December 18, 2023
Of course you remember this bracelet – it was only last week that I first shared it with you!
And this was the small wardrobe that our heroine took with her on her long weekend of serious reading!
Square stone earrings – Latelita; bracelets – Fierce Lynx Designs; necklace – Belpearl; watch – Olivia Burton; 3-stone earrings – Vir Jewels; rectangle stone earrings – Zohreh V. Jewellery; Foulard patch 42” tassel scarf – Echo; grey sweater – Lands’ End; cashmere scarf – Scarves by Franci; cashmere turtleneck – L.L.Bean; larkspur tee – L.L.Bean; Henley top – L.L.Bean; cashmere cardigan – L.L.Bean; coat – L.L.Bean; larkspur quarter-zip top – L.L.Bean; fleece-backed pants – L.L.Bean; grey pants – Lands’ End; boots – Sorel; loafers – Aerosoles; tote bag – Campo Marzio Roma 1933
It turns out that our heroine is headed to campus for a month for a special symposium about Changing Political Ideologies in Western Democratic Systems! Riveting, eh?
Since she was so happy with her wardrobe from her “reading weekend,” she decided to use that as the base for her 4 by 4 Capsule Travel Wardrobe for the month that she’s away. Sensible, I’d say…
After looking at, and remembering wearing, her core garments, she decides to add a 2nd, darker neutral. And she feels like she wants a blazer with her, but nothing overly “corporate work outfit.” A corduroy suit is perfect:
And if she’s going to use “Larkspur” as her accent, she feels like she wants one more garment. And a white shirt – under a sweater or jacket, over a tee shirt, or on its own, a white shirt is useful!
I have to strongly endorse the cotton cabled sweater above – I have two of them that are… 10 years old maybe, and they still look amazing…
Our heroine has reached a point where a clear plan would be useful – maybe a template that shows what she currently has in her wardrobe, and gives an indication of what she might want to add:
She has warm fleece-lined pants with her, but she knows for a fact that there’s no campus in the known universe in which all of the rooms are warm and cozy…. well, at least not north of St. Louis!
So a sweater and warm shirt seem sensible:
There will certainly be some kind of dressy event while she’s there – not that academics are really good at getting dressed up! But a skirt and another sweater can be worn for “normal” days, and then also for those dinners that last hours…
And just like that – so quickly – she’s got 16 garments to pack!
She’s a little bit freaked out – for a moment or two. Is this going to be enough clothing?
But it’s not as if anybody else there is going to be obsessed with what she wears – it’s not that kind of crowd! And she’s not the woman to try to keep the shallow and superficial among us entertained with an infinite wardrobe…
Seriously though, she knows that she will probably rinse out at least her undergarments each night, and maybe a top or two. Assuming that 14 of your 16 garments are clean and ready to wear on any given moment, how many outfit possibilities will she have?
When she isolate the 30 outfits that will get her through the month, she stops worrying!
(realistically, I think I could scrounge 60 outfits from this… maybe only 50, but that’s still pretty good!)
Here’s what she saw for possibilities:
First, her grey cardigan and pants – easily at least 3 different ways to wear those:
And her navy suit – even if she ONLY wanted to wear it with a grey top, she’s got another 3 outfits there:
Cold days in the research library suggest that she wear her Larkspur quarter-zip and fleece-lined pants – she’s got at least 3 outfits from that:
Sweaters to wear with her navy skirt? At least three possibilities:
If she wants to layer up her flannel shirt and v-neck sweater, she’s got at least 3 possibilities for pants or her skirt:
Men wear navy blazers with grey pants all the time – does she have the ability to do the same?
What if she’s in the mood to wear Larkspur with her navy pants?
She can wear her navy v-neck sweater with her white shirt, in addition to her plaid flannel shirt! How many outfits can she find like this?
She might want to wear her favorite grey cardigan with her navy corduroy pants – what tops can she wear under it?
There are so many possibilities! I confess I didn’t expect that there would be so many…
Three last combinations of clothes, just to get her to the “30-day” mark and finish her academic month:
She feels like she’s going to have enough clothes with just her 16 pieces – she’s surprised!
But of course, she hasn’t yet packed her accessories….
Should we help her with accessories?
love,
Janice
p.s. Not quite 10 years ago, I shared some Chic Sightings I spied on the streets of Chicago, which paired camel and grey. Now that camel seems to be much more common, I thought we might take a 2nd look…
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The flannel shirt with the corduroy blazer looks amazing. And, may I suggest those corduroy lapels are begging for some brooches- whimsical or elegant.
The accessories for this are going to be amazing.
