March 2, 2020
Ah, sitting here in Florida with the sun streaming into my mom’s kitchen is the PERFECT time to think about a pretty new top…
Navy tunic – Lands’ End
Stripes, flowers, tiny little sailboats or lady bugs… They’re all cheerful and bring some fun to a disciplined and well-planned wardrobe!
To get started, let’s look back at our 6 silk scarves around which we are building wardrobes, and see what tops might be lovely with each of them:
navy lion and peacock scarf – Aspinal of London; navy floral tee – Lands’ End; mustard “A” Floral scarf – Aspinal of London; gray mist print tee – Lands’ End; Magenta Robins scarf – Aspinal of London; pink striped wrap top – Lands’ End
mint green “A” Floral scarf – Aspinal of London; dusty mint tee – Lands’ End; Earth Mandala scarf – GISY; striped tee – Lands’ End; shield scarf – Aspinal of London; leopard print tee – Dorothy Perkins
The following six outfits are a gradual evolution from week to week… this week I’m adding sweatshirts to each outfit. I find that I will wear a sweatshirt a LOT if it’s clean and close at hand. If you live in a warm climate, keeping 1 in the back seat of the car for shopping or dining might be useful too.
earrings – Banana Republic; bracelets – Banana Republic; print tee – Marks and Spencer; white sweatshirt – L.L.Bean; cotton no-wrinkle pants – L.L.Bean; canvas shoes – Keds
And this week I added some pretty bracelets; I’ve started wearing at least 2 or 3 bracelets every day!
earrings – Kate Spade New York; horn bangle bracelet – Akola; striped tee – Liverpool; sweatshirt – Topshop; olive no-wrinkle cotton pants – L.L.Bean; gold espadrilles – Old Navy
I love mixing shades of grey…
earrings – Bhavesh; bracelet – Swarovski; ponte checked top – Marks & Spencer; sweatshirt – Patagonia; granite canvas pants – L.L.Bean; shoes – Keds
These fleecy-textured sweatshirts are SO nice in cooler weather; I have a cardigan in this fabric and it’s a comforting garment when I need a good cuddle.
earrings – Soft Surroundings; bracelet – Liviana Conti; tee – Uniqlo; sherpa hoodie – Todd Snyder; pants – Lands’ End; shoes – Pikolinos
The wavy tee shirt print and the wavy earrings and bracelet are meant for each other, aren’t they?
earrings – Vince Camuto; bracelet – Achara; tee – Splendid; sweatshirt – L.L.Bean; wrinkle-free cotton pants – L.L.Bean; canvas boat shoes – Sperry
Yes, this tee shirt has a few sequins on it – some of us can easily rock that kind of thing; are you that woman?
earrings – Banana Republic; bracelet – Chico’s; tee – Dorothy Perkins; sweatshirt – L.L.Bean; twig chinos – L.L.Bean; shoes – Josef Seibel
Ah, this wardrobe is starting to look a bit confused, with pink and red and blue… But one could still dress for a long time with these 13 garments!
white, black and red tees – Lands’ End; floral tee – Lands’ End; linen cardigan – Halogen; shell pink linen shirt – L.L.Bean; striped tee – Banana Republic; black metallic hoodie – Michael Kors Collection; cobalt cashmere cardigan – Lands’ End; black cropped pants – L.L.Bean; black stretch wool pants – BOSS; skirt – Marks & Spencer; striped sweater dress – Banana Republic
Here’s the master list – I’m really getting eager to start looking at “true” summer clothes. Not that I’ll be able to wear them in Chicago for a bit, but a woman can always dream, and a smart woman SHOULD plan ahead….
love,
Janice
p.s. 4 years ago, we built a brown, beige and turquoise wardrobe by adding One Piece at a Time…
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I love wearing hooded sweatshirts with a tee or turtleneck on the weekends. I have one from North Face that is a black & white print that I got from a consignment shop. I also wear it with my black L..L. Bean vest over it. I am actually surprised at how much I wear it. I would like to find one in a solid color.
The bracelets you chose are interesting and fun! I just purged some bracelets from my jewelry wardrobe and bought some new ones last week. It’s fun to know I’m not alone in loving bracelets right now!
I appreciate your practice of linking to old posts at the end. You have so much good content; it never gets old. The one you linked to today has always been one of my favorites. I’d love to wake up and find that my wardrobe had been replaced by that one!
Loving this series! It’s hard to pick a favorite! I have been trying to use the contact link, but I receive an error message every time. Thought you’d like to know.
Hi Janice! I love small patterned t shirts, stripes, and polka dots! Summer clothes are so much less expensive than winter, so it’s easy And fun to try a new colours.
