January 5, 2017
You wanted to revisit the Soir d’Octobre, the most beautiful of paintings, and I receive an email which sets the stage perfectly:
One of us bought some leather pants, just before the cold weather really kicked in! And she’s only got one way to wear them, so far:
Sweater – L.L.Bean; shirt – Lands’ End; leather pants – J. Crew
But she’s recently retired, and wants to build a casual wardrobe! This is a PERFECT scenario for gradually building a wardrobe, and for adding 1 piece at a time…
First up, the white shirt is a great starting point, but these pants also need something a bit more relaxed. To me, nothing fills that bill better than a classic chambray shirt.
Shirt – J.Crew
Just to shake things up, early on, let’s introduce one of the really pretty accent colors:
Cardigan – J.Crew
As much as this wardrobe is really based on leveraging those leather pants, you can’t wear leather pants every day! Cotton trousers in the same color will be just as useful, but more suitable for some situations and climates.
Cotton trousers – L.L.Bean
Relaxed? Warm? Versatile? There’s everything to love about a down vest!
Down vest – Uniqlo
Time to move to the 2nd neutral – that beautiful brown. I KNEW I was going to include this sweater from the very beginning, because I OWN THIS SWEATER. IN BROWN. SERIOUSLY…. (sometime, I’ll post about what I’m going to do with a brown sweater…)
Cashmere sweater – Uniqlo
Brown pants – of course. Corduroy for the cold weather is a nice casual option:
Cords – L.L.Bean
Oooh, accent colors! These waffle fabric henley tops are classic, and come in a lot of colors…
Waffle-knit Henley – L.L.Bean
Brown cardigan! Note that this doesn’t in any way match the brown v-neck sweater from earlier – that’s okay because they won’t be worn together. You have to remember that a little variety is okay in some pieces, so long as it doesn’t interfere with the basic versatility of your “core” neutral groupings. For example, if this cardigan didn’t look good with the brown pants, it would be a bad choice…
Cardigan – Fat Face
A skirt isn’t included in everyone’s casual wardrobe, but one skirt might make sense. If you absolutely can’t face the idea of a skirt, this would be the time to try to scare up a pair of dark “tree bark” colored jeans.
Skirt – L.L.Bean
And one sort of dressy blouse? Heck yes – it will be smashing with those leather pants, and will give you a way to slightly dress up your otherwise casual pieces.
blouse – Forte Forte
Fleece – timeless, tough as nails, warm, and available in a bajillion colors – all casual wardrobes should include a piece or two.
Jacket – Patagonia
These jeans are just about halfway between brown and olive – what a great, subtle color!
Jeans – L.L.Bean
That white shirt is looking lonely, so a tee shirt seems a good way to wrap up this wardrobe. Simple, light neutral tee shirts are the easiest way in the world to layer together an outfit.
Tee – L.L.Bean
It all hangs together really well, I’d say!
Just a word of warning – if you run across any cold-weather gear that you like, you’d be wise to purchase it sooner than later. Lots of things are selling out at an amazing rate, and spring clothes are showing up in most of the places that I look. It’s silly, but we should grow used to it, I supposed…
love,
Janice
p.s. Tomorrow – the accessories!
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Wow, this really shows the versatility of olive.
I love the olive, pinks, greens and purples. I would substitute denim jeans for the skirt and even though i'm not a huge fan of brown it goes quite nicely in this wardrobe.
I was surprised that the first item you added was in blue – and then pink and purple – but WOW – it all came together and looks lovely. Cosy for the winter but those pops of bright colours just make me smile. Love it.
I just really wanted to get the white shirt out from under that lovely sweater. There's quite a bit of blue in the painting – albeit more aqua than the denim – so I felt like it would work. Denim is fast becoming the universal neutral!
hugs,
Janice
Janice,
It's me, it's me ! Though perhaps I would sub out the pink for a more salmon or coral hue . I hope the olive color hangs around in the stores for several more years until I get down to a size that I prefer to be ! I've always thought that blue goes well with olive . Browns, olive, camel or tan, and warm burgundy are my Winter core colors . The tans get the heaviest use, paired with either the brown , olive, or burgundy for a 4×4 format.
What a lovely combination of colors! Not one you see every day, but it still looks sophisticated and pretty even in a wardrobe that leans to casual side.
-Sara K-
This is really lovely and is quite inspiring for me. But the biggest "moment" was when I read that you own that great brown sweater. I am looking forward to learning how you will utilize it in your colour scheme.
Deb from Vancouver
I have that lovely brown sweater too, so I can't wait to see how you style it! I often wear mine with black jeans- don't know how you will feel about that :)
FYI, the link to the white tee is broken.
Thanks Laura! I think it's fixed now…
hugs,
Janice
As an avid reader of your blog, I've scoured older posts and tried to find a mention of using olive and grey as neutrals. I don't know why that works for me but it does – I'm what has been described as a "muted spring" or "warm summer" – soft colors, and grey seems to work with all of them, as does olive. This most recent piece of art makes me think you could help me with this!
Perhaps you could create a wardrobe from this work of art using grey instead of brown
I've got a perfect piece of art in mind – olive, grey, and Passion Flowers…
hugs,
Janice
I have that first sweater, in blue, and I'm wearing it today! It's warm and cozy, but I didn't know what else to wear it with besides a white shirt and dark blue jeans. I'm wearing a blue version of our heroine's starting outfit! This whole wardrobe is lovely, but I paid special attention to the outfits you laid out using that sweater. I really like the skirt option.
Sprint to the LLBean site and check out the plaid shirts that they have – they're selling out like mad, but they will have some (both cotton and flannel) that almost certainly were made to work with your sweater!
I must have had you in my heart when I was working on this, eh?
hugs,
Janice
I bought that sweater in blue, but sadly it didn't fit me correctly so back it went. It is lovely though, as well as all of this wardrobe. Love Maurice Denis! – nancyo
What a great wardrobe! I have a gorgeous suede skirt that I bought at a thrift store for next to nothing, but find that I almost never wore it last year (when I bought it) and haven't worn it at all this year. Glad I paid $5 instead of what it was worth! So I don't think I'll be buying any leather pants, ha ha. But as usual this shows so well how a few, well-chosen garmetnts (for color, personal style, and lifestyle) can make a huge number of great options. Love it1