shoes Archives

A Navy and Camel Winter Weekly Timeless Wardrobe – Adding Accessories

August 11, 2020

Ah, winter... My favorite season, with my favorite clothes!

Let's look back - our mythical heroine has chosen this Weekly Timeless Wardrobe as her starting point:

And she's very smitten with camel, right now. So she's going to supplement her 13-piece wardrobe with these additional seven pieces - they give her a refreshed color palette, and a lot of new options:

Our heroine is thus starting her winter with these 20 garments (and, of course all of the other garments from the 3 other seasons!):

So let's assemble, for our heroine, a half-dozen representative outfits from this wardrobe, and add some accessories to each outfit!

First up - WARMTH! I can vouch for the waterproof, comfortable warmth of ... View the Post

Accessories for an Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe + Burgundy Accents!

August 10, 2020

Ah, Autumn clothes! Is there a more fun season for beautiful clothes?

Let's do some building around this Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe core:

Just for the sheer fun of it, I found some burgundy (ish?) garments to add to this 7-piece Accents and Extras!

Now, our Autumn 20-piece wardrobe is together - it looks VERY fall-ish, doesn't it?

Let's start enjoying accessories!

When you're wearing burgundy, garnets seems like the most obvious stone to look for in jewelry. Garnets don't have to be insanely expensive (although there are some eye-wateringly dear pieces out there, of course!).

And a couple of timeless navy leather accessories...

This cotton scarf is small - a neckerchief, I believe ... View the Post

A Navy-Based Summer Weekly Timeless Wardrobe – Adding Accessories

August 7, 2020

Let's look at summer accessories! I love this stuff...

First up, let's start with the core "Weekly Timeless Wardrobe" for summer that we've been studying for a while:

To this handy, tidy little wardrobe, let's add the bright blue accents we saw before:

So our Summer heroine is going to start choosing accessories by assembling outfits from this 20-piece capsule wardrobe:

First, why NOT wear floral canvas shoes?

This heroine got her sunglasses back in the Spring Accessories assortment, but she certainly could still use a good hat! (the crown collapses on this hat, so it can be packed - such smart people...)

And of course we all need masks... sigh...

A pretty dress deserves some nice ... View the Post

Adding Accessories to a Navy-Based Spring Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 6, 2020

Accessories! My favorite things in any wardrobe... except maybe a glorious sweater, or something velvet...

I'm going to use just the Spring Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, and 1 Cluster of accents, for this; I've got a reason, trust me!

Remember this amazingly useful bunch of stuff?

If we add these seven Accent and Extra garments, we will have a nice tidy 20-piece wardrobe. In my world, that feels a lot like 4 5-piece clusters! (or, of course, 5 4-piece clusters! you could find a few other combinations, I'm sure...)

These are the 20 Spring garments to which we will be adding accessories:

As has been my habit lately, I'm going to assemble six outfits from this fun little wardrobe, and then add ... View the Post

Accessories! Revisiting Blue Major Elle by Marijah Bac Cam

July 23, 2020

Of course she's packing accessories!

Yesterday, she expanded her initial 8-piece wardrobe to a 16-piece 4 by 4 Wardrobe, since she and her sweetheart are going to be staying up at her sister-in-law's B&B for a few weeks...

Her inspiration?

Her clothes are all good to go - this is what she's taking (or what's already there...):

And these are the accessories that she's already got on-site:

To be sure that she doesn't miss anything, she assembles a handful of representative outfits that she has packed. And then she thinks about what she's going to be doing...

The photographers and other staff want to make it seem as if all of the guests are piled into the kitchen, helping with dinner. It's ... View the Post

Accessories! Revisiting Petit Matin by Joan Mitchell

July 16, 2020

Our heroine's headed to the country for the rest of the summer! She's going to be staying at an inn very near a manor house with huge open gardens - even though she'll be working in their room for part of the day, she's going to be able to visit the gardens EVERY AFTERNOON!

That sounds better than being cooped up indoors, doesn't it?

This is her inspiration:

She already has quite a few accessories with her - including FOUR pairs of shoes. But she's going to be staying at the inn for at least 6 weeks...