Almost forgot…I think one of those packable puffer vests would be useful in drafty campus rooms.
Yes…puffer vests are my new favorite thing! Especially the ones with narrower channels that are a bit more fitted/elegant. I have the opposite problem…a long cold commute and a classroom next to the boiler!!
When I first saw the bracelet and color wheel I double checked the date! I also love the LLBean cotton sweaters. They are amazing. Like the addition of the navy. Have a great day ladies.
Larkspur is just the color I was looking for my winter wardrobe. I ordered the bracelet, several t-shirts, the full-zip jacket, and the cotton cardigan. Between menopause and medication, I overheat easily. The sweater, while gorgeous, was too thick and heavy for me so it was returned.
I was able to find a cardigan and tank set from Lands End in chicory blue.
Looking forward to putting my winter capsule together. Thanks for all you do, Janice.
The hardest thing about packing is that I have too many things that I like, that don’t always go with everything. I just packed a 4X4 capsule for Arizona in my head, using your template above, only with yellow instead of larkspur. So grey, navy, yellow and white which seems pretty good. But what about my favorite tawny brown pants? And my spotted brown and white shirt? And the brown suede jacket! Argh. Self control and being sensible also have to go in the suitcase.
If you fell in love with the color larkspur, look at the Levenger website for Riveria notebook covers and purse. Lovely color.
This capsule is a wonderful demonstration of why I tilt my head a bit when I read something like “30+ different outfits from 16 pieces in 3 neutrals and 1 accent color!” The statement is not untrue. There are at least 30 technically different outfits to be found in this capsule. BUT. Am I the only who looks at this kind of thing and thinks that a lot of these outfits don’t actually seem very different at all?
It’s clear that there is no universal definition of “different” where outfits are concerned. For myself, just about any grey bottom piece, navy topper, and grey or navy or white top is going to seem much the same because the primary driver of perceived variety for me, the thing keeps me interested and staves off boredom, is color.
Different materials, different textures, different silhouettes…the impact isn’t absolutely 0. But I’m just going to get bored out of my mind by the tedium of wearing the same few colors and color combinations over and over. Will adding accessories help? Yeah. Especially print scarves since this capsule also doesn’t have any prints. But I can guarantee that the accessories will also be drawn from a super limited color palette so it almost assuredly won’t help enough. A grey/navy/white outfit with a mostly grey scarf or a mostly navy scarf or a scarf with a good sprinkling of the accent color…they’re different, but they don’t *feel different enough to me*.
This is 100% NOT to say that this way of creating or wearing a capsule is wrong, or that the notion of “different” here is incorrect. But I will say that before going to deep on a limited color palette capsule because the simplicity and mix-and-matchability appeals to you, it’s important to know (1) how much subjective variety you need for the timeframe/situation and (2) what variety means for you in an operational sense.
I find the notion of mix-and-matchability HUGELY attractive (simplicity less so) and that draws me to this kind of capsule. But I know I’d be better off packing 16 pieces that span more colors even if there are technically fewer “different” outfits to create from them. I haven’t determined yet where my tolerances/preferences are in terms of how frequently I could repeat colors/color combinations because I haven’t traveled at all in a while (the only time I’m away from my whole closet) and never for as long as 30 days. My longest work trips were about one week. So I’d have some more soul searching and experimentation to do before I could select a great 16 piece, 30 day work capsule for myself. I just know after seeing the capsule laid out and 30 outfits made from it that this capsule isn’t it. And knowing what WON’T work for you is potentially more important than figuring out what will. I could get by for 30 days with a “meh” wardrobe but 30 days with one that frustrates/bores/etc. me would be difficult!
Of course academia is entirely its own beast where dressing is concerned. I think it will make a huge difference to what is expected of her depending on whether this is a group that is weighted toward straight-up academic history or poli sci departments or has a slant toward the policy types (or whatever). So putting myself directly into this heroine shoes, I’d be uncertain whether this is a context in which rotating among, for example, 2 pairs of blue denim jeans and a denim skirt, leaving a lot of room for variation in colors of tops, sweaters, etc., would work or not. (That is sort of my default for casual-leaning fall/winter travel, adding a skirt or dress that can be “dressed up” as needed.)
I can’t emphasize enough how much value I get from posts like this, even when it’s to say “Huh…yeah, no.” Janice’s capsules are so good that I can truly react to the underlying principles at work without being distracted by the exact implementation, if that makes sense. And this is where reading this blog over time to see so many different variations on this limited color palette theme has really helped. At this point, I can see that there is almost surely NO 3 neutrals + 1 accent (or 2 neutrals + 1 accent + white shirt) 16 piece 30 day capsule wardrobe that would make me happy. I still like looking at them, though :)
You make perfect sense – you need to know if you dislike an idea because it’s a bad idea for you, of if it’s a generally good idea that’s been badly executed!
