August 21, 2023
An Unconventional Woman
That’s how she thinks of herself. She knows that she has been described as such, more than a few times! And that’s when people are being nice…
Now that she’s retired, she is embracing her uniqueness, starting with her wardrobe, but branching out in all kinds of ways…
Brown cardigan/blazer – Lands’ End; smoky quartz earrings – Auree Jewellery; scarf – AIMADETHIS; Tee shirt – Alex Mill; bracelet – Panacea; corduroy pants – Lands’ End; cork backpack – Tiradia Cork; loafers – Massimo Matteo; weekender bag – Coach
She’s the person who goes into the city for a long weekend when the Natural History Museum gets a new exhibit of fossils…
mushroom silk shirt – Orvis; peridot earrings – Nasi Silver; lime cashmere sweater – Lands’ End; peridot bracelet – Mirabelle Jewellery; green cardigan – Alex Mill; green flower scrunchie – SYLKI; brown bracelet – Shar Oke; mushroom cords – Orvis; brown tee shirt – Lands’ End; green corduroy pants – J.Crew; taupe knit flats – Sketchers; twilly scarf – Grace de Monaco; green loafers – Calvin Klein
She attends all of the opera world premiers, no matter HOW weird the music is reputed to be. If it’s unusual, she figures she has a good chance of having fun!
She is beloved as a supporter of new artists and musicians. She will try any dish in any new restaurant. It’s just the way she lives…
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll be bored if you retire?”
She still laughs about that question…
love,
Janice
p.s. Five years ago, our heroine assembled her entire autumn “Project 333” in shades of blue and pink… If you’re not familiar with Project 333, please click through to Courtney’s site and enjoy her insights!
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What an interesting painting! It is listed at Sotheby’s for a cool $1.8 million of you happen to have any spare cash lying about. Dove certainly was a pioneer of American modernism.
What fun that you found the beautiful flower scrunchies (lots more colors available for anyone who hasn’t yet followed the link.)
Love the peridot earrings and lime cashmere sweater. Lands End paired the sweater with a Kelly green vest, which I’d wear in a heartbeat. Maybe I’d pair those with ivory cords, certainly with jeans. Maybe our heroine can wear that cashmere with a chocolate brown silk skirt she has back home in her closet for dressier occasions.
I love the colours, and I love art. But could we not see some slightly different shapes in the capsule wardrobe? Here in UK trousers are getting wider, tops also wider and sometimes shorter – more sculptural to use an art analogy – and shoes bigger too , trainers or platforms. How I would love to find those shapes in the gorgeous colours you show on your blog.
Oh I love these colors. She may also be wearing one-of-a-kind jewelry from her artists or a patterned garment As mentioned in the other comment, I’m missing a skirt or dress.
WOW. This wardrobe is astonishingly beautiful. No way could I wear it, but I thoroughly enjoy looking at and admiring it.
LOVE THIS! My red-headed green-eyed grandmother would have looked glowing in these sets!!
My strawberry blonde, golden hazel-eyed friend would also glow beautifully in this wardrobe. Oddly, although I don’t like brown, I do like this wardrobe a lot, and the painting. Thanks Janice! I particularly love the backpack and the scarf.
Janice you do find interesting inspirations and the most gorgeous accessories. These are not my color wheelhouse at all except for the mushroom/taupe. I am going to look at that Orvis blouse. I already have cords and denim in that color. Before opening todays post I went back to the moth. How I wish that was a scarf! I have many of those colors and I’m sure they could be worn with my taupe. Thanks for the inspiration.
Sally in St Paul, I’m waiting for your thoughts.
I love everything about this wardrobe as it has no many colors that I lovingly wear. Beautiful as always thanks for the inspiration and that beautiful lime green sweater, so hard to find that color and it not veer too much into neon, which I’ve seen it do way too often!
And did you notice how exquisite the pattern is on that sweater? That is one of those items you will wear forever if you love the color.
AIMADETHIS scarf’s description must have been written by AI as well. WTH is recycled satin? Satin is a weave, not a material. Is it polyester? Silk? Cotton? And what is an envelope style scarf? Half a scarf? Before forking over 60 bucks I’d want to know, and I’m definitely reluctant to support AI instead of human designers.
