. While a lot of men can get through life without a suit, in this day and age, a ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Light, Earth and Blue by Mark Rothko

August 27, 2015

A very special request! This is such an interesting color combination - distinctive, but calm and very grounded in nature. The woman who wears this is going to be very special...

Although the obvious neutrals here are olive green and navy, I gave each color equal weight in the color scheme to reflect the balance that I see in the painting. Your view may differ!

She Just has An Eye... Nobody else seems to ever get sent to the auctions - especially the big ones in Europe. But, in all fairness, after she found that Jasper Johns that NOBODY else believed to be authentic, nobody else can realistically expect to go. When it comes to spotting the overlooked gem in the market, nobody is her ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Chapter 2 of Still Life with Apples by Henri Matisse

August 18, 2015 The prequel is here. The morning after the board meeting, they called her into the Manager's office for a conversation... An hour later, she was the first, and only, Commercial Relationship Coordinator in the entire company. It is a position with a somewhat nebulous job description, but one which is going to be PERFECT for showing her diplomatic skills to their best advantage! Remember, this was her work wardrobe:

Which was based on this painting and color scheme:

She finally felt that this was the right time to break out a new, and heretofore unseen, facet of her personality. Within her there was a brightness, and a strength, which she had downplayed in the ... View the Post

Accent Colors for Fall 2015

August 10, 2015

You remember these guys, right? They're the colors that Pantone assured us would be the BIG colors for this fall and winter.Well, I've seen a lot of Marsala in the windows at Ferragamo. Other than that, I can't say that, in my hours and hours spent each day looking at clothing and accessories, I have seen any of these in large quantities. And for what it's worth, I had to do some serious hard-core digging to find some of the goodies shown below.

I think we can conclude that Pantone's either not as accurate as they would like to be, or that the market is much less dependent upon their advice than they once were. This is a real annoyance if you fell madly in love with one of the colors that was supposed to be ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Still Life with Apples by Henri Matisse

August 5, 2015 As soon as I saw this painting, I knew we were going to have some fun. I really admire the juxtaposition of the very traditional navy and grey with the striking, almost shocking, colors of the apples. That Matisse knew what he was doing...

If I were to expand this wardrobe further, I would pull in more shades of grey, and a wider range of blues... so many possibilities just from this limited palette.

Just the slightest suggest of unplumbed depths...

The subject of her came up before the Director's meeting started. It wasn't anything that they could actually put their finger on; they agreed that nobody in the room had ever even seen her knees!

She was always ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting With Art: The Boating Party, by Mary Cassatt

August 1, 2015 "Mom wants us all to come down for the Regatta... I know we said that after the kids quit sailing we wouldn't go, but I think it would really mean a lot to my mother." Well, that's a loaded invitation, isn't it? But that's okay, you know she misses her only child, and that she cherishes her memories of Regattas from years past... "Of course we can go. I'm assuming that we'll be there for the entire week?"

yes, you're a saint...

While navy isn't the color that covers the most area of this painting, it's definitely the "anchor" ***cough, cough*** color here.

Same thing with white - especially when you're thinking nautical, ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Rose Garden by Ute Laum

July 29, 2015

I am really glad that I asked you all to send me painting suggestions - otherwise, I would never have seen this gorgeous thing!

The Rose Garden by Ute Laum is an example of a painting in which the camel/cognac plays a very small, but absolutely essential, role. None of the other colors would have nearly the same impact if the golden touches were missing.

Today, I'm sorry there's no story, but I've received so many requests for travel wardrobes that I feel like I should address the overall logic or philosophy of putting together a travel capsule wardrobe. There's probably no way that I'm ever going to be able to answer all of the travel questions I receive, so I think an overview of how I think about travel ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Edith and the Kingpin by Jack Vettriano

July 28, 2015

"Edith," they told me, "make sure you rest when you're at that beach resort, and get your health back."

"Uh huh..."

I never go swimming within an hour of having a meal, so when the luncheon salon closed, I went over to sit on the window seat in the lounge, to watch the activities outdoors. I hadn't been there more than a minute when he sat down next to me.

He was really quite familiar, especially since we hadn't been introduced! But he knew the names of absolutely everyone staying at the resort, and he told the funniest little stories about each of them...

His conduct was far from gentlemanly; he kept his hat on (Father would have been appalled) and he was wearing those funny two-toned shoes that ... View the Post