December 10, 2018
These feel SO out of season right now – I wonder why they are the flower for December? I’m really happy that it isn’t poinsettias (!) but I was expecting to find that December’s flower was something… wintery?
What this flower does give us is 3 possible accent colors (orange, yellow and white) to brighten up neutrals during these shortest days of the year. (Northern Hemisphere, of course; for those of you south of the Equator, just hold these ideas for a few months!)
There are some lovely pieces of jewelry available with narcissus – or narcissus-ish flowers:
gold bracelet – Alex and Ani; glass pendant – Sarita Kamat; silver bracelet – Shari Dixon; pendant – Nyoman Rena; brooch – Joseph Giovanni Jewelery; earrings – Nyoman Rena
If you would really like to splurge on a brooch in your birth flower, check out the Joseph Giovanni site. They have three different levels of extravagance, with progressively more diamonds in each brooch. I could be tempted…
As soon as I saw this shawl/poncho gizmo, I knew what I was going to put with a simple black dress:
earrings – Maria Black; bracelet – Hermes; dress – Lands’ End; poncho – BP.; bag – Topshop; flats – Seychelles
Since we just had a conversation recently about pairing yellow and navy, I thought I would try orange with navy. They’re opposite each other on the color wheel, so that has to mean something special, right?
scarf – Laura Biagiotti; clutch – Rebecca Minkoff; dress – Uniqlo; earrings – Kendra Scott; ring – Free People; ballet flats – Madewell
I don’t think anybody really considers white to be an accent color, but I wanted to see what I could find to go with this most wonderful dress… (I own this dress, and I believe I’ve worn in 5 times in the first 2 weeks it’s been in my closet!)
earrings – Lagos; sheep brooch – Talbots; dress – Uniqlo; scarf – Free People; bag – Botkier; flats – Softwalk
The toughest part of working with olive is finding a scarf that really works well! I’ve used this scarf before on The Vivienne Files, and I’m showing it again with no apologies because I’m still not seeing anything that pairs greens and yellows so nicely.
earrings – J.Crew; sweater – Madewell; bracelet – J.Crew; pants – L.L.Bean; scarf – Riona Treacy; bag – Medea; loafers – Tod’s
How about actually getting a garment or two in “narcissus colors”? I rather like this look. It might be a bit much with ALL of the yellow accessories, but they could certainly be used 1 at a time:
cardigan – Lands’ End; earrings – Carousel Jewels; flannel shirt – Lands’ End; corduroy pants – Lands’ End; bag – Coach; boots – Steve Madden
I can’t neglect my friends who love brown – how about using that intense orange with this dress? Yes, I firmly believe that our heroine could wear this dress with heavy tights and driving moccasins…
earrings – Miguel Ases; bracelet – Kenneth Jay Lane; dress – Lands’ End; scarf – Marina D’Este; bag – Dooney & Bourke; loafers – Tod’s
On dark, short early winter days, any of these outfits would brighten up an entire room!
love,
Janice
Like this article? Save it to Pinterest!
I wait all year for my birth month, and I have a color palette that I simply cannot wear?. Having said that, what a lovely, cheery set of outfits to brighten a cold, rainy morning. Thank you!
It is a fact about flowers that a LOT of them are yellow and white… Pick your own accent color and find your own flower to match; voila – your own personal birth flower!
hugs,
Janice
I think narcissus must be the December flower because of the popularity of forcing paperwhites (a variety of narcissus) for Christmas (personally I prefer amaryllis!). All of these outfits are beautiful. I so love that brown cable knit sweater dress, but I am not sure I can wear that style (sigh). Maybe I should give it a try just to see. And the coordinating scarf you found is just lovely. Have a great time in Paris, Janice!
I agree. Amyrillis would be the perfect choice for December!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0bnfe_4Fi0PjJ1YCGpzE5CdNw
Hi Janice,
I agree that Amyrillis would be a much better choice for my December birth flower! It would give many more options for those, like myself who can’t wear whites, yellows or oranges. The voices you picked are beautiful! Love the brown cable knit dress. : )
~Melissa
Thanks for the post Janice as Narcissus is my birth month flower and the ‘paperwhites’ are in season throughout the winter and are used in Christmas bouquets here in the UK. The yellow and orange varieties usually make an appearance in early Spring. That said, it’s nice to see a pop of zingy colours to brighten up winter wardrobes, but unfortunately, I can’t wear yellow or orange (near my face anyway), so would probably opt for a few winter white accessories to wear with my grey pieces.
