The Echo scarf company was so impressed by how many of you commented on the post on which they gave away a scarf that they have extended a 20% discount to ALL OF US for the next 2 weeks… Use code TVF20 to get 20% off of anything on their site: www.echonewyork.com
I’m sure I can find something I will adore…
August 6, 2021
Better late than never!
I was thinking that we could look at some nice “back to the office” outfits for autumn… but then I started reading my email, and I quickly realized that a lot of people were back in their office LITERALLY once or twice, and are back to working from home!
And they’re sort of aghast…
So let’s treat ourselves to some soft, comfy, but pretty new sweatshirts and sweatpants, as well as a decent pair of slippers in which we can at least pick up the mail, or walk the dog… Nothing is more demoralizing than ratty slippers!
And heck yes – couldn’t many of us use a new pair of earrings?
One reason I’m including earrings is because many of us are back to video meetings; fixing your hair, putting on earrings, and maybe a bit of makeup will help us look a little more alert while onscreen…
Chrysalis silk square – Echo; rose quartz earrings – Rituu Agarwal; pink sweatshirt – Colorful Standard; grey marled pullover – L.L.Bean; sweatpants – L.L.Bean; slippers – UGG
Our wardrobes are all up to 22 pieces – one more than Fiona Ferris’ “Garde-Robe de la Mois” that we’ve looked at before. These wardrobes may not work that well for a month, since they cover all SORTS of weather… but it’s worth a mention!
And I’ve reached that point where everything will no longer fit on 1 page, so I’ve separated out the clothing and the accessories:
Sweatshirts are pretty versatile, so a couple of new ones do offer some fresh options in your wardrobe. Don’t forget that you absolutely CAN wear a scarf, brooch or necklace with a sweatshirt – it’s as casual as you allow it to be!
I never tire of this photograph… what style!
Also, I’ve tried to find sweatpants that don’t have elastic at the ankles. I think that these pants – if the drawstring waist is covered by other clothes – can be worn more often than you may imagine. I once traveled in sweatpants because it was the dead of winter; unless someone touched my leg, I don’t think it was evident what I was wearing!
And if they HAD touched my leg, what I was wearing would have been the least of their problems….
Even though this scarf sings “summer” to me, there are indeed sweatshirts to be found in these colors.
These colors carry summer right into cold weather!
Patchwork Painted Floral silk square by Echo; heart earrings – Wadarat Supasirisuk; reef teal sweatshirt – L.L.Bean; burnished barn hoodie – J.Crew; navy sweatpants – L.L.Bean; slippers – Minnetonka
The “burnished barn” sweatshirt seems to match one of the tee shirts rather well, and the aqua sweatshirt is going to be perfect with this heroine’s scarf!
These fit in really well…
Imagine working away at your desk, wrapped up in your ruana…
Lofty plaid ruana – Echo; amethyst stud earrings – Saks Fifth Avenue; ultraviolet sweatshirt – Colorful Standard; lavender pink sweatshirt – BC; slippers – Lands’ End; navy sweatpants – L.L.Bean
Talk about blending in:
How I managed to get this far into the year without amethyst earrings for this heroine is a mystery…
The ruana and the paisley scarf both look great with BOTH sweatshirts – sometimes it all just comes together well!
This scarf has a warm feeling about it, that should be perfect with sweaters and sweatshirts:
And I had AMAZING luck finding sweatshirts for this palette:
Patchwork Painted Floral silk scarf – Echo; gold hoop earrings – J.Crew; dark amber hoodie – Colorful Standard (sold out); burned orange sweatshirt – Colorful Standard; beige sweatpants – 8 by Yoox; slippers – L.L.Bean
I wouldn’t necessarily look good in this wardrobe, but I could certainly enjoy looking at it hanging in a closet!
This wardrobe lends itself to some lovely blending of colors:
I found a brown sweatshirt! It’s rather casual, but still…
But keep an eye on Colorful Standard – I have a hunch that they might bring us a brown sweatshirt as the autumn truly arrives…
Chrysalis silk square – Echo; jasmine flower earrings – Zayd Makarim; brown sweatshirt – Aerie; pink cloud sweatshirt – J.Crew; sweatpants – Lands’ End; slippers – Dearfoams
Oh dear… this wardrobe still looks sort of awkward to me…
Even with the awkward balance of colors, I was able to pull together some new ensembles for this heroine:
And finally, the lovely wrap that so many of us really admire:
These 2 colors are wonderful – that Petrol Blue is perfect with this scarf!
