January 4, 2021
I get happy just TYPING 2021…
We’ve visited this lovely heroine a couple of times already, last Spring in the early days of working from home, and then later in the autumn when she had to take a road trip to sign some legal documents…
Now, she knows that she’s going to be working from home for the rest of the winter (at least), and she wants to be organized. Spending time each morning thinking about what to wear is SUCH a waste of time, and she wants to stop doing it!
This is such an enigmatic painting, when you look at it – why is the woman on the wee balcony handing keys to the woman on the horse? Is she coming in to visit them? What is going on here? Can’t she just get off her horse and come in? Or is she leaving, and she’s giving her set of keys back to her hostess?
At any rate, the color palette is delicious! I’ve never ventured to add the green that’s in the plants – that could be an entirely new adventure…
Our heroine starts out with the Common Wardrobe of her cold-weather things (some of these garments were in her autumn wardrobe!) with her core grey clothes. (A Common Wardrobe is a grouping of clothing that almost anybody might own – they’re the neutral items that many of us have in common.)
Because of the nature of working from home, she decides that her sweatshirt and sweatpants do indeed belong here! Another winter might be different, but right now she’s going to dress for her current circumstance:
White broadcloth shirt – Lands’ End; grey textured cotton sweater – Lands’ End; white tee – L.L.Bean; buttoned cardigan – Lands’ End; funnelneck sweatshirt – J.Crew; marled turtleneck – L.L.Bean; cotton cabled sweater – L.L.Bean; white cotton turtleneck – L.L.Bean; sweatpants – J.Crew; heather graphite dress pants – J.Crew; charcoal wash jeans – J.Crew; knit cords – L.L.Bean
She loves grey – it matches her hair with all of the various shades and nuances! And it’s calming, AND it’s a glorious backdrop for her blue eyes and rosy cheeks…
Of course, with some nimble laundry, this would be quite enough clothing to get her through most of life! But she’s adding a few accents:
Fair Isle sweater – L.L.Bean; periwinkle twist-front tee – Style & Co.; plaid flannel shirt – Banana Republic; pink merino turtleneck – J.Crew; dark grey fleece skirt – Goodnight Macaroon; periwinkle cashmere turtleneck – Apt. 9
Many of us wouldn’t include a skirt in a wardrobe designed to work from home, but she knows that (with warm fleece-lined tights) this skirt will give her a feeling of dressing up, without high-heels or anything uncomfortable.
The rest of her household will appreciate the occasional skirt, she suspects…
Now, when she hangs her winter wardrobe together, it gives her a soothing feeling of calm preparedness, with a serious dash of prettiness in the mix!
This wardrobe is almost a “you can wear Whatever’s Clean,” but just in case, she walks herself through a couple of different ways to wear each of her “bottoms”:
I’m almost to this point – I’ve been wearing a small portion of my wardrobe on a consistent basis. Maybe this is a good day to make certain that I have the right pieces, and get them “up front and visible” in my closet…
love,
Janice
p.s. EIGHT YEARS AGO we looked at the possibility of using Greyed Jade as an accent for a business office wardrobe. Yes, I still marvel that I’ve been doing this for so long!
p.p.s. If I can still scare up the original items, would you like to see ALL of this heroine’s wardrobes together? And accessories for these outfits?
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How do you keep your scarves? Do you fold them in a drawer? Hang them somehow?
I do both, the cheaper solid colors are on a scarf hanger, the more expensive print scarves are rolled in a drawer – not folded, rolled.
Hi Wendy – I sorted my scarves into seasons to go with the seasonal clothes. They are folded in a large drawer stacked by colour and/or material large and/or thick on the bottom, thinner in the middle and silk or fine on the top. My Mum used to do the same. I have tried a scarf hanger in my wardrobe but it was too heavy, the scarves got more crumpled particularly as many of my scarves are long and wide. In reality, my scarves get taken out, worn and then draped over the chair in the hall!
I’d love you to include the gorgeous tealy green of the bushes in this wardrobe as it’s rapidly becoming my second favourite colour.