If yellow worked on me, I might just have to wear ALL the accessories to brighten everyone’ day.
I need help. I’m just getting “into” silk scarves and wonder how one handles eating. Almost every time I would wear a scarf around my neck (other than a muffler type for weather) involves a meal at some point. I’m not a terrible slob, but I’ve had my share of spills or spatters and am always nervous about wearing a nice scarf. Do you take it off every meal and then go to the bathroom to recreate the look? What about a party with finger food, just never eat in that case?
I’m not above spinning my scarf around so that the “decorative” part is hanging down the back of my neck during a meal… Then I just spin it back around later! The first time I saw a woman do this (in Paris, of course) I thought that she had tied her scarf in such a way that it was meant to look snazzy from behind…
hugs,
Janice
I am doing so as I read this over my lunch! Usa an insouciant flick as you do turn it round and you’ll look cool…
Thank you JANICE and amanda! I love the “insouciant flick”.
The yellow and white ensemble is so lovely and cheery for winter! If yellow suited me I would wear this in a heartbeat.
Today is my birthday so thank you for the gift of this post. I just love, love, love the gray sweater dress with the plaid scarf. I also love the dress with the cape, but at 4’11” I would look a little ridiculous with all that fabric! A glen plaid scarf would be just right! Carol in VT
Oh come on! If ever a flower paired with a month it would be December and the poinsettia ;-) -Lily
and Holly!
I enjoy your wonderful posts. I’m realizing the importace of colorful accessories. I love the scarves you show and own several lovely ones. My problesm is I get very hot with them around my neck, even when they are tied, or draped open in the front. I only occasionally carry purses. Any ideas how to spice up my neutrals. I love saturated colors.
During the summer when I can’t stand anything around my neck, I wear bracelets to spice up things. Or earrings. (I even repierced my ears for that reason but they closed again). You could use a brooch. I often use printed shirts as accesories (to tie the colors together) instead of scarves.
If you want just a small amount of color, and don’t like jewerly, you can use tank top in saturated color, paired with piece of jewerly or even shoes. They could be multicolored (neutral with that color) to tie the colors together.
I love seing “old” (e.g. already seen) items again in new combinations. For me that is the whole point and fun!
That is what I do with my clothes. Being colorholic in recovery, I put away everything but 2 neutrals and 2 accent colors (sometimes more). Each time in different combinations, so all clothes look brand new again. That is so much fun! Especialy printed (multicolored) items such as scarves, they look totaly different. I include them if they have 2 from my chosen palette and it is always a surprise. I don’t mind if there is some extra color in the print that I don’t currently use, I will use it another time, in another capsule.
Dresses are nice but I can’t find usage for them, this time of year they overheat everywhere and it would be too hot indoors, especially my neck. It is here where I learned shorter sleeved dresses in combinaiton with cardigans are more versatile (and comfortable) for that reason.
Yellow with white is great, I am postponing it for summer.
Burnt orange / dark yellow is great, in fact that is the color I couldn’t make myself put away. I love it with gray and with winter white.
Yellow with black and white is awesome, I love the idea of poncho, how you pulled that yellow from it and accented it, very smart. I will recreate that idea with plaid shawl. I am learning so much here, thank you Janice so much!
In the UK the daffodil is also the emblem for Marie Curie, a charity providing end of life nursing care in the home. A nice thing to support, and they also sell a number of items including brooches and simple bags and other jewelry featuring daffodils.
Love the blog. It inspires me constantly to think about clothing and colour combinations – mine and others’. Thank you so much for what you do.
Being born in December, it’s nice to have a choice between holly and narcissus for decor choice. There is many confusion between narcissus, daffodil, and buttercup. The Narcissus genus includes daffodils, jonquils, and paper-whites, among many others. We have daffodils planted by previous owners at the front door. The plants rise in late November and flower in February.