November 19, 2018
One of the best things about having a solid core of neutral clothes is that you can completely indulge when you are smitten with a “new” accent color. It doesn’t require a massive investment in new pieces to be able to pull together a handful of new outfits that include your new sweetheart color…
Let’s say you have a passion for Fiesta! And in the course of indulging yourself in its beauty, you accumulate these items:
sweater – Lands’ End; earrings – Elizabeth Cole; bracelet – Loren Hope; scarf – The Met Store; ballet flats – Madewell
Now let’s further hypothesize that you’ve got this tidy cluster of “midnight” pieces that you’ve carefully assembled over time. This has the infinite value of NOT being black; at lots of events and locations you’ve set yourself apart from the crowd already!
Sweater – Eileen Fisher; shirt – Eileen Fisher; skirt – Eileen Fisher; velvet pants – Eileen Fisher
Now, it’s obvious that these 4 pieces are, in fact, 4 outfits; 2 tops x 2 bottoms = 4 outfits. More if you want to layer the shirt and the sweater, and of course when you bring in additional garments, you’ve got a LOT of possibilities.
But how does this look when we add in the Fiesta! (that sounds a little bit odd…)
Imagine packing just these 5 garments for a long holiday-season weekend… With your travel outfit, you’d be well set!
You could dress for a range of holiday events, be perfectly appropriate, and absolutely NOT fade into the crowd!
Any of the accent colors can work this way, if you start with that neutral Core of 4. Gold and navy are NOT (for most of us) traditional colors for the upcoming holiday season, but for a high-school or college event, or just because you like the colors, you might still choose this:
sweater – Halogen; earrings – Erwin Pearl; scarf – Victoria Ragna; bag – Treasure & Bond; flats – Klub Nico
These were the colors of my high school! Some color impressions are deep and permanent, I believe. But there’s nothing wrong with being distinctive, if you love what you’re wearing…
I’m going to assemble some other “Core of 4” neutral collections and see how they play with other of the Pantone Spring 2019 colors. Some might be more casual, but in all cases I’m hoping to show the ease that having the right neutral clothes can bring to getting dressed on a daily basis.
And I’m still debating which of these accents is my favorite… Happily, it’s just an intellectual game, and not something I have to do in “real life!”
love,
Janice
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Both these colours shine with the solid navy background. I don’t think most of us would look at hte yellow and blue and think – school colours- maybe if you had thick alternating stripes of the yellow and blue though????
Or if you’re in the area of a large prominent school with those colors…. this could be sophisticated way to root for your team!
Yep! Some people still have strong allegiances to teams or schools with particular colors, and are happy to show their loyalty in their own way.
Maybe you’re the president of the college…
hugs,
Janice
Thanks Janice for this! I saw a women at church yesterday who looked stunning. She wore light grey pants, matching duster sweater and boots. Her accents were a knit top, simple canvas tote and multi-colored scarf – all similar to the new Pantone color, Pink Peacock. WOW!
I’m going to copy this as I have the light grey items- my accent color will be the new Pantone color, Princess Blue. I have the knit top and scarf and just ordered a small purse in that color. So I’m venturing out! A cute somewhat inexpensive purse seems like a good alternative to colored shoes for me as my feet are hard to fit and I like the long line effect of shoes matching my pants. (I’m short!).
Can’t wait to wear this new outfit. And I think I can also wear the princess blue items with my navy column?
Janice Collins Coyle, Washington DC
I think they could be lovely together. Sometimes with colors you just have to try them to see how they strike you when you get them together.
And I have relatively small feet, but I still don’t feel comfortable wearing colored shoes. I don’t know why…
hugs,
Janice
Janice Collins Coyle,
I also don’t wish to call attention to my feet, though I dream of being able to do that in another life ! The colored handbag is as low on my body as I go for contrast ! I also would love to be able to use an accent colored belt — after I lose this weight, though I think that looks best paired with the colored shoes . I wonder how much my feet shall lose weight too? In the past it was actually a half size down !
Aspen Gold sounds so much prettier than Mustard.
Peggy
Doesn’t it? I would really try to come up with appealing color names, if the job were mine!
hugs,
Janice
My high school colors were blue and orange, so I’ll go with that Fiesta for my navy.
I love the way both these jolts of colour landed into the navy.
I love navy & I do have a couple of pale lemon tops that I might expand for spring. Sunshine and daffodils. I have a silk scarf in navy with grey, lemon yellow & scarlet that I use every spring for my colour theme.
Janice Collins Coyle’s lady at church in the grey with the Pink Peacock accents sounds very well put together. The Princess Blue will be gorgeous playing off grey or navy.
Right now I’m going with Jester Red mixed in with my black, grey & winter white base. But I also use the clear true red group and blush pink a lot. Lots of warmth to combat dark chilly November grey skies.
These mini capsules of colours are so easy to use and bring such variety & joy.
i accent with orange, mostly. i LOVE yellow but it’s not the best coloring as a solid for me so I pair it with white so as not to wash me out.
Janice,
You don’t often feature belts in your ensembles. Is there any particular reason ?
They’re very off of my radar because I don’t have a waist! It’s an oversight I need to correct – I certainly well know that the whole world isn’t built like me (and I’m happy for that…)
hugs,
Janice
I have to admit that no one in my immediate family ever wears navy and gold/mustard (yellow) together lest we look like we root for Notre Dame! However we will always pair it with black as in Purdue and Iowa. Sometimes those college colors are hard to get past even if they do look good together. Ha!
Oh I get this! I went to Wartburg, and then Drake for graduate school…
hugs,
Janice