July 15, 2020
A few months ago, one of our heroines was heading off to a lovely manor house, with lots of gorgeous gardens…
Her wardrobe for this trip was inspired by this completely confusing but very beautiful painting:
For their relatively short visit, she packed this most lovely travel capsule wardrobe – it sort of radiates the feeling of flowers…
packable hat – Eric Javits; navy floral top – J.Crew; gold earrings – Ottoman Hands; earrings – The Pink Reef; Small silk scarf – Emily Carter; yellow tee – Eileen Fisher; cross body bag – Nooki Design; pink waffle fabric tee – J.Crew; navy cardigan – L.L.Bean; porcelain flower earrings – Poporcelain; pink sleeveless top – Chaus; watch – Tissot; white shorts – Lands’ End; dress – Lands’ End; bracelet – BIKO; pants – L.L.Bean; sunglasses – Ray-Ban; bracelet – Mamba; navy shorts – L.L.Bean; white sandals – Lands’ End; socks – Anna Sui; navy espadrilles – Clarks; navy sandals – Taryn Rose; floral espadrilles – Talbots
WELL! One day, out of the blue, the got a call from the inn where they stayed back in April. They were pretty desperate for business, and because they knew our heroine and her partner, they were willing to give them an AMAZING deal to come up for the REST OF THE SUMMER…
Essentially, they understand that having anybody in the inn, even if they’re just covering their costs, is better than having everything empty.
They can work from there. They can go to the gardens at the manor EVERY DAY. They can be outdoors…
She starts packing!
But she’s going to be more methodical this time. She will take everything that she took before, but she wants to make her additions with a plan:
She carefully chooses, one garment at a time:
Navy tee shirt – L.L.Bean
White shell – L.L.Bean
Floral skirt – Marks & Spencer
White cardigan – Caslon
White linen pants – J.Crew
Lichen green linen shirt – L.L.Bean
Seersucker shirt – L.L.Bean
Whew! She’s pretty happy with the way this turned out:
But she confesses to a little bit of nervousness about having printed tops AND printed bottoms; conventional wisdom would suggest that this is going to limit the versatility of her travel wardrobe.
So she charts out a stack of outfits, just to prove to herself that she’s going to be fine…
That answered THAT question pretty completely; she has lots of outfits to wear.
But she realizes that she’s going to need accessories; all of those outfits with solid garments could use a bracelet…. or earrings…. or even a scarf! The weather up there isn’t always steamy hot, by any stretch…
love,
Janice
p.s. Three years ago, one of my favorite heroines EVER is packing a tiny suitcase with just a few garments, because she’s only going for a few days… Jet lag doesn’t bother her!
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This is lovely! It helps so much to hear your “whys” for choosing a particular item. I’d love to see her accessories, too.
Just lovely. So cheerful. I actually have that JCrew navy and green daisy top and haven’t even worn it. Our summer here has been slow to start and very gloomy. I bought it with one of their long maxi skirts – also not worn. Funny, I had a plan when I bought them, and then everything ground to a halt. I do wear “work clothes” at home. I don’t save anything for “good”, so I’m not sure why these have languished. Going back to yesterday, I love the PJ scarves. I bought one not long ago, and it’s going to be so nice in the fall. As always, I love starting my morning with you! Thanks!
Janice,
What a fresh delightful grouping ! I was thinking that perhaps the floral border scarf from yesterday’s post might fit in here somewhere ! I always enjoy when you show more than one accent color, as well as two neutrals — my favorite way of packing ! I wonder if there’s another room available at this same inn ? I am so ready !
I love the bright florals with the navy and white bases. It is so bright and cheery and full of life. We need that right now.
Each time you have done a post that has to do with being inside or taking an opportunity during the shut down, I think “I can’t wait until the days ahead when these are the “looking back” posts”.
What do you think we will be commenting in a year or two AC (after COVID)? Oh! I remember… ?
I look forward to those days, and I hope I will appreciate where we are at that point.
Lovely colors, very light and summery! I’d like to add that pattern mixing is a thing now and it can be done quite successfully. I would not hesitate to mix the gingham seersucker shirt with the floral skirt. There’s a wonderful Instagram feed, @respecttheshoes, that is all about pattern mixing and is very inspiring. But, of course, to each their own. Thank you so much for your hard work with these daily updates.
Thanks for that link. I’ll have look because I have several things with similar patterns but don’t have the courage to mix them, though I think that they’d look alright. I understand that patterns can be mixed by degrees of separation, even if it’s just a belt. In the autumn, I bought a pair of black and white houndstooth trousers. One of the tops I put with it was a blush pink and grey floral blouse – sounds weird but it worked. My daughter agreed and she’s a severe critic, though she’d say that she just stops me making fashion faux pas.
love that IG account, thanks!! – nancyo
What a great capsule. Super practical. This would definitely get you through the summer at the inn. Everything goes with everything else and I love it that there are several accent colours. It does help that you found greens that are the same, which is not always easy. By the way, amazing score on finding that skirt that has so many of your colours in it. I wish I were this heroine, off to see the flowers with this fun wardrobe.