Mountain View Wrap – Echo; earrings – Guillermo Arregui; seaweed hoodie – Colorful Standard; petrol blue hoodie – Colorful Standard; heather platinum sweatpants – J.Crew; slippers – Dearfoams
I feel like I could manage with this wardrobe for quite a long while…
I know that you’re astonished to see that these sweatshirts and pants are very useful…
So are you back in the office/school/workplace? I’m still working at my mother’s dining table…
love,
Janice
p.s. Five years ago, our travel capsule wardrobe was in navy, hot pink and ivory! It still stands the test of time…
Like this article? Save it to Pinterest!
Good Morning! Happy Friday to everyone. Personally, I never left the workplace. I’ve been working onsite the entire time. First of all, I love the pink with the gray. One of my favorite combinations, though I don’t actually have it in my closet. I agree with you Janice, on the Warm Patchwork wardrobe. That’s just gorgeous. Those scarves!!! The Mountain View Scarf finally was a clear winner over the purple ruana this month. and DANG! I just bought an Echo scarf – it arrived yesterday. The brown scarf you were having such challenges with seems to be coming together.
Thanks for all your hard work on this series. it really is such a treat every month!
I have the LLBean sweatpants in Navy and Admiral Blue. I lived in them ALL last winter and spring. They are excellent quality and the best fitting pants I have ever had. The material is a soft and breathable french terry. They also have back pockets and look like dress pants with a straight leg and flat waist.
This is exactly how I feel about the Lands End 5 pocket active pants I have a couple of pairs in navy.
Fortunately, with the evolution of athleisure, sweatpants without the ankle elastic have become much more common. But in the past I did occasionally snip the side seams open at the ankles and pull that elastic out because I just can’t stand it.
These are beautiful outfits as always. I am still very enamored of the blue Mountain View collection and with the exception of the peachy sandals, it closely resembles my own existing wardrobe.
Thank you for these practical items. Somehow I always forget sweatshirts and pants, but these are lovely. I could definitely see using such nice pants a lot in the winter. Usually the pink and gray is my favorite wardrobe but this month the purple ruana one just made me smile. I especially love the deeper purple sweatshirt. There are elements from each of the wardrobes that I love.
Ladies, I just love the light patchork scarf and the entire ardrobe. Thank you Janice!! Thank you so very much for the all skirt ardrobe you did for all of us that only ear skirts. It as lovely!!
The purple group is so beautiful but I couldn’t limit myself to just one colour. However I could definitely see myself wrapped up in each of those purple clothes while working from home. I bought the warm red patchwork scarf and I’m looking forward to wearing it, when the weather turns cooler, with olive and coral and red. The orange and beige shown with it might not be successful for me. As for the brown scarf, try as you might, I think it just teaches us that some scarves just aren’t great for wardrobe building. We see a pretty scarf with beautiful colours and pattern but it needs a hard look to determine if it will work as a wardrobe. Thanks for another good lesson.
I think for me maybe it is the preponderance of gray? I recognize brown is challenging to find, but the gray has taken over as the neutral.
Amping up the cozy factor is a great idea! I’m especially enjoying watching the purple ruana’s wardrobe grow.
Your comment about the Chrysalis wardrobe feeling awkward has had me thinking about possible ways to turn it around to your satisfaction. It’s definitely a pretty, but challenging, colour scheme.
Would adding more purple items help? Maybe a bright bottom garment in either pink, purple or the marigold? How about injecting a little more pattern (something geometric?) to combine some of the colours? I don’t have the answers – I’m very visual so I need to see things together before I’m sure they click.
If a person is doing remote meetings, one of those ring lights is cheaper than earrings and gives the complexion a real lift. Love the scarves – this article is a keeper for sure.
A million ring lights were sold last year – there’s one on my old desk, where Belovedest is now working!
hugs,
Janice
First of all, that photo!! What a classy gentleman! I returned to the office in June and all staff were to return this month, but it has been pushed back to October and that put me into a major funk. I had been carefully curating a wardrobe and now no one will see my efforts! So frustrating. But there is satisfaction in learning to be so much more precise about my purchases. And the triumph when I find the perfect thing. Your work is truly inspiring, Janice. Love the sweats. I think I will treat myself… my favorite brand of slippers is Haflinger, though. Great footbed support.
