July 20, 2020
She’s been confused for a few weeks; nothing medical, or really an issue, but the inside of her head often feels like this:
Although it feels like chaos, at least it has a nice tidy color palette, which could easily be all neutrals!
Are You Ready to Go?
“What???? Go where???” She just got off of a conference call with the rest of her department, when her sweetheart came by their guest bedroom to check on her…
“You forgot? We’re going to my sister’s B&B for the weekend.” They’re going to be photographing for a magazine spread all day Saturday, and they were invited to help, and to eat all of the food…
“We need to leave in about 5 minutes if we’re going to beat the traffic….”
Dear oh dear… she hasn’t done laundry since… since… she gives up trying to remember.
She’s already dressed in a way that will be fine for tonight’s dinner with family, at least!
Earrings – Julie Vos; mask – AGGI; cotton cardigan – Marks and Spencer; bracelet – Gorjana; watch – Nixon; handbag – Staud; dress – Lands’ End; rolling bag – Briggs & Riley; sandals – Band of Gypsies
Dear oh dear….
She pulls her rolling bag out of the closet, and stands there looking…
Something to wear tomorrow that will be pretty and appropriate for photographs – there will be at least 1 or 2 photos taken of the laden dinner table, surrounded by happy diners. She sees her beige pleated skirt is clean; it matches the cardigan she’s wearing, so that’s a good omen!
Maybe a black flowy top to wear with it? Unless they’re at the outdoor table (which seems likely, given the contagion situation), in which case she’ll put her cardigan back on!
And then the trip back on Sunday… pants? Her black pants are clean, and so is her white sweater, and her denim shirt. She doesn’t really have a plan as to what she will wear with what, but since these are all neutral garments, she’s optimistic that it will all work..
As she’s about to zip up, she sees her floral tee shirt, and tosses it into the bag just for the heck of it!
Flat shoes, a bit of jewelry, sunhat and sunglasses… another mask! Maybe a headband – if they’re in and out of the kitchen all day, her hair will wilt…
Onyx & pearl earrings – Vintouch Italy; sunglasses – Rag & Bone; floral tee – Old Navy; straw fedora – Allsaints; black satin sleeveless top – Max Mara; pearl pendant – Mirabelle Jewellery; pearl & velvet headband – Lele Sadoughi; mask – AGGI; denim shirt – L.L.Bean; white cabled sweater – L.L.Bean; beige pleated skirt – H&M; black pants – L.L.Bean; black loafers – Samuel Hubbard; gold ballet flats – Aerosoles
She doesn’t really know what’s going to happen. She doesn’t know what she’s going to wear. She doesn’t know what she’s going to eat. She doesn’t know if her photograph will be splashed all over that famous travel magazine…
But she flies out the door with her love, and away they go!
She forgot pajamas! Happily, she can sleep nude…
After a wonderful dinner, full of wine and laughter, they head to their room, and she unpacks. What is she going to wear?
Suddenly, she feels a lot better about her last-minute packing!
There’s a lot to be said for wearing neutral colors. Also for not leaving your laundry to the last possible minute. ALSO for putting events on the calendar, and then CHECKING said calendar regularly….
love,
Janice
p.s. this was inspired by my own efforts to put off doing laundry for as long as humanly possible. I didn’t wash light clothes (for myself – Belovedest’s running gear gets laundered OFTEN…) for over THREE WEEKS.
It’s the little victories, eh?
p.p.s. Eight years ago I was deeply fascinating by the versatility of a solid, neutral top and pants in tan…
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Oh gosh, I so identify with this heroine today. My memory has turned into a sieve, I have the concentration span of a two year old and I struggle to remember what day of the week it is. I’ve been inside too long and even though I’m now venturing out, the structure of routine activities and special events is not being re-established, despite the government allowing us to.
I’ve always relied on my calendar which was full of family activity and now its bare. I’ve lost the sense of time and dates. Someone phoned up to arrange for us to visit and I put it on the wrong date. Somehow my mind had jumped forward an extra week when I wrote it on the calendar. When they phoned up to wonder where their guests were it was so embarrassing. Guests arrived two hours later than scheduled…
Isn’t strange that despite not going anywhere my family are still creating mountains of washing…. ?
Oh my goodness I hear you! My brain has been mush since March!
…and as for the inside of my brain it resembles the sun trying to shine through clouds when all the rest of the sky is blue!
This color scheme is perfect. Just neutrals. My stumbling block in doing the WTW has been accent colors. First choosing, then finding. This could be expanded to include jeans, stretchy pants and chinos. Reminds me of the Common Core capsule.
Oh, I LOVED the Common Core wardrobes! So sophisticated and urban but could work anywhere. They were my first introduction to an all neutral wardrobe with an accent color. Definitely appealed to the creative minimalist in me!
