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Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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What If I Only Want to Wear Solid Colors?

June 14, 2014  

What if you don't WANT to wear printed garments, or scarves? More power to you, and congratulations for knowing what you really prefer! I'm going to recommend some coordinating small solid earrings in semi-precious stones, bracelets in enamel or stone, and solid scarves to keep your ensembles looking "intentional."  I'm not sure, but I think this could qualify as a "whatever's clean" wardrobe...

Starting with the dark neutrals we've seen before:

And then the light neutrals:

And some solid neutral tops:

Finally, the accent colors.  We haven't seen pastels for a while, so let's go pink and blue!

This is your sixteen-piece wardrobe:

Plenty of ways to pull this together ... View the Post

Neutral Accessories: Shoes Part 2

May 16, 2014   This is the second half of the Neutral Accessories: Shoes post that I started yesterday.   Although I'm trying to show all of the 14 neutral colors that I've included in my Combination of 3 Neutrals document,  I chose put both of the shades of grey together.  Similarly, I've put natural and khaki together... In both of these cases, the number of items available are so small that it didn't make sense to break them into separate listings!    

 

love,

Janice   Looking Back:

  2012 - one of my favorite paintings of all time - I got to Start with Art: Monet Water Lilies.   2013 - Sometimes I need to be reminded of my Project ... View the Post

What Shoes Can I Wear with Navy Clothes?

April 25, 2014   It's a question that comes up often - what are the best shoes to wear with navy clothes?   Well, men have, for generations, worn black shoes.  Nobody would expect them to wear anything different; navy shoes worn with a navy suit would be inappropriate for most men in most business settings. I've never felt that there was anything wrong with women doing exactly the same thing...   Or you can thrown yourself into the project of finding navy shoes that work with your clothes. Generally speaking, I think this means looking for about the darkest navy you can find that doesn't look like black. But then you've got to make sure that you keep your shoes together and that they don't migrate into your black ... View the Post

Navy and Beige with Coral and Sun

April 24, 2014   Warm accent colors with navy and beige?  Absolutely!  

I've changed up the cardigan again - this one is a splurge and a half, but the navy and coral are beautifully presented here:

And just to show some other possible choices, I've picked out a new skirt and a pair of outrageous summer pants.  I personally would wear these pants in a heartbeat, but your mileage may vary!

This gives you this 24-piece wardrobe; isn't it fascinating how changing just a few of the garments makes so much difference in the overall feel of the ensemble?

As always, lots of possible ways to wear these - from the most casual, to reasonably dressy activities.

  love, Janice ... View the Post

Navy and Beige Wardrobe gets the (Turquoise and Periwinkle) Blues

April 23, 2014  

Many of you mentioned mixing shades of blue with your navy and beige, citing the always beautiful suggestion that this reminds you of the sand and the sea. How can anybody make this happen?  

  Say this is your summer shopping - these are the accent colors that you use, rather than the red and green that I used earlier.  So your color scheme is this:  

  In addition to changing out the accent colors, I'm going to make two simple changes to the original core wardrobe.  First, I want to include a floral sweater that does justice to our chosen accent colors:    

  and I'm swapping out the patterned skirt from earlier for a solid navy skirt with a ... View the Post

Leveraging the Floral Trend: 1= 20

April 22, 2014

Once more, let's visit this beige and navy spring and summer wardrobe.   You're happy with this wardrobe - it provides appropriate and attractive options for pretty much every event in your life.  But you decide that you WANT something floral, just to participate in a current trend.  You love flowers.  You want a new tee shirt.  You just plain want to shop!   Keeping your color scheme in mind - either through carrying around some skeins of embroidery floss, or a photograph of your closet, or whatever mnemonic works best for you:  

  You stumble across this beauty in your shopping:  

    All your colors.  Floral.  It seems perfect... ... View the Post

More Wardrobe Leverage: 3 = 30

April 19, 2014  

Let's say that you are the happy owner of the 24 piece wardrobe in navy and beige that we've looked at for the last two days...  And you decide that you want a little bit of brightness for spring!The only real thing you want to keep in mind while shopping is the degree to which anything new that you choose can be worn with your core pants and sweaters.  A scarf that includes your core colors, along with a couple of pretty accent colors, is a good place to start.  Pick up a pair of tee shirts in the accent colors, and you're on your way!

At first, these don't see to be a particularly compatible choice for your original wardrobe:

  But in ... View the Post

2 dozen = 12 dozen, at least

April 18, 2014  

I'm always intrigued by how many outfits you can pull together from a well-chosen capsule wardrobe, so after I built yesterday's ensemble, I started pulling together outfits, just out of curiosity...Remember, these were the 24 garments with which I started:

  There are almost certainly more possibilities here; I threw in the towel after I passed twelve dozen...  

love, Janice ... View the Post

A “Two Suit” Wardrobe in Navy and Beige

April 17, 2014   Another visit to this concept, keeping the beige linen (I'm SO lazy...) and using navy as our other neutral. I'm going to try to explain the steps for choosing these items in more detail, so that you can recreate what I do in your own closet.

 

Also, I want to address the question of having multiple pairs of dark neutral pants. Often, we're told that "you shouldn't own three pair of navy pants", but I heartily disagree, because of the wide variety of navy pants that you might own. In this particular example, I've included very narrow navy capris in a cotton fabric, a wide-legged trouser (full-length), and a silk-like palazzo pant. My feeling is that these three pants give three very different outfits when ... View the Post

Chic Sightings: Dots!

April 15, 2014   Now that it's snowed in Chicago, it feels strange to post the very warm-weather outfits that I saw over the weekend.  But spring WILL arrive - it always has...   This dress was amazingly attractive; while I don't in any way need more clothes, this would really tempt me!  

  The girl wearing these pants looked fabulous.  I think her legs were 4 feet long...  

  The tunic in the 2nd outfit was WAAAAY cuter in person than the photograph really conveys, and it looked tremendously comfortable too.  

  love, Janice ... View the Post

Warm Weather Travel in Navy and Coral – Step by Step

March 28, 2014  

Everybody's eager to start packing for warm weather destinations, and I'm often asked for specific color combinations - especially those with navy.  One of my most loyal readers asked me for navy, white and coral a while back, and I'm delighted to be able to finally fill her request.

 

The travel outfit is, as always, very uncomplicated.  Long pants, shoes with closed toes and heels, a cardigan, and a scarf are all essentials that I include.  

  If you're only going away for a long weekend, a six-pack will do.  Working with your three colors, you can choose six garments, a scarf and some accessories...  

  And you have all of these options to ... View the Post