October 11, 2019
You won’t probably be surprised to hear that I look for color combinations and wardrobe palettes in just about EVERYTHING I see! So when we were in the hotel in Kilkenny, the carpet in the halls caught my attention; on a ground of shades of grey were scattered bright color squares…
I struggled to get any sort of a photograph of the carpet, and failed miserable. Just trust me that these were pretty much what the colors looked like…
After Wednesday’s VERY black and white travel wardrobe, I thought that this would be an interesting experiment. I’m going to keep neutral 2nd layers and pants, and use the accents for the tops. And lots of fun accessories, of course!
So let’s start by getting our heroine on the road, eh?
scarf – Faliero Sarti; alpaca blend coat – Eileen Fisher; tunic – Eileen Fisher; mismatched earrings – Missoni; socks – Sockwell; boots – Blondo; pants – Eileen Fisher
I thought that a sober, monochromatic travel outfit might be best, just in case she has to wear this well into her 2nd day on the road. The socks, scarf, and earrings do all of the work in brightening up things here!
For packing, she’s going to start with her core pieces in her neutral:
cardigan – Madewell; pull-on jeans – Lands’ End; v-neck cashmere sweater – L.L.Bean; velvet jeans – Lands’ End; sneakers – Veja; black patent loafers – Munro
Jeans for casual, velvet jeans for dressier, and shoes that work nicely with the pants… a cardigan and a pull-over sweater, to give her a bit of variety in silhouette. (yes, of course she can wear this lovely grey v-neck sweater with nothing under it…)
But now for the fun stuff!
rust merino turtleneck – HUGO; carnelian necklace – Narayani; grey scarf – ImageDiary; floral scarf – Blumarine; green earrings – Neeru Goel; soft fern green tee shirt – Lands’ End; purple velvet tunic – Lands’ End; purple earrings – Neetu Barathi; paisley scarf – Liberty London; pink bead bracelet – Siranya; pink cotton turtleneck – Lands’ End; amethyst bracelet – Rituu Agarwal; socks – Mysocks
Our heroine very wisely chose a range of tops:
- a lightweight merino wool turtleneck, which can be worn on its own, or under another sweater if it gets bitter cold,
- a tee shirt that can be worn alone or under all of her grey 2nd layers,
- a velvet tunic for those times when one feels the need for dressy! This top isn’t great with the cardigan or the v-neck sweater, but can easily be worn under her grey coat, and
- a cotton turtleneck that goes with everything!
Yes, if I could have found the right pair of pink socks, I would have included them in a heartbeat!
Imagine our heroine, arraying all of this on her bed and she prepared to pack:
I’d be pretty tickled, personally….
She has a lot of different outfit possibilities here; I’m not showing them all. If our heroine is traveling for a week or 10 days, she’s in good shape!
Is this a travel wardrobe that might solace those among us who feel the longing to wear a variety of colors?
love,
Janice
p.s. 3 years ago I began a multi-day “Starting From Scratch” wardrobe…
Like this article? Save it to Pinterest!
So much variety with so few items! I love the velvet tunic !!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I get inspiration from all of your posts but this one really speaks to me. I love bright colors and variety so seeing 4 accents colors is wonderful. My inspiration is a couple of photos of a peacocks I found on Pinterest after typing in the colors of the clothes that made up most of my wardrobe (royal blue, purple, green and yellow).
Thanks for all you do.
Love this sober grey base with all the lively colours. DH would prefer I move to more colour accents. I could use this as a guide.
I’m on our cruise at the moment, docked off Manzanilla with wifi and every night at dinner we are beside a beautiful older Japanese lady & her husband. About 70 or maybe more.
She uses that hot pink (like in this top you show) a lot along with a deep clear rose.
Last night she wore an aqua silk chiffon on silk dress with silk embroidery. Silver heels and accessories.
I finally saw her “dressed down” at breakfast with platform Wedge sandals and sporting a clear apricot linen top and beige linen shorts.
I think her beige linen shorts are the first actual neutral I’ve seen her wear. No black or grey or navy yet.
She’s immaculate with her dark hair and makeup. Nothing overdone but so so inspiring. She likes a deep rose lipstick and a little eyeliner & mascara with light but perfect makeup and almost imperceptible blush.
She exudes elegance and dignity. The exact opposite of hello kitty culture.
But what intrigues me is her use of hot pink as her neutral core. Even on her iPhone cover and the hot pink braided silk lanyard holding the room key medallion that she pulls out of her usual hot pink clutch. She used a silver clutch with the aqua chiffon but otherwise her many evening dresses plus clutch & heels are all varieties of deep rose to hot pink. Amazing.
