June 9, 2023
I had to try this…
Our heroine is quite a bit cheerier than Picasso’s subject!
She committed to wearing blue. It feels right to her, and that’s what is most important, right?
She knows that a painting that inspires you doesn’t have to be copied identically – so long as you are true to whatever initially inspired you, you may interpret that inspiration any way you want!
Cotton cardigan – L.L.Bean; glass triangle earrings – Lala Salama; bracelet – Serabondy; chicory blue tee – Lands’ End; crossbody bag – Betsy & Floss; scarf – Pig, Chicken & Cow; navy pants – L.L.Bean; weekender bag – Fenella Smith; navy suede loafers – Birdies
A long weekend seems like a perfect chance to try-out the idea of wearing all blue… She won’t be around a lot of people who know her, so she doesn’t expect anybody to actually notice that she’s always in blue…
Linen dress – Alex Mill; blue enamel necklace – Latelita; earrings – Kendra Scott; scarf – Elizabetta; cotton cardigan – J.Crew; campshirt – Alex Mill; French blue shorts – Alex Mill; gold mini-bag – Sostter; Brilliant Ocean pants – J.Crew; navy peacoat split-neck top – Caslon; gold sandals – Eric Michael; blue sandals – Munro
The night before she leaves for her wee adventure, she takes a good look at her planned travel capsule wardrobe; she finds it beautiful, relaxing, and familiar to her heart:
Of course, as all clever heroines will do, she checks to make sure that she has everything she needs, and a variety of outfit possibilities:
I suspect that our heroine is going to enjoy her experiment!
And I also can picture including a “blue period” painting from Picasso in next year’s “6 Paintings, 12 Months” wardrobes…
love,
Janice
p.s. Eight years ago, we accessorized a navy and beige “Whatever’s Clean 13” wardrobe with pink….
Like this wardrobe? Save it to Pinterest!
This is so beautiful, I could cry. I won’t because I am so happy to see this. Which could be used also if not traveling. For other wee adventures 😊. I think I like the dark blue with gold accessoires most, I think. Thank you again for your ideas and inspirations!!!
.. in addition – just for the fun of it.. since we have 30 degrees Celcius here today in the South of Germany …
https://www.staatsgalerie.de/sammlung/sammlung-digital/nc/suche/_/_/_/_/werk/auflistung/record.html?tx_datamintscatalog_pi1%5Bcollection%5D=&cHash=8f2e851725d1c90220e1a749f124d00d
Also P. Picasso: Die Badenden – The bathers…
Have a beautiful day today in Chicago!
How exciting to see the blue wardrobe so soon! That scarf is gorgeous, and the two sweaters. What a great collection this is, thank you Janice. I do hope you are feeling better.
So sorry, the link does not work. Too long. Too complicated. Try this one:
https://www.kunstbeziehung.de/img/r/5d0d25dcde0fa/SG_IMS4/A_P1550228.JPG_
But they bathe in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. …
How very odd, I was just reading the obituary of the model in the painting this morning! It’s funny how things go. She had a very interesting life. The clothes are beautiful all together. Xx
This is lovely! I’m using blue for spring/summer as a variation from my autumn/winter browns and blacks. I have found it is a way to mark the seasons. Love these scarves; I can always identify W/B loveliness.
I quite love that pendant. The wardrobe is lovely, and I agree, no one will notice she’s always wearing blue. For me personally, having done my “purple period” a year or so ago, I have found I just need more color. Maybe only one or two additional colors, but I get too bored with the monochromatic look. That being said, I’ll admit sometimes I dress all in one color because it’s incredibly easy, but I don’t do that on a daily basis. I’m happy to know at least that much about myself and my personal preferences! I’ve learned so much from reading you and look forward to each and every post. Have a great weekend and hope you are feeling better.
The blue scarf is absolutely lovely. And the ocean blue color is so fresh. One could easily drop a bright accent or two into this capsule. Your best white would also provide a fresh contrast.
I agree that expanding the capsule to include the heroine’s version of white is a wonderful idea, especially for summer.
It’s funny, I’m showing a shades of blue + white rabbit quilt on my blog today that could be the “start with textile art” for such a wardrobe, haha.
This wardrobe really speaks to me. I wear blue everyday and no one notices. We have to be true to ourselves, yes?
Yes, please, to the blue next round of scarves! Or another one color, one neutral idea like the heroine of yore who was all blue and white. Loved, loved, loved that one, and revisit it often even though my own wardrobe has more colors than that.
