warm weather Archives - Page 31 of 37

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

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

April 29 2014

Back to my new favorite French fashion book, where I found four capsule wardrobe suggestions for each of the four seasons. I intend to show you all of them...But first, a quote with which they open this section of the book, from Angelica Huston.

"It's easy to think that you don't have anything to wear, but this is really a problem of identity. If you have a well-developed self image, you know what is "you" no matter what the trends of the moment."

love, Janice ... View the Post

Navy and Beige with Coral and Sun

April 24, 2014 Warm accent colors with navy and beige? Absolutely!

I've changed up the cardigan again - this one is a splurge and a half, but the navy and coral are beautifully presented here:

And just to show some other possible choices, I've picked out a new skirt and a pair of outrageous summer pants. I personally would wear these pants in a heartbeat, but your mileage may vary!

This gives you this 24-piece wardrobe; isn't it fascinating how changing just a few of the garments makes so much difference in the overall feel of the ensemble?

As always, lots of possible ways to wear these - from the most casual, to reasonably dressy activities.

love, Janice ... View the Post

Leveraging the Floral Trend: 1= 20

April 22, 2014

Once more, let's visit this beige and navy spring and summer wardrobe. You're happy with this wardrobe - it provides appropriate and attractive options for pretty much every event in your life. But you decide that you WANT something floral, just to participate in a current trend. You love flowers. You want a new tee shirt. You just plain want to shop! Keeping your color scheme in mind - either through carrying around some skeins of embroidery floss, or a photograph of your closet, or whatever mnemonic works best for you:

You stumble across this beauty in your shopping:

All your colors. Floral. It seems perfect... ... View the Post

2 dozen = 12 dozen, at least

April 18, 2014

I'm always intrigued by how many outfits you can pull together from a well-chosen capsule wardrobe, so after I built yesterday's ensemble, I started pulling together outfits, just out of curiosity...Remember, these were the 24 garments with which I started:

There are almost certainly more possibilities here; I threw in the towel after I passed twelve dozen...

love, Janice ... View the Post

A “Two Suit” Wardrobe in Navy and Beige

April 17, 2014 Another visit to this concept, keeping the beige linen (I'm SO lazy...) and using navy as our other neutral. I'm going to try to explain the steps for choosing these items in more detail, so that you can recreate what I do in your own closet.

Also, I want to address the question of having multiple pairs of dark neutral pants. Often, we're told that "you shouldn't own three pair of navy pants", but I heartily disagree, because of the wide variety of navy pants that you might own. In this particular example, I've included very narrow navy capris in a cotton fabric, a wide-legged trouser (full-length), and a silk-like palazzo pant. My feeling is that these three pants give three very different outfits when ... View the Post

Can Chanel Guide Us to a Workable Casual Wardrobe?

April 16, 2014 One of the most popular posts I've ever written was asking if Coco Chanel was right when she told us that a woman only needs two suits to be well dressed. (find it here) I'm often asked how this idea translates for those among us who wear mostly casual clothing, and who don't really have any use for a suit. So these are my thoughts: First off - the equivalent of the black suit - a cardigan, capris, pants, and a dress:

and then a similar approach in beige - another cardigan, linen pants, a pair of shorts and another:

First add-on is a couple of "twin-sets" in accent colors. But only one cardigan, and a linen shirt to take the place of the ... View the Post

Three Garments – Four Seasons

April 1, 2014 The clothes I bought in Paris are going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting, so I've been giving some thought to how many different ways I can wear them. Here are my ideas, so far... First up, the dress that I bought at French Trotters. It's not available, but it's rather similar to this dress (mine has a bit more clearly defined pattern). I know that I can wear this with a turtleneck layered underneath, warm tights, boots and a scarf - I did that in Paris! But I can also scale it back to just leggings and flats, or sandals and bare legs...

Next, I want to make sure that I get maximum utilization from my new striped tee shirt. ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting With Art: Shopping with a Van Gogh Seascape

February 19, 2014

What a gorgeous painting! And the colors are so perfect for warm weather... (of which I dream right now, as I watch the white-out snow storm outside my window...)

A few of you have expressed a concern about wearing light colors below the waist, and so for this wardrobe I'm going to avoid that. Also, I've been asked to include a maxi skirt in capsule wardrobes, so today I've found one!

A dark core of four - useful for most of the year, and an essential base upon which we're going to build this plan. Navy is so perfect for warm weather; if you're concerned about the colors matching, plan to buy all four items at once, and maybe from the same place.

Yes, this is the second grouping of four green garments ... View the Post

Start With Art: Jackpine by Tom Thomson

February 18, 2014 This painting has such gorgeous colors, and for a summer travel wardrobe the options are wonderful... I'm starting with a core of four - I'm a really strong believer in the usefulness of having a core of neutral garments around which everything else can revolve. The colors don't have to be dye-lot matched, but they should be chosen with an eye to being wearable together. And getting your shoes taken care of frees you up to go just a bit wild later on in your second and third waves of shopping!

For summer, shorts and capris. Then when you branch out into tee shirts, this painting gives you a wide variety of colors from which to ... View the Post