August 24, 2022
It seems a bit premature to be looking at art entitled Winter Solstice, but our heroine loves pastels!
She doesn’t much care what anybody else wears – she’s not interested in dark colors! She feels beautiful in pink, and lovely in sky blue…
The core of her wardrobe for cooler weather is gray, with a bit of denim and chambray tossed in for practicality:
please note – everybody’s “Common Wardrobe” will be different – what I’m looking for are the core, neutral garments that form the base for the more expressive and statement garments and accessories in our wardrobes.
Cardigan blazer – J.Crew; white tee shirt – Lands’ End; grey cashmere crewneck sweater – J.Crew; thermal Henley – L.L.Bean; grey long-sleeved tee – Caslon; chambray shirt – J.Crew; relaxed fit jeans – L.L.Bean; corduroy pants – J.Crew; grey jeans – Raey
On those days, our heroine knows that she doesn’t have to look any farther than these 9 pieces to get her dressed and out the door without shocking the neighbors:
But let’s be honest – she is often in the mood to brighten things up a bit! What about some pink?
Heather orchid cashmere sweater – J.Crew; earrings – Seol + Gold; quilted jacket – J.Crew; Milky Way Scarf – Type B Collection; bag – Urban Outfitters
Adding these pieces to her wardrobe is easy:
And maybe some sky blue?
notice the name of the color of the button-front shirt! how could you be expected to search for that?
Blue basalt sweater – Treasure & Bond; hydrangea earrings – I’mmany London; “blue skyway dashpoint stripe” shirt – Treasure & Bond; scarf – Elizabetta; “blue tit” backpack – Fable England
Light blue and grey are perfect together:
I struggle with accent colors – I’m tired of red because it seems to overwhelm me. Brown (except for my brown sweater!) was a total failure, and pink never calls to me when I open my closet door.
After looking at clothes all day for The Vivienne Files, give me black!
What accent colors do you love – or hate?
love,
Janice
p.s. Five years ago, we looked at another VERY cold work of art – Les Glaciers by Alexandre Sergejewitsch Borisoff!
Like this wardrobe? Save it to Pinterest!
Hi Janice,
I’m so glad you’re revisiting the common wardrobe with different core colours right now. I actually struggle with choosing these core colours more than accents! And I think this the key to a lot of my wardrobe malfunctions. Most ‘neutral’ colours are either too dark or too warm for my skin tone, pale and freckles, with cool medium brown hair and blue/green eyes.
I never wear black (except for funerals) and even some navy is too dark for me – I’ve decided to say goodbye to my winter coat for this reason. And I have just bought a lovely cool olive colour coat (Khaki in UK) instead.
Grey sometimes suits me if it’s very light but it generally makes me feel depressed!! However I’m definitely a silver jewellery person. I’m letting my grey hair streak grow and my brown hair dye is gradually fading. A period of transition. Tan is too warm and Chocolate brown is too strong.
So at the moment most of my shoes and trousers are lighter navy – with lots of accents in tops: medium blues, teals, cooler greens, aqua, cornflower blue, chambray…. Good for summer but much trickier in the winter. In fact I think I’m a Soft Summer (or Soft Autumn?) in colour seasons.
Thank you for your wonderful blog Janice, I have learnt so much and really look forward to my morning coffee on blog days! :-) I feel like I’m finally learning that it’s okay to wear my colours, even if it takes so much more time and effort to find them!!!
Thank you again for all your hard work and inspiring colour stories.
P.S. Can you imagine a Cool Olive and Navy wardrobe in Autumn/Winter? I hope this works, coats are such an investment. And on the school run that’s all we see, a blur of coats! ☺️
I have similar colouring and years ago had a khaki coat maxi coat which I wore to death. I think you’ll be fine. Perhaps a few scarves to ring the changes?
Hi Lauren
Yes to cool olive and navy. I am wearing that color combination right now in fact! I had/have similar coloring—ashy brown hair that is now silvery gray with light green eyes that look blue when I wear aqua or turquoise. I have found navy easier to wear now that my hair is silver. I do also wear some gray, mostly pants. Enjoy the new coat. I’m sure it will look terrific!
