Six Pack Archives

Love Primary Colors? Start With 2 Scarves – Lazyjack Press and Elizabetta

June 25, 2025

Sometimes, when you're packing, it's just easier to go back to the very most basic options. That's certainly true with colors; if you're packing core is navy, red and yellow seem like perfect accents!

So let's start with these two scarves:

Our heroine has made a few changes to her navy wardrobe core. This part of your packing can be as conservative or as relaxed as you need, of course!

To go with our red floral scarf, our heroine has chosen a timeless linen camp shirt, and a striped tee! She might wear the scarf with the striped tee shirt, if she's feeling in that mood.

Her yellow clothes make a sort of twinset, with the matching tee shirt and cardigan. And yes, she's got two completely ... View the Post

Like the Idea of Your Painting, But Having Trouble With the Colors? Start With Art – Pink and Black by Ed Clark

June 23, 2025

Another conference? (She did this before.) As the trailing spouse? What an absolutely horrible term...

But she's going, and she will be beautiful. She has the best inspiration; this is one of her favorite paintings, by her favorite artist:

But she's feeling uncertain... her favorite pink clothes are NOT this shade of pink. Does this matter?

After thinking for a few minutes, our heroine realized that unless she carried a big reproduction of the painting around with her and pointed out to people how badly the shades of pink clashed, nobody would ever know. She can put it out of her mind, if she tries!

So she's preparing for the "weird meet and greet/maybe go out to dinner with people they know" arrival. The ... View the Post

Love Pink and Green? Start With Two Scarves: Elizabetta and Jessie Zhao New York

June 18, 2025

Say your trip with your navy wardrobe core went well, including what you packed! But you'd like to try some different accent colors...

How about using these two scarves as your inspiration? Of course you NEVER have to wear scarves if you don't like them, but you can always use the images of them, and the colors included, to help you focus your travel capsule wardrobe:

To keep our comparison consistent, and to actually reflect how normal women wear their clothes over and over (as the planet asks us to do!), I'm using the same navy core that we used on Friday:

Our heroine found the perfect shade of pink at Lands' End, so she grabbed two different but very compatible garments. And her necklace is ... View the Post

Want a Touch of Brown with Your Chambray? Tullynally Castle Corridor & Window by Hector McDonnell

June 16, 2025

She goes away a LOT of weekends in the summer. Many of her friends have places on lakes or the seashore, or in a forest near a lake... And she must be an excellent guest, because she's always invited somewhere!

This is one of her favorite paintings:

She always feels like the window at the end of the hall is crooked!

Her colors that she's isolated from the painting are shown here; she doesn't include the tiny touches of red, but she does wear a good red lipstick sometimes...

She usually leaves for her friend's home straight from work - she's close to the train station when she's in her office! She dresses simply, but with a cardigan to battle the office air-conditioning.

She doesn't ... View the Post

Pack and Not Think Again About Clothes? Start With Art: Donna Andrzejewski – Dante’s View Abstraction

May 28, 2025

Yes, this is a photograph. I consider excellent photographs to be art! And since today's heroine is a photographer, this seems like the perfect work of art for her:

Our heroine wants to pack and then not think about her clothes again! She will check the weather each morning of the long weekend photography trip, but she's MUCH more concerned with her camera gear than she is with clothes...

AND, she wants to be pretty "blend into the background" of the area of high desert where she's going. It will probably be cool much of the time - she's not going until autumn - but she will want layers in case it warms up.

All in all, these are perfect colors for her:

She's comfortable driving out in her lightest colored ... View the Post

Like to Change Your Colors With the Seasons? Start With Art – Blue Level by Lee Krasner

May 23, 2025

You often tell me that you don't much want to wear brown in the summer time, but conversely you're not really comfortable wearing bright colors in the winter. (it feels too '80s, for many of us!)

So what if your favorite painting offered you options?

You can assemble your color palette (I could have certainly included a touch of orange in here, couldn't I?), but just plain and simply ignore one or more of your colors when you plan for a season!

These are the obvious colors that come from this painting - I can't decide if the three vertical stripes are a shade of brown, or maybe plum...