Hi Sandy
Choosing accents is a challenge but the first thing I learnt from Janice’s blog was that whatever colours we choose in neutrals or accents, it’s because YOU like them and they make YOU happy, confident and comfortable wearing them.
The second thing I learnt was that there are no rules about choosing accents or neutrals, as there are so many shades and tones of colour to choose from. Also you dont have to be limited in the number of neutrals and accents you choose.
‘Dress to suit yourself.’ If other people seem to judge us by saying ‘Oh I dont like that colour’, it’s because that colour probably wouldn’t suit them in a month of Sundays but they haven’t the grace or goodwill to say that you look fantastic in it. Conversely, if someone says “You’re very brave to wear that colour”, just smile, accept this back-handed compliment, feel very pleased that this colour gets you noticed, and make a point of wearing it more often!
If you’re not sure about choosing accent colours, perhaps just go with your gut instinct for a particular colour or groups of colours together.
I found the Start with Art and Start with a Scarf posts really helpful as it crystallised the colour groups that I was naturally attracted to but also focused my attention on the hue, tone and saturation of colours. These posts inspired me no end in sorting out my wardrobe.
When you visit a museum, country house or art gallery, make a note or photograph (if you are allowed) the objects or paintings that you are attracted to by colour, shape and pattern. Also note small details such as the depth or clarity of colours, the scale of patterns, the background to a painting, even the wall colour can make a difference. Then look for those colours, shapes and patterns in clothes. You might be surprised by your preferences. What’s important is that the colours, shapes and patterns you choose, please YOU to look at.
However, I will admit that choosing the colours – hue, tone and saturation – that look best with your skin and hair can be tricky. The colour quiz on Kettlewell colours is very helpful in this respect. Look at the tonal value charts too which group colours according to the depth and clarity of your colouring.
There is an element of trial and error in all this. But do experiment with colours – it is fun.
The lights in shops and photographs online make colours look very different.
Manufacturers colour descriptions can also be a bit odd, so I ignore them and consider the colour in daylight at home, go outside if necessary. It’s the effect of colour on your face that is most important.
Sometimes though however much we like a colour to look at, we have to accept that it does us no favours and that comes from understanding whether your skin has a blue or yellow undertone and the depth and clarity of your colouring.
I have a blue undertone so look ghastly in yellow, orange, orange-red, some browns and most greens. Conversely my husband and daughter look fantastic in them! Also because I have soft and muted colouring black is overwhelming on me.
I find building an outfit or even a wardrobe round one or two patterned tops or scarf easier because it’s clear which neutral colours will look good with it and you have a few accents to play with for second layers and/ or accessories. We all make mistakes – just pass them on to someone who might suit the colour better.
Have fun
Beth
I have the Common Core pages printed out, since the days before Pinterest! Janice, please consider revisiting it!
Oh yeah – I’d be happy to!
hugs,
Janice
Sandy,
What’s nice, as Beth, I think, points out, is that, since accent colors don’t usually get worn together, they can be utterly random. My otherwise B&W wardrobe includes a bunch of “accent” shirts selected solely because I saw someone on tv in one and thought “I want that.”
Navy, taupe & soft white with some touches of light blue thrown in for me and my light colouring.
I could never pack in 5 minutes – it would take me that long just to get my head around the idea of packing! Luckily, my husband would never do anything like that to me as he would see that I hadn’t packed a few days before and would remind me. He knows me very well….
Sharon, I hear you on not packing in 5 minutes. In my case, I get packing anxiety that needles me until the job is done, so the idea that a person would somehow forget is wild to me. My husband, though, is very capable of forgetting and packing quickly, but I would NEVER just wait until the last minute to remind him! That seems so stressful! haha
I can relate to this heroine, although in my case the scrambling is permanent! I’ve always envisioned my brain as either a ball of tangled yarn or galaxy, depending on how good I feel about it at the moment ;)
Yesterday I went to a thrift shop and managed to find a simple pink tank top (I can finally try out this new accent!), a yellow checkered shirt with 3/4 sleeves and, lo and behold, a brown short-sleeved shirt in linen! I feel like I would have made different (worse) choices if I hadn’t been following this blog for a while now, so thank you, Janice :)
Those all sound pretty brilliant – finding brown linen might make you a thrifting super-star!
hugs,
Janice
I so agree about the brown linen shirt being an amazing find. It reminds me…back in the day, I had linen skirt in an absolutely perfect shade of taupe-brown that I thrifted for under $5. It was so terrific and versatile for this time of year that I still miss it. I hope it found a good home after I gained some weight and donated it back to the thrift store I bought it from :)
Same. My friends and I describe it as popcorn brain. I waited for a con call for 1/2 an hour on Friday, only to re-read the email and realize it was for Monday (yesterday). Our calendar is full full full, but first I have to figure out what day it is. I’ve decided to update fall wardrobe w/some purple/plum…. Something to look forward to, even though our summer’s just begun and I’m only now wearing my summer reds and pinks.