PPS. I think the ‘five years ago’ link is broken.
I think this link..not sure
https://www.theviviennefiles.com/?s=Les+glaCiers
Yes that works, thank you.
I think it’s fixed – it seems reluctant to play nicely! But Sandy B. found the right post… (bless her!)
love,
Janice
I hate pastels. And mustard yellow and beige. I want red , purple, turquoise, magenta, teal. All in deep dark jewel tones.
Of course the Common Wardrobe is individual. Although the original from years ago would be hard to beat if it were dropped into my closet. Times change and styles change. My lifestyle has changed. I used to love a button down Oxford. Now, not so much. It’s interesting and useful to look at varieties of the Common, using clothes currently in style and available, starting with different base neutrals. Especially this time of year. As to accent colors, I still struggle. I have been hunting for the Universal Accent Color, that goes with every neutral, is available most of the year, and can be found in different styles. A few years ago I read an article, can’t remember where, that said there are four or five accent colors that everyone can wear. I remember pink, red, teal and aubergine. Of course they were a particular shade. I was skeptical at the time. So, for now, my accent colors are different neutrals. It sounds so boring, and probably is.
I love teal as an accent color. However, I felt drab wearing the dark teal items in my wardrobe this summer. I added a few Lands End item in a light teal color that brightened my wardrobe and mood!
Sandy B, Cobalt blue was the other color; I remember the article!
Did you agree? I guess if it were a certain shade the colors might work. I know pink and I do not get along…
I’m pale-complected and deal with mild rosacea. This basically means that dark colours can drain me and most pinks and reds heighten the “glow” of rosacea. The best accent colours (especially for my tops) are, therefore, pale-to-medium blues, greens and purples plus white. Aqua and teal work especially well. My dark neutral is navy. I’m also looking for some grey pieces but it’s slow going on that front.
I have a lovely black dress and soften its harsh effects using scarves in my colours. Funnily, after buying the dress (which was a gift), I modelled it for my hubby and he said he liked it very much but it seemed too harsh and could I wear a scarf to soften it? You’d think he was a longtime follower of TVF! Lol!
I have accepted that I will probably never narrow my accent colors down to one or two per season. I love color! My neutrals are navy, white, grey, and denim. My spring/summer accent colors are bright pink, kelly green, red, coral, aqua, periwinkle… my fall/winter accent colors are burgundy, red, hunter green, purple, royal blue, rust, and teal. I also have some black bottoms as many of my library shirts work better with black than navy. I prefer to wear dresses, and most of them are prints, so I also have colorful cardigans and blazers. I check the weather forecast and my schedule and plan my work outfits on Sunday.
I rarely deviate from my plan. I would never get out the door if I had to decide every morning what I wanted to wear.
Hello from another weekend work wear planner! I have zero decision-making power early in the morning, so I can’t even fathom attempting to put something together to wear to work on the day. I even pre-plan my weekend outfits because it’s just so much easier for me that way.
I’m a night-before planner … i feel like the weather forecast is never accurate a week out :) one less thing to think about in the morning = happy girl !
I love color too, and like you, I have made the decision to allow myself to have many accent colors, and even a few neutrals. I have black and navy as my neutrals, with white, olive and some gray as touches of lighter neutral. My accents are still a work in progress, but for summer are fuschia, aqua, cobalt, bubble gum pink, and touches of jade, evergreen, denim and purple. For cooler weather I will add maroon.
I know several women who positively glow in these pastel colors. My mother was a summer and looked so pretty in pastel pinks and blues.
For me, accents are red, coral, flamingo pink, violet, Apple green, Kelly green, canary yellow, aqua and clear, warm blue. The search online can often be so confusing.If I enter violet in a search, I often get everything from pale lavender to deep raisin.
Accent colors that leave me cold (but which look so beautiful on others): mustard yellow, sage green, orchid, blue red, rust, dusty rose, royal blue, aubergine, pine green. And I know olive is a beautiful neutral on some women, but the fashion industry’s current obsession with it is just so tedious. (Or maybe they figure women today are in a militant mood. 🤔😜)
This wardrobe is lovely for the right person. But all those light-toned clothes make me itch. I’m definitely a mid-tone-to-dark kind of girl. My wardrobe is built around navy. I’m still working on pulling together cool brown as my second neutral.
