April 5, 2021
Ah, if I were assembling a wardrobe from scratch, this would be when I start grabbing striped tee shirts – you don’t even want to THINK about how often I wear a black and white shirt…
But I couldn’t find a print that really blew my hair back, so I went with a favorite color of many of us, just to see how well it would work in a range of outfits. For starters, it looks pretty cool with olive green:
Duster – BB Dakota; earrings – Kendra Scott; Beach Glass tee shirt – L.L.Bean; scarf – PJ Studio Accessories; loafers – Clarks; olive pants – L.L.Bean
Note that I tried to keep quite a few items from last week, just to see how versatile our accent color might be. Generally it worked pretty well!
This color is called Beach Glass – something that makes me think of ghastly gashes in the sole of one’s foot, and copious bleeding! This is much prettier, isn’t it?
This next outfit SCREAMS my name – this is a perfect example of the “Garconne” kind of style that I think is mine. Anything that you might see on a really dressy 4-year old boy is for me!
Linen-blend cardigan – L.L.Bean; Beach Glass tee shirt – L.L.Bean; shorts – L.L.Bean; bracelet – Fierce Lynx Designs; sandals – Munro
If you’re wise enough to invest in a neutral skirt and sandals early in the spring, you can wear any accent color you find! And don’t miss some fun bobby-pins to help control pandemic hair:
Heart-themed bobby pins – Madewell; Beach Glass tee shirt – L.L.Bean; earrings – Panacea; flax linen skirt – J.Crew; sandals – Vionic
This is a stark juxtaposition of colors, but the scarf makes all the difference. I would never mind a good excuse to wear this scarf:
Earrings – Brilliance+; cardigan – Nordstrom; hydrangea scarf – PJ Studio Accessories; Beach Glass tee shirt – L.L.Bean; black ponte knit pants – Apt. 9; loafers – Trotters
It doesn’t match – it blends! And last week’s hair clip and clogs still look good…
Beach Glass tee shirt – L.L.Bean; jeans – L.L.Bean; Nautical Aqua quarter-zip sweatshirt – L.L.Bean; hair clip – 8 Other Reasons; blue slippers – Therafit
And if you feel that your swim suit top is too revealing, you can always pull a tee shirt over it – maybe lunch on the deck?
floral swim top – Lands’ End; Beach Glass tee shirt – L.L.Bean; blue sunglasses – Lele Sadoughi; blue sandals – Bzees; knit skort – Lands’ End
Now if the weather will just cooperate, we have a lot of good ideas for how to wear a tee shirt!
love,
Janice
p.s. Five years ago, our heroine started with a glorious floral painting, and then traveled to purchase locally-grown wildflowers for her florist employer…
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This colour says SUMMER to me. However, my t-shirts won’t be worn until the fickle English weather warms up consistently from the south. Yesterday it was warm and sunny but today Arctic air is sweeping down.
I have several t-shirts and cardigans in varying tones of aqua green. It pretty much goes with everything. I wear it with navy, denim and grey jeans and linen trousers. Grey is another option, as well as Sand and Stone. I also wear this colour with pink, lilac and light blue.
The Feirce Lynx bracelet is lovely and has given me an idea to where aqua green with my Ocean Blue trousers. I like the variety of earrings you’ve found, the mottled sunglasses and the checked slip on shoes. Would anyone dare to wear the check shoes with the check shorts? Pity the swim top doesn’t come as a t-shirt.
PS the link to the shorts is broken.
Aloha! These are lovely. I feel I’m at a cross point and trying to figure out if I should add a blue to my wardrobe. Maybe Beach Glass is that color? Certainly is popular right now. Once I get home I’ll take a look at all my prints and see what color might tie in. Probably more of a periwinkle blue than a beach glass blue, but perhaps I need to be open minded if I’m really wanting a change!
I have that Thoughtful Lynx bracelet and it works well with olive, denim, and many shades of blue-green. Often I choose to wear two of the strands instead of all three. Like a chameleon, it seems to pick up the colors around it.
As far as the beach glass, I absolutely love that color and am always drawn to it, but have found that I generally look better in a bit more aqua or teal. Perhaps I just need more contrast with my now white hair. That hydrangea scarf might be just what I need to add a bit more contrast.
Janice,
I hope that you and your Beloved have had a wonderful Easter ! My son and his family finally got to visit from North Carolina for the first time since Thanksgiving of 2019, due to Covid !
Beach glass — a delightful color and colored items that I have purchased as a bracelet and earrings. I love this as one of my primary Summer colors . It is fun seeing how versatile this color can be when paired with other neutrals, including olive. When I think of accents for olive green what comes to mind first are warm yellow and then versions of the orange family as with peach, copper, bronze , orange , rust, brown, beige, etc… Coral and burgundy also work with olive , but I am always trying to figure out what cool colors to add to it. So this color and perhaps lilac and periwinkle and maybe slate blue , depending upon the undertone of the olive ? Obviously navy works too . I am thinking only in terms of what my how my “warmie “ wardrobe works .