I find descriptions all the time where the fabric is “satin” – and I have the same screaming fits about it!
hugs,
Janice
I love the selection of unapologetically warm greens in this palette/capsule, and combined with the brown, it has a wonderful earthy feel. Frequent trips to the natural history museum feels spot on. I admit that the artwork and color palette images had me thinking about hard-core camo…which would be a certain type of unconventional choice ;) (Maybe she has a cheeky nightgown that is a feminine style but the print is a traditional green camo. That seems on brand.) The light lime sweater with the peridot earrings is a superb pairing, and the (rather oddly described, I agree with Danielle) scarf is terrific match to the painting.
I was a little surprised to learn our heroine loves experimental opera/art, strikingly unusual food in restaurants, etc. Stereotypically, I would associate those interests with more dramatic, architectural, creative, dramatic, trendy clothing rather than the classic, traditional, relaxed-but-a-bit-elevated-by-the-fabrics items in this capsule. Also more prints, with print mixing, and a juxtaposition of styles. A good illustration that (1) it’s not necessary for your wardrobe to reflect every single aspect of your complex personality and interests all at the same time and (2) travel capsules in particular need not be a microcosm of one’s entire wardrobe. Oh, and (3) defying stereotypes is definitely a thing an unconventional woman would do.
Combined with the camo feel of the artwork, this capsule is giving me a sense of an unconventional woman who doesn’t flaunt it. She’s not dramatic and attention-seeking, “oh look at my unusual self eating strange food in a trendy restaurant in this exotic locale.” She does not live life as a series of photo ops for her Instagram feed. She’s just quietly going about living her retirement exploring the many interesting possibilities the big wide world has to offer, grounded in her earthy, practical, and simply stylish capsule wardrobe.
The mushroom shirt + pants from Orvis with the taupe Skechers is a real find! This particular mushroom-taupe is a fairly rare color, and the three pieces will work well together. (I have a pair of Skechers Cleo Sherlock flats and love them.) But while the brown with the warm greens is wonderful, I am decidedly less sold on the mushroom with the green. A more beige taupe (which is the version of the color I always seem to find in my size range) would be better here to my eye. The mushroom-taupe has me longing for duck egg blue, peacock blue, teal, mint, seafoam, and jade…more the blue-green colors than the yellow-green ones.
I just want to add that I appreciate this website so much. It can be terribly frustrating sifting through the retailers’ websites with the trendy shapes, crops, shoes designed less for function than sculpture, and odd ball colors. This is the best place to find the link to those enduring, versatile pieces we will wear comfortably and with elegance. A heartfelt thank you, Janice.
Janice,
Be still my heart ! You are looking at my Autumn colors, except perhaps for a warmer version of the mushroom color ! Loving this one !
I am rather surprised at the colour choices of an unconventional woman. I would expect more pizazz, colour and pattern. Having said that being unconventional is defined as not conforming. Sallie’s suggestion that our heroine is unconventional in a quiet sense. She does not draw attention to herself. I can imagine that she would up the ante at evening events by wearing silk and velvet. Perhaps her dress sense is more unconventional at night when you do see people wearing extraordinary clothes.
Part of the thrill of her life is doing unconventional things which people she knows might raise an eyebrow at her presence. I can imagine that she buys season tickets or joins as a Friend for concert series, the opera house, theatre, art galleries/museums and cinema. It is by far the cheapest way to access the arts and allows her to see the unconventional productions and exhibitions which other people might scorn her for. Her retort can be “I’ve paid for a season ticket, so I might as well get my money’s worth.” She becomes all the more interesting for broadening the scope of her interests. She might not enjoy everything that she attends but she probably meets some very interesting and engaging people along the way.
I think that there is a side to all of us that wishes we had the courage to be unconventional. This can be expressed in the clothes and accessories that we wear. However, it takes courage to wear something that is unexpected or not our usual style. Sometimes just a small thing can give us that ‘edge’, that fashion pundits are always going on about.
Thankyou for the look back, I bought a slate blue scarf with pink magnolia blooms on it last week. This autumn, I will further my experiment of wearing shades of softer dark grey-blues other than navy. Pink looks amazing with these softer blues. My orchid pink coat will get another outing.
Thank you for showing brown and green. I especially liked the dark brown and mushroom together. My favorite greens are a bit darker, but I enjoyed your choices too. I’m so happy to see nice dark browns (finally) coming back to stores. And yes,my favorite skirt is camo and made of t-shirt material!!