Wow! She sounds fascinating; thanks so much for taking the time to share your observations!
travel safely,
hugs,
Janice
Wow – she must look amazing! I’ve just switched over to my Fall/Winter wardrobe and there is a lot of black, grey & navy with white tops – I’m thinking that some shades of pink would really lift things and make it a lot more fun in those dark wintery days – I have a 3 cardigans in various shades of pink but could do with a few tops and a nice scarf! You have inspired me – enjoy your trip!
She didn’t fail once in 10 days. I’m still on for another 5 days for the next leg but she got off the ship this morning.
Since I wrote the above— I saw her in cream lace lined trousers with a cherry red to deep rose raw silk top with 3/4 sleeves -lovely flounces and last night she wore a pure white embroidered cotton blouse and capris with a hot pink tank top under the blouse. Silver sandals both times. Hot pink to almost cherry red clutch purse again.
She mixes her metals. A liquid glossy gold serpentine chain necklace with silver earrings and sometimes she’s worn some earrings that appear to be rubies surrounded by diamonds on a white gold setting and matching pendant on a white gold chain. Gold rings, gold watch.
The rubies looked real- they had a very Nancy Reagan era look & that hot pink colour of the real thing.
I so appreciated her style but I had to take quick glances so as not to stare in amazed delight.
Her neutral really was that deep rose pink to cherry pink red. And she didn’t care if she was wearing something memorable. She WENT FOR IT!!! Unapologetic and unashamedly.
I doubt I will ever forget her. Nor would I want to.
She only spoke Japanese, her husband spoke very little English and they were so polite and genuine in their smiles. I’m thrilled to have sat next to her and observed a really elegant Japanese woman in her element.
I love color. Especially brights so this makes me very happy. :)
I love this palette. It’s completely inspiring.
I LOVE this wardrobe, and I think I could replicate most of it from my closet. I might need that purple tunic, though…
I agree this is a fabulous grouping of colours, so very cheery and happy. Feels like more actual clothes than in reality. Another winner. Thank you for your dedication, I look forward to reading and re-reading your posts.
Enjoy the weekend and Happy Canadian Thanksgiving
Love colour! Please do more like this! Do you think these accents would work with black instead of grey? I find grey depressing in myself though it looks fine on other people.
As an aside, it should be “worn on its own “, not “it’s own “. The possessive form of it is its; the contraction for it is is its. For the most part your grammar is excellent!
Thanks for the grammar correction – I’m far from too proud to accept your help when I mess up something! And yes, these would be lovely with black…
hugs,
Janice
I have just discovered your blog, and your pie chart approach to choosing colours for a capsule wardrobe has been transformative for me! I never had a problem choosing neutrals, but I could never simplify the additional colours, so things went with each other. Thanks to your pie chart approach, For the first time ever, I get it! I used this to organise and make sense of my existing clothes, and once I stripped out all the random items, I discovered I already have a pretty good capsule wardrobe already, and really don’t need to do much additional shopping. Plus, it has made any shopping I do need to do so much easier. I know exactly what I am looking for. I went shopping in John Lewis yesterday, and rather than wandering around aimlessly, looking for things I liked, my eye was simplified to seek out exactly what I needed. I have taken everything out of my wardrobe that doesn’t fit my colour scheme, and it is a calming joy to look in it. Thank you!!
Wonderful combinations and colors!
When I first started reading this site and rearranging / purging my clothes I found that the majority that fit and were not jeans were royal purple. So those were my main colors for a while… So much for neutral. You can, it turns out, use a bright color as a base. But for whatever reason I had bought so much purple, I realized it had always been for accents. So I ended up purchasing neutrals and getting rid of most of the purples (now I have only one, a sweater that I love but should get rid of because I almost never wear it – I guess I love the idea of it more than I do it). Anyway what’s fun about this way of putting a wardrobe together is that it’s very flexible, because it helps you figure out a core of basic garments. The color grabs your attention but isn’t the key. If you substitute any color for black here, and make the colors white, grey, black, and some other color that coordinates, you’d have a perfectly functional (though perhaps eccentric) wardrobe.
I love traveling with grey as my neutral, and this wardrobe would be quite functional and flexible. In the summer I built a travel capsule with a “three jeans” approach – white, blue denim, and coral. And most of my tops and jackets were black or patterned. I was able to look fairly dressy with a black silky tunic length top and white slim jeans with black sandals. It made for a fun trip! – nancyo
Sounds lovely! Coral is one of the supposedly “big” colors for 2020. We shall see; I’m looking at the “new” Pantone colors on Friday!
hugs,
Janice
Fun! I love wearing coral in the summertime; the jeans were perfect with all of my neutrals. – nancyo