That’s why – when someone wants to try a new color or style – I don’t recommend buying the cheapest thing you can find. You might find that you hate (for example) aubergine, because you bought a $3 sweater from some far-away country, and it’s a piece of junk. Where an average quality sweater might have delighted you with the color…
hugs,
Janice
For me, the beauty of this type of simple capsule is the fact that you *can* spice it up so easily by adding a few accent color pieces.
This time, it might be larkspur with the gray and navy and white. Next time it might be a soft pink or lilac. Another time it might be a beautiful sage green or canary yellow. Or bright red. The choices are really endless, depending only on what you like and what looks good on you. Having this type of base to build off of is so very useful.
I know it might seem stodgy at first. But when you consider that you could have a full rainbow of accent colors if you want in your “big”wardrobe, pulling these smaller capsules out of it for a time just adds to the impact you can get out of them.
Oh, I’m totally with you, Sally! It’s a beautifully thought out wardrobe that would certainly keep a person covered and respectable, but though I adore larkspur and have plenty of grey and navy in my wardrobe, I’d be so bored with this set of clothes. I hoped you’d show up so I’d have someone who agreed with me! At minimum, the “mileage” row would have to shift to a variety of colors. I’d probably move that white shirt down to the larkspur row (and most likely change it to a t-shirt), and then in place of the four neutral “mileage” tops, put in a red sweater, a purple shirt, a print blouse or t-shirt, and t-shirt in another color that would probably only go with the neutrals (turquoise, coral, chestnut—something for when I needed something totally not like the others!). Lots of scarves (I never wear turtlenecks, as I have to be able to regulate temperature). I’d also need at least one more skirt: a grey one would be useful but a print would add a lot of variety. Finally, because I cannot bear the way corduroy pants go “vip vip vip” when I walk, they’d have to go. Maybe their slot is where the print skirt could go.
What I’d do out of my existing wardrobe, assuming winter travel:
Row 1: grey jeans, grey cashmere cardigan, grey skirt, grey button-front knit shirt (these last two items match well enough to make a 2-piece dress)
Row 2: blue jeans, purple plaid skirt, purple blazer, navy cashmere pullover
Row 3: burgundy t-shirt, dark red cashmere pullover, purple velveteen shirt, dark teal t-shirt
Row 4: larkspur cotton t-shirt, periwinkle rayon scoop-neck tee, periwinkle cashmere pullover, cream tee
It’s not a “whatever’s clean,” and I’d like a couple more t-shirts (grey/white striped and solid light grey, probably), but it would keep me reasonably happy until the dark & stormy day that had me wondering why I didn’t pack anything yellow or orange or coral to pick me up!
Unless you’re actually testifying before Congress, in an academic setting you can always wear what-the-hell-ever you feel like. Put me next to a corporate lawyer and I look like a GD hippie (colored tights!!) but in my usual circles I am known for being a clothes horse!
I think Janice has pointed out multiple times that just because an outfit does exist doesn’t mean it should for each individual reader or that we’d count it or wear it the same way. I am quite pear shaped and while I can make many color combos and proportions do, for me it will nearly always be dark on my bottom and lighter or shinier on my top. Maybe the navy blazer on gray pants is an exception, but I’d still rather wear navy pants and a gray blazer. But I can take this idea with me
I love your overthinking and explanation
I agree with you in theory. I adore having lots of colors in my closet. I find something new in a color that I’m wild about almost every week. However, I do value having a core of pieces that all go together, and when it comes to actually getting dressed, I don’t want to have to think about it too hard. I get around the stress vs lots of colors dichotomy by having my basics in neutrals and a variety of tops in colors, so whatever I wear with my bottoms is going to work. For example, I have several light-gray and dark gray pants. I have a pale gray cashmere cardigan and a gray and ivory argyle cardigan. I have a gray herringbone blazer. I have various gray sweaters, but most of my color tops work with all of my gray basics. My blue jeans and black items go with everything. The last couple of years, I’ve been on a mission to collect light blues, aquas, and berry-color tops for some reason. I don’t have to worry about any of these going with each other because I won’t be wearing any of them together, only with my neutrals.
Sally in St. Paul hit the nail on the head – these posts ARE great for deciding if your WOW means “I can definitely do this” or “no way can I do this.” Different strokes for different folks – I really love the simplicity of this capsule! At this point in my life simplicity means more to me than variety but it wasn’t always that way.