I too have grey hair of many varying shades like the heroine in this story and would be delighted to see her full wardrobe.
I love these calm peaceful wardrobes. My hair is (mostly) salt and pepper – still reasonably dark – with my green eyes, I feel like gray washes me out – but I do love it as a neutral in your capsules, and I tried to wear it, but it just didn’t seem to “fit”. ! Personally I need deeper color and more variety as I get bored. I do like the little decorative borders you’ve been using.
I thought the skirt might be a cozy chaange for stay at home but if the size chart is correct, the Large is a US size 6-8. Yikes!
Same! I love the skirt and was so sad that the size chart topped out around a size 8. Wow!
Love this soothing palette. Yes, accessories please!
This heroine is one of my favorites! I love today’s wardrobe. It is such a calming group. I would love to see all her wardrobes together. I know this will take a lot of work on your part and want to thank you so much in advance ?
This is one of my favourite colour schemes and the addition of the teal green would be lovely. i would like see the whole collection plus accessories please.
I’ve got my pants down to three pairs these days. This has happened all on its own without planning it. I still have lots of jeans and colored corduroys in the closet but they are not covid lifestyle worthy so they never come out. What do I wear? 1. Pull-on lightweight indoor pants. 2. Fleece-lined pull-on outdoors walking pants. 3. “Dress-up” pull-on knit ponte pants for groceries and banking. Woo hoo. Bonus pair of cross country ski pants for winter sport.
I use navy as my base but this grey wardrobe would fit perfectly into our current “comfy pants” lifestyle. Thanks, Janice
Happy New Year Janice!! Hope you and your family are healthy & enjoying time together.
I look forward to each post here & learn so much– thank you again for doing this.
I agree with Helen and Sharon…I would love to see the soft teal added to the wardrobe! And the accessories question always gets a HECK YES from me. With the teal added, the wardrobe reminds me of this Hermes Jeux de Paille scarf…
https://carredeparis.com/products/hermes-jeux-de-paille-silk-scarf-90cm-twill-light-blue
Hi Sally, I”ve been thinking about your spreadsheet you mentioned on Friday’s post. Today I had an excellent outfit day – all the stars aligned. I get them once in awhile despite myself. My only hesitation is, once I set the spreadsheet up (and a word doc?) even if I took time to enter outfits – or maybe I only enter the best outfits – I wonder if I would look at it? Still trying to figure it out ;) You and Beth T seem to put the most time into your wardrobes, and I enjoy and appreciate your ideas. Cheers.
Sheila, you could always start with just recording somewhere (doesn’t have to be a spreadsheet, it could be a clipboard in your closet or a photo on your phone or whatever works for you) outfits that excellent and you want to remember for the future. I guess it depends on what kind of result you are looking for.
You have to realize, I am a data/spreadsheet nerd, so tracking things is fun for me, and the more elaborate the better :D
Oh, yes! That scarf is so perfect; I can imagine the heroine having a difficult time not wearing it every day (like a little girl with a princess dress she loves so much, she refuses to wear anything else).
Yes! Full wardrobe with accessories, please. Agree that bringing the green in would be nice.
Yes please do be adventurous and add the teal green to the three lovely wardrobes and accessories of this heroine. After all we aren’t going to have real adventures for a long time so we must create our own small adventures and try new things at home. I’m wearing my longer length necklaces again over jumpers. I had stopped wearing at work because they got entangled in things and I used to rarely bother when I could.
I already combine purple and teal or jade and lilac. Last year, I experimented with pink and teal. It would be fun to see how periwinkle blue looks with teal. Although, the real periwinkle plants have light emerald leaves so that might be a better green. Summer is coming when the periwinkles come out by our lake.
Although I like grey – it seems a bit much when the accents of blue and pink are quite dominant. The Charcoal Grey skirt adds depth and I would also add charcoal corduroy trousers plus some black washed/dark indigo denim as well.
Fleece lined or thermal tights plus ankle socks are a second skin for me. I also wear mine under trousers as a second layer when I’m outside.
