April 28, 2020
She decided she was going to wear them ALL. One, every 3 or 4 months…
So she dug into the very bottom of her scarf drawer, and found this beauty:
scarf – Echo
She didn’t worry about a color palette; if she bought the scarf for herself, she’s going to assume that it must go with something in her wardrobe…
So her plan – wear her newly special scarf twice a month, with clothes that she already owns!
April has remained practically a winter month, this year, so she’s wearing sweaters… and her butterfly earrings!
Butterfly earrings – Talbots; scarf – Echo; navy and pink brick cotton sweaters – Caslon; stone pants – L.L.Bean; navy pleated skirt – J.Crew; ballet flats – Sam Edelman
May, on the other hand, is all over the map, weather-wise! So she decides that cropped pants, with sleeveless tops and a cuddly cardigan might be her best option.
scarf – Echo; navy sleeveless polo – Lands’ End; navy cardigan – Lands’ End; soft coral tank – L.L.Bean; stone crop pants – L.L.Bean; navy linen crop pants – Lands’ End; espadrilles – Cole Haan
By the time June rolls around, she’s going to wear shorts, even if her kneecaps turn blue! A couple of neutral shirts in linen are perfect with her shorts; maybe she can wear her scarf as a belt? (a 36 inch square, folded on the bias, gives you 50 inches of length…)
Yes, her moonstone bracelet is extravagant. But it has a butterfly charm!
scarf – Echo; oatmeal linen shirt – L.L.Bean; moonstone bracelet – Sydney Evan; flax linen shirt – J.Crew; mineral red and navy shorts – L.L.Bean; canvas shoes – Toms
July is NOT scarf weather! But never forget that one can easily tie a scarf onto a handbag handle, or around one’s hair. Our heroine can pull her hair back into a pony tail, since she hasn’t had a haircut in ages…
Sunglasses – Quay Australia; scarf – Echo; navy dress – Lands’ End; tote bag – Mehry Mu; bronzed spice maxi dress – J.Crew; gold sandals – Børn
Late in the summer, our heroine FINALLY has a chance to go for a summer break with her family. When she’s not quite sure what to pack, she remembers all of the various garments that were so perfect with her butterfly scarf:
She looked at everything for a few minutes, and realized that this was the obvious, easy answer. Add in a tee shirt or two and she could travel for ages (in warm weather!) with this wardrobe.
After last week’s confessions about how many scarves we own, I decided to wear mine! Even if nobody sees them but me (and Belovedest, of course), that’s fine. Why should we save beautiful things to wear around other people, and not enjoy them more often ourselves?
So today, it’s my Echo Paris souvenir scarf, with a pink sweater (yep, pink!) and blue jeans. I feel more spiffy, with it on!
love,
Janice
p.s. Five years ago, our heroine was spending 1 night downtown so that she could go to the symphony and not have to leave until it was over! One only needs to pack a very few things….
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This is a great wardrobe! Navy is my neutral and I really like these colors with it. These are the sort of clothes I like to wear, too. In fact I have that navy lands end cardigan. Very soft, very useful. I need to pop into LLBean. I don’t wear scarves, but this one is a beauty.
Thank you, again, for your work here. It helps!
It might just be me, but I don’t see any shopping links for May?
It wasn’t just you! I don’t know what THAT was all about…
hugs,
Janice
Oh my, I love butterflies and dragonflies. I have several tops and scarves with them on and by coincidence, I’m wearing a dragonfly pendant today.
I like the idea of taking a scarf and developing a wardrobe through the Spring and Summer. You could roll this into Autumn with navy jersey trousers, long sleeve tops and a jersey dress.
My spring/summer butterfly scarves are very long and very wide. One has an ivory background and the other navy. They are made of a light see-through material. I can wear one as a wrap or gather it together as a scarf. Doubled over length ways and wound round twice, the navy one is warm enough in Autumn.
I love coral pink and navy. In fact, I’ve created a neat travel wardrobe of coral pink, navy, light denim and ivory plus stone coloured chinos. It began with a navy cotton skirt covered in coral pink roses and a Liberty print blouse of coral pink irises on a navy background. I’ve added white/ivory, navy and coral pink tops and cardigans, navy and stone chinos plus light denim jeans and a cheesecloth maxi dress in light denim blue with coral and beige sprigs.