She's going to have a 4 by 4 Wardrobe with her - happily, the inn is delighted to do laundry for her. They're giving such a great deal on their room that they don't really mind paying for occasional ... View the Post

Pantone London Autumn 2020/21 Colors – Some Accessory Families

July 8, 2020

I've wanted to look at some colors, and some accessory families, for a while! And if I'm not mistaken, Spring 2021 colors should be around soon? But I saw these colors - specifically for the London Fashion Week (go figure) and I thought I'd visit them....

Yes, some of these color are familiar; We looked at the New York version of these back in January!

This might be a good time for me to share with you a few of the things that I keep in mind when I'm putting together a blog post for you:

I try to avoid showing anything that isn't available in almost every size originally available; nothing's more irritating that seeing something that you really like, and finding that you can't have it! I try to never show ... View the Post

Adding Accessories: Portrait of the Countess de Martel de Janville by Boldini

July 7, 2020

Our heroine needs to go shopping, again!

After she picked up a few more garments, she was left with just the accessories with which she had traveled. This isn't a bad bunch of pretty things, but she might want a few more things:

She sorted her wardrobe out into a number of outfits, and then decided to very methodically get accessories for each outfit in turn.

To start, she went completely off the rails for a pair of earrings that she could NOT resist:

Well THAT was fun! The next day was quite warm, and she realized that she wanted a good hat!

Masks! Even in a city that's beginning to reopen after the quarantine, one still needs a mask. She decides that she might as well get a few that look good ... View the Post

Raiding my French Books: Once in Your Life You Must Wear… from Une Femme Française by Catherine Malandrino

June 25, 2020

I don't know WHY I've waited to so long to share this book with you, because it's one of the best "French style" books around!

Largely, I consider it great because it spends just a few chapters talking about more superficial things like clothes and makeup, and quite a bit of time talking about music, and famous French people, and just general fun French things that will delight all lovers of Paris and France.

One of the things that, of course, is in this book is the list of things that we "must" try... uh huh... Let's take a look!

The first thing on her list? An Hermes scarf! And I of course don't agree... I don't agree with anything on her list, to be honest, but you know by now that I don't believe in bossing ... View the Post

Adding Accessories: Coastal Image by Theo van Rysselberghe

May 22, 2020

Since we're having so much fun with accessories (oh yesterday was AWESOME...), I thought I'd go back and take a look at this beauty; it couldn't be more different from yesterday's wardrobe:

For me personally, I'd need another pair of shorts or 2, and maybe a dress? But this is so pretty, I think I'd manage!

Let's look at a stack of outfits to see what might be either useful or decorative! First up, sandals, earrings and the "always important for summer" tote bag:

I seldom show belts, but a simple gold belt would be lovely with so many of these outfits:

For those of us dealing with hair that's a bit over-grown, a gorgeous barrette is unmissable:

I love the endless softness of pale yellow and ... View the Post

Adding Accessories: Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

May 21, 2020

Let's look back for just a second at our saints, and appreciate the choice and balance of colors. There's a reason that I like to start with paintings - the artists put a LOT of thought into every choice, and we can learn from this...

And let's take a look at her wardrobe:

Our heroine is a BIG fan of accessories, so she assembles a dozen outfits and accessorizes them! She limits herself to 6 pairs of shoes, but otherwise the sky's the limit:

She realizes that she might not need a handbag all the time, but it wouldn't do to be unprepared if she finds that she has to step out!

Note that when she chooses shoes to wear with her onyx jewelry, she finds some mules with teeny round perforations, and wee ... View the Post

Adding Accessories: A Work Wardrobe in Navy, Plum, Teal and Lavender

May 15, 2020

Our heroine from a couple of days ago now has a good work wardrobe for her needs - not terribly dressy, but still serious enough that she will stand out from her former co-workers. If you're in an environment where people wear jeans and very casual clothes for work, it doesn't take a lot to stand out!

My system, such as it is, for most wardrobes, is to assemble a half-dozen outfits, trying to include all of the "bottoms" and as many of the tops as possible. I of course try to include all of the colors, and as broad a range of dressiness as makes sense for the heroine in question.

I'm sure I miss something this way, but I'm still looking for a better approach! Any suggestions?

First, let's start with a serious ... View the Post