Okay, let’s finish shifting this wardrobe!By now, you should be REALLY comfortable with the colors of your new clothes, and you should also be feeling slightly uneasy when you wear your older things. If you aren’t finding this shift to be a big improvement in your love for your wardrobe, STOP SHOPPING. Don’t make this shift if you’re not 100% sure it’s the right thing, and don’t continue the move if you feel at any time that you might be making a mistake. There’s no shame in stopping at any stage for a lengthy reassessment, and there’s no shame in deciding part way through that it was a bad move. The only shame would be in persisting in taking advice from someone else about your wardrobe, when your instincts and emotions tell you it’s the wrong thing to do!
So this is where we are after the first 5 steps of the move:
Step 6 – A Neutral Shift for 3 Pieces
The next step is pretty clear – get rid of more of that black! When you survey the wardrobe as a whole, it’s clear that the black doesn’t fit in at all well…
green cardigan – L.L.Bean; blue cardigan – L.L.Bean; draped top – 3.1 Phillip Lim; blue turtleneck – Ferragamo; black cardigan – J. Crew; Ivory tee – Uniqlo;olive dress – IDLF Uniqlo; tan tee – IDLF Uniqlo; blazer – L.L.Bean; vicuna cardigan – Lands’ End; green sweater – L.L.Bean; blue sweater – Tsumori Chisato; dress – Issey Miyake; blue top – H&M; olive tee – Oasis; vicuna sweater – Lands’ End; cream tee – L.L.Bean; cropped pants -L.L.Bean; pants – J. Crew; flared skirt – MICHAEL Michael Kors; olive pants – Etro; jeans – Armani Jeans; rust capris – Patagonia; pencil skirt – J. Crew; olive shorts – L.L.Bean
I love this color, named oatmeal, beige, or whatever:
Cardigan – James Perse; pants – J. Brand; skirt – Boden
Step 7 – New Casual Wear – Capris and a Pair of Tops
By now, you should be committed to the change that you’re making, so it’s time to clear out the last black garment, and find a couple of fun pieces to wear with most of your new things:
Since we’re adding a pair of shorts here, I thought that a couple of nice tee shirts would be fun companions. Both of these tops will go with most of your cardigans, pants, and your new skirt.
Coral tee – L.L.Bean; floral top – L.L.Bean; shorts – L.L.Bean
Step 8 – Refreshing Accent Color Tops
Frankly, you could hold onto these blue pieces until you get absolutely sick of them, because they are really quite compatible with the rest of your wardrobe. But in the interests of really finishing off EVERYTHING, let’s get some new tops, in more flattering colors.
Since you’re sure you’re going to be wearing your new colors for the foreseeable future, this is a good time to invest in something really gorgeous, like a cashmere twinset. Even if you’re not the twinset type, having two pieces in the same color gives you the option to use the same jewelry and scarves with either piece.
Turquoise cardigan – J. Crew; turquoise sweater – J. Crew; striped top – T by Alexander Wang
Step 9 – The Last Step: A Special-Occasion Dress
If it was my choice, I’d keep this dress forever… but of course, it will eventually wear out, or you will find that you just NEVER put it on:
So, since it’s your only really dressy dress, we’re going to go WAAAAY over the top for this one:
Dress – Chloe
Nine steps, an undefined period of time, but this is where we end up. The overall structure of the wardrobe is very similar to our starting point, but it looks completely different, thanks to the warmer colors.
Next, I’m going to start shifting the accessory wardrobe from cool to warm – it should be interesting!
love,
Janice
Dear Janice, this has been fascinating. I would have to do it over a long time..thank you for the well planned wardrobe adaptions. And of course it could be vice versa.. Hate to get rid of that very lovely blue dress….hope all is ok. Chris from Australia x
I see EF has a sale and the muted green is oregano! I find on line shopping difficult!
The turquoise really makes a difference in the mix. I love it!
It's amazing how well turquoise, coral, pink, baby blue, red, green, orange–pretty much everything–go with brown. If only browns weren't so hard to match. A saddle shade suddenly looks off-orange when next to something more chocolate. Drives me nuts.
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Thanks for this – very inspiring. Hope all is well. Sending good thoughts and prayers.
What beautiful warm toned turquoise and aqua tops- quite different, I think , to the shades that one would buy to go with the original palette. Interesting.
This has been a really interesting series! Since cool colours suit me, it's been instructive in why certain choices were a mistake- yet are so marvelous on others.
I've been an auburn-haired autumn all my life and I LOVE these pieces! Especially that last dress. (Just a tad out of my budget, but so gorgeous!)
Looking forward to the accessories.
Echoing Duchesse and adding that this series has made it absolutely clear to me that I should only be in cool colors. Hope all is well.
I agree with everyone else. Very interesting series. Love the pop of turquoise!
Hi Janice,
Really like the accessory wordrobe series. Thanks for the blog