I’m now looking to take this colourway into Autumn by swapping and adding items as I find them: coral pink swapped to muted cameo rose and salmon pink, dark denim, dark navy, short sleeves for long sleeves, autumnal floral patterns and warm check shirts.
Beth T,
Your seasonal garment transitions using darker tones and longer lengths, but staying in the same color families is a wonderful idea !
Thanks Shrebee. My main aim is to get as much use out of my clothes as possible throughout the year and not have to put too much in store in the loft. Apart from anything else it is a real rigmarole swapping bags and hanging garments over (ask my dear husband as he does it because I hate climbing ladders!)
The other reason is that our northern climate in the UK produces unpredictable weather which pays no attention to what you might expect for each month or season. I need to be prepared for all eventualities as you can be in jumpers, cords, warm shirts and thermal socks one day and short sleeves and linen trousers, and sandals, the next.
We’ve just had four weeks of glorious warm weather (23C) with brilliant blue, cloudless skies. Today it is raining and the temperature has plummeted to 9C! So I’m in jeans and a warm shirt but I can roll up the sleeves. This shirt is in a new accent for me – cameo rose – which is a very versatile warm pink from Spring to Autumn. It fits into my pinks very nicely but I might not wear it as a colour in high summer unless it’s cold and windy!
The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe has been invaluable in sorting out a six month rotational wardrobe based on the type and weight of material, shades or tones of colour and pattern, particularly for tops and dresses.
If I may ask, where did you find items in cameo pink? It sounds like the shade of pink I’m always looking for.
Your post is the highlight of my day. In fact I have withdrawal symptoms over the weekend. Although we are in our autumn season and snow is already falling on the high mountain areas, it is exciting to see new ideas for the spring and summer still to come. The colours you have chosen and the collections you have assembled are lovely and inspiring. Thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas with us. Wendy from south Africa
Hi Janice! This heroine must be my neighbor, as she knows the irrational weather we have here. Great color combo with options for layering.
Where are the sources for thes section with the capris , sleeveless polo, and espadrilles? I’ve been looking sleeveless polos!
Nancy, I have no idea what happened to them! Such a strange thing, computers….
Thanks for letting me know!
hugs,
Janice
Absolutely lovely!!!
Beautiful scarf and outfits! Wow! Had to laugh about your “winter month” April – it’s been in the 90s and 100s here. But I remember an April in Chicago well!
Janice,
Our temps here in southeastern PA remain on the quite cool side with intermittent warmer days and rain — lots and lots of rain, so having garments for all kinds of weather is still mandatory, and this post provides the solution ! If I could travel to a beach right now, this is a color grouping that would work quite well ! No swim suit — still much too cold, but long walks on the beach in culottes and a warm sweater would suit optimally ! I do have some butterfly scarves, I think that I’ll wear one for fun this week , thanks for the inspiration !
Love this wardrobe! Personally, I found the orange-y dress a bit too bright and boho (though I can easily imagine it being a nice color pop and summery stylistic wild card for someone else)–but everything else feels very right. That lighter brick-pink-coral color is not one I’ve really noticed before and it makes my heart pitter patter worn with navy and stone.
I am a routine scarf wearer to rival Dr. Deborah Birx, so I love these start-with-a-scarf posts. Another option that I have been leaning on the past week or so is using a scarf as a hairband. For example, yesterday I folded up a 22″ Echo scarf on the diagonal, tied the ends together, and wore it like a a girl’s plastic headband (with the tied part underneath my hair at the back, if that makes sense). It works wonders to keep my unruly lion’s mane out of my face and for me feels professional enough to be comfortable with it on video conference calls. It’s allowed me to wear some dangly earrings that normally get hopelessly tangled in my hair. I imagine it could also be made to work nicely to hide growing out roots for those who color their hair.
Thank you for the reminder that we can wear are scarves al year long and in so many ways! And that looking good and wearing what’s special can be just to please our own hearts and refresh our spirits.
