Six Scarves 12 Months Archives

Part 1 December 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

December 2, 2022

I always think of "finishing" these wardrobes for the December posts - but I'm realizing (after a TON of these posts!) that there is never a finished wardrobe. You might well be at a point that you have everything you need for the foreseeable future, but things will wear out. You will change your tastes. Your body will change. Oh, how things wear out...

So for this last post, I'm adding jeans to EVERYBODY'S wardrobes, as well as a couple of tops...

This wardrobe has been a lovely study in a couple of things:

How you can bring an accent color into your wardrobe without matching every piece (both the green and the pink here have garments that don't match!) How many pairs of pants you can have in your ... View the Post

Part 3 November 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

November 9, 2022

Let's see what our last 2 heroines are doing...

The first decided to do her shopping at Nordstrom; she figures she's got a ton of choices there!

Here's where our heroine starts:

With Daylight Savings Time giving our heroine a big dose of gloomy darkness, she decides to get a few tops in lighter, brighter colors...

When she gets her things home and into her wardrobe, she's pretty pleased with how they seem to bring a bit of light to everything:

She's not 100% sure about a pink scarf, but she always can re-gift it to a family member or friend if it really doesn't work out!

Before she starts washing and ironing and putting her new things away, she pulls together a couple of ... View the Post

Part 1 November 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

November 2, 2022

What do you do when you've got a real longing for some new clothes?

What about when you're in a store, and you decide you're going to shop?

That's what I'm thinking about this month... Our first heroine wanders into Boden, and wander out with some interesting things!

Remember, her inspiration is this scarf:

Our heroine was pretty disciplined - she stayed with green and pink accents for her purchases... The sweater, though...

When she brings her new things home (or when they are delivered, more likely!), she can see that the pants blend in perfectly, her green silk top goes with a lot of things, and the paisley sweater... is lovely.

Maybe this is the time for her to remember that her entire ... View the Post

Part 3 October 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

October 7, 2022

I've been thinking... This year's wardrobes are lovely, but I'm finding that a lot of them share the same accent colors - green and various shades of orchid or pink...

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

But what if we base next year's 6 wardrobes on SIX PAINTINGS that we've visited before. JUST the paintings and the color palettes - not the original story lines...

That way, before we start getting too far into the wardrobes, we will know what our best accent colors are going to be! I will propose six that I particularly like in the next few days, so we can get an idea of how this might work.

But for now - let's look at the Chrysanthemum scarf!

At this point, the orchid color in this wardrobe has ... View the Post

Part 2 October 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

October 5, 2022

What do you do if your planned color scheme needs to be edited in some way?

EDIT. Move on!

You'll notice that Ruskin's Meadow color scheme has received a necessary update...

Mauve was the request; mauve is the addition! It's interesting to see how 3 tops and a pair of earrings bring a very different look to this wardrobe:

It's all much brighter now, which means that our heroine has new options for getting dressed:

Her accessories are still mostly green, but she's now got those lovely pink earrings...

How might this heroine wear her new mauve tops?

Now on to what might be my favorite scarf, and is growing to be my favorite wardrobe!

I wore this scarf last week; it's ... View the Post

Part 1 October 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

October 3, 2022

Time to augment these wardrobes in some intelligent way!

If you build a wardrobe outfit by outfit, you'll eventually reach a point where you have plenty of "bottoms" but not really enough tops. Since tops are more memorable, usually need to be laundered more often, and provide more of the visual interest of your outfits, it's normal for most of us to have 2 tops (at least) for each bottom. Additionally, I like to have almost as many 2nd layers as I have bottoms.

Your feeling about this can certainly be different! But for our heroines, this is a month to stock up on things for above the waist:

I debated with myself about including the Fair Isle sweater here. It doesn't really perfectly match the brown of our ... View the Post

Part 3 September 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

September 9, 2022

Let's get back to these last 2 scarves - I'm quite chuffed about the pretty things that I've found...

