Six Pack Archives

Start with a Sweater: An L.L.Bean Fair Isle Sweater, and a 1 Piece at a Time travel wardrobe

December 10, 2021

I am asked 2 questions pretty often - how do you build a wardrobe around a specific garment, and how do you decide WHAT to pack?

This post is going to try to answer both questions!

First up, let's start with this classic sweater, perfect for this time of year in much of the Northern Hemisphere:

For me, the 1st step is to look, really look CAREFULLY, at the colors in our focus garment. You're looking for the easily seen, visible at a moderate distance colors.

Like these:

By now, you know full well that I'm going to go a bit nuts emphasizing how important your travel outfit is - you could easily have to wear it for 36 hours, so you need to love every stitch of it!

It's an obvious ... View the Post

November 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Fierce Optimism Bracelets

Robyn! Coordinated Granny Woodstock! Send me your mailing information, because YOU have won the Mumbai Paisley scarf!

November 26, 2021 She Has Complete Confidence...

The weekend is going to be pretty much ALL parties. Well, after almost 2 years, everybody wants to get together. They won't all be full-on "parties" with decorations and centerpieces and such, but they will still be festive gatherings...

There once was a time when this kind of trip would fill her with dread; she would pack 2 big suitcases, and bring a huge chunk of her wardrobe with her. Even then, she never felt that she was dressed appropriately.

It weighed on her mind, on her confidence, and on her self-esteem.

But after ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting Understanding by Parscha Mirghawameddin

November 24, 2021

Remember this heroine? Nobody seemed to think that she was beautiful, except her! And possibly someone that she met while traveling....

"Did You HEAR What She Told Her Great-Nieces?!?!"

"You mean the part about moving to the city?"

"NO!!!! The part where that silly frog ring is her engagement ring!"

silly is in the eyes of the beholder - this ring is legitimately very fine jewelry...

"Well, I knew that she met someone while she was there, but I assumed that it was just a platonic thing; what's someone her age doing getting involved romantically?"

What's someone her age doing? Feeling beautiful, feeling loved, having buckets of fun, and treating herself to all sorts of frog ... View the Post

Start with Art: Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

November 19, 2021

Remember our old friend, the expert in Gothic Architecture iconography?

She's worked from home;

with a wardrobe to which we added lots of accessories!

She also visited a college campus to lecture;

and she took students to The Cloisters in New York;

and she's been working with Paris officials on Notre Dame.

You can tell that she's a favorite heroine of mine!

This is her inspiration:

She Could Work from the Photographs that the church in Dublin sent to her, but she decided to go actually see the carvings in their location within the building. The church members had taken advantage of the pandemic to build scaffolding and climb up to clean decades of candle smoke and incense ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Mumbai Paisley silk scarf – Echo

November 17, 2021

Yes - ANOTHER SCARF GIVE-AWAY!

This lovely object is 36 inches square, and SO lovely... Leave a comment and it might be yours! Creativity Requires Discipline At least that's what she believes. Years ago, when she committed to designing jewelry, she made the very startling choice to limit her work to silver, gold, black onyx and pearls. Well, she will use mother-of-pearl if it is truly ivory...

Over time, her wardrobe came to reflect the same colors that she cherished in her work...

When it's time to go to the annual One of a Kind show in Chicago, she knows exactly how she will pack!

She deliberately packs a column of charcoal grey, as well as wears her black column. These small choices can make ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Garden Party by Echo

November 10, 2021

Big Important Notice!!! If you leave a comment today, you will be entered into a drawing to WIN THIS SCARF!!! The lovely people at Echo gave me one, and I'm giving it to one of you...

It's a huge silk square - I think 50 inches - and it's soft and fluid, so that it's easy to wear. I don't have any photographs of the full scarf; if the weather clears up here I will try to take one, but just trust me (and Echo) on this!

And OH YEAH, it's sold out...

It's normal where she lives to wear black all of the time, but when she goes to visit her family, she knows they worry about it...

