September 22, 2023
Now that the world of retail has managed to synchronize itself with the seasons, and the weather, I feel comfortable returning to the Japanese 24 seasons.
I’ve tried to imagine 6 different heroines, all preparing for the cool weather and that “back to school” feeling that so many of us get when the days get short and the breeze quickens…
Image – Elite Tree Care.com
Our first heroine is a traditionalist, which a lot of navy in her wardrobe. She’s pretty excited that she can mix in some lovely tan shades with very little effort…
Cashmere hat – Alex Mill; earrings – Missoma; heather acorn sweater – J.Crew; flannel shirt – L.L.Bean; scarf – Belle & Bloom; corduroy pants – L.L.Bean; boots – Blondo
Our next heroine dresses for the office, in mostly traditional colors, with little touches of brightness and whimsey. What’s the point of being the coolest person at work if you can’t bust out and be just a bit creative?
Splash pendant – Lucy Quartermaine; silk shirt – Orvis; ivory cardigan – J.Crew; bracelet – Lucy Quartermaine; bag – Oryany; loafers – Stelio Malori; grey pants – L.L.Bean
Pretty sure that this photo was taken in Ireland?
Image- noirandchocolate.tumbler.com
Even those of us who pretty much live in black and white want to freshen things up for autumn!
I own this striped shirt, and can highly recommend it!
Tipped cotton cardigan – J.Crew; star earrings – Rinoor; striped shirt – Lands’ End; white jeans – J.Crew; onyx bracelets – Eye Candy LA; bag – Self-Portrait; sparkly loafers – Donald Pliner
For the heroine who loves all colors wine, burgundy, claret etc. etc., autumn is a delight! These colors don’t seem to be in most warm-weather wardrobes…
Cashmere infinity scarf – CXB; garnet earrings – Vir Jewels; wine cotton sweater – L.L.Bean; floral shirt – L.L.Bean; ginko print socks – Madewell; wool shoes – Allbirds; dark evening corduroy pants – J.Crew
Image – Country Living Magazine
Some heroines want to dress to match the autumn leaves! And a velvet jacket – heck YEAH!!!
Bright copper velvet wrap jacket – Kettlewell; earrings – Kendra Scott; rust tee shirt – Kettlewell; scarf – Elizabetta; heather acorn pants – J.Crew; handbag – Madewell; loafers – G.H.Bass
Yes, Kettlewell and I are now partnered! Anything you purchase through a link here generates a wee commission for me; of such things are a livelihood made!
Our last heroine is another traditionalist, who takes the autumn season as a chance to grab a lovely sweater and matching beret, as well as pretty scarf! Making sure your leather sneakers are in good condition is smart…
Beret – Otto & Spike; earrings – Kate Spade New York; green sweater – Alex Mill; vest – Barbour; scarf – Jessie Zhao New York; chinos – L.L.Bean; sneakers – Ecco
Leaves aren’t changing yet, here in Chicago, but the days are noticeably shorter…
love,
Janice
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Oh I love this! The photos are amazing as always. I love fall and the leaves are just starting to turn here (Seattle area). The first wardrobe is just me. Flannel shirts, cords, sweaters. Even in summer I will sometimes wear a flannel shirt over a sleeveless top if I get chilly. Hooray!
I love Kettlewell clothing! Their quality is excellent.
These are all lovely, Janice! FYI, the Kettlewell links aren’t working (as of 0741 EST).
OMGosh Love them all! tell us more about Kettlewell. Have you competed the program? Fall is my favorite time of year so if you keep this up, we are going to be best friends LOL. I am enjoy the weather we have now because I am not looking forward to the long dark winter ahead of us. Take care!
I know very little about them, except that many of you have told me that you love their things! And they seem to have a glorious assortment of colors, which is always useful in my work… I’m eager for others to share what they like about Kettlewell…
hugs,
Janice
I love the choice of colors at Kettlewell because my versions of navy and chocolate brown are extremely difficult to find in classic styles. US retailers are so stuck on black they almost always offer navy and brown in such dark versions we need a sunlight bulb in the closet to distinguish them from black. That’s draining on me.
I love the look and feel of their basic tees, which you can wear on a hike and add an accessory later for dinner. The other thing I really love about Kettlewell is that nearly every season they offer a two-piece “dress,” usually in a print, but sometimes a solid. That really opens us the wardrobe possibilities and makes travel capsules a breeze.
I have a paisley midi/maxi skirt from Kettlewell that gets worn year round and frequently!
I love Kettlewell because not only do they have a great selection of colors overall, and seem to have a sustainable mindset, but I can get my favorite “spring” colors of aqua, bright green, bright blue, etc. in cooler weather styles – long sleeves, sweaters, and jackets, which is impossible anywhere else. I have several of their merino sweaters and they’ve worn like crazy and never pilled. In fact I’m wearing one right now!
I enjoy the Kettlewell Colours blog! I have been reading it for a long time just for inspiration, but thought it might be too complicated to order clothes from England (those of us in Canada have probably all been smacked at one time or another with unexpected duty etc. from out-of-country purchases). I finally decided to give it a try and bought a dress, and there were no shipping problems at all, so I would definitely consider buying other items in the future. I do love some of their hard-to-find colours too.
Leaves are changing, days are short but it’s still quite hot here, so we’re in shorts and t-shirts with a sweatshirt over top in mornings and evenings. I guess I’ll have to wait to pull out the sweaters.
Same here! I wanted to put away the truly summer clothes since today the wind seemed a bit fall-ish, BUT next week seems summer’s back. Well, another round for my dresses and linen tops.
