wardrobe clusters Archives

Multiple Capsule Wardrobes Starting with Denim, Built Cluster by Cluster

September 13, 2024

In honor of Friday the 13th (not really!), I'm sharing a post that's been lurking in my brain for a while.

It's pretty backwards, in that I'm going to show you the complete wardrobe first, and then show you all of the options in this that I see...

clear as mud, as I can sometimes be, when I'm trying to use words, where pictures work better!

Here's the full 27-piece wardrobe for cool weather:

The questions that brought me to this included heroines who very much want a mostly denim wardrobe, heroines who can only keep a tiny portion of their wardrobe in their "main" closet at any time, and heroines who travel four nights a week EVERY WEEK, and who pack around a core of denim clothing...

So I ... View the Post

Want to Expand a Travel Capsule Wardrobe? Start with a Bracelet – Voyage to Tibet by Fierce Lynx Designs

February 28, 2024

Monday, our heroine started with her new bracelets, and assembled a small but cheery wardrobe to pack for a meditation retreat...

This was her wardrobe - doesn't this just feel bright, light and clean?

She had a wonderful retreat - and she was very happy with her travel capsule wardrobe. So much so that she decided to add another neutral and make this her warm weather wardrobe for at least a year or two...

But what neutral? Black would work, but might be hard to wear with yellow or green on a regular basis. Beige might wilt when paired with bright accents, as might olive or any other muted color...

Navy. It's obvious, really...

Her target number of garments for her warm weather wardrobe is 24, ... View the Post

Want a Cheerful and Meaningful Warm Weather Holiday Wardrobe? Start with a Bracelet – Voyage to Tibet bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

February 26, 2024

She's going somewhere hot! Well, hot during the day - cooler in the evenings...

Her trip is only for a long weekend, but she's excited, and she has a plan, based on her new bracelets:

She's NOT going to Tibet - that might be a longer trip than just a long weekend! - but she will be meditating, mostly on the world and the elements that compose it. So, a bracelet that includes blue (to represent sky and space), white (air and wind), red (fire), green (water), and yellow (earth) seems just right!

Yes, she fully understands that she might get dirty. But she won't be doing anything grubby or overly physical; meditation retreats are nice, quiet places...

For starters, she assembles her favorite core of ... View the Post

Two Wardrobe Neutrals with an Accent? Start with Art – January by Elizabeth Magill

February 12, 2024

I'm getting to be a big fan of Elizabeth Magill - her paintings are deep, and rich with color...

If only I'd found this one last month, eh? But it fits nicely with our theme of clusters in neutrals, accompanied by a sizeable dash of an accent!

This could be a lifetime wardrobe - everything from white to ivory to a soft grey, and a sizeable range of subtle blues. I even see some purple in there!

I'm going to start with the first ivory/cream wardrobe cluster that we saw - the one with the dressier pants, and the skirt. I see this heroine as having a wide range of activities planned, with the need to dress "nicely" from time to time...

Next, her second neutral - a little less dressy, but one could ... View the Post

Need a Wardrobe Plan for Summer? Start with Art – Blue on White, White on Blue by Paolo Quaresima

January 17, 2024

Since the temperature here is a whopping THREE DEGREES Fahrenheit, let's help a heroine who is planning her summer wardrobe!

We're going to try something kind of new - assembling a 4 by 4 Wardrobe by choosing four 4-piece clusters! Each cluster will give her at least 2 outfits, and all of the clusters will be able to work together. This is a good approach if she wants to shop (or closet-shop!) gradually, and if she's finding that clothes in her favorite colors are proving hard to find...

She wants navy, she wants white, and she wants accents of bright blue - maybe this painting is a good starting place:

One thing I've been assured - our heroine doesn't like white leather goods! I can understand that; ... View the Post

Outfit Ideas? Five Limited Edition Echo Scarves for the Inspiration!

December 28, 2023

Struggling to pull together a new outfit from existing garments? Looking for an inspiration for a new accent color in your wardrobe?

I've got ideas - thanks to Echo's 100 Limited Edition Scarves...

First scarf? Black border, bright colors, and an arresting image:

When one distills the scarf down to the colors that are most prominent, this is what you get:

Want to get away for a weekend? This scarf could be where you start!

Our next scarf is also an image of a fascinating woman - it's interesting to me how some of the ideas of these 100 scarves seem to recur...