These are all lovely wardrobes, and I too learned to love a nice sweatshirt during the pandemic. At the moment, however, it is 93° outside where I am and The Weather Channel reports that it feels like 107°.
So my request is for a really hot weather capsule. I’m pretty sure that many of your readers live in the Sunbelt or visit there at least. My color preference would be blue, green, and white. Thank you so much!
Hot in Florida
I second your request, book goddess! I just couldn’t stay long enough to appreciate the new additions because it gave me a hot flash, and I’m in my mid-thirties so it was definitely that it’s too hot to consider these clothes. I was also unable to read the look back post for the same reason. I think it works well though for people living in the southern hemisphere or somewhere where cold hits early in September.
But we’ll, for us still in true summer it would be nice to see some more clothes for “really hot weather”! I like white/ivory, blue/navy and coral/rose.
Blessings everyone and have a great weekend!!!
Even in Minnesota, we are a good two months away from the onset of fall, and I’m not yet ready to face the reality of the end of summer. (I LOVE fall, but it lasts about two weeks and then it’s winter for a very long time.)
I think the grey cowl version and the “reef teal” very plain version would be the most versatile styles of sweatshirt to mix-and-match into the wardrobes, but all of them worked quite well!
We have a staff meeting on Aug 16 to discuss the back-to-the-office plan and I am most definitely NOT looking forward to it. My brief hopes of last month have crashed on the shoals of the Delta variant.
I’ve been in the office all along (aside from the two month furlough last year). I’m fortunate in that, one — I work close to home so the commute is a breeze. And second, there’s hardly anyone in the office so I’m almost on my own most of the time. That being said, I do enjoy dressing for work. Nothing too structured or dressy, but I enjoy the process of ‘dressing up’ each morning.
Over the past year though, my clothing has definitely taken a more casual turn. No sweats or the like, but comfort is key. Lots of leggings, knit pants, etc. Your blog has been very helpful in transitioning to this new wardrobe.
Scarves are my ‘weakness’ — always have been. I could wear one every day for a month and not repeat!! Amazing what they add to any outfit!
The first 2 (pink & grey plus patchwork) and the last one (mountain view) of these Echo scarf capsules are really inspiring for me. I’m retired, but casual clothes that are pulled together looking (could do for work type) help me feel great in spite of health problems and other challenges. So practical too. I ended up finding an aqua butterfly wing Echo scarf with navy & coral earlier this year and it’s been a joy, so glad I bought one.
The purple ruana is my favourite. I would start adding in patterned tops and also the plum colour for autumn.
The Chysalis scarves are perhaps proving that with a multi coloured pattern, you perhaps should just choose one colour or shade and run with it a while before choosing another one. Trying to create a coherent wardrobe of such different accents is too much of a challenge.
The orange patchwork wardrobe is a gem. Pity I can’t wear those colours. The blue patchwork is also balanced though though coral, yellow and aqua could feature more in the accessories.
Mountain view is the direction I’m steering in with soft blues and warm pink. I’d have to see more of the scarf to know whether teal would look better than olive.
Sadly Echo don’t ship to the UK and I don’t think they have an official UK stockists. More’s the pity and very remiss of them.
Echo doesn’t ship to Canada either unfortunately.
I live in Kamloops BC here in Canada and I found Echo scarves at The Bay online and occasionally in store and also at Winners. I bought one of the smaller square silk scarves in a butterfly wing pattern that is now discontinued. I got it at winners this spring for $25 while The Bay still had the same scarf listed at $65. It takes some hunting and I haven’t found the full range but if you scan the scarves at The Bay, Winners and even possibly Nordstrom online here in their Canadian site you might get lucky. Hope it’s a help.
I still like the last wardrobe with the blues and greys. If I swap the olive for black, it would work well with my colouring.
I am not back in the office yet….maybe January 2022 or even April? There is no solid plan yet.
Thanks to those of you who spoke out in favour of straight leg sweatpants. I think I will get a pair for next winter.
