shoes Archives

Daisies! The Birth Flower for April

If there was ever going to be a birth flower that we could all steal, it would be daisies! A few designers seem to have really embraced the entire daisy motif: Olivia Burton made all kinds of jewelry and watches with daisies, and Marc Jacobs went a bit nuts for them, too...

I think that daisies are popular for lots of reasons - in real life, they're a great cut flower to buy because they're generally very inexpensive, last a REALLY long time, and the buds will actually open after you buy them...

For ornamental purposes, they're simple in design, familiar to almost all of us, and for many people have associations that make us smile...

So if you want to add a daisy or five to your wardrobe, you have options:

If you don't want the ... View the Post

How to Pack Just Enough Accessories

So, while Friday's travel capsule wardrobe looked pretty good, it's really not complete! Without at least shoes (and maybe a bag) you're not probably going very far... (and yes, some people don't ever wear shoes; there are ALWAYS exceptions...)

Let's do some planning, before we add accessories to that wardrobe - first, by remembering and building on our color palette.

It's worth considering if these colors will give you sufficient guidance for your choice of accessories. I like to - at a minimum - add a metal color, so that I don't just willy nilly toss all of my jewelry into my bag! You might want to also be certain that you've got a dark neutral that's going to work for things like shoes and bags. With navy, many of us might want to ... View the Post

What If I Don’t Really DO Accessories?

Some people just don't wear a lot of jewelry; they don't want to collect handbags, nor shoes, and they find one scarf suits them quite well...

(okay, they're nuts...)

Actually, that's their right. Of course it is! But it does suggest that they're going to want to plan a bit to make certain that they have what they want and need when they get dressed.

Let's start where we were yesterday, with this nicely tidied leisure wardrobe:

When we finished this wardrobe yesterday, we had a lovely color palette for our heroine's clothing. Working from that, we can easily devise a corresponding palette for her accessories - add a choice of metal (if you're not going to have a lot of jewelry, what you do have can easily be either all-gold or ... View the Post

How do I Know That I Have Enough Accessories?

Our heroine ended yesterday's adventure with a color scheme that felt right, and a spring capsule wardrobe that she found really comfortable; it gave her great pleasure, every time she opened her closet door...

But she still needs to wear shoes! And carry a bag. And maybe wear some earrings, or a bracelet, from time to time. How to plan THAT?

Well, I pondered this for a while, and I think that she should think about what outfits she's going to wear, from her wardrobe, and then make certain that she has the accessories that are right for each of those outfits. What else would she want, if she knew that she had a dozen outfits ready to go?

To keep choices balanced, I'm going to see if I can fill in this template with her accessories... ... View the Post

Updating a Bone-Deep Glamorous Travel Wardrobe

Remember this heroine? I felt that, with Valentine's Day on the horizon, it might be fun to see what she's been doing...

Well, she was shopping one day and saw these... She was smitten...

She had a casual trip coming up - taking a few students to The Cloisters, outside of New York. She's been doing some work on the symbolic significant of roses in Gothic art and architecture, and they're going to go take a look at a couple of important pieces there...

So it seems only fitting that she embrace roses as a personal trend!

It's also an opportunity to add just a touch of pink to her wardrobe. She's not sure that this will be a long-term addition or just a whim, but it's very much at harmony with much of her existing wardrobe...

She ... View the Post

Ultraviolet? or is it ultra violet?

I have to admit my age; when I hear the word (or words) Ultra Violet, I think of her...

She was the only one of Andy Warhol's gang of friends to really capture my imagination...

But of course ultraviolet - is it all one word?, with no capitalization - is the "color of the year" for 2018! Which usually means that you can't find a garment in that color for love nor money... but this year, the always lovely Eileen Fisher came through!

I could be VERY tempted by that dress... and if the idea of a deep red appeals, the tunic and the dress are available in "claret," as well as muted teal and a lovely electric blue...

But back to my practical thinking - how might one actually WEAR this color with items already in one's wardrobe? What ... View the Post

What Accessories Should One Pack for an Italian Vacation?

On Friday, I pulled together a wardrobe for one of you who has a fun trip planned with adult children:

This was the color scheme with which I was working:

There are already some accessories in her wardrobe...

So let's start with my new template for accessories, and plug in the pieces that we already have:

For me, earrings are VERY important - I'm choosing an accent pair in aqua, and then a really simple pair of gold studs that can be worn for days without thought... Similarly, both an accent striped bracelet and some classic gold bangles are being added to her accessory wardrobe...

I ALWAYS believe in a good brooch! And necklaces don't take up much space, but can really change the feeling of an outfit.

After these additions, ... View the Post

Can You Plan Your Accessory Wardrobe? Madame Paul Escudier by John Singer Sargeant

Our heroine from yesterday has a tidy and very well-planned wardrobe, after her few additions to what she used for business travel. But she's in pretty serious need of some accessories, I'd say!

First off, let's remember what her inspiration is for her wardrobe:

Our heroine finally got her well-deserved (and long overdue!) promotion, and picked up a few more garments to finish up her wardrobe. She's going to be traveling a LOT...

But she didn't buy anything BUT garments - no more shoes, scarves, nor jewelry. That's just not fun!

Although she's made her reputation at work for her empathy and her ability to provide coaching and correction in a warm and constructive manner, she is at heart also a really organized woman! After a bit of ... View the Post

Accessories Can Make ALL the Difference! Monet Water Lilies…

Our heroine has this lovely wardrobe...

But she's really going to need some accessories! She already has 1 scarf, but because so MUCH of this wardrobe is solid navy, more than 1 scarf can come in handy...

Please understand that any (or ALL) of the accessory suggestions that I make would be great with this wardrobe - this isn't some sort of "guess the "best" accessory" game... I personally could easily make a case for this heroine to own at least a handful of scarves!

I wanted a pretty, floral pendant for her now - something that echoed both the floral motifs of her original painting, and also had a "water-ish" feeling. (no, that's not really a word, but you know what I mean...)

And a bracelet - I think that bracelets are an ... View the Post

If You Could Design Your Own Shoes…

Although most of us are always going to buy what's "on the rack," I think that it's important that we let ourselves dream of what our "perfect" item would be... This is something that I learn from hanging out with people who sew - they can come closer than most people to making their sartorial dreams come true, and thus they have to be pretty focused about what they want, or they're quickly overwhelmed with options!

You might remember that Hanig's Footwear gave me the opportunity to have a pair of shoes made to my specifications - well, I had to use an existing Thierry Rabotin design, but I could then combine leathers (from a range of hundreds of colors and textures!) any way that I wanted!

I was, frankly, a little bit nervous when I went ... View the Post

Essential Accessories for a Pretty but Casual Wardrobe: Start with a Scarf – Vintage Rose by KathKath

Update - I did NOT go to Paris - a very last-minute fibromyalgia "interlude" suggested that the wiser course was to stay home and try to reschedule. Happily, I have a bunch of blog posts ready for you, so I can still rest for a few days! hugs - Janice

When I left this wardrobe last week, the clothing portion was pretty well-organized, with lots of possible combinations, so let's choose some accessories for this heroine!

It seems that the first outfit is always a very simple one that kind of cries out for a necklace or something at the neck...

As far as a woman can get with a good briefcase, at some stage she's going to want a handbag instead...

I'm not even going to try to resist adding floral boots to this wardrobe - if they ... View the Post

Do Accessories Really Make a Difference?

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 accessories some what large, and I've ... View the Post