The colors here give you some interesting possibilities - you can pair the soft blush with black, or the denim blue with red, ... View the Post

Festive Attire in Untraditional Colors? Start with a Scarf – 3 Limited Edition Echo Scarves

November 24, 2023

Today's heroines are all going to be doing something for the upcoming winter holidays - nothing overwhelmingly dressy, just events for which they wish to look nice...

And they don't want to wear the traditional colors that everyone else will be wearing! Blending in with the crowd just doesn't suit these heroines that well!

So let's start with more lovely scarves:

Our first heroine is particularly smitten with this scarf for lots of reasons, but especially because it includes brown, which is her #1 favorite neutral!

So these are the colors that she isolates from this scarf - she could have chosen at least 3 more that I can see...

This little cluster delights her - she's got Christmas red and ... View the Post

Things to Remember to Pack When the Weather is Impossible to Predict

May 20, 2022

It happens every year; May is cold cold cold, with high temperatures in the teens Celsius, and then BAM - the temperature goes up to the upper 20s... (For North Americans - we've been from LOW 50s to upper 80s with HIDEOUS humidity, within 12 hours, and then back down again 12 hours later...)

Pity the tourists... they seem to generally be prepared for the hot weather, and then we get down into the 50s and they freeze.

So every year, vendors here in Chicago sell tons of sweatshirts. But still, without other appropriate clothing, knees turn blue, toes lose feeling... It really spoils a vacation.

And of course, this happens to the rest of us who live here; we think that summer is finally here, and we pack away our ... View the Post

Searching for Balance: Start with Art – Meadow by Mainie Jellett – The 2nd Version!

March 5, 2021

Let's take another look at this painting, with a heroine who is looking for a balance of light and dark, soft and bright...

The original post is here...

Here color palette is more like this:

you'll notice that this heroine has chosen quite a few of the same garments as our heroine from a couple of weeks ago; I'm interested to see if this will work!

The pants that she's chosen as the base of her March (ish) wardrobe are a mix of darker and lighter:

From here, our heroine is going to choose 5 small, 4-piece clusters, and these 20 garments (plus 1 Wild Card choice) will make up her Garde-Robe du Mois for the next 30 days, more or less!

This will look familiar; with a great scarf or jewelry (or on ... View the Post

A Winter Cluster Wardrobe in Navy, Beige, Green and White

July 30, 2020

If you're tasked with finding a winter wardrobe right now, I wish you all KINDS of luck. This is not a year during which all of the retailers have rushed to thrill us with cashmere, velvet, tweed, and lots of boots...

Nevertheless, we persist...

Remember this wardrobe from week 26 of The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe? I love this one...

So what IS a cluster, anyway? To me, a cluster is a group of clothes - 4, 5 or 6 at the most - that all go together, that give you a range of ensembles, and that are built around 1 or 2 "bottoms."

My logic is that if you have a couple of spare tops to wear with a pair of pants,

you aren't stuck when you're traveling and someone spills coffee on your shirt; if the weather ... View the Post

Building an Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe using Clusters!

July 29, 2020

This is the wardrobe that I would be working on right now - although it's still a good time to find nice summer garments, late summer is the best time to find autumn clothes! (well, in a normal year...)

Remember this from 39 weeks ago?

These garments divide pretty neatly into 3 clusters; this isn't the only way the clusters could sort out, so if you have a different preference, go with it!

This is what the 3 clusters would look like - it's easy to see a ton of possible outfits from these:

So, with our color scheme from yesterday of navy and beige as neutrals, forest green as the accent (and white as the "spare" light neutral that keeps our heroine from having to wear beige shirts!), let's ... View the Post

Building Your Weekly Timeless Wardrobe by Clusters!

July 28, 2020

Yes, the series ended yesterday, but my ideas about it could go on for a long time...

The world's easiest flashback - remember these 13 garments from yesterday's post?

It's been pretty evident to me for a while that these 13 garments arranged themselves into 3 clusters pretty neatly. Actually, you could arrange these pieces in at least a few different ways, but for now I'm looking at this:

If you're not inclined to want to analyze your wardrobe on a weekly basis, maybe shift to a monthly basis, and look at clusters rather than individual garments!

Plus, this is a really easy way to pack - if you pack clusters, you know for a fact that you have garments that go together! (you do of course have to be sure ... View the Post