Cheers and blessings!
Daily highs still reaching 90 degrees. No sweaters here yet! But I can dream.
Pinterest served me your 36-hanger Rolling Closet method of organizing a wardrobe, where you have an an active wardrobe of 18 hangers, plus 18 hangers of hidden-but-easily-accessible clothes (in garment bags or behind a sheet in your closet). Any remaining clothes go to out of season storage. You can then evaluate the active 18 pieces every two-ish weeks to determine if they are ready to be switched with any ensembles in the on-deck storage or retired to the out of season storage.
This method would be perfect for following the Japanese seasons calendar. By considering the gradual shift of every new season, you could rotate through your whole wardrobe in a more mindful way. I was thinking that the clothes that hadn’t made it into my active wardrobe after a year of this method are likely ones that I don’t need.
It seems like a gentler way of reducing my wardrobe to my most useful items, rather than trying to use my right-now mood to declutter my closet for a Future Me that I haven’t even met yet.
Oh, I like this concept, Kelly. Excellent for the (sometimes unpredictable) four season climate. And, I think it could help me with the last steps of decluttering. I have gotten stuck with moving along the Past Me work & too-youthful clothes that I still love (but never wear!, and Future Me probably won’t wear them either!). I like the idea of a gentler decision process.
This summer I shared here I started a full review of my wardrobe. I was hoping to do a full scrutiny with a Janice-based sound system to leave me with a sleek and curated wardrobe. To me this meant no poor condition, weird fitting or too big clothes. Reality check: with a 4 year old, the get back to school /jobs and wanting to spend my time enjoying the moment, it has been a long 3 months of a very unstructured process.
I started by putting in the bin everything that wasn’t in good conditions. Second step was putting aside in a corner of the closet everything that I tried – over the days – and didn’t like. Third step, reviewing my stored clothes to repeat these steps, plus the hardest, letting go things in good condition, that I really liked but that were 1-2 sizes bigger. It was my hope to tailor them and wear them again, but realistically I don’t have the time right now. Two things that helped me were: 1. Being invited to a conference in October to… Chicago! (any advice is welcomed). 2. Knowing that a person in an exchange /donation wsp group, really needed clothes in the size I had been storing.
The things I do wear and love are also helping me realize why I don’t wear the other items. I had these black slacks I used to love (2 sizes bigger) and was very attached to because their new version sucks. But then I tried them alone, with a belt, imaginary seams, you name it, and compared the fit, look, fabric of my real go-to pants. It really opened my eyes to see I can find other pants that I love and that truly fit me today.
My 2 cents of the day!
Cheers and blessings :)
I too like Kettlewell for the same reason, not always able to find spring colours in regular fall winter clothing. I do not have too many of their items but if you are looking for a particular colour, chances are you will find it there. Delivery is fast and quality is pretty good.
Adore these pallets, could see myself happy and cozy with with the flannel shirt and cord, or the silk shirt ❤️ scrumptious.
Thank you Janice
Great outfits as per usual.
Love the Kettlewell colours and clothes but they don’t seem to be in big plus sizes so sadly I have stopped looking at them.
I’m just catching up with this week’s posts. My holiday destination this week had patchy WiFi. Even the accommodation had two different WiFi codes. It must be one of the worst UK counties to live in.
I loved Monday’s wardrobe – the accents are right up my street. I would wear any of these colours together Although the saturation was a bit off, particularly the green and purple.
Wednesday is lovely too. I do wish I could wear olive/khaki. Perhaps I would swap with taupe.
Friday – I’ve had to think about Autumn this week as it was quite wet and windy. I love burgundy and navy. There is a tunnel of beech trees like that near where I live. The trees will be turning soon too.
Please would it be possible to revisit the peacock look back to add in the blue/purple accents? It is one of my favourite paintings for inspiration.
Hi Beth, I missed you! Glad you are ok and it was just a wifi issue.
Beth, hope you had a nice holiday, excepting the Wi-Fi. 😀
Arwen, it sounds like you had a plateful, so to speak. It also sound like you made Some progress. Yay! I have attempted similar projects and came to the realization that what took me years to achieve, a mess in my case, wasn’t going to be sorted in just a few months, lol.
I know!!! Still have work to do, but all clothes now fit in the closet – including off season ones in 2 zipped bags (no winter coats included). And I learned that you don’t have to do it in 4 hours. Feels just as good in 3-4 months of ants work :)
Arwen, good for you! I find that even after a year I look back on pictures from last fall and see that my outfits felt so dark. I was going a little heavy on my fave neutral (because that’s what I was trying to build back up) so now I’m working in some lighter neutrals and colors for fall. So I think it definitely takes some time to find your groove and we’re constantly refining a little.
It’s fun that you mention this Kristi, same thing happened to me! I now know that even with my dark neutral (navy or black), tops in this color barely get worn. I swap them in my core 4 for ivory/white or striped tops.
I miss rebelliously dressy. Still love getting dressed up for work and pleasure.
Julie in Melbourne
Amen, sister! I keep trying to figure ways to sneak in more polished outfits that will still play well when others are full-casual. Sometimes it’s fun to be fabulous! (Of course, I still have plenty of seriously scruffy stuff too, but that’s for projects & lounging.)
Catching up a few weeks late but thrilled to see the Kettlewell partnership, a match made in heaven! I always figured there must be a reason you didn’t feature them (sizing?) but glad to see there will be more in future as the colours are great. Kettlewell has been instrumental in the evolution of my wardrobe, just as this wonderful blog has! I’ll make sure I shop through your links in future!