July 6, 2020
I know, I was saying that this top would be “textured,” but I was just trying to be consistent with how I described other tops at this point in each quarter. My thought, at the time that I wrote the original list, was about cabled sweaters, seed-stitched knits, and other lovely fabrics that have some depth…
BUT… these aren’t easy to find in warm weather, nor are they going to be particularly comfortable! So what makes the most sense at this point in these wardrobes is to just find a blouse, tee shirt or other top that you love, and that goes with your neutrals….
Striped floral tee – Tory Burch
Not a lot of guidance necessary here – you should love this item!
Even though our chances of wearing a silk scarf (in the Northern Hemisphere, of course) for the next 2 months are slender, it still makes sense that tops that you add to a scarf-inspired wardrobe should echo the colors of your focal scarf:
mint green “A” Floral scarf – Aspinal of London; floral tee – Zimmermann; Mandala scarf – GISY; olive wrap top – Express; shield scarf – Aspinal of London; black ruffle-neck top – J.Crew
navy lion and peacock scarf – Aspinal of London; tie-dye tee – Proenza Schouler; mustard “A” Floral scarf – Aspinal of London; gold floral tunic – Marks & Spencer; Magenta Robins scarf – Aspinal of London; dotted ruffle-sleeve top – Loft
If you look good in olive, wear it head to toe! Many women don’t wear it well, so take advantage of your distinctive coloring!
earrings – Freida Rothman; print top – Velvet; bag – Nine West; olive crop pants – Goodthreads; sandals – Jeffrey Campbell
Your favorite top doesn’t need to be a print – a pretty solid color with some smocking looks great with black:
earrings – Banana Republic; brown smocked top – J.Crew; cropped chinos – Lands’ End; crossbody bag – Sole Society; sandals – Esprit
Remember, if you’re not sure about what color leather accessories to wear, you can opt for metallic! Silver, gold, rose gold, pewter – any of these can be lifesavers when you’re at a loss…
Garnet earrings – Rosalia Tarigan; floral top – LOFT; white capri pants – Tribal; crossbody bag – Urban Originals; sandals – Karl Lagerfeld Paris
A beautiful top deserves some color-coordinated accessories! You get the idea that I’m loving black and pink????
I don’t need another tee shirt…. I don’t need another tee shirt….
Pink opal earrings – Neeru Goel; floral tee – Ted Baker; black cropped chinos – Lands’ End; bag – Delayne Dixon; sandals – Alexandre Birman
Maybe you don’t want a lot of print or pattern – the natural texture of linen might be all you need:
Earrings – Pichaya; grey linen tee – Frame; white linen pants – J.Crew; crossbody bag – Ted Baker; sandals – Lands’ End
Don’t discount the possibility of a tie-dyed blouse or shirt – some of them are really cleverly done, and great fun!
Earrings – Swarovski; tee shirt – Ann Taylor; capris – Alfred Dunner; acrylic bag – Cult Gaia; espadrille sandals – Chinese Laundry
Our 13-Piece Weekly Timeless Wardrobe always needs stripes! This peplum top is a step up from a simple striped tee shirt, and isn’t really less versatile.
White, black and pink tanks – Lands’ End; sleeveless white shirt – Lands’ End; pointelle cardigan – Halogen; white sleeveless tee shirt – Uniqlo; sleeveless dotted top – H&M; striped peplum top – Akris Punto; pink cotton cardigan – Lands’ End; black shorts – Lands’ End; black silk pants – Eileen Fisher; black skirt – Lands’ End; shirtdress – Banana Republic
Give the way that summer clothes seem to be vanished from the online world, the next 3 weeks might be challenging!
I’m finally realizing that I’m in a good place for summer clothes, which is a good thing! Summer clothes are fast disappearing (at least in common sizes) from a lot of stores. Oddly though, I’m not seeing a lot of autumn things taking their place. Stores are just less stocked than normal. It feels… odd….
love,
Janice
p.s. 3 years ago, our heroine built her wardrobe around her swimsuit! And managed to eschew the addition of lime green to her tiny travel capsule wardrobe…
Like this article? Save it to Pinterest!
You choose such beautiful tops today! My favourites are the smocked top and the black and pink floral one. I would love to have both (sigh…)
In hot weather, I can change my top several times a day.
Thank you for choosing so many lovely tops today, particularly the floral tops. The one with the peppermint scarf demonstrates that you can wear similar patterns together. I also like the Ted Baker black and pink floral but I love Ted Baker.
Today though I’m wearing a darkish blue smock top with pale grey linen trousers. I have blue and grey floral socks on!
The look back post is interesting – I love the deep azure colour. The question about the lime green is that there is probably enough in the swimming costume and towel but you could add in lime green socks or lime green in the jewellery – just a hint of a colour but not a bold statement. I admire anyone who can wear a lime green outfit!
I bought the Ted Baker black and pink floral top a few weeks ago. It is gorgeous. Whenever I wear it my partner says how nice it looks.
Janice,
You NEED to buy that Ted Baker top ! It is just too gorgeous at that price point to pass up ! Call it a delayed birthday gift to self !
The floral top to go with the mint scarf is also very pretty !
I love those ocean colors in your retrospective ! As has been noted, perhaps some lime green earrings and a bracelet would be appropriate , or just forget about the lime altogether, if that doesn’t work . And yes, definitely include some white in this group !
It appears that we won’t see the ocean this Summer with the country’s ongoing health threats . At least the ocean isn’t going anywhere !
Hmmm, I seem to use a lot of exclamation marks, don’t I ?
You are right about summer clothes disappearing and what is left seems rather odd. Part of it is due to the fact clothes brands cancelled their summer orders so all they are left with is the early spring stuff plus lots of plain basics. It is a bit of a mishmash and not very interesting.