If you’re thinking of the one based on the Kinuko Imai Hoffman painting – this wardrobe immediately made me think of that one too. Interestingly, when scrolling through the pages of artwork (brilliant idea!) to find it, I realized that there were a number of other quite nice blue or blue & white wardrobes… but the Hoffman was the one that stuck in my head. Now I’ve got to go think about why… it may just be that the heroine was so interesting!
Janice, I just love this. What a great way to go monochromatic without being dull…plus, I adore blue! Thank you for this one!
Love it! I’m a black basics girl however I’m going to use this well collated wardrobe as a template for my own packing for a 6week (babysitting) trip next week. Thank you for you continuing inspiration.
May I suggest that you take more tops than you think you’ll need? I’m currently away on Nana duty and am going through my shirts quickly. Sometimes laundry isn’t on the top of the To Do list so I’m glad that I went maximalist on my shirt quota but still minimalist with my skirts.
Enjoy your trip!
Be still my heart!
Well I’m inspired to go and try a blue wardrobe with my own clothes for stop. I like dressing in monochrome but I think you need to get the tonal shift right otherwise the outfit has too stark a contrast. Maybe that’s the problem with my wardrobe is that I don’t have enough mid blue tones. Something to think about. It would be good to see this developed with a six scarves post. I agree that this lady that looks cold and miserable.
Good point about having enough mid-tone blues to make the gradation of color work for a lower contrast look. I quite like the addition of a dark blue that is lighter than navy as well as a pale blue in creating this kind of outfit. Of course there are so many versions of blue denim from extremely light to navy dark that can also help fill in those gaps.
This is lovely! I wonder, in the 6 scarves posts, would she incorporate more shades of blue (cobalt, royal, ice…)?
Ah, she may start adding shades of blue by Monday! I just don’t feel like I’m quite finished with this heroine…
hugs,
Janice
LOVE! I hear the angels singing, lol! This is me, me, ME! I switched from all black year round to blues for summer when I retired ten years ago and I couldn’t be happier. I added pops of coral last year and a bit of pink this year, which has been a delight! Thank you for all your hard work and sharing your lovely stories an brilliant inspirations.
Oh, my! This is nice. Better than nice. I have been attempting this for several months, with some success. It is very easy to put an outfit together. When the weather turned nice I thought I wanted some Color. So I got a few tops in spring colors. I still grab the denim, the navy and the blue. I guess I prefer ease over variety. I have found I have to be careful trying to work extremes of either dusty, greyed blue or saturated, bright blue. I stick to the center lane and it’s a piece of cake. I have that chicory blue T and that’s about as bright as I go. Great post and hope to see more.
I absolutely love this one and could see putting it all in my own suitcase. Such a TERRIFIC job of finding a variety of blue shades that all work together – I’m very impressed! I’m looking forward to seeing this wardrobe expanded. Denim in all its varieties is one obvious addition of course.
I am curious how having both clear blues and muted/greyed blues might work in a single capsule. Are there ways to bring those tones together in a wardrobe or in outfits? I’m thinking about how the light/dark value continuum and the clear/muted continuum play out together as the capsule gets a bit larger. And so far we seem to be sticking with true blue hues rather than those that lean toward blue-green or blue-violet on the color wheel, which is another factor to consider. Sandy B’s note about “staying in the center” lane on the clear/muted continuum resonates for me, but I’m curious how far we could stray into the other lanes and not crash.
Janice, Thank you for the beautiful blue wardrobe. I wear blue most of the time and no one has ever breathed a word. I would wear the gold and blue bracelet with every outfit, every day!
Nice template for a travel bag. You could also draw the palette with two neutrals–navy and cornflower–and two accents–natural and white. If this were my travel capsule, I’d toss in 1 or 2 white tops.
As a lover of all things blue, I love this! What a beautiful selection!
So beautiful Janice! It’s not that I’m sorprised, you have developed a great eye for what you do. The one thing I dislike is the painting itself, so sad :(
Yes to add more shades of blue and white. Pleasy pleeeese!
Cheers and blessings all!
Forgot to say I would swap one of the cardigans for a chambray shirt.
Dear Arwen,
I agree about the sad woman in the painting – if it weren’t that the colors were so lovely, I would have chosen something cheerier!
hugs,
Janice
So timely! I just outfitted my 10 year old daughter in a europe travel wardrobe and she and my husband got confused when I started saying “capsule wardrobe”
Cut to the chase I am showing them this post.
Beautiful! I wear a lot of blue too, especially as a travel capsule, but I’ll bring along a scarf with a pop of colour for when I get bored with it.
I do think those two cardigans are too similar, both having cables. One of them should be a smooth fabric to give more variations in moods of the outfits.