I’m prefer tonal or monochrome outfits over ones with high contrast. So I don’t even try for one specific color as an accent. I choose a range instead. My cold-weather accents are purple (lavender to eggplant) and blue-greens (duck egg to dark spruce). Makes it easy to layer and create tonal outfits.
I love the look of tonal outfits, too. I like your idea of going with a range for your accent colors. That seems like a smart way to have both variety and cohesiveness. I can also visualize how well that works with your two examples (blue-green and purple). I need to work through some examples for myself now.
Your wardrobe choices sound like mine! Tonal and blended suits me best.
I love this common wardrobe, my sort of colours exactly. Kettlewell Colours have four or five “universal colours”. I can’t remember them exactly but there is definitely a purple, red, green and blue.
From another soft summer.
WOW so exciting to wake up to all these posts already! Although I did sleep in about an hour later than usual… I have truly enjoyed the discussions on Monday and today around the Common Core Wardrobe. The gray from today could have been lifted straight from my closet – though I have gray cords and chinos vs. jeans. I’ve moved my core colors from black to navy to gray. I didn’t toss anything – because, well, they’re basics and always useful, so in essence I have three common core wardrobes. For a couple of years my primary accents were red and purple. Last year I found myself totally burnt out on them. Donated some, packed others away for a future time when I feel ready to go back to them. Last spring I started adding yellow, shades of lighter blues, and green. Doing much better with a three color variety instead of just two. I love gray and pink, but the pink doesn’t love me. Like someone else mentioned, I so look forward to my morning coffee on M,W, F. I wake up and go “YAY!”
I cannot imagine more than 2 or 3 accent colors. The look back encompasses my wardrobe colors if the gray were navy instead. Shopping is a breeze because I block out anything that is not blue. I totally understand Janice’s preference for one color.
Like many other commenters I love blue. I also am a “summer,” but don’t know how to wear khaki near my face. It’s really unflattering to me. So is olive green. But a teal that leans blue is nice. I wear black although I know navy is far more flattering. There are shades of burgandy and plum I like during the winter.
I love looking at all your combinations, though!
I struggled with colours and have figured out that due to very pale skin cursed with very visible rosacea, my neutrals need to be soft. Ivory, white, beige on top. As for accents, green, blue and yellow. It’s very limiting to avoid any red, pink, purple and orange along with black and gray, but those jurt don’t work for the same reasons that Wendy mentioned. I’m still not sold on trying to put together the Common Wardrobe for myself. I just can’t see how to pull it together from what I own…and buying more to create it defeats the purpose of culling pieces. However, I’m reading all the posts to keep learning… Thank you Janice. One question…how would one create a CW with the neutrals I mentioned & if many basics were actually in the accent colours rather than the neutral? I have about half my pieces in an accent colour. Example…a cardi in aqua, pullover in green, blouses in duck egg and dusty gold.
Chiming in while you await Janice’s response….most of my tops are in my accent colours. Bottoms and some second layers are in my core neural, navy. I also have some bottoms in warmer shades or reds (mustard, burgundy, cherry) that don’t work near my face but they work with most of my blues/ teals/ greens/ lavenders. I need variety and this helps me. One other thing experience has taught me is to keep patterned garments above my waist. It facilitates making multiple outfits.
Dear Kari,
Pick the clothes that you wear the most often in a season, and see if the 9 or 12 most frequently worn things look like a core for everything else.
Ages ago, I used a Common Wardrobe in shades of beige, with a bit of brown tossed in – I accented it a handful of times with different colors and themes:
https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2015/08/the-warm-summer-common-wardrobe-water.html/
This isn’t exactly what you asked for, but it might give you some ideas. I think the real heart of a Common Wardrobe is to find the garments that are your go-to pieces, in neutrals that provide a backdrop for your accent colors.
