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Color and Proportion – How Color Affects the Balance of an Outfit

April 2, 2015

Recently, someone wrote to me with an excellent question: she had narrowed down her wardrobe colors to black, white and beige, but wasn't sure how to combine these colors. Specifically, she was concerned about what percentage of each color could be in an outfit and still be balanced.

A question for the ages, really. There are limitless possibilities for combining simple colors. So I decided to put together the most simple outfits in those three colors, and see how the proportions felt.

For starters, I picked a plain tee shirt, jeans, and a classic cardigan in the three colors my friend mentioned. From these 9 garments, there are 27 possible 3-piece outfits, as well as an additional 9 2-piece outfits. Imagine the ... View the Post

A Clothing Diary Week 3

February 25, 2015 Another week with incredibly cold weather. For those of you who live in warmer climates, you just have to take my word for it that this weather is exceptional, even for Chicago. Consistent lows below zero or in the single digits, days upon days of highs MAYBE in the teens. Dry dry dry air, wind to knock you over... just lovely! I actually love winter, but this is even more extreme that I would prefer. But we carry on, in style! As before, if I can link to my item, or something substantially similar, I will provide a link. The absence of any link means I couldn't find anything close enough...

I know I've mentioned it before, but these Bogs boots are the WARMEST I've ever owned. They're ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Black and White Houndstooth Check Flats

February 11, 2015

As I mentioned before, I've received a couple of questions about what to wear with a special pair of shoes. When I saw these, I KNEW I was going to have fun, given my abiding love of all things black and white:

A little fearless mixing of stripes is the perfect foil for these simple flats. And a classic black dress with just a hint of white would be madly useful through the summer.

Putting dots with the houndstooth of the shoes seemed like a fun idea, and the pleated shorts are a lot more forgiving than the super-short shorts that seem to be everywhere! The red dress is easy with the black and white shoes - and a bag in a MUCH larger houndstooth pattern keeps things amusing.

Any bright color works ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Winter Photograph by Kris DaPra

January 30, 2015 I love winter, and sometimes a perfect photograph will convey what my feeble words never can about the beauty to be found in this austere, crisp and bracing time of year.

I strongly suspect that either of these button-front shirt would look quite nice under the grey dress. It's a look that a little bit gamine for some women, but for others it can be charming.

love, Janice ... View the Post

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

Travel Capsule Wardrobe – Packing with Scarves: Missoni #2

November 5, 2014 After Friday's post about a Missoni scarf, I received an email with this picture - another really lovely combination of colors...

There are a lot of possibilities here, of course. One could concentrate on the beige, ivory, and periwinkle, but I chose to work with the brighter shades apparent in the scarf.

In my vivid and bottomless imagination, I pictured this protagonist as someone who had to travel for work, but who's work is something rather creative; she's one who likes to wear things a little bit bold...

While many of the garments are relatively simple and classic, the accessories are anything but! And the dress... I personally love ... View the Post

Packing: A 5-Pack Would Have Worked…

September 30, 2014

Or, in my world, 8 = 42...You might remember my excellent travel outfit:

I had this outfit on for an eternity of time, and I don't regret a thing! It was ideal, and I will almost certainly wear something very similar for future trips. But my suitcase was TOO MUCH STUFF... I'd have been well-served to have just packed this:

I understand that this seems like amazingly little, but I need to remember something really critical about my trips to Europe - especially my trips to Paris:

I SHOP!!!

I shop a lot. I start shopping the second or third day, and I tend to wear my purchases almost immediately. Thus, I leave things in my suitcase unworn, and I ... View the Post

Start With Art: The Magpie by Claude Monet

September 4, 2014 In our mythical leisure, Belovedest and I watch art courses from The Great Courses. Our current course is The World's Greatest Paintings, in which we studied at some length the beauties of this:

Talk about mixing warm and cool colors to great effect! I was irresistibly drawn to use this as a Start With Art subject. Note one really interesting innovation that I'm trying: rather than attempt to nail down two specific browns and greys, or one color to represent the damp and frozen branches, slats on the gate, and branches in the fence, I'm working with a spectrum of brown to darkest grey. Doing this frees you up to build a wardrobe around any color that might be found in the ... View the Post

Starting From Scratch Summer Office Wardrobe in Navy and White

August 12, 2014 Yes, it still exists: the office with the strict dress code. Pants only on Fridays. No visible knees, nor underarms. Absolutely no HINT of cleavage... This is even more challenging in the summer, when it can be sweltering outdoors, but the office will invariable be quite cool. The rules are made, and the thermostats are set, by men in wool suits, long-sleeved shirts, and an undershirt. (why, if they dress like this in the heat of summer, do we let them run the world?) But you can still have a great, fun, spiffy capsule wardrobe!

Remember this color scheme? A few weeks ago, I showed a very casual summer wardrobe using these colors. ... 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

Chic Sightings: Navy Tunic and White Cropped Trousers, times 6

July 22, 2014

It seems to be almost the uniform of the weekend - roll up the sleeves of a navy linen tunic, pull on some white cropped trousers, and accent with brightly colors jewelry and sandals... The jewelry isn't all precious stones, and the sandals are casual, but the effect of the bright accents was very eye-catching.I think you can learn a lot about your personal color preferences based on which of these looks appeal to you, or which you swear you could never wear!

love,

Janice ... View the Post

How to Build a Summer Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch in Navy and White

July 19, 2014

Someone specifically requested a Starting From Scratch capsule wardrobe in these colors, and many of you have expressed concerns about how to implement this plan if you're dealing with scorching hot summer weather. I really felt like I wanted to go through an entire wardrobe in one post, just to clarify and illustrate one more time how I see this project working. So here you have it! Please note - the white garments here really ARE white - they just show up looking sort of beigy/grungy against the background. I generally don't promote the wearing of mungy clothes...

The first three steps are pretty straightforward: pants and shoes, then a cardigan and tee, then a neutral top and ... View the Post