Sheila, I wish you good luck in finding anything on the purple or plum spectrum. They are my favourite colours too but i find it soooooo frustrating to find in UK shops and online stores. Even in winter when the trend is supposed to be berry colours, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything of a purple hue but loads for wine. Maybe it’s a more popular colour in the US?
I find that manufacturers and online shops have a very loose definition of the colour ‘purple’ which seems to include a lot of purpley-pinks. Look online and you will be offered 6 garments in purple and a gazillion in black and blue. Once you find anything in that colour, it then has to then suit you in shape and scale.
I’ve spent several years building up my purple items. My philosophy was ‘if I like it and it suits me, then I’ll buy it which resulted in a lot of garments that didn’t exactly go together. I used grey as a neutral and purple patterned scarves to create outfits.
Since last autumn, I have acquired several purple and plum patterned tops and shirts which have helped me to create blended outfits. I got everything out yesterday and was pleased that I had enough garments to create a WTW to see me through from spring to autumn! I do have some additional things stashed away for winter. It was all very pleasing!
No, it is NOT more available in the US. I think it would be very popular; I’m not sure what the story is… I know that Eileen Fisher routinely does a purple grouping in the autumn/winter, but other than that I’m not seeing anything. Maddening!
hugs,
Janice
Im sorry to here that for all purple lovers in the US.
Even when trend setting magazine writers say that any shade of purple is IN, can you ever see it anywhere else than a few very expensive items on their pages?
I’ve been looking at Cabi – which has some wonderful plum pieces this year.
If I loved purple, it would be time for me to learn to knit and/or sew and/or dye clothing. Purple garments are so difficult to find. There is a group of women I work with who all love purple and they get excited whenever someone shows up in a purple item.
Seriously, I haven’t tried it, but I would be fascinated to see the results of dying a set of white garments purple so that they all worked together. Different fabrics might differ in the intensity of the resulting color, but it seems like you could get the blue/red balance to match across your dye lot.
I like to see plum colors in the cold weather. By complete accident I ended up with a pullover sweater (on sale) and quilted vest (thrifted the next year) in the same shade of deep plum! I have a couple of scarves that work tonally with this Minnesota Winter twin set (haha, I wear this sweater + vest combination A LOT to my drafty office), so I am standing firm on this as satisfying my desire for a cold weather purple accent.
I’ve heard that when there is a tornado or a storm that wipes out neighborhoods and towns, even people who have spent their whole lives there can’t tell what street they are on, or where they are because of the landmarks they naturally use to keep their bearings.
That is how I have felt lately. Our church activities are our “bearings” that are the landmarks of our weekly schedule. Sunday church, Monday volunteer at our Food Pantry, Tuesday evening play with and serve the neighborhood kids, Wednesday night Bible Study,…
And we homeschool so that can be flexible depending on the difficulty of the work. I.e. some structure but not a landmark in our schedule!
Our church service is televised on line so at least we can “walk in at the last minute” in our living room without bothering anyone.
We still help with our food pantry, so that is the one thing that grounds our schedule that is outside of the house. It is just the rest of the week that I rely on my phone to tell me what day it is! Thank goodness for technology (when it works!)
As far as the color scheme goes, I absolutely love the blue and khaki. Two of my favorite colors. Both are calming to me.
When I was a teenager I had a khaki cotton, button-up shirt. It was one of my favorite tops. I would dream of going on an African safari in that shirt and my olive green shorts! I will just continue to dress up for my dreams right now.
It’s amazing how many people I have heard about who got ‘lost’ or discovered new places when walking in their neighbourhood during lockdown, even when they have lived their 50 years! We are so used to going everywhere in a vehicle from A to B that places look very different when you are walking. Lockdown has widened our horizons.
Janice,
I read for a living, so now most things slide out of my memory as though on a greased chute unless I’ve written them down by hand. (There’s a neurological explanation for why that works, but I won’t bore you. I also feel really bad for people with eidetic memories.) I therefore thought it was amusing, your heroine walked out without packing pajamas; unless I’ve written it down on a list, I will blithely leave the house on a trip without pajamas, socks, money, or phone chargers, and with only the underwear I stand up in.