So she's worked out a system! Whenever she is going to visit family, she focuses on black columns, and accent 2nd ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Secret Garden in Autumn by Fetolia

September 17, 2021 Subtle....

She doesn't need to be recognized. She never cares if she turns heads, or if she stands out in a crowd. When she travels, she blends into nature, and takes pictures that are hard for others to take, because they disrupt the peace and quiet...

She's taking a long weekend to a small town a couple of hours away from where she lives. All kinds of raptors have been seen in the fields and wooded areas near there.

She loves to photograph raptors; their speed and precision thrills her...

She wants to look reasonably nice - she does have to go out for dinner every night! And she needs to be warm-ish, but nothing outrageous. She will unfold her little chair, prop up her camera, and sit. Quietly. ... View the Post

Start with Art: Girl with a Tinsel Scarf by William John Leech

May 19, 2021 She Knew It... As soon as she handed her 2 (very large) suitcases to the airline staff, she knew she wasn't going to see them again ANY time soon...

But she's an inspired woman!

Because she's taking SO much stuff with her, she doesn't really have a clear palette for her entire travel wardrobe, but for her carry-on, she has ideas...

After she thought about it for a few days, she realized that she could, in her carry-on bag, bring along enough clothes to get her through a few days if (when?) the rest of her bags go roaming without her...

So she started by establishing a color palette for this segment of her overall travel gear, and chose lightweight clothes and flat shoes to pack more easily.

This ... View the Post

Stress Dressing Mini-Wardrobes for Changing Spring Weather

March 10, 2021

The weather is impossible right now - in the best way! After literally weeks of single-digit temperatures and mounds of snow, we're now experiencing lovely afternoons, with sun and noticeable warmth!

But what to wear? Especially if you've got your hands full and don't want to think too hard...

I'm sure you will notice that I changed a few things, but left some from our earlier adventures in Stress Dressing for cold weather. There's nothing like the stress of having to find ALL NEW THINGS for your emergency wardrobe, eh?

I gave some thought to what my general guidelines might be for choosing these pieces, although I'm pretty confident that you could sort this for yourself pretty easily:

These wardrobes ... View the Post

February 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Confident Lynx

February 22, 2021 You Could Go By Yourself... She looked at her favorite bracelet - the Confident Lynx...

She's going to do this - she's been anticipating this Cathedral Tour weekend for ages, and she's not going to miss it just because nobody she knows wants to go too!

So she starts to plan...

It won't be bitter cold by the time of the tour, but she knows that she wants to dress rather warmly, because old stone buildings are never toasty...

Since she's going to be alone (well, there will of course be other people on the tour!), she wants to make sure that she can lift her own luggage and manage it without having to resort to the kindness of strangers! So she arranges a tidy black core of clothes, and ... View the Post

Start with Art: Untitled 2019 by Jeremy Stenger

February 5, 2021 The Lake is Frozen... Better get ready... She stops to focus for just a couple of heartbeats on her current favorite painting and color palette:

She knows that she needs to pack, and she knows that she doesn't want to spend much time dwelling on that, so she remember her current color palette...

What she's wearing will be fine for the drive - she just needs to get on her shoes...

She's agreed to fix dinner TONIGHT - this gets her off the hook for meals the rest of the weekend! So before she even walks NEAR her closet, she pulls out a big grocery bag from her stash, and starts assembling the ingredients for a big pot of soup...

And then she cuts the dry ingredients for biscuits together ... View the Post

January 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Sophisticated Lynx

January 15, 2021

Not sophisticated like swishing around a boudoir in a silk negligee and fluffy maribou-trimmed mules! (is that really sophisticated?)

Sophisticated as in appreciating subtle things. Quiet good taste. Details that set the excellent apart from the everyday...

Stones with soft color gradients, and subtle beaded trim:

The nuances of color are deeply hidden in the stones, revealing themselves only to the attentive observer:

In cold weather, a gentle touch of rose pink is so flattering... The right earrings and mask bring a feminine touch to a classic outfit:

I almost never show vintage pieces here, because only one of you can buy it, but I could NOT resist this most perfect of ... View the Post