warm weather Archives - Page 28 of 35

White Capsule Wardrobe with Grey, Turquoise, or Celadon Green Accessories

January 24, 2015 For now, I'm finishing up this idea of monochromatic outfits and "accessory families" with some summery white linen items. (yes, they look sort of beige or ivory on the page, because white on white would be an incomprehensible blizzard...) Since the available linen white shoes are limited in January, I decided to grab some shoes that match or tone with the accessories - always a fun option! And for the elusive celadon, I chose some gold sandals; metallic are always worth remembering when you're struggling with a shoe color choices.

I'm starting to work on some more "Start With Art" wardrobes - anybody have some ... View the Post

Start With Art: A Shelf of Books -> a Summer Wardrobe

November 7, 2014 You really, seriously, can get inspiration anywhere, if you keep your eyes and your aesthetic heart open to what's out there. This absolutely wonderful picture was sent to me - what a delightful mix of softly faded colors.

It wasn't at all hard to come up with a color scheme. Many of you ask about how I build color wheels - I use the graphing gizmo in PowerPoint. I use PowerPoint for all of my vignettes, because it does everything I need. Just insert a graph into a slide, and then change the colors and sizes of the various wedges to suit your preferences. You have a new, beautiful mnemonic for your wardrobe colors, AND you have a new skill to put on your ... View the Post

Start With Art: Call of the Loon by Ewoud de Groot

November 6, 2014

There's a lot of beauty here, and colors galore...

I settled on these, using ink blue as my base neutral. Realistically, you could choose anything soft and muted in the green/blue/purple family and be extremely successful.

This is for someone subdued, a little bit dressy, going away for a couple of days to a warmer destination. Maybe not the beach, but someplace where lighter fabrics will be comfortable. The dotted texture of the water is echoed in the first scarf, and the floral earring and pewter loafers are feminine but not girlish.

A linen dress, a silk skirt and a couple of tops, along with some pretty accessories are all you ... View the Post

Pretty Much The Perfect Pack

August 8, 2014

Although I had relatively little lead-up time for my trip two weeks ago, I feel like I had the perfect assortment with me. This was a relatively easy trip for which to pack, because I knew my activities ahead of time, I knew the weather conditions, and I had access to laundry facilities - sort of the packing trifecta!While I almost always travel in pants, this time I just slid leggings under my favorite linen dress in order to stay warm in flight. This crossbody bag is a fairly new purchase, and I really like it - it's light, lays flat, and holds quite a bit. I admit that I might have been tempted to get the next size larger, so that my tablet would fit in it...

Please note that these are not ... View the Post

Start with Art: Lucy Hessel at the Seashore by Edouard Vuillard

June 4, 2014 My readers have the very best taste; this painting was sent to me to consider for a "Start With Art", and I thought the colors were so beautiful!The mood of this painting - languid, soft, dreamy, relaxed - made me think of a honeymoon, or a second honeymoon...

These were my color choices:

If you wanted to pack for a second honeymoon, you could certainly do worse than this!

As always, a well-chosen handful of outfits selected with a unifying theme will give you lots of options.

love, Janice ... View the Post

Start with Flowers: Cherry Blossoms

June 3, 2014

In an otherwise extremely unremarkable outdoor mall, we found this lovely tree (proving that if you look for beauty, you WILL find it):

I'm pretty certain it was an ornamental cherry tree - I'll check back later this summer to see if, in fact, it produces cherries! But what really caught my eye was the juxtaposition of the grey/taupe of the tree bark, and the surrounding pavement, with the green, white and yellow of the flowers. So (you know me) I thought of color schemes for travel and summer...

Lots of lovely options available here! If you have some nice floral photographs, send them on - [email protected]. I'll do what I ... View the Post

Choosing a Scarf: A Bright Summer Accent

May 31, 2014

Some of us aren't going to be wearing white all summer long, nor will pastel accessories work really well for everybody. So I'm going to revisit the idea of buying a summer scarf, but this time working with a base of navy linen clothes... The idea of picking up a couple of bright accessories to update my summer wardrobe is very tempting!These are the scarves:

Red Cayenne linen blend scarf – Halogen, Blue Blithe linen blend scarf – Halogen, turquoise gem linen scarf – Halogen, gold shine linen blend scarf – Halogen, pink cyclamen linen blend scarf – Halogen, blue royal linen blend scarf - Halogen And the simple navy garments:

Top – Hobbs, shorts – Dorothy Perkins, dress – ... View the Post

What I Packed for Florida

May 30, 2014 I completely missed the backpacking around Europe experience - I never took a year off of school, and I never even WENT to Europe until I was 35... But I'm still fascinated by the whole experience of being THAT light on your feet - that self-contained. So when a really nice Patagonia backpack made it into our home, I decided that I was going to give it a try. At least once, just to know what it's like, I'm going to be a backpacker...

I loved it. The incredible lightness of putting all of your luggage under the seat in front of you, and being able to walk for miles without wheels, was memorable. I don't know that I'll ever do it again, but it was wonderful.

There were a few factors that made this ... View the Post

Choosing a Scarf: A Soft Summer Pastel

May 29, 2014

Even in the warmest weather, a lightweight scarf can be useful - last weekend, in the heat of Florida, I used my simple gauze scarf to keep the frigid breezes off of my neck and shoulders more than once!But what color to choose? You know you want to wear your new scarf with your white summer clothes, but there are so many options...

These white clothes have been digitally "tarnished" a bit so that we can actually see them on the screen. In real life, they would be sparkling, crispy white.

When you're tempted by a variety of colors, it might help to think about what ELSE you have (or might want to purchase) in that color that would help give your outfit a "planned" look ... View the Post

Start With Art: Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte – Version 2

May 22, 2014 A second look at this great painting - focusing on the left half of it, and picking up the lovely periwinkle/chambray blue details...

It is interesting that such a drizzly and cold painting lends itself so beautifully to hot-weather clothes.

I love this dress...

A couple more garments, some accessories, and shoes:

Soft and pretty - a great travel capsule wardrobe!

love, Janice

Looking back: 2012 - What to wear with a necklace: dragon pearls 2013 - We look at a whole bunch of ways to wear One Dress: Six Ways in Black, White and Pink ... View the Post

A Winter Capsule Wardrobe, and the Full-Year Assortment, from Ma To-Do List: Dressing

May 2, 2014 Let's see if we can jointly make sense out of all of this, shall we? First off, working from the list of garments in Ma To-Do List: Dressing, I chose these garments as the Winter Capsule:

Yes, they suggested sleeveless tops for layering. The authors are in France, not Chicago... In order to anchor all of this in some neutrals, I'm going to pull in seven simple, neutral garments to act as the core of all of these lists.

So I pulled out the outerwear and the swim suit, and this is the ensemble wardrobe that you have if you take their four "capsule wardrobe" suggestions together:

Frankly, I think this isn't a bad wardrobe at all. There are enough ... View the Post

A Summer Capsule Wardrobe, from “Ma To-Do List: Dressing”

April 30, 2014

A little more of the text from this section of the book:"To build your "capsule wardrobe" can be intimidating, and also can represent a substantial outlay of money! Why not take things step by step, and focus on the essentials necessary for each season. This permits you to gradually, purchase by purchase, build an ideal wardrobe. Several paths can be considered and adapted according to your personal needs and life style, as well as the weather where you live."

love, Janice ... View the Post