Happy New year to you and all the readers too!
I love this painting and colour pallette and am considering it for my own wardrobe. I have been colour analysed as a “summer” after thinking I was a winter all my life. I love these soft colours with my greying hair. My wardrobe will be slowly revamped from black basics to grey, but I stiil might keep some black bottoms, because a black skirt matches almost every accent colour.
Accessories would be nice, thank you
Hi Janice and Everyone! I like the color combination and choice of clothing in today’s post. It looks very low maintenance and comfortable.
I appreciate your including brands as Style&Co and Apt 9 as I have had very good luck with clothes from them.
Yes, I would like to see how a little green and accessories play into this wardrobe.
I love, love, love gray! But as my hair grays, I find that wearing gray washes me out, so I concentrate mostly on charcoal tones. Also, grays have differing color tones, and mixing them can be tricky. In this wardrobe there are reddish, bluish, and yellowish grays, and I’d have a hard time wearing them together. – nancyo
I am fascinated to hear a few times lately from ladies with grey or greying hair that wearing grey washes them out! I (golden blonde hair) feel that beige does that to me, but I keep seeing advice that a person’s best neutral is that which matches their hair. Thanks, Nancyo and others, for sharing your experiences with this.
Well done Nancyo for having sharp eyes. I’ve looked at the greys again and can certainly see the difference between blue-greys and yellow-greys but reddish?
So those of us going grey need to find the right greys for our hair, skin tone, depth and clarity of our colouring. I find silver and mid tone bluish greys the best. Thanks Janice for showing us the variety of shades available.
I had a look at the greys again and noted that the ones described as heathered greys were more yellowish in tone. Two of the trousers were more taupe in colour.
Interesting…
Beth, several of the grays have a reddish or purplish cast to them, at least on my monitor and to my eyes. But even with all of my comments, I do find it easier to blend different grays together than navys! – nancyo
Janice, when I looked at the painting, I saw the young woman giving the rider a leafy green remembrance, never thought of it being a key!
Would enjoy seeing the accessories for the entire wardrobe evoked by this painting.
Oh my, I think on Wednesday, I’m switching off to a leaf, which will be perfect with some green garments….
love,
Janice
Susan, I had also thought it was a leaf, but since that made less sense to me than a key, I put that aside. I love the ambiguity of it.
Hi Sheila.
For some weird reason, I can’t respond to individual comments. The reply button doesnt open the comment box anymore. Hence why I’m right down here. So I hope you read this… ?
Thank you for your kind words and I’m glad that my comments and analysis about my own wardrobe and personal preferences are helpful to you.
When I discovered Janice’s blog, a couple of years ago, it was a revelation and I cannot thank her enough for providing the tools to help me sort out an overflowing and overwhelming wardrobe.
Basically, I had too many clothes and I like colour and pattern, so I often have the similar garments in every colour going. My cupboards and drawers were packed and the overflow was in the loft. I bought too much that I didn’t need or have days in the year or occasions to wear.
There is various ways of keeping track and it took me a while to find the one that suited me, my time and inclination.
When I took the ‘bull by the horns’ I drew simple charts on paper limited to colour groups down the side and garment types across the top. I wrote everything down (apart from undergarments) and described each garment by material, pattern or details plus season I might wear it, that was an revelation.
Janice’s charts and methods were very helpful in the sorting process. I mainly used the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe and the Common Wardrobe to make sure I had all bases covered, as well as the posts on decluttering and orphans.
I created my own ‘rules’ about how my wardrobe would be organised (by colour blocks) and which season I would wear each item. I also tried to increase the longevity of items across more than one season if possible.
The fun bit was laying clothes on my bed to look at colour groups, create outfits, using scarves or jewellery or favourite ornaments/paintings to create mini capsules. I physically organised my clothes according to my ‘rules’ of colour groups, material and pattern.
However, I’ve never been great with keeping up with ‘administration’ – completing spreadsheets, timesheets, task logs etc. So while I admire Sally for keeping a detailed spreadsheet, and other people in this group might also the same method, I know that I wouldn’t keep it up. I am like a ‘rabbit in the headlights’ at the thought of being so organised.
