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August 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1: Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

August 1, 2025

It delights me that we're into August - it just gets us that much closer to the weather that I like the most! Bring on autumn...

But now, for our first wardrobe, let's start with this soft, graceful and flawlessly balanced beauty:

This month's offerings in the retail space are pretty sparse; I'm hopefully that next week things won't all be selling out! But our heroine had some excellent shopping luck - she found a trove of really nice chambray. It's endlessly frustrating that during the hottest part of the summer, one struggles to find a nice pair of shorts or a pretty top...

This month, I've chosen to divide our heroine's wardrobe by color - another month, I might divide things by style.

I find it ... View the Post

Dressing in Harmony With Nature; Start With Art – Rolling Hills by Peter Schmidt

July 30, 2025

I could easily see using this painting next year for the "6 Paintings - Twelve Months". This is the kind of palette I could see committing to forever...

Our colors are all neutrals, but WHAT neutrals! There's no way to make these colors clash...

She's Ready for Hot Weather! It's been a while since it's been truly warm where she lives, so when she realized that she'd better visit her mother for a few days, she was more than happy to do so!

For the flight down, she's going to dress rather warmly - heaven knows that one seldom is on an airplane that isn't nippy...

These are the easiest trips - she can always borrow what she forgets, and anything that she wears will be greeting with "oh honey, you look ... View the Post

Need a Subtle, Foolproof Travel Capsule Wardrobe? Start With Art – L’Encens by Fernand Khnopff

July 25, 2025

Oh, how I admire this painting!

You could easily shop with these colors in mind: warm but NOT reddish browns, very muted olive, ivory and cream...

Subtle She's got really vivid coloring. Her hair is every shade of orange and brown, that all mixes together in glorious, gorgeous auburn. Her eyes are cool brown, with highlights of olive, and a color that's almost taupe. Silvery? Hard to describe, that's for sure!

So she dresses in the most subtle colors, so she will always outshine what she's wearing...

Once the weather starts to cool down, she takes a couple of four day trips - leaving Monday, coming home on Friday. Just enough time to see friends, and art, and eat some good food!

She might go to New ... View the Post

Want to Extend Your Wardrobe Cluster into Autumn? Start With Art – Book Illustration by Goyo Hashiguchi

July 14, 2025

She's loving her 5 piece of ivory clothing. It's easy, it's elegant (in a casual way!), and she wants to wear these things well into autumn.

Can she?

Let's start with some inspiration:

Her accent colors are clear:

Her ivory core wardrobe is pretty well suited to extend into cooler weather:

As soon as our heroine starts looking at clothes, she realizes that for Autumn, she's going to shop in the very darkest versions of her accent colors. Maybe in the Spring we'll revisit this heroine to see if we can find her some pretty pastels...

But these additions are pretty delicious!

Nine pieces of clothing doesn't feel like a lot...

but it's almost impossible to put a foot wrong in this ... View the Post

Black & Brights? Start With Art: Stained Glass Window by Harry Clarke

July 9, 2025

Yes, this is the image that I had made into a scarf!

There aren't a million colors here; I chose turquoise, purple and red...

Our heroine today travels frequently for work, and doesn't visit the same destinations more than ever six months. This is fortunate for her, and makes packing easy; she starts with a core wardrobe and works around it through the autumn and winter:

Purple is her favorite color, so she really stocks up here. You can get a look at the one-of-a-kind scarf!

Packing just one sweater and a couple of accessories in an accent color can give you all kinds of options; you look different, and you don't get bored with your wardrobe. (although I have to admit that I have never been bored ... View the Post

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #6: Of by Elizabeth Magill

July 8, 2025

I'm leaving for Dublin today! Cross your fingers that THIS time, things work out... Please note that there will be blog posts while I'm away, but I won't be responding to comments because I'm not taking a computer with me. Sort of like a real vacation!

Now, the last of our paintings for July. This might be, for many of us, the most challenging wardrobe because the color palette is very limited. I like it because it requires me to be creative and resourceful - both good qualities to develop when working with anything that's a limited resource, like clothing...

This heroine is completely immersed in summer! And such beautiful accessories...

This is proof that the difference between Spring and Summer might just ... View the Post

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #5: The Swan No. 24 by Hilma Af Klint

July 7, 2025

I need to get a biography of Hilma Af Klint... She's got to be an interesting person, don't you think?

Our heroine is smack in the middle of hot weather, and was luck to be able to find things that are perfect for right now. And I think this might be one of our heroines who doesn't wear dresses or skirts very often; she chose white jeans in place of a denim skirt! I don't blame her a bit...

This is what her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe looks like now; I've taken the liberty of making the change where she substituted jeans for a skirt.

You do know that this template is a guideline, and not a law? For example, if you abhor cotton turtlenecks, I would NEVER force you to own one...

This wardrobe has lots of ... View the Post

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4: Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

July 4, 2025

Okay, THIS might be one of my favorite paintings ever. Although I can't imagine how one would EVER get a view of the Eiffel Tower like this, these days...

Today's heroine is stocking up on summer clothes; she's one of the really lucky people for whom summer things are still available!

She's particularly happy to find a trove of her aqua accent:

It's a good thing that our heroine was able to find warm-weather clothes; her wardrobe still seems to have quite a gap! Next month, she may have to focus on her navy neutral and beige accent to find things...

Her wardrobe doesn't look terribly focused on cold weather wear, though. There are few "4-season" places where this wardrobe wouldn't serve someone pretty ... View the Post

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3: Street Lights by Stefan Johansson

July 3, 2025

This painting makes me want to visit the Klaralven River... maybe go canoeing...

WHO AM I KIDDING? Maybe sitting on the deck with a cool drink!

The right paintings can make almost any place look beautiful, right?

Our heroine is committed to getting some warm weather clothes, including some accessories for dressing up. Just a tiny bit dressy...

A heroine who managed to find new things from the summer 13! There's no requirement to do this, and given the current state of retail, it's not easy...

I'm pretty sure that next month, I'm going to show our heroines' wardrobes on two separate pages. Should I separate things by tops/bottoms, or two colors on each page? I'm tempted by the idea of colors, but I ... View the Post

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2: Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

July 2, 2025

The question of accent colors is one that comes up a lot in my emails - how much is enough? Can it just be scarves and jewelry, or do I have to have clothing in my accent colors? I hate bright shoes - do I HAVE to have accent shoes?

Whatever makes you happy is enough. Your accent colors can be whatever you like to have in your wardrobe. You NEVER have to have shoes you don't like. If you own something you don't like, SELL IT. Or give it away, whatever, but don't EVER make yourself wear things you don't like. (yes, bridesmaid dresses will trip up many of us at some time...)

Here's our painting:

To me, the teal in the trees keeps this painting from being just another insipid ocean landscape...

When our heroine ... View the Post

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1: Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

July 1, 2025

July??? I'm sort of amazed. You would think that I would adjust to the passage of time, after a few years...

Remember - there will be posts every weekday this week, and on both Monday and Tuesday next week. Because these posts for the paintings aren't very big, I give you lots of them all in a row!

Let's jump into this perfectly perfect summer painting:

So many of us have been living with ridiculously hot weather for a while, so it was easy to get into the mood to get this heroine some true summer clothes!

I cheated just a bit on the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe; I'm calling the striped tee shirt "sleeveless" when of course it isn't! But our heroine already has all of her tee shirts, and I felt ... 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