I was just having this conversation with someone yesterday, about how it’s so much faster to learn a language if you get one of those “10 Minute a Day” workbooks and SIT DOWN AND WRITE THINGS. Your muscles help you learn…
hugs,
Janice
Explains why I’m not getting anywhere with Duolingo…
I honestly can’t recommend enough adding a workbook-type of lesson to the strictly oral lesson that are readily available. It’s important to learn to say things correctly with the right accent and inflection, but I found that nothing really stuck in my brain until I started writing things down! And at one time, I was functional in Italian, German and Spanish, as well as being pretty not atrocious in French.
Your mileage may vary, but for a modest investment, it might be worth trying!
hugs,
Janice
Love this one! Agree with others that this hearkens back to the Common Core wardrobe, which never seems to get old. It feels especially solid, predictable, comforting right now, and I find myself peeking back at those old posts a lot lately.
This particular wardrobe has such an elegance about it. The beige sweater and skirt with that bit of sheen to them are especially nice, and it’s got me thinking about fabrics and their role in making an outfit special.
You are quite right that a nice, slightly luxurious fabric can lift an ordinary garment and make you feel special. Even though I was born in the summer, I look forward to autumn and winter fabrics: velvet and velour skirts and trousers, satin blouses under soft wool jumpers, faux fur coats, and lightly sparkly accessories.
I LOVE these colors! Of course, they are the colors I use, maybe with a little white added in the summer. I also like to add a little of whatever is interesting to me at the moment. I ordered masks from Sisters in Circles in Asheville NC,(they have amazing colors and prints) and my husband commented on how well the in the mask went with my black and white outfit. I have a black, white, and pink and a black white and cobalt blue mask. Masks are a great accessory, pops up the neutral outfits I usually wear, keeps others safe, and keeps me safe. What could be better.
Well, I put salt in a cake Monday. Anyone top that?
This is the color scheme I’ve settled on and I love watercolor-y prints. I will never live without a black leather jacket, white tee and denim jeans. I’m including my favorite color Millennial Pink, It goes so well with natural (love the cardigan). I can’t quite settle on a green. My eyes are every shade of green.
I once mixed up dough for a tart twice having to scrap it both time before I realized I was using powdered sugar instead of flour! True Confessions!
Love this weekend packing plan and the accessories!
me too!
Janice— I really appreciate your seamless incorporation of masks into your wardrobes. Thank you for illustrating that safe can be chic!
Be well,
Laura
I can’t walk out of my apartment door (seriously) without a mask on, so it just seems logical that we needs to be ensuring that we have enough, and that they at least look halfway nice…
hugs,
Janice
So my husband does all the laundry and thankfully I can go weeks . . . however, he was out of town, the sheets needed washing, and so I ordered a new set and a new duvet cover from Amazon :-) I rationalized that we need 2 sets anyway and the new ones are allegedly “bamboo”, which is supposed to be cooler. Other than that I have no clue about anything anymore . . .
Wait ’til I talk to this man….
xoxoxoxo Miss you!!!!
Janice
I love this color palette, and hope that you revisit and expand it, especially incorporating more denim blue. If this were my travel capsule, I’d swap the white crewneck sweater for a white cardigan. – nancyo
I find all these comments very reassuring; I thought it was just me who had ‘lost her marbles’ as we say!
As to last minute packing, no no no. Guaranteed to cause me so much stress. In fact, at times when I am anxious or stressed generally, one of the dreams I always have is that I am due to leave the house in 5 minutes to travel somewhere and haven’t packed yet!
I am hoping we can go to the coast maybe in September so perhaps I should start making a packing list now, inspired by the wonderful Vivienne Files of course!
I love these combos. I purchased a beautiful hand painted silk scarf, about 12 years ago, in San Francisco, while on vacation. This scarf has been a great anchor for my wardrobe, and I’ve pulled several outfits together based around the colors of the scarf. When I pulled up your blog and saw this piece of art I thought it might be the same artist that hand painted my scarf. I enjoy your blog, and get lots of great ideas to pull together different wardrobe choices1
Great scenario and travel capsule. And not one single scarf!?!?! Tee hee…
Offer me a holiday right now and I could be packed and out the door quicker than I can write this. I will confess to doing laundry every day so no problem there.
Hi Janice and everyone! Great comments and ideas!
I HAVE to make a list if I am traveling anywhere, and that includes a 90min roadtrip today to visit Open Gardens in Buffalo NY. If I had to pack for an overnight in 5 min, I would probably grab anything black and white for the season, and an ‘accent’ scarf.
The last time I filled out a monthly overview was …May….? I’ve been living a few days at at time. One week I was two days ahead. Another week was a day behind. And project deadlines are looming…
If it weren’t for The Vivienne Files, I wouldn’t have a clue what day of the week it is, or sometimes even what MONTH it is. We are indeed living in interesting times…
hugs,
Janice