I consider myself to be on a voyage of discovery, so I’m drawing my own map as I go as well as choosing which directions I go in. Some directions will work and others will reach a dead end. I have visual reminders in my wardrobe of my journey but don’t like to limit my options.
After the first paper and pen exercise, I just keep a mental record of what I have or I separate out those items I’m wearing a lot and I’ll evaluate those that I’m not. I had an idea to take photos but I’m hopeless at taking selfies and I didnt want to be limited by always wearing the same items together. I have the clothes before me, so I just choose outfits depending on my mood, the weather, and what I’m doing.
I do ponder a lot and try to wear the colour scheme for the day. Even if the colours that Janice suggests aren’t mine, there will often be details in the garments or accessories that I like and can find in my wardrobe or look out for. I have learnt a lot about myself.
My next voyage is through my jewellery, handbags and shoes.
Maybe one day I’ll reach the destination of a beautifully curated and organised wardrobe and I wont have anything left to say! ?
Have fun finding your way
Beth T
Thanks! I’ve had Stylebook App on my phone for about a year now (?). I don’t utilize it fully, but I do have most of my clothes entered – photo, cost, color – and I track what I wear on an (almost) daily basis. And so it figures out cost per wear, what I’ve worn most, etc.. I don’t have quite all the clothes listed – but most of them – For now I decided to utilize their “Look” feature, and save as a “Look” the outfits that make me feel the very best along with notes about the accessories, etc… For instance, I have a favorite wrap/sweater combo -which looks great w/black pants or jeans, but I wore it w/tan pants a couple of weeks ago and it didn’t have the same good feel. Would not wear it w/tan again. So I made a note of it. I feel like I’m a little late to the party at 65+, but it’s always been a process, especially since I don’t see shades of color well. One son is color blind, so it could be worse! :) I’m not sure how long I”ve been on Janice’s blog, but I absolutely adore it, not having any friends, sisters that are interested in discussing my clothing angst. Cheers!
Maybe the girl on the horse lost her keys and had to ask for her little sister’s?
:) :) :) :) I have a little sister… you would not believe the things I’ve borrowed from her / she has lent me. My favorite memory – we were travelling together on a tour, and had identical white skirts (thanks mom!), which i was wearing one day. at breakfast, coffee spilled on my skirt! as we were leaving in about 30 minutes, we rushed back to the room, and i was going to pull on another skirt when she decided she liked my outfit as-is and lent me her skirt. the whole tour group was DYING to know how we got the coffee stain out so quickly and dried the skirt off!!!! Thanks for the chuckle :)
Yes please, share the teal and the accessories. I love this palette. I put together a group like this for a Viking River trip we took and thought it would be perfect, but I found the the gray washed me out. I can handle dark gray, but light gray isn’t so great.
I bought the Mountain View wrap, and it arrived today. The colors actually go very well with this wardrobe, so I may use them as a jumping off point. I was not a fan of the rust and olive in the other wardrobe. The scarf is truly lovely and ticks the boxes of color, texture, and hand for me.
A new year’s intention (note I did not type resolution) is to wear more skirts at home!!! Happy New Year y’all!
I love this wardrobe. I recently went through all my clothes that are “out” (getting rid of most “mild days” things) and realized how much I really, really like many of my clothes now. This was not a common experience for me a few years ago! And I realized I don’t NEED anything else anymore! There is no reason for me to buy anything unless I upgrade. I could even get rid of some of what I have and still have enough! The things I don’t really love do fit and look good, so there’s no need to replace them until they wear out or I find a similar piece I love, and some of them I will be able to give away without replacing. That’s mostly thanks to you! So thanks!!
I really like your comment about how the rest of the family might appreciate the skirt! This really spoke to me / motivated me. Even stuck at home all the time it’s still so important to make that tiny extra effort to dress “up” every day. If I can do it for my colleagues / friends / random people in the store, why wouldn’t I do it for myself and my loved ones?