I love it too, Carol. The navy and grey are my winter neutrals, for example, & I have some bits and bobs in blues, greens, lavendar & one red outlier. I had two trips over winter. One was nearly 3 weeks, and I packed navy, blue & green. One was about a week, packed navy, grey & green. Everything went together, & I wasn’t seeing the same people all the time. But more importantly, I noticed I wasn’t bored at all. And actually, I wasn’t bored with my heavily navy “big” wardrobe by the end of a long winter this year. I agree, we are not all the same! I most definitely didn’t always appreciate a pared down pallette. I used to dress in a couple of neutrals and a big range of accents (though when I worked in a hospital, I recall wishing that the non-nursing staff could go to work in navy scrubs, so perhaps my more minimalist self was lurking in wait!). Many of those accent colours I used to wear don’t suit me any more, and also I am so appreciating having fewer clothes. I don’t miss the variety – in reflecting on why that might be – I do have quite a colourful house, and I continue to appreciate the range of colours worn by others, and used in my knitting community. Big thanks to Sally for the trouble she takes, I always enjoy her analyses! And big thanks to Janice for the wardrobe :)
I really love these colours, and I have items similar to some of these. Larkspur-type colours are still ok for me in January when I am very pale and tend to look tired.
Sally, I simply love how right you are. The non-variety in accents is what puts the brakes on for many capsules for me. The exception was the brown and ivory recently, but I can’t bring myself to get rid or pack away the range of blues, greens and yellows that make me feel like a happy version of me. On a different topic and serious question here, I am struggling with my Christmas day outfit. Mr wants to go non-religious and do what is somewhat of a thing in the Jewish community…dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Problem…I have no clue what level of nice may be expected at the place he found. It looks like a hole in the wall, but that may be the opposite inside. I would also like to enjoy feeling dressy while being warm if the place is cold. And may I also admit that I have never tried authentic Chinese before. My wardrobe leans heavy to white and ivory, so the possibility of spillage is looming…need I mention chopsticks? Any thoughts on this question? Thanks much all.
Restaurants that do a lot of take-out can be very cold if you’re sitting near the door and people are going in and out. If it’s a small place, you may not have much choice about that. So yes, warmer is probably better.. (Last Christmas Eve, our great idea to go out for lo mein turned into having to put our coats on at the table. 😬)
If you can find online images of the interior or people eating, you can gauge how dressy it is. Some restaurants describe the ambience that they are trying to create. If in doubt, smart casual. Ask Mr what he intends to wear and dress accordingly. I’d probs keep white/ivory in your wardrobe.
I’m not sure where you’re located, but “authentic Chinese” means smart casual at most in pretty much every Chinatown I’ve been in the US, unless there’s a wedding party on or something. I’d go with a polished cashmere sweater & slacks, nice leather boots & quiet jewelry. The focus is the food!
Colourful print blouse with an open jacket that’s washable, and a long sleeved merino undershirt. You can always take off the jacket if it’s too warm after all. Just a suggestion!
100% agree with Sally. For a long weekend I could manage with one or two neutrals and an accent colour. Anything longer and I’d want to bring in more accents. I love prints so that would help, I don’t really wear scarves so that wouldn’t help. Accessories would help enormously.
Solstice is almost here so I’m changing my autumn espresso neutral for my winter black neutral. Where did fall go?
Happy Holidays y’all!
Please help her with her accessories! Especially shoes! I’m trying to figure out how to strike a balance with shoes and I would love to see your thought process. I seem to either end up with 60 pairs in every color but black, or one pair of black flats. Same with purses, tbh.
Do you have shares in Fierce Lynx Designs? Or are they sponsors of your site? Just wonder why this company is featured so often.
Actually, Alison and her husband, as well as a few other people in Canada, do the technical background work for The Vivienne Files! And I do own a shocking number of bracelets from Fierce Lynx Designs…
hugs,
Janice
Fascinating analysis going on thanks to Sally in St Paul. For me the variety comes from incorporating different shades of neutrals and incorporating prints that include the main accent plus additional ones. There are many different shades of dark blue and different shades of navy (some companies are now differentiating between navy and other blues in their colour filters. Likewise there are different shades of grey.
I have a gorgeous cardigan this colour which I wear in spring/early summer with an off-white top and light navy trousers or grey linen trousers. I also have a tee shirt in this colour which I wear with navy bottoms and an off-white cardigan or jacket.
However, I have a long sleeve floral blouse that incorporates this colour along with a soft pink, lilac and a lovely teal blue. I wear this in colder weather with teal blue, lilac and pink.
So for me, the variety comes from having pieces in a lovely colour that can be worn at different times of year. However