This is full of good ideas! I had never thought about keeping prints in either top or bottom, until you brought it up here. Of course I think if you love something and you will wear it with everything else in your wardrobe that goes with it, it should stay. I have a pair of jeans with Floral embroidery and I love them and wear them a lot, I’ve even worn them with simple print t-shirts, usually stripes in varying colors. Thank you for that lesson, I learn a lot reading your posts. Even though this particular color scheme is not for me, except maybe for the pink, I did see great ideas in your why getting each piece makes the wardrobe more versatile.
I loved the way this one turned out! And this color palette is right up my alley. I like to play along by filling in the grid with what I would choose and then compare to Janice’s choices. My only differences were:
A white skirt instead of pants…sufficiently opaque white pants are impossible for me to find while a white lined skirt is so wonderfully summery.
A navy/white striped T instead of the navy check shirt…though I had strongly considered the check shirt in this slot, I need to have a lot of Ts for summer wear…but in reality, both would go into my suitcase.
And a navy/white/pink polka dot T instead of the floral skirt…I like a lot of Ts (I have a polka dot one like this I always want to throw into a navy/white/pink wardrobe) and I was keeping the pattern to the tops. I like the skirt a lot and would happily wear it with a simply patterned navy/white top like polka dots, stripes, or checks, but ultimately I need a higher ratio of tops to bottoms than this.
In terms of outfits, I hope that the green button up shirt works well over the navy/green print top; I love the idea of them together with any of the navy or white bottoms.
Will we see this accessorized? I hope so…and dare say, I predict so! :)
Hi Janice & everyone: At first glance I wasn’t exactly sure how these colors were going to work except for Easter eggs…but, brilliantly, the right mix of neutrals and accents pull this together. The only swap I would make is squeezing some hint of orange in there (only because my color radar can find orange at 100 paces).
In your 4×4 template you noted ‘ any area where you feel insecure should be addressed here’ in your last row’. Could you elaborate on this -? Thank you.
Essentially, when you’re about to close your suitcase (or stop shopping!), what makes you nervous? Do you worry that with white pants in your bag, your might also want a darker pair of pants? Do you know for a fact that you won’t be comfortable unless you have 8 tee shirts? Whatever your personal weak spot or nervous area – clothing and accessorise-wise – should be filled in here.
For me, no matter WHAT I pack, I want a long-sleeved black tee shirt in my bag. It’s just a thing for me! And jeans. No matter what. I may never wear them, but I want them there!
Does this make sense?
hugs,
Janice
Yes, thank you! And I can’t zip the suitcase without something from the Orange family in it?
yes to needing jeans in a travel wardrobe, 99% of the time. The other 1% usually has a jean jacket, lol! I use the 4×4 template for most of my travel, although often I add a piece or two and still feel like I have been organized in my packing. And I pattern mix a fair amount, especially with my shoes- nancyo
Well wouldn’t that be nice to be invited to stay in a lovely hotel for the entire summer with your cooking and laundry done for you. Bliss!
I agree with Shrebee that yesterday’s pink and yellow floral scarf fit well here.
I noticed that the blue floral tee is no longer available on the website but a white one with bright pink flowers is available and would look lovely with this wardrobe and might look alright with the pink floral skirt if they were separated by a belt.
As the navy floral top isnt available, I would swap the plain navy tee for navy with white polka dot. Plain navy looks a bit heavy but the polka dot is subtle and adds interest with white bottoms.
I’ve never had the courage to wear white trousers or a skirt because of getting too easily stained ?
I dont wear shorts so would swap the navy ones for culottes and the white shorts for a tiered midi or maxi skirt.
Although I don’t suit yellow, I’ll pretend I do, though in reality, I would swap it for a green tee. My check shirt would be navy/pink/white or navy/white. I love that green shirt.
I like the dress apart from the orange flowers…..
Yes to accessories. I know that I would include coloured belts.
I so agree, Beth T. I like to imagine our heroine’s first Zoom meeting for work when she’s set up in the garden and a colleague asks, Where did you find that gorgeous Zoom background? :)
Ooooh, I’m not a belt person these days personally, but I like the idea of a colored belt with this wardrobe to jazz up the navy-and/or-white-centric outfits. Definitely a place where I feel “insecure” is having enough color in my outfit, so if I were to make 9 of 16 garments be neutrals, I would need a good supply of colorful accessories. My first accessory vote is for the Blackthorn Navy scarf!