This heroine is packing for an event - I believe she told me it was a first communion, followed by a church picnic. Great ... View the Post

May 2025 Start With a Bracelet – Art Deco Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

May 21, 2025

Today's heroine has such a lovely inspiration:

She's particularly excited because she's about to break out of her navy and white routine. Her travel capsule wardrobes usually look like this or this.

So she's making just a little bit of a change; if you're one of us who've dressed in a monochromatic wardrobe for YEARS, you understand what a big change this is!

Our heroine's core wardrobe is based on her navy suit. When you buy a suit, you should assume that it's going to be worn a lot, in a variety of ways. (Suits are expensive!)

For short trips, during which our heroine might only have one "serious" meeting, this is typical of her travel wardrobe:

It's going to take our heroine all summer to ... View the Post

Love Black & White, but Crave Nature? Start With Art – Green Forest by Natalia Goncharova

May 19, 2025

Maybe you're like today's heroine - you love your black and white, but in the warm weather you want to wear the colors of plants, and water, and the sky!

Our heroine has a wide range of accent colors available. Always remember that you don't have to match all of your accent colors to each other. I like to have them look nice together so that the images here look good, but in real life, you can be much more wide-ranging in your choices!

Our heroine is leaving from work, so she's wearing things that will be useful when she gets to her warm destination:

I'm going to pack this heroine's suitcase one piece at a time. The first thing I always start with is a top that can be switched out for whatever one is ... View the Post

Unsure of the Weather? Start With Art – The Silbury Owl by Catherine Hyde

May 16, 2025

Lots of women artists this month; if you love this painting, prints of it are available from the artist!

Our heroine loves a good dark brown - or any of the autumn colors! And she's quite fond of pink and orange, together or separate. So her color palette is obvious and simple:

She's going away for a weekend event, and absolutely NOBODY can give her a hint of what the weather will be! She knows that it's cold where she is right now, so she's going to dress a bit warmly, even though it's May...

It might be warm enough to wear a slippy little dress. Or she might actually need a sweater! And for her spare time, she's even bringing a sweatshirt... Oh, weather keeps us on our toes, doesn't ... View the Post

Like a Base of Black and White? Start With Art – Variation on a Lighthouse Theme IV by Ida O’Keeffe

May 14, 2025

Yes, IDA O'Keeffe. Georgia's sister. Imagine how she felt, painting her lovely paintings... That had to be hard!

I quite like this painting. The colors are great, and I find the geometric qualities in it to be really pleasing. In the absence of her sister, maybe Ida would have been famous.

The color palette jumps off the painting at us:

This heroine is quite fond of a simple linen shirt, and with good reason. A linen or cotton shirt is one of the garments that you can literally wear every month of the year. It can be worn over a tee shirt and under a sweater in bitter cold, open over a tee shirt or tank top in scorching heat, or on its own (maybe with the sleeves rolled?) on all of the middling days.

Our ... View the Post

Uncertain Weather on Your Long Weekend? Start With Art – Study for Spring Madonna by Mainie Jellett

May 7, 2025

A favorite artist featured at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin? She's on the train for a weekend visit!

She's studied this painting SO MUCH - she knows the colors by heart:

Ireland's been having record warm weather recently, but this heroine is far too wise to fall for THAT! She's making certain to have a jacket and warm shoes; she doesn't have to wear these things again on her trip, but she's certainly not traveling without them.

A dress and three very summery tops, but a pair of "real" pants, and a cardigan - this give her options for unpredictable weather. And her olive jacket will look great with her stone chinos and ivory sweaters...

The night before she leaves, she takes a look at ... View the Post

Ready to Pretend That It’s Spring? The Marion Bartoli scarf by Echo

February 21, 2025

If you find any errors send me a note or leave a comment; I was on the phone with the Internal Revenue Service today for 90 minutes, and I'm not fully recovered!

With weather like we've been having recently - at least in my neighborhood - it's not a bad idea to pretend that it's already spring. Just don't go outdoors in a sundress, and you should be fine...

The colors in this scarf help get me in that frame of mind:

I didn't put a neutral color in our color wheel, because I suspect that almost any neutral would be lovely with these:

Our heroine and her sweetheart are going somewhere warm for a long weekend. Well, it should be warm. Unless it's not. But they're going to go, no matter what!

You ... View the Post