However, I went into a local budget chain at the weekend to buy some socks. I noticed that they already had polo-neck tops in store – it’s the beginning of July!
That’s not all that uncommon – I’m just surprised that there aren’t MORE fall garments in stores. I know that for years, it’s been right after the 4th of July that the big onslaught of sweaters shows up. It can be a good time of year to find something unusual, or if you wear a tough size its the time to start looking.
Finding things for The Vivienne Files is difficult these days… oh well!
hugs,
Janice
Janice, you do to need that Ted Baker
Pergola-print T-shirt. It is beautiful and
will go with your wardrobe summer and fall.
Trust me.
Because of the beastly Chicagoland heat-and-humidity-and-mosquitoe weather we’ve been having I decided it was time to have another pair of basic linen pants. I ordered several from TJMaxx to try on, all looking pretty much the same on the screen altho labeled as “natural”, “oatmeal”,”tan” or “sphinx”. The package arrived yesterday and my daughters and I agreed that “sphinx” was a different? unique? weird? color. Since most of my summer stuff leans towards blues and aquas, I decided I would not even try “sphinx” on until I checked that I had tops to wear with it. So I marched towards my closet, mentally discounting items like the black and white tanks from Land’s End because that felt like cheating since they go with everything. Lo and behold, I started pulling out that grey and white striped Tee and the silver- grey tee and that dusty pink with silver from 6 years ago, another pink with a grey design on the front, and a mulberry t-shirt that I usually save for the fall…And that denim jacket my daughter gave me 2 years ago in a “weird” color, and hey, one of my favorite scarves, 2 pairs of sandals, and a pair of nickel colored flats….At this point I was quite enthused and rushed to try the pants on! Fortunately they fit perfectly, have cute wide cuffs, and -oh Joy!-Pockets that don’t make me look fat! For $15 I feel I have expanded my summer wardrobe in a whole new way. I really see the benefits of buying basics that are flexible and of learning from you how to think about my choices! I already had basic linen pants and shorts in “natural” or was it ‘oatmeal”? so I felt free to embrace this unexpected “sphinx”!
I HAD to go look at that color – I would have called it rosy tan? Beige pink? It’s a lovely color, but I can’t imagine what they were thinking when they named it Sphinx….
hugs,
Janice
Sphinx…an enigmatic blend of other things…that is one of the funniest / least descriptive color names ever.
What an amazing discovery!
It’s great to buy one thing and discover an entire new wardrobe cluster already sitting there! I had the same a few years ago when I bought a silver cardigan and discovered a whole new look with deep red/burgundy and wine!
I’d love to know what the colour Sphinx looks like and why it goes so well with the dusty pinks that I also wear.
However, I can’t go onto the TJ Maxx website – it wont let me from the UK! We have TK Maxx in this country but they dont have anything coloured Sphinx!
Perhaps Janice might work her magic and consider doing a post about colours that sound anything but…. also including something in Sphinx?
I have a question about the four seasons and the weekly wardrobe. Where I live, spring is pretty brief, and (aside from certain colours being more popular) the clothes could be interchangeable with fall. So if I were to follow the plan of cycling items in and out over the seasons, as you’ve shown, wouldn’t I need to be putting the same spring/fall things back in the rotation before and after summer? Or am I just overthinking this?
It’s going to vary, depending on climate, your life, and your preferences. I’m currently living with about 26 of these garments “live” in my closet right now – all of the Spring and Summer. Similarly, I imagine that I’ll be keeping all of the Fall and Winter things through the cold weather.
This isn’t necessarily a guide to what should or shouldn’t be in your closet as much as I want it to be a guide to the simple, timeless basics that you possible need, at some point or another in the year. If each of us just took a look at our closets and focused on 1 category per week, over the course of a year we’d have all of the basics covered without having one big blow-out shopping hysteria.
Make sense?
hugs,
Janice
Okay! Thanks!
Mama squirrel,
That is exactly what I do ! A lot of my Spring basics then transition into my Fall basics, depending upon the length of the pants and the sleeve lengths and the weather temps !
So many terrific choices today, but the olive floral and blue stripe tie-dye are the winners for me! The smocked top is the sentimental favorite because my mom made me some smocked summer dresses when I was very young.
Today I’m wearing a thematically appropriate top: navy with small, leaping white rabbits on it, complete with an eyelet yoke for a summery feel.
That’s a lot of beautiful tops! Also, there are a few summer fabrics that are very textured, like the classic seersucker and cotton eyelet. And of course linen can look very textured depending on the weave. Smocking and embroidery also add texture to lightweight fabrics!
It would be so nice if seersucker would make a big comeback. And eyelet… They are both so lovely, and they’re terribly hard to find!
Sigh….
hugs,
Janice
LL Bean has seersucker tops. I got the white this spring and have been enjoying it. The fit is not as airy as my linen sleeveless tops, but it is loose enough to feel cool and still polished: https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/124224?moe=ordhistory&csp=a&feat=WEB-od
Janice,
I am partial to eyelet, too, and I’m seeing lots of it this summer—try Talbots, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, J.Crew, or J. Jill. I picked up a white eyelet peasant blouse at my local second-hand shop a couple weeks ago. I am tempted by that smocked top you featured, though (in white or navy)! It’s been around 90 and humid for a week straight here, so your comment about needing lots of tops in summer is certainly ringing true!
I have pretty much given up on finding summer things. And moved on to working on my WTW fall clothes. It worked really well last year when we first started this great project.
Are your clothing guides written out like the one I’ve seen in your posts? Are you saying our spring/summer wardrobes and our fall/winter wardrobes should work together?