Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature
My computer is grumpy, and my sore throat is grumpy... it's just grumpy world here!
So I'm going to suggest that you go back and visit a post from about a year ago, that's one of my favorites...
I really love the consistent moon and stars feeling, as well as the variety of pieces available in navy and white. And her story of insomnia...
Some days, I'm positively proud of what I create!
love, Janice ... View the Post
July 7, 2017 It's a Very... Weird... Beach House... (based on a real beach house I've seen...)
It has a dead-end hallway, with a big window... All of the 10, 11 and 12 year old's sleep there, in their sleeping bags. Well, "sleep..."
And there's 1 room that really must have been meant to be a walk-in closet. It's that small... It's been her room, for years.
She has a twin bed, a rocking chair, and a shelf attached to the wall that serves as a nightstand. There's no closet - just pegs stuck into the shadiest wall...
But her room has its own bathroom! It's tiny, but still... in a house with over 2 dozen people, it's a luxury!
And ... View the Post
May 18, 2017
When we left our happy heroine yesterday, she was packing for a trip to visit friends on the Gulf Coast of Florida. She was using this scarf as her leitmotif - the inspiration around which she was building her travel capsule wardrobe:
This was what she knew that she would pack - plenty of things for the beach and boat, and enough dressy pieces that she would be fine if dinner turned out to be more formal than she expected:
Just for reference, let's remember that she'd planned this wardrobe pretty carefully!
But she knows that she wants to include more accessories - especially more shoes! So she's going to work through a handful of outfits, making certain to include each of her "bottoms" so that her shoe ... View the Post
May 17, 2017
The scarf says Paris, but your luggage is all tagged TPA - you're going to Tampa to visit friends with a home on the Florida Gulf coast!
They've mentioned the beach, and the boat... (repeatedly...) There's a bit of sightseeing, some serious lounging to be done, and you might take in a baseball game. You'll be dining out at least a few times, too!
Well, you know that it's going to be hot and sunny. You know that it's a relatively casual part of the country, and you know that you don't want to carry a whole ton of stuff with you.... What to do?
Let's start with a color scheme, based on this most lovely scarf:
You know that no matter how warm the weather is, the airport will be freezing cold, and the plane is ... View the Post
May 9, 2017
I can always tell when a lot of you are planning travel because I start to see more and more emails with packing questions. Many people want a wardrobe that they don't really have to think about once they've arrived at their destination; that's why I cooked up the idea of a "Whatever's Clean" Wardrobe. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to pull any available garments from these wardrobes and assemble a reasonably presentable outfit. Certainly, some combinations are going to be better than others, and you're going to like some outfits more than others, but overall, you've got mountains of flexibility, after doing a bit of strategic thinking...
First off, let's start with a great color inspiration - ... View the Post
April 25, 2017
Let's revisit yesterday's painting - I don't feel like we've nearly exhausted the possibilities of these colors! My hypothesis is that yesterday's heroine has been invited to... a wedding, let's say, out of town far enough that she's going to stay for a week or so. Except for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself, she won't have to get madly dressed up, but she can reasonably expect at least another dinner or two out with relatives and old friends.
So we start here:
And we remind ourselves of what our color scheme is going to be for this travel capsule wardrobe:
Our heroine was really happy with her travel outfit when she took her long lazy weekend break, so she's not changing a thing ... View the Post
April 24, 2017
I'm smitten with this artist, Kamrooz Aram - you're going to see more from him:
I love these colors - especially those little touches of brightness! I didn't use them in this Six-Pack, but in a larger wardrobe, you would definitely see them... I also don't have any grey garments included here, but for a trip that would last a few more days, a nice grey summer dress, and certainly a tee shirt and shorts, would be such simple things to add.
And while I don't have style notes here, I'm definitely thinking that this is a woman who loves flowers, but who also appreciates the compelling power of large patches of solid colors, arranged in a way understood only by the artist.
My heroine is traveling ... View the Post
April 6, 2017
She didn't just write that, did she?
Of course not - there is NO SUCH THING as a must-have item. I know for a fact that there are women in the world who never wear shoes. You could wear nothing but linen dresses all summer. You could wear shorts and tee shirts every day (how ARE things in Georgia?). You could mix it up between capris, skirts, and shorts...
Nobody can tell you that you MUST buy something. As soon as they try to start that kind of talk, you know that they don't have your best interests at heart, and you can take what they say with the appropriate bajillion grains of salt...
But there are useful ways to approach getting dressed for warm weather, and I think one worth considering is to make ... View the Post
March 31, 2017
I love this painting... What a wealth of details, and vivid colors - plus being carried across the sea by angels sounds like a most privileged (and hard-earned) way to travel!
The range of accent color possibilities here is pretty vast, but I narrowed us down to just four:
She Really IS In Charge... Although you might find her sitting on the floor, happily coloring with a group of 4-year-olds...
Yep, she runs that HUGE day care facility. Inspections, regulations, paper work and MORE paper work...
If she's going to have time for the fun stuff, she's got to be meticulously organized:
Because she's ALL about the fun, especially when there are little children involved!
Happily, it's ... View the Post
March 24, 2017
After you've had a bit of time to process the outfits for the first 4 months of the year, which I shared here yesterday, it's time to dive back in and finish the year, and the capsule wardrobe!
First, let's refresh our memories about what our "inspiration scarf" is, and the color palette that I drew from the scarf:
She Loves Flowers And she has no better explanation for it than that - she loves them. Yes, she grew up helping her parents in their flower beds - that certainly played some role in her affections...
So when she didn't have to go to the office any longer, she decided to remake her wardrobe in the image of her dreams and desires - flowers, and flowery colors!
Sometimes, when the weather ... View the Post
March 6, 2017
Oh, how I love accessories! As much as it's important, and nice, to have good-quality, classic clothes, it's really the accessories that make outfits distinctively yours...
Let's briefly flash back to look at the scarf from which we're working; note that I've slightly changed the color wheel to reflect the focus that I'm going to put on brown leather accessories! I do these in PowerPoint, which gives you nearly infinite flexibility in the number of colors you include, the proportion of each color, the nuanced shade of each color, as well as the ability to change the borders (both color and width) at will. I don't think that PowerPoint was ever intended for this purpose, but it works really well!
The lace ... View the Post
March 3, 2017
People often ask me where I get ideas for blog posts - they should see my inbox! I get the most wonderful emails, with the most interesting questions... (if it takes me days and DAYS to respond, please don't be offended or insulted - I love to hear from you!)
Many of us start to feel like we need to migrate away from black, and toward grey or navy. One among you found a lovely scarf - vintage! - to help focus this wardrobe shift, and asked me for a few ideas. What fun!
First off - buying "luxury" scarves second-hand is just plain smart. You can find them on Ebay (which can be dicey, because they don't do anything to police against fakes), Tradesy, 1st Dibs, Etsy, The RealReal, Malleries, and ... View the Post