It’s hard to explain. And if it doesn’t work for you, don’t over-think it! Every system I think up isn’t going to work for every woman!
love,
Janice
Hi – I think it really comes down to the whole concept of “customizing your X” – in this case X is your common wardrobe. So let’s look into it. What is the goal of the common wardrobe? as Janice says below : garments that are your go-to pieces, in neutrals that provide a backdrop for your accent colors. In your case, neutral is the point in question. so lets rephrase : garments that provide a backdrop for your accent colors. Are you good mixing accent colors, with nothing to ground it? if so, one of those accent colors could be your colored neutral. if not, what color do you gravitate towards to pair with your accents? that would be your chosen neutral. for your examples: aqua cardi over ? blouse/dress/trousers. (i’d pick charcoal grey with the accents you mentioned). but if you pair the gold blouse with green pants, the duck egg blouse with a green skirt, and the aqua cardi over a green shirt… i’d say your neutral is green :) Hope it helps.
Ezzy
You might shift your definition of neutral. You can think of your “light neutral” as the lightest color you regularly wear, and your “dark neutral” as the darkest color you regularly wear. So maybe for you, ivory or white is your light neutral, but you use an accent color you have a lot of as your “dark neutral.” I have so much purple in my wardrobe, I could really treat it as a neutral, mixing it with my accent colors.
In the example you gave, it sounds like you could make a green or a blue-green your “dark neutral,” as long as it’s a color you love and won’t get tired of. If you go that route, I’d think you want a couple of bottoms, a couple of tops, and a second layer in that color, along with a few pieces in the white or ivory “light neutral.”
I’ve been thinking (I should be doing but am not there yet) on doing a whole house clear, clean and put away, for which I plan to have most of my clothes elsewhere for the duration. This wardrobe (more so than the previous darker one) is providing a better choice for the temporary capsule that I’ll be using the the weekly timeless wardrobe set for autumn.
It’s still not a perfect match for me and mine (too much blue and too many buttons) but as with all posts on The Files, it can’t accommodate everybody everytime. This art work was used in a post about May 2021 with black and white as the neutrals, which may be more to some tastes.
I have tried several concepts for organizing my wardrobe but the common core + 5 Piece French in an accent color seems to work the best for me. I review my common core items prior to each season and see what is missing or needs to be replaced – then consider what accent colors I’m in the mood for – what I have of those and what I might want to add. This helps focus my shopping and assures me I have something appropriate to wear for whatever weather or events are happening in the next 3 months.
I have naturally light blonde hair, green eyes, fair skin and freckles. Since there is not much contrast between my hair and skin tone – I find marled / tweed / donegal materials in dark neutrals are often the most flattering. The mix of colors softens the effect. I use scarves during the cooler months to “bridge” the transition between a dark neutral and my face/hair.
Hope this idea is helpful to other soft colored ladies out there!
i love this post! reading your posts always makes my days more beautiful. I actually wrote out my common core a few years ago, modified to fit my colors. it helped with the thought process of making sure i had enough clothes.
My base colors are black, white, navy. My accent colors are cobalt blue, red, emerald green, purple, burgundy, mainly jewel colors. I don’t feel overwhelmed by these choices because I usually focus on a few colors depending on the season. I wear more blue in summer, red during the holidays. If I don’t feel like wearing color I’ll wear all black or navy. I have one pair of olive capris that I wear with a dark gray camo top, that is my most neutral outfit and I do wear it a lot in the summer when I don’t want to make decisions. This has simplified my life and I love to accessorize with scarves and jewelry. I have silver hair and cool coloring. I have been collecting scarves for 40 years and I wear one everyday during the cooler months and evenings in the summer if we go out.
This is very similar to my wardrobe, though I have been enjoying fuschia and aqua rather than maroon and emerald green lately, and I actually have several olive pieces I like to wear with my neutrals on occasion. I also have collected scarves for many years. I just counted mine and got rid of a few. I have 62! How do you organize yours?
I find myself drawn to colors for accenting my outfits: coral(My favorite with Navy blue). poppy red, soft to lemon yellow, aqua, torquoise (My favorite with chocolate brown!!), deep purple,ivory in Fall /Winter season’s, white in Spring/Summer season’s!! Have a wonderful week!!!!