We all need some cheer, and some heart-felt encouragement, these days!
hugs,
Janice
Janice,
As I dressed this morning, I decided to both practice for a travel wardrobe and get as many different outfits as possible for home wear , starting with a horizontally striped top in dark and light denim blue, beige and white. For now I am ignoring the white, but could incorporate stone garments at a later date. So I am loosely following a post that you did some years back with “ One piece at a time” format. However, I have tweaked it a bit, as I think that the outermost layer is the most memorable and I crave a variety of colors and looks. Sooo — I start with the top and a topper, and a bottom of course. A suit look comes first with the dark blue and the striped top in the blues and beige. The next day I change the topper to the beige. The following day I change the top to an accent color or plain ivory or light blue or beige , and then the third day I change the bottom color and so on . So it’s change the topper, then the top, and then the bottom. Some days I change the bottom and the topper or both top and topper to do mix and match. Quite a few outfits can be created with these few garments ! However, there has to be at least one, preferably two , accent colors in the tops and toppers along with the neutrals . I could wear the same colored bottom for several days as long as the actual garments change such as long pants one day, culottes the next , etc.. My bottom neutrals are the two values of blue and the beige. I would soon grow weary of just 2 values of blue and beige in tops and toppers, however . I once packed that way and couldn’t wait to get home to add in more color ! However, this is showing me just how far a small capsule can go to provide outfits !
This is great – this is so much the way I think too! (so of course I think it’s great…)
big hugs,
Janice
I don’t wear scarves and most of my pieces are solid colors and neutrals. I recently spotted a blouse in a beautiful paisley print (Paisley is the one print I love) on Poshmark and took a chance. I got it today and I love it. The colors are deep and rich set on a cream background with black piping. Since this is really the only print I own, with the exception of stripes, I thought I would try this exercise. I won’t be able to wear this blouse with every outfit, but I am going to use it as my inspiration. It contains colors that I love and already have in my wardrobe, so I should be able to put together a pretty decent capsule and maybe figure out what I might be able to add in the future. I have been struggling going through & decluttering my closet these past few weeks and I think having something to center it around will be very helpful & using your processes as a guide.
Hi Linda
Your paisley blouse sounds stunning. I love paisley patterns too.
It’s easy to team it with the predominant colours but look closely. There is often a minor colour in the pattern which stands out but is also pushed back by the main colours. You might not even have noticed the minor colours. It’s a similar idea to this butterfly scarf. Janice saw coral and navy in the butterflies. I first of all saw pale yellow and royal blue.
So perhaps experiment and put the blouse with a cardigan/ jumper or dress in that minor colour (as long as it’s a colour you can wear) and the blouse will sing because it’s not vying for attention with garments in its main colours.
Have fun!
Beth
Is there a link to the pink tank top? Pretty!
Never mind the link to pink tank. It just took a long time to load. Thank you!
Love your Echo Paris souvenir scarf! And i so enjoy your blog.
It was a gift from Belovedest; as soon as I saw it I knew that it has to be part of my life! Now that I’m wearing pink, it is going to continue to be a favorite…
hugs,
Janice
Lovely wardrobe as usual Janice. The scarf is sooo pretty, but when I looked at it on the website, I realized that the background is ivory. Not a good colour for me, People try to bury me when I wear it. Like you I need strong cool colour and this year I’m craving pink and black!! When I saw your beautiful Paris scarf I nearly fell off my chair. It is sooo pretty!! I think Belovedest is a keeper. Hugs from Sechelt B C. Gina
Beautiful! Love the butterflies! I could wear this wardrobe and colors. I would add some royal blue too. Maybe even red. Your Paris scarf is gorgeous!! Enjoy!
I’m coming at this post a little late, but the link for the pleated skirt seems to be broken? thanks! nancyo
Many J.Crew links are weird right now; I’m not sure if it’s related to their bankruptcy or what! But the skirt was available at Nordstrom, once upon a time…
hugs,
Janice
I’ve finally realized I fall on the spectrum, and structured jackets and collared shirts are a hard no from me. But this sleeveless one from Lands end looks doable since the sleeves aren’t restrictive. Thank you for the wide array of styles you show, so that any taste can find something to love.