March 20, 2013
I never wear camel, because it’s wicked unflattering on me, but I love the look of it…At it’s simplest, the sweater with jeans or twill pants. A scarf, and some pretty earrings, and you’re good to go. Note that the shades of camel don’t have to match exactly.
Sweater – Uniqlo, rose quartz earrings – Glacier Jewellery, scarf – Scotch & Soda, jeans – Ralph Lauren, boots – Stuart Weitzman, earrings – Gabrielle Vallarino, scarf – futabaya, khakis – Vince, ballet flats – Repetto
A long line of camel and brown, with a simple white or cream shirt, is the easiest outfit in the world. Simple gold jewelry is all you need; a watch might be enough!
Sweater – Uniqlo, necklace – 10 Bells, white cotton shirt – Equipment, brown wool pants – Lauren by Ralph Lauren, boots – Topshop, earrings – Roberto Coin, white silk blouse – Chloe, watch – Citizen, suede skirt – Ralph Lauren, black tights – Missoni, boots – Clarks
With white jeans (or cream/ecru) you have the opportunity to break out your favorite summer tee shirts before the weather’s actually “tee shirt warm”. This is also a chance to sneak your favorite ballet flats back into circulation, to pull the whole outfit together.
Sweater – Uniqlo, tee shirt – Equipment, white jeans – J. Crew, tri-tone flats Belstaff, peach tee shirt – Weekend by MaxMara, peach flats – Nude
With a camel skirt or pants, you have a perfect basis for almost any blouse…
Sweater – Uniqlo, quartz & pearl earrings – Majorica, silk blouse – Dolce & Gabbana, camel pants – Chloe, flats – Chloe, topaz & turquoise earrings – Scully & Scully, turquoise cotton blouse – Fran & Eileen, camel skirt – Mango, pumps – Miu Miu
The simplicity of the sweater is a perfect balance for pants that have some… busy-ness… about them. As always, accessories are what makes it look like an ensemble, and not just a random collection of garments.
Sweater – Uniqlo, necklace – Tory Burch, clutch – Dorothy Perkins, jacquard pants – Erdem, pumps – Jimmy Choo, black diamond earrings – MPL, scarf – Pierre-Louis Mascia, tweed pants – Dolce & Gabbana, loafers – Bettye Muller
And a very “out there” jacquard or metallic skirt is calmed down with the sober, but still elegant, note that the sweater lends to the outfit. And it makes a great background for jewelry…
Sweater – Uniqlo, necklace – BaubleBar, floral jacquard skirt – Stella McCartney, pumps – Salvatore Ferragamo, necklace – Roman Luxe, silk skirt – Gaspard Yurkievich, pumps KG Kurt Geiger
Please note that some of the garments and accessories that I showed with the black v-neck sweater on Monday are making a reappearance today with camel. This is NOT laziness on my part (some readers accuse me of the most amazing things…); I do this deliberately to show how versatile some pieces of clothing, and some accessories, can be in your wardrobe. Every piece I show is carefully chosen to look beautiful, and to help you visualize how this might work with your own wardrobe…
love,
Janice
I love camel, and have been told that I did even as a young girl. Fortunately, northern Europe does not do much in the way of 'girly' colours as they do here. Brown, camel and white are my all time favourites. Nicely done, Janice.
No one, absolutely no one, could ever accuse you of laziness, Janice! You apparently work on this blog tirelessly, rising before dawn to give us our daily sartorial viewing fix. I have absolutely no idea how you have time for anything else!
*swoon* love.camel.love. I think it's awesome that you're doing these neutrals – my capsule colors are all neutrals – black, grey, navy, creme, camel – surprising how well they work together even before you throw in other, brighter hues!
Those turquoise Miu Miu pumps are positively adorable!
Love, love, LOVE neutrals–and am learning via your blog how to accessorize them so that they don't look bland.
I'm speechless on the laziness thing. All I can say is, you have a great sense of humor!
Love the camel with the tweed trousers, and the outfit with the yellow skirt is really inspired. I can wear camel, but have shied away because (obviously, after seeing your combinations) I've been too rigid about matching.
Camel is elegant and rich-looking (in all senses of that word).
It's been too long since I thanked you for all your hard work Janice. I learn so much from you and lately it's been how you handle what comes your way when you open up to the internet. You have such grace and it really comes through in your writing.
Thank you for all the examples you set.
Cat
If you're lazy- then I'm comatose!
Camel is my new favourite, love it with pale blue and charcoal grey – but looking forward to wearing white jeans and T shirts if summer ever comes to England.