Um, Janice, you questioned the name for the color of the blue shirt. How on earth did you search for the color of the blue backpack? 😊
The backpack is absolutely gorgeous.
hahahahaha, i had to scroll back up to look at that! (Also, for anyone that doesn’t know, a tit can refer to a type of bird… which is embroidered on the backpack). The first time I learned that one was an … interesting conversation. still makes me laugh)
I wear what I Iike and what I feel good in. I refuse to be dictated to by some one’s idea of ‘seasons’ or ‘cool vs warm’ I have silver streaked dark brunette hair, aquamarine eyes and fair/ medium skin. I wear gold and silver jewellery, often at the same time. Wear tons of black/white but also navy. My closet is a kaleidoscope of colour and pattern. There are colours that I despise(burgundy, emerald, cobalt) and don’t let into my wardrobe but if I followed all that seasonal malarkey I’d be thinking they were ‘my colours’ and force myself to include them. I love yellow in all it’s variations but don’t feel great in it so it’s at a minimum yet I had rave reviews about a yellow dress I once owned!
I also loath brown and it’s many variations from cream to beige to rust…but I adore my leopard prints!
Life is far too short to stress if one is making the ‘right’ wardrobe colour decision. Be brave, jump in, if you fail get up and try something different. If you feel good you are on the right track regardless of your ‘season’.
One might also consider that life is far too long to gather garments in colors that don’t suit you and will quickly be disposed of. If I am going to be around for another 20 years, I’d like as many of my clothes as possible to join me. The less I have to buy, the better for me and the planet I am leaving my children and grandchildren
Plus, making wrong color choices and trying to make them work is so frustrating and energy draining. I’d much rather be doing other things.
Janice, thank you for the fast response. I may have to track things closer, but based on your statement about what colours appear most, it looks like the aqua blue may be functioning as one of my neutrals. I have 3 pieces that have been worn weekly from April to present. The look back reference was helpful. I’ll read it again & see if I can build a chart of my most worn items. Thank you so much for extra clarification.
My wardrobe seems to have morphed itself into winter/autumn black, white, red and cobalt and spring/summer navy, white, pale blue and pink. I think I am supposed to be a summer but I only like clear colours so nothing muted or greyed and no brown or yellow. But I do prefer beige/cream to any shade of grey which does me no favours. My colouring is white hair with medium complexion and my eyes are blue. I feel good in black and white but it is a bit heavy for the very hot days we are currently enjoying. I agree we should wear what we feel good in as I don’t think I personally fit into any colour season.
Interesting discussion of accent colors today – it sounds like selecting a number of hues is popular (what I think of the pie chart color palette we see a lot on TVF) as is working within a personal coloring seasonal palette across a variety of hues. Of course I have *almost* never met an accent color I don’t like (looking at you, bright gold), though they do not all like me back quite as much ;)
I don’t wear solid tops so it’s always been hard for me to feel I fit in with this idea of a common core wardrobe. When I see a printed top and if I feel good in the colors, I’ll buy multiples of it so I have a uniform. I have been told “my season” twice, once as a teen and once in my 50’s while dying my hair lighter. I honestly don’t see the shadows they see or how some colors look better than the ones I wear daily. I’m going to continue to wear what I feel good in because that’s empowering. I truly do value this blog for the insight into wardrobe planning, travel packing & the enjoyable heroines we meet. What’s going on with Edith and the Kingpin? Did they survive Covid-19 & where they able to do lockdown together?
Yes, can we get a follow up on Edith and the Kingpin?!?!? :) My faves. Maybe they are planning some trips this year?
I have lost a lot of weight and on the way down having to buy a lot of thrift store clothing. My core neutral are white and bright navy with accent colors in blues and greens. Mid tones look best on me. Accent colors that I hate are mauve or orchid, bright gold. They look awful on me. Dark colors are too harsh with my pale golden skin and silver hair.
I just finished packing for our next Alaskan cruise in mid September. It’s 17 days away from home.
After that interesting discussion in the last post about common core I realized I’m pretty close to that in my “Whatever’s Clean 13” packing list for my trip.
