pastels Archives

April Travel: Start with Art – Madame Leon Clapisson by Renoir

Ah, our heroine the opera singer! Remember her from back in January?

She's not the star, but she channels her inner diva quite well!

Most of the time, she's in a costume, so she doesn't need to pack a lot... This week, she's off to her favorite city, to finish up the "regular" opera season with a role in 1 of her favorites. She's had a good season...

This is her inspiration, in so many ways!

She realized long ago that she's made to wear dresses and skirts! So she focuses on navy dresses, with cardigans, jewelry, and scarves to add that bit of drama and femininity that she loves so much... (she was BORN to be an opera singer...)

She loves working with such a neutral, almost predictable base in her wardrobe; it's sort ... View the Post

Do All of Your Accent Colors have to Work Together?

Until the last year or so, this is something that I wouldn't have brought to the blog - it would have just been something that was floating around in my brain, bugging me. But knowing how thoughtful and intelligent you are, I thought I'd share...

Yesterday, I was looking at the jerseys worn by the rugby team Stade Francais (yes, they're from Paris) and the colors in them got me to thinking...

It's important (at least my opinion!) to have a core wardrobe neutral color, and a handful of accent colors - typically including a light color for tee shirts and blouses. Having this palette of 5 (approximately) colors makes shopping and coordinating your wardrobe a ton easier.

But should your accent colors ALSO work together? Do they have ... View the Post

Fonds Marins by Lee Ungno – Inspiring a Start with Art Tote Bag Travel Wardrobe

They Keep Telling Her That She's an Iconoclast... But she likes to think that she just knows what she likes!

She likes black and white, and she likes pastels...

She likes linen shirts, untucked!

She loves scarves, and bracelets...

She likes to travel light...

She likes to carry a handbag in an unexpected color!

She's comfortable mixing pastel colors...

She's comfortable wearing multiple shades of blue...

But she would NEVER break an icon - they're works of art!

love, Janice ... View the Post

Shallow Deep by Wassily Kandinsky – Start with Art for a Travel Capsule Wardrobe

20 Sixth Graders in New York City... Yes, she's completely insane! (if she isn't, she will be by the end of the weekend...)

What's puzzling to all of the other teachers (and the parents!) is how she makes it all look so simple, and so much FUN...

She's always bright and cheery, in both her demeanor and her wardrobe... Comfortable, but still fun and appropriate.

Her clothes always have a touch of color that makes it easy to spot her in a crowd. In New York, that might be useful...

Nobody seems to notice what a tight system she has for her travel wardrobe...

Although they're only going to be there for 2 nights (2 REALLY long nights...), she likes to have plenty of options. Accidents will happen, especially with this ... View the Post

Can You Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe Around a Bracelet?

Of course you can! And our heroine here on "Financially Reckless Friday" is going to do just that. (really, I am going to settle on these posts on Wednesdays, I promise...)

It WAS Illegal... And they owe her a LOT of money. Now she has to fly back to the Federal Court Offices to sign the paperwork and pick up the check!

She decided to spend the weekend there, in order to take in a concert of a favorite violinist, so she felt that a bit of shopping might be in order; she certainly wants to be appropriately dressed for her legal encounter, and her other activities...

So she starts at Alexis Bittar, where she falls under the spell of a bracelet:

She can immediately see the possibilities - serious black so that she looks like a worthy ... View the Post

What Accent Colors go with Navy and Beige? I Have a Dozen Ideas!

Today's a holiday, but you get a blog post because I write these in advance - this was completely last Friday! So what I'm saying is that TOMORROW, you're just going to get something short and sweet about my holiday weekend...

It's probably the most common question I get in my email: How can I pick accent colors?

Couple that with lots of questions about the most versatile neutral colors, and I've got a lot to think about!