This heroine has a LOT of navy in her wardrobe; maybe we should look for something lighter to serve as a neutral for her...

yes, one of these scarves is so expensive it might give you chest pains... but it's lovely, and even a cat may look at a king!

These new clothes blend into her wardrobe perfectly, but the overall feeling of things is (of course) a bit lighter and softer:

Her accessories are lovely; her scarf drawer is enviable!

All of her new purchases bring options to her each morning - she has a wonderful new way to get dressed up with her ivory skirt and pumps!

Last, this ... View the Post

Part 2 September 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

September 5, 2022

Has anyone else read Ruskin's "Stones of Venice?" I own a gorgeous antique set of the FULL THREE VOLUME painfully thorough books... They're beautifully bound in green leather, with gold tooling, and they're sized to be packed when going on the Grand Tour of Europe.

I confess that I took 1 volume with me a couple of times I traveled to Venice; it was amazing how little has changed there since Ruskin's time...

So, odd as he was, I'm a fan!

This heroine saw her friend's new blue garments, and was inspired to go back to her "source scarf" and take another look. Sure enough, she could easily incorporate more blue into her wardrobe, too!

And she found earrings that included "her" blue and olive green - those ... View the Post

Part 1 September 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

September 2, 2022

I've realized that I really like doing these six wardrobes in 3 separate blog posts; I can spend a lot more time looking for things that strike my fancy!

Let's start with Chrysanthemums!

As our heroine looked at her existing wardrobe, and began to think of what she might want for autumn, she began to feel that the soft, dusty, smoky blue in her wardrobe palette is underrepresented in her wardrobe.

So she set out to find some pretty things!

She's not fanatic that all of these things match - she will be happy to wear the blue with all of the charcoal grey that she already owns...

I'd say she did pretty well!

Her new clothes blend in well with her existing wardrobe; if someone is really ... View the Post

Part 3 August 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

August 5, 2022

I really like doing these monthly wardrobes in 3 posts, rather than 1 REALLY large post. You can imagine how much work goes into getting all six wardrobes ready, and I feel like taking my time over them gives me a chance to do a better job!

What do you think?

So let's look at the glorious hydrangea scarf... I love hydrangeas - the mix of colors in the blossoms delights me! My phone wallpaper is a photograph of mixed pink and blue flowers... sigh...

A navy blazer. It just seems like something that someone who loves navy might want to consider - especially if this heroine likes classic, timeless styles...

And if you're going to buy the blazer, buy the pants (and/or the skirt) while you're at it. Yes, it's a ... View the Post

Part 2 August 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

August 3, 2022

Have any of you done enough shopping that you can see the trends for this autumn?

I've seen tons of clogs. Literally tons. I know that they're very comfortable for people who work in hospitals, so I would assume that everybody might find them comfortable... Maybe if you need shoes, they are worth trying?

And someone, somewhere, put together a million miles of smocked fabric! Not the traditional smocking, like we used to do on gingham fabrics, where you would join together certain squares in the print with stitching to create beautiful patterns...

Nope - this smocking is machine stitched fabric that is gathered with elastic thread. There's nothing inherently wrong with this fabric, except that you can't swing a ... View the Post

Part 1 August 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

August 1, 2022

We're going to have to do the "Six Scarves, 12 Months" posts in segments this month, because it's just THAT difficult... I hate not finishing in 1 post, but I have to admit when I can't finish in time!

This is a great lesson for how to handle shopping when everything in the marketplace seems to conspire against you.

In a "normal" year, I could easily expect to see piles of cashmere sweaters in 30 colors all OVER the retail world - but not this year...

Websites should be chock-full of cabled sweaters, and corduroy pants, and tweed blazers, and all of the traditional garments of autumn. But not this year!

It might be reluctance to stock merchandise that may not appeal - nobody's really sure how people are going ... View the Post