4 pants: 3 black, 1 grey (wearing 1 black pair on travel day)
2 cardigans: grey cashmere & black merino wool. (Wearing the black on travel day)
1 black rib knit rayon black tank top for travel day or formal nights
3 long sleeve T-shirts: white, pastel teal & indigo blue to wear with the cardigans and scarves
3 warm pullover sweaters: cream fisherman knit, celadon green quilted cotton knit, cranberry rayon knit with a V neck to wear with the cranberry & rust chiffon scarf.
If I look closer it’s a common wardrobe in black, grey, white & cream with 2 cardigans, 3 tops and 4 pants.
I added 4 tops in accent colours- 3 in the blue-green spectrum while 1 cranberry pullover breaks it up a little. That indigo could come straight from the art 5 years ago that Janice linked to. Les Glaciers by Borisoff.
I’m taking 4 silk scarves and a soft grey cashmere shawl scarf.
Silk chiffon in cranberry & rust.
Large silk square in Hunter green, rust, taupe and cream in an equestrian print (travel day)
Grey on grey silk ranging from pale dove to deep charcoal
Aqua with grey and indigo long silk rectangle in a glacier by waters edge print.
Black leather loafers, black runners & my black Longchamps le Pliage bag.
My formal dinner outfits are black pants and leather loafers with a dressy twinset in black & lurex plus my mother’s 70 year old black silk clutch. Pearls. Alternatively same accessories but the black tank top & black merino cardigan from travel day. Alaskan cruises are more casual.
I will pack a spare white T-shirt in case of spots but wearing scarves generally protects my clothes.
I may also tuck in my black v neck thin merino pullover because I do get tired of colour and some days it’s just easier in all black plus a scarf and earrings.
I could live in pearl earrings the rest of my life and be happy. In fact I am wearing a pair on travel day.
To answer Janice’s question I have a very small group of accent colours I choose.
Soft pastel aquas into pastel teal. Celadon, cool olive, cranberry- that burgundy with a hint of rust and soft blush pink. Indigo into periwinkle- the denim colours.
Grey, black & white or winter white are year round comfort neutrals. Navy in spring and summer.
I could happily live in this winter solstice capsule especially with this core of grey & white. I love the soft pastel pinks and blues and even the chambray has that soft misty quality. I’d swap in some white jeans for the darker denims and do a good imitation of a winter snowscape. Love it.
I’ve come late to this discussion, as it’s now Thursday. It’s fascinating to read how people have adapted principles for their wardrobes. If you asked my mother what a neutral was, she would have said anything in a plain colour!
Last winter, I decided to keep wearing pastels and it worked. The three, Janice has here are among my favourites. I don’t go for specific named shades but prefer a range of shades to blend together.
I had to buy a new everyday winter coat because my existing one didn’t fit. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money as I’m determined to lose again. I found a gorgeous orchid pink coat in a charity shop. There was a split in the seam at the back of one arm. Thank goodness that hadn’t been spotted otherwise, it would have been sent for recycling. I bought it for £10 and my daughter repaired it. It’s a good make , all new wool with mohair. It is such a lovely colour and I got lots of compliments wearing it. My family found it useful as they could spot me in a crowd! I find winter such a dull season but adding in pastels, lightens my mood. This is the season that I don’t blend in with the crowd.
Someone said that they had trouble deciding on accents because they wore a lot of patterned tops. I do too but often find that a top has a base colour with either another accent or neutral in the design.
I’m even going so far as colour coordinating my night wear!
Beth what a wonderful find! My husband always grumbles about people in dark coats on dark winter evenings- sunset is early here, and they’re so hard to see in the crosswalks or roadsides even with streetlights. Orchid pink is visible! And such a pretty colour.
Inspired by this, more casual common wardrobe, I have shopped in my closet and assembled my own casual version. It includes jeans in two different washes and dark joggers. The buttoned shirts are flannel and the cashmere sweaters are fleece pullovers. Navy and mid blue Ts finished it. My French five has no accent color but has jackets and other accessories. I am well pleased and have avoided my usual seasonal struggles. Thank You, Janice!