But I've got to admit that more and more, I'm beginning to suspect that starting with navy and beige in a wardrobe might be the very easiest choice. Only if you have the luxury of starting from scratch, of course, or if you're in a position to build a capsule wardrobe of over a dozen pieces for a season (plus ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Ted Baker’s Dreams Scope

She's so smitten with the scarf that she decided to plan her entire trip around the colors she found in it!

Every Year

They go back to the little town in which their wedding took place. For the most part, it's a very casual long weekend, spent walking around the lake, browsing in used bookstores, or maybe taking in an estate sale...

But every year, on Saturday evening of their weekend together, they go back to the place where they were married. And they repeat their vows...

This year, she's going to remind him that beautiful brides come at every age... love, Janice ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Study for the Muses by Brice Marden

This lives just down the street from me, at the Art Institute of Chicago. I'm quite taken with it:

I could have included all three accent colors, but I wanted to think about a small, long-weekend packing wardrobe, so I limited myself to these two glorious shades:

Off Season

"You can't go to the beach house NOW! You'll never be able to go outside..."

It is possible to dress warmly. And just because the calendar doesn't specify "beach" anywhere, doesn't meant that it's going to snow! The weather is often very lovely this time of year...

Yes, she seems rather feminine - pastels, round collars on her shirts, the whole "girly" 9 yards. But that doesn't mean that she's stupid!

"You're taking JEWELRY????"

Why yes, I ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Marguerite au Chat Noir by Henri Matisse

Yes, I saw this in Paris last week!

Aside from the charm and beauty of Marguerite, I was immediately attracted to the colors:

Quietly Rebellious

She seems like the most conventional of women. Very pretty, always very nicely dressed.

She's rather quiet, a bit shy, and well-suited to her work in the library...

And yes, she owns a cat!

BUT, every day, without exception, she breaks a rule that she was told countless times, as a child!

"You know, with a round face, you should NEVER wear a round neckline!"

But what if she LIKES her round face?

And what if she REALLY likes the way it looks in a round neckline? What if that became sort of a personal signature for her?

So, she rebels. Very ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories, 1 at a Time: Beige, Sage and Blush

Adding the accessories is fun - I'm going to do a few of these in a row, so we can all see the system, and the cumulative benefits that accrue when you get a nice core of accent pieces, growing bit by bit. Here's where this second "1 at a Time" started: (you can see the original wardrobe post here)

Shoes will ALWAYS be the first thing to make sure you have, for obvious reasons. It's entirely likely that you already have the shoes that you need, but it's always wise to be absolutely certain.

A bag is, to me, the second most important accessory to have. This time I've put the tote bag first...

From those two essential pieces, everything after that becomes much more discretionary! I love a small pair of earrings to give a ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Grey, Blue, Lilac and Black: 1 Piece at a Time

I thought that this would be challenging, but I really enjoy the options provided by including both black and grey with these soft accent colors:

If you like florals, I can't encourage you enough to look at products from Ted Baker London. While not inexpensive, they are SO beautiful, and you really only need 1 piece to be the starting point, and the lynch pin, of a beautiful wardrobe.

While my first inclination was to buy the sweater to match the cardigan, I thought that instead I'd invest in another piece in grey. These pieces, although they are 3 different greys, all work well together.

Introducing another grey piece gives you that sort of "suit-like" idea that you get when a cardigan or jacket matches a pair of pants or skirt. ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Black and Yellow Broadbill

You've very possibly seen a Photoshopped version of this photograph, which made the colors really BRIGHT... and I'm not sure why someone would have bothered - this photograph is quite beautiful just as it is!

Weeks ago, someone asked me, on Facebook, to work with this photograph. It's about time I got around to it, because it includes lovely colors! I did NOT include the yellow circle around the eyes of the bird, except for a bit in one of the scarves, and the yellow gold in the jewelry. And while I don't always pick up the background color of a photograph, this one was really the perfect color, in the ideal intensity, for this color scheme...

Yes, I really, TRULY believe that if you find a color scheme you love, you can live with it, ... View the Post