Cardigan – Topshop; tee – J.Crew; trousers – Current/Elliott
I’m including these Yves Saint Laurent pants, even though they’re the ONLY pair available, to remind you that a garment with a range of shades of green could work really beautifully with your olive neutrals.
Silk – YvesSaint Laurent Vintage; corduroy – Harvey Faircloth; cropped – J. Crew Factory
This is a case in which the scarf really plays a key role. And this scarf is a stylized map – it’s a really good thing it’s not my colors.And I have to point out the earrings from Louise et Cie; this is a company that has made shoes for a few years, and just now ventured into jewelry (at least in the US). Some of their jewelry is really cool, and not at all expensive. I’m making a note of this company for when my shopping moratorium ends!
Scarf – Michael Stars; earrings – Louise et Cie; loafers – Jack Rogers
Are there any of you who can’t wear this color near your face? It seems to me that it might be pretty widely flattering.
Boucle – Tibi; v-neck – Michael Michael Kors; cabled – Sea
This is another pair of earrings from Louise et Cie… I’m really quite smitten.And when you’re stumped for a scarf, don’t forget to check museum gift shops. They aren’t as led by trendy colors as stores might be…
Earrings – Louise et Cie; scarf – Metropolitan Museum of Art; Laceless oxfords – Munro
All of these tops were described as cobalt, although you can clearly see that they don’t exactly look like the same color! That’s something you have to bear in mind when you’re searching online for something – use a LOT of creativity in describing what you want. Using a thesaurus wouldn’t be silly!
Long sleeve – Uniqlo; ¾ sleeve – Scoop; short sleeve – White Stuff
Earrings – Meghna Designs; scarf – Etro; Loafers – Cole Haan
The next time they change words in the English language, please make sure that I get the memo! I always thought that something WITHOUT sleeves was a vest, and that a similar garment WITH sleeves was a jacket. But if you search for jacket these days, you’ll get a whole bunch of vests that they call sleeveless jackets… Next thing you know, they’ll be referring to shorts as legless pants!
Vest – Uniqlo; hooded – Adidas; Cocoon – Gianluca Capannolo
Earrings – Ted Baker London; boots – Softspots; scarf – Missoni
Yet another instance in which you can easily wear a “difficult” color, when you move it away from your face.
Pencil – J. Crew Factory; pleated midi – J. Crew; kilt – Boden
These are great shoes – if I wore gold (rather than silver), I’d grab these NOW, in anticipation of the winter holidays. I’m particularly happy with the very reasonably low heel!
Earrings – Mikinora; scarf – Hermes Phoenix et Plumets; Pumps – Sam Edelman
Here’s where the going got tough:
Flaired skirt – Marni; v-neck sleeveless – Diane von Furstenberg; Cap sleeve – Planet
This isn’t the worst cardigan possible to wear over your shoulders; the bracelet is decidedly green, and the hammered gold earrings and gold shoes keep it all coherent. But if there were ever a combination that I would have avoided, this is it! But the “random draw” for colors and items required a purple dress, so this is how it turns out.
Earrings – Josie Natori; bracelet – L. Erickson; Pumps – Sam Edelman
Red and olive is a classic combination. One of the fun things here was the range of reds available!
Pockets – J. Crew; tie front – Tory Burch; V-neck – J. Crew
Yep, the same scarf as yesterday. Why not?
Scarf – Laleh Fayaz; garnet bracelet – Gurhan; Loafers – Marc Fisher Ltd
This is a perfect color combination for autumn!
8-button – J. Crew; orange trimmed – Boden; Cropped – Boutique Moschino
I love this, and I never wear these colors!
Necklace – Treasures Hanover; tote – Brahmin; Loafers – Coach
I’m not going to get back to these “bright accent posts” until after my vacation, but I do want to know if you’re interested in a couple more. Maybe with camel? Teal? Plum?love,
Janice
The olive works so well – I'm sure 'Deb from Vancouver' will find lots to inspire her. I LOVE all the scarves, not only do they link the colours together, they each add a different nuance to the style. A version with a taupe/stone core would be interesting.
Alice
From Margie in Toronto – such an interesting way of looking at colour combinations – so many that I would never have even considered and yet I love them! This series is really making me think twice about adding accent colours that I would never have even considered in the past. Using multi-coloured scarves to pull it all together is really eye opening!
You are making my shopping moratorium exceedingly difficult with these colors that all right at home in my closet. I still would like to see what you could do with camel. Have a lovely vacation.
This is my favorite of this series so far. I've settled on camel as my first neutral, so I'd love to see a version with a lighter neutral like camel, khaki or taupe.