Janice, you crack me up with your ‘ghastly gashes in the sole of one’s foot and copious bleeding!’ comment! In my beach experience, beach glass is worn and rounded to the point of being oddly shaped stones. I’ve never thought of it as threatening. I love this color. I’m on my second LLBean short-sleeved tee (and I have the long-sleeved one as well). The first one lasted four years and I just replaced it last year. That’s one of the things I love about LLBean – they keep colors for multiple seasons! It goes well with all of my neutrals and many scarves I’ve accumulated. It’s my happy color! And that bracelet! I may have to ‘think’ about that ‘Thoughtful Lynx’! I’m sure I’ll get back to wearing bracelets sometime soon. LOL!
I live near the beach and pick up beach glass all winter on my walks there. All the hard edges are smoothed off, it’s much more beautiful than glass that has not been weathered by the ocean. Here’s a great poem by Bernadettte Noll:
I want to age like sea glass. Smoothed by tides, not broken. I want the currents of life to toss me around, shake me up and leave me feeling washed clean. I want my hard edges to soften as the years pass — made not weak, but supple. I want to ride the waves, go with the flow, feel the impact of the surging tides rolling in and out.
When I am thrown against the shore and caught between the rocks and a hard place, I want to rest there until I can find the strength to do what is next. Not stuck — just waiting, pondering, feeling what it feels like to pause. And when I am ready, I will catch a wave and let it carry me along to the next place that I am supposed to be.
I want to be picked up on occasion by an unsuspected soul and carried along — just for the connection, just for the sake of appreciation and wonder. And with each encounter, new possibilities of collaboration are presented, and new ideas are born.
I want to age like sea glass so that when people see the old woman I’ll become, they’ll embrace all that I am. They’ll marvel at my exquisite nature, hold me gently in their hands and be awed by my well-earned patina. Neither flashy nor dull, just the right luster. And they’ll wonder, if just for a second, what it is exactly I am made of and how I got to be in this very here and now. And we’ll both feel lucky to realize, once again, that we have landed in that perfectly right place at that profoundly right time.
I want to age like sea glass. I want to enjoy the journey and let my preciousness be, not in spite of the impacts of life, but because of them.
Oh Kathleen, that’s LOVELY. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us all!
hugs,
Janice
Yes lovely!!!!
Thank you Kathleen – so profound and so true. Life shapes us and moulds us like the waves.
absolutely love this!!! Thanks so much for enriching our collective minds with this share :) beautiful clothes, beautiful words… this community is a treasure.
That is GORGEOUS. Exactly how I wish to live my life. Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing.
Well, friends, it didn’t take long. I bought the ‘Thoughtful Lynx’ bracelet! There were only 2 left, so I just did it. And I’m not sorry! Thanks, Janice, for presenting such treasures to us, again and again!
I agree that this is the time to grab tees, but does anyone else is still in the long sleeve mode? I can’t even process my summer needs and uniform as I’m still experimenting and enjoying my spring wardrobe. And now that I’ve identified a few things I would like to add, a lot of them are already sold out. It happens every season. Lol. Maybe this is how my wardrobe stays smallish?
Genevieve,
Here in PA it’s 40’s in the morning and 60’s in the afternoon, so I wear a short sleeved top in the AM and top it with a cardigan, which then gets shed in the afternoon.
You had me at the sea glass and navy. What a stellar combination. (For those of us who love it because it flatters us.) I’d have grabbed those shorts about fifteen years ago. I sure wish I could find a chino navy skirt that hits at the knee. I’d wear it spring through fall with EVERYTHING. I got a giggle when you referenced your black and white striped tees. I have the same near-obsession with navy & white stripes.
Amazing
Bundle of thanks for sharing
Ha ha! I laughed out loud at the idea of you dressing like ‘a really dressy 4-year old boy.’ That is a great model for style and comfort.
I know he is rather older but I can’t help imaging Janice as Just William right now! (Sorry Janice).
Janice,
What are your fav ways to tie/arrange/incorporate a scarf into an outfit?
I am very taken with your “start with a scarf” posts but don’t feel very confident in actually wearing scarves so they don’t make me look older than I feel.
Thanks Cathy.
https://maitaicollection.com/pages/tutorials
Check here for the best possible information on how to tie a scarf!
I usually just bias fold my scarf and tuck the ends into a scarf ring, and then pull the ring up to about my sternum. The ring keeps my scarf from blowing around in the Chicago wind…
hugs,
Janice
Janice: I am loving the idea of a capsule wardrobe but have been struggling to start. But my “aha” moment came when I saw this color palatte! PERFECT. I can now start to put together my spring capsule. Thanks so much for all the work you do. I always enjoy your blogs and the combinations you put together.
To Kathleen: Your written passage was just beautiful.
Your phrase “didn’t blow my hair back” has so tickled me today. Love your posts