I know it’s practical and reflects the way so many people are living, but after the endlessly casual 2020, I have to say I’m disappointed to see another bunch of loungewear and casual clothing (as I am disappointed by the seemingly never-ending pandemic). After several years of wardrobes based on Hermes scarves, I’ve become fan of a little luxury scarf inspiration, and this year’s 6 Scarves selections seem a little ordinary. That being said, I own several Echo scarves, and similar, and not even one Hermes scarf. So I understand the realistic approach, but don’t necessarily enjoy it as much in the yearly project. Just my $.02, and I appreciate all the work you put in and the attractive wardrobes you assemble – nancyo
Dear Nancy,
I understand your disappointment – I think a lot of us are feeling this way; I had visions of being able to lunch with my friends twice a week when I get a break at home, and now… I’m not at all sure!
I may go back to Hermes scarves for next year; if Echo doesn’t have a lot of new designs by December, I will be looking for fresh ideas!
big hug,
Janice
Right now, I really appreciate the more realistic versus the fantasy wardrobe posts.
I just reviewed all the items I have purchased this year and over half of them are still unworn with the tags attached. As you probably guessed, they were all the dressier items for in-person meetings and special occasions that never occurred. To make matters worse, many are too large now that I am losing weight. The items I have been wearing are the comfy and casual lounge and athleisure purchases. Your posts focusing on these realistic items have introduced me to several new sources and given me many ideas how to elevate these looks so I feel more polished.
High-low! Totally agree with nancyo; miss the Hermès scarves! But I see the value of the Echo scarves (just ordered the Mountain View with the TVF link and the discount code!). I have Hermès scarves I adore (nothing approaches the quality and hand of an H scarf) as well as street vendor scarves that I love. How about half and half next year; half Hermès and half Echo?
Elasticated ankles v straight bottoms. I wear elasticated ankle trackies (aka sweatpants) for the gym so they don’t get caught in machinery. They are cosy to put on after a chilly summer day. I also have a velour suit with elasticated ankles which sit neatly inside the fleece-lined bootee slippers I wear from October onwards. I also wear elasticated bottomed pyjama trousers which don’t ride up my legs during the night.
Other than that I were jersey wide leg trousers with flat band elastication as my regular trousers. I have bought chocolate brown ponte jersey trousers ready for autumn. The weight of jersey varies during the year.
I agree with Nancy, that it would be nice to see some post-pandemic inspiration for dressing up. I’ve lost my way in occasion dressing as the last event I went to was in summer 2019!
This weekend, we had a milestone special occasion family celebration. I got everything out to try on. Most of my summer occasion dresses didn’t fit (still struggling to lose post lockdown weight). Even if the dresses had fitted, it seemed that the style of them belonged to a different era and a different woman. They were all floral, which I normally love, but the scale and multi colours of most of the patterns seemed too much. An interesting observation.
My husband suggested a skirt and blouse. Eventually, I settled on a long crepe skirt (with back elastication) and lace blouse instead. Simple, hopefully elegant, and comfortable. It still didn’t feel exactly right though. Some women just ‘nail’ occasion dressing. I’m never sure that I’ve got it right. Perhaps it’s because my mental image is several sizes smaller and six inches taller than reality!
I hope that I will lose the weight and review the dresses next year.
I actually enjoyed seeing sweatshirts and trackies as we call them here in Australia.
It was nice to see them being adulted.
We are swinging in and out of working from home. I miss going to the office so much.
Anyways my addition to working from home is bamboo yoga pants. They drape beautifully. Super soft fabric and the fold over yoga top doesn’t dig in at all to covid bellys! A scarf does make one look much more polished for video calls… Some of the boys on my team have given up so much that they attend in their dressing gowns which always cracks me up.
Thank you for the Echo discount! I finally purchased their Abstract Landscape scarf in chambray that I have coveted for a long time. I would love to see a fall/winter wardrobe created by you using this for your the inspiration.
Hi Janice,
Purple is my favorite color. That first wardrobe has purple as one of the accent colors. The year is 3/4 over and our heroine does not have any purple in her wardrobe yet!
But I love them all. Some seem more cohesive than others, but they are all beautiful.
Louise P
Thank you for sharing all this wonderful info on building a wardrobe. I am back to sewing my own clothes & have so many me-mades that just need another piece or 2 to have an outfit. Your post really helped me put the scattered ideas get organized. I am 76, love to sew & love good style.
Just received my new Echo scarves—Patch floral in Blue and Watery Stripes! So pretty in person! Thank you to Echo for the discount code, and a big thank you to you, Janice, for providing wardrobe inspiration every week. Your thoughtful posts are much appreciated!