Gwendolynn
Olive is my favorite neutral because it still looks like a color despite being neutral :-) And I love purple and green together – I find it very botanical!
– Kaci
These are terrific posts, Janice. I particularly liked the grey base. Perhaps a greige/mushroom/taupe for a future grouping? Thank you for all the work you do!
Janice,
Camel ? Teal ? Plum ? Yes, yes, yes ! In addition to the varied accent colors with these neutrals, I've really been appreciating your demonstrations of how to vary the individual pieces with either structural or textural differences. This will be one of my many bookmarked posts that you have done that I will keep referring back to for inspiration. In fact, I would like to bookmark ALL of your posts, but then you have provided for that as well with both your alphabetical and calendar based references. You are you he best !
Darned Nexus Tablet ! I tried to say you are the best !
Olive was my neutral a few years ago and I wore a lot of purple with it. IMHO, the two colors go well together, especially for fall, but I agree that the purple dress and the green cardigan are not the best pairing. But a more cropped cardigan over the flared dress? That could work!
Plum – interesting. Camel – yes, please. Thanks as always, Janice!
How stunning!
Teal? Yes please!
You have given me such respect for the power of scarves!!!!!!
THANKS for exploring olive with bright colors! Next – CAMEL please!
Plum! Yes, please. This is a gorgeous series.Thank you always.
Vancouver Barbara
Alice above is correct. I have a lot of options thanks to you, Janice. My shopping fingers are itching! I would love to see a set with teal. Have a great holiday. We will miss you. PS that new jewellery line looks promising AND now we have Nordstrom in Vancouver. Big happy grin.
Deb from Vancouver
Camel, please :)
I vote for plum!!! But you would make all of the options gorgeous!
These are lovely as always. I realize that it's not one of the core pieces that you were trying to incorporate, but a multi-colored wrap incorporating the olive and purple would be beautiful with the purple dresses.
I'd love to see this with teal and plum as those are two of my favorites.
I'm not certain whether other people are having this issue but for the past week or so, I haven't received any of your posts via email. I checked my spam, but no-go. Any suggestions?
Hi Janice,
Have a great vacation!
Louise P
Love, love love!
Teal AND Plum! And a "ditto" to all the above requests for taupe. These are fun, I can't wait till you get back from vacation. Have a great time!
Though you dismissed the idea of forest green at the start of this series, would you reconsider it now that you're taking color requests? I'm seeing a bit of it this years and am just craving it. I'm carefully adding it to my wardrobe of navy, grey, wine, plum, and tiny touches of teal.
I don't wear a lot of greens well, and mixing greens is just about the hardest thing I can imagine doing, but right now the deep not-yellow shades of evergreen, pine, hunter, and spruce are lighting up my wardrobe and my heart. I would appreciate seeing you work with this color in any of your series. Of course I'd love seeing it with others in my wardrobe palette, but I would thrill to just see whatever examples you might select to show us on your blog.
Wow, olive looks great! I tried my own version with plum over at polyvore: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=178151306
Happy vacation! Will be looking forward to your return & any insights you glean while away.
For we Brits, your tank is our vest (a tank for us being an armoured vehicle only). We call a knitted (70s) version of that style a tank top. We call a sleeveless fastened garment which ends around the waist a waistcoat, which I believe is your vest; a longer-line version is to us a sleeveless jacket, though the french word gilet has crept into common use. Confusing indeed!
Thanks from all of us redheads out here! LOVED this post!!!!
As another red head, I love the olives and khakis.
Maybe I am the only one that can't wear the wine colour, but I can wear reds, oranges and yellows, so long as the are the autumn leaf tones.
Thank you for fantastic ideas and inspiration.
Oh, this is just what I needed. I've recently added olive to my wardrobe and I am struggling to integrate it with my other clothes. I love the olive and acid green especially. I'm always looking for new ways to wear my acid green slacks.
Susan
Yes, please! Teal and Plum with Olive. I love olive, teal, plum and red, gray and navy (while I still have some black pants/skirts too). I have tried to weed out all the other colors as these are the ones I love the most. Autumn leaf tones.
GADawn57
Love this! Please do more! It's amazing how these specific pieces really can work with all different base colors.
Your photographer friend loves the olive palette. I never would have thought to combine the colors you have.
I just discovered your site! I am enjoying it tremendously. It has helped my fall wardrobe purchases already. I am investing in camel this fall and already have the olive. My eyes are olive green with gold (hazel) so I am going off them this year. I have done camel with black and would like some brights.