I love, love, love cozy sweat shirts. It’s still chilly on the North west coast even though spring is in the air. I can see this also on an airplane transit outfit too.
I am working on making sure my golf sports wear, yoga work out wear and every day clothes continue on the same colour palette. The clothes cross over, as do the shoes. On my last trip I wore a small pattered black and white animal print sun shirt with black jeans for sightseeing and it looked lovely. And was still cool comfy when the sun came out and good with a top layer !
Very interested in the Joseph Seibel shoes. They look water resistant or could be sprayed with protectant. I had forgotten about this comfy brand. Could be a great fall walking shoe for our trip to Europe and it comes in lovely colours. This style in canvas is often is not supportive for long term walking but the leather makes it good to check out . Looks nicer than sports runners.
Great choice of tops – floral and polka-dot are my favourites. I wonder if the Uniqlo tee comes in different colours? I like the vertical spray of flowers which is a bit unusual. I’ve not thought of wearing patterned tops with patterned scarves but the trick seems to be in matching the scale of pattern with similar colours in the pattern.
This is a bit off topic and maybe something you might cover in accessories.
I have to get new varifocal glasses – vast expense because of my prescription and the ultrathin transitions varifocals I need!??
My current glasses are purple along the top with blue rims and blue flowers along the purple arms! Sometimes I’m conscious of a colour clash with my clothes.
It was tempting to go for something in a neutral metal – silver, grey, rose-gold or rose-brown. Strangely, one of my neutrals in clothes is blue, but blue glasses don’t suit me.
In the end, with the help of a very good opticians assistant, I went for a plainer frame in a mid-tone mauve-pink. This is one of my accent colours which will look good with all my clothes. I have the option to buy a second pair for half the price which is tempting as I would have a different pair of specs for when I go out.
I just wondered whether anyone else prefers their glasses in an accent colour or one of their neutrals? By the way, my prescription sunglasses are brown!
Hello Beth,
I wear multifocals too, and have only one pair because of the cost. I decided on a neutral colour (grey) so they’d look OK with any of my accent colours. This is because I tend to wear the accents on top, so the glasses need to work with all three plus my neutrals. When I had to replace my sunglasses, the choices were all horribly “loud”. I chose a rather vibrant blue in the end because they were the only small frames (I have a narrow face) and light blue is one of my accent colours. But I’d wanted ones with dark frames to match the lenses. Not the current fashion, apparently, unless you can wear giant frog-like frames. It’s always hard to choose, isn’t it, especially when – as in my case – the dominant problem is short-sightedness. And very hard to get all three of shape, size and colour as you’d like them!
Thanks Robyn. Perhaps I might get a more neutral or metallic second pair, so I have another option to avoid colour clashes. When I changed my sunglasses, I could only find one pair in the shop which was ‘neutral’ and the right shape for my oval face. Huge round frames in zany colours seemed to be the most common style!
I recently needed to get new prescrition glasses. The first assistant was strong in their opinions that glasses whould be fashionable and trendy but I opted for simple metal frames for the same reason- I need these glasses to last a while and want them to work with everything. Likewise not so successful with the sunglasses due to limited options.
I took an older set of eyeglasses frames and had the prescription lenses tinted to make sunglasses. Very reasonable price to do that – and reused old frames that I wasn’t wearing anymore.
Also, if you know a style/size of frame that you like you can sometimes find frames on eBay for a reasonable price, then have sunglasses lenses added.
Just some options to consider….
I have been wearing pricey eyewear with progressive lenses for many years. I prefer a metallic frame as I think it is dressier than plastic. Sometimes I’ve chosen an accent color (red, purple) because I like to stand out a little and don’t fret if my specs don’t match the rest of my outfit. Most recently I selected a frame (OVVO Optics, #3838) made of a neutral grey metal and a unique metal color that is somewhere between gold and silver (and definitely not rose gold). I love that the frame will will coordinate with both gold and silver tones.
i wear classic tortoise glasses frames, and find that they complement everything, similar to how jeans can be worn with anything. I have over the counter computer+reading glasses that are white tortoise that I like even better and might see if I can put my prescription lenses in them the next time around. My sunglasses have soft aqua temples, and I love them! – nancyo
Thanks everyone for sharing your choices. It’s great to know how how important it is to choose glasses which reflect our personalities and wardrobes. My female relatives are encouraging me to choose something a little bolder for a second pair.
Janice, I’ve just been looking at the Aspinal scarves and t-shirts again. The idea to pair the paisley pattern in the shield scarf with the leopard print t-shirt is inspired!
Now I need to find a leopard print (perhaps grey/white snow leopard) to go with some of my paisley scarves. You’re certainly giving me a lot to think about as I reorganise my wardrobe which is taking longer than I thought as I keep getting diverted.
Many thanks.