Also really appreciate your emphasis on accessories – that's were I need to stop being lazy- they transform every outfit.
reach for the blog first thing every day- real inspiration.
I think you are brilliant and I'm stunned that anyone would consider you lazy or comment in a negative way. Your work has helped your readers in so many ways. I have learned so much from you even with colors that don't work for me. Just wanted to show my appreciation. Thank you.
I wonder if sometime you could devote a column to how you store all those scarves and jewelry, avoiding wrinkles in the scarves, tangles in the necklaces, and missing earring pairs. Thanks!
I can't wear camel either, lucky the one that can. Sadly black is not my best color also. I'm still undecided about the one color that would replace for me the black or camel you have used in these capsules. Both the camel and black seem the most easily mixed with other colors.
Navy is coming up tomorrow, gray is in the works, and I suspect I'll do brown also. But then I want to consider "secondary" colors – red, burgundy, bottle green, petrol blue etc. Name your pleasure and I'll give it a try…
Hi Janice, can't wait for navy! Could you do a post sometime (if you haven't already) on wearing a navy skirt during winter. Navy is the base for my capsule wardrobe (black is not a good color for me) and I always wonder what stockings/tights/shoes to wear with a navy skirt – navy tights and navy shoes? A black skirt is so easy – black tights and black shoes but a navy skirt is a bit trickier. I always wonder what to wear with a camel skirt too. Jen
Years ago I had my colors "done" and discovered that charcoal grey or navy are better dark colors for me. Also forest green, blue red, and royal purple. Fortunately I love all these colors and with the exception of forest green, they are the mainstay of my wardrobe. Yes, I have black, but I look much better in charcoal grey or navy so I try to "soften" the black near my face with a scarf or jewelry or blouse. My sister had her colors done at the same time and her darkest colors are chocolate brown, milk chocolate, dark olive green and dark burnt orange. Yes, she has red hair. I've noticed as I have gotten older, really dark colors wash me out a bit, so I'm really into banker's grey and a brighter navy.
This winter I wanted a coral sweater, but couldn't find one. Coral is considered a summer color, but after a few months of wearing darker colors I really felt like I needed some gorgeous, flattering coral near my face ! I hope I find one next year.
When you used the terms "Petro Blue" and "Bottle Green" it made it easy to use a Google image search to define exactly what that was. What a great idea!! I like to mix and match greens and blues together. My favorite is the "Petro Blue".
You get accused of laziness ? ? ? After putting all these wonderful selections together ? ? ? I'm amazed and yet I wonder why. I've noticed that any time the title on my blog posting could be interpreted in a negative way, the readership for the day is substantially higher. This does not say nice things.
I can't wear camel either but it works so well and I loved the selection with the black V-neck. It's easy to see how this follows the same lines and it clearly illustrates an interchangeable wardrobe. I'm looking forward to the other selections. My favourite color to wear is a purple-ish fuchsia.
Oh yea – I'll get emails today pointing out to me that the scarf on the 2nd outfit in the first picture is the SAME scarf that I used on the 2nd outfit of the first picture of the black v-neck sweater… THAT'S THE POINT – nice things have a lot of mileage. I don't take it personally; I know how much I work on things for you all, and if some readers can see it, then I can't do anything to change that. I have enough appreciative readers that I'm not going to worry about people who would complain that their ice cream was too cold!
Back to that old adage "If you can't say anything nice….."
People who have time to (negatively) comment on your blog honestly have way too much time on their hands – I think your blog is wonderful, and I enjoy seeing how you use the same items in completely different looks.
Don't change a thing – you rock!
Your whole blog is so lovely, I wish I had a pocket version of you to come advise me… I have no fashion sense whatsoever and live in two pairs of yoga pants and jeans that are perpetually too short. I aspire to looking at least marginally human but alas, fashion just isn't for all of us, so I have to live vicariously through you lot.
I loved these pairings. I could imagine wearing them all. Camel is one of my favourites. I've worn it consistently since my early twenties, along with navy, ivory, tomato red, aqua, warm grey and sometimes black.
Having limits on colours does make things easier and I think it's great that you remind people how to make one item work so many ways. Not lazy! Creative and flexible!
Cat
Oh, Janice, you make it all look so lovely I almost think I could wear this color. lol But I am very much looking forward to the colors coming up! Lovely job.
Oh my!
I can't really wear camel either but have found that camel + red is awesome, as is camel + black and camel + navy. I had a camel v-neck for years that got worn all the time, with appropriate scarf and shirt choices so the camel wasn't against my skin. Also a wicked pair of camel/black/red plaid pants, which sounds hideous, but it was *awesome*. :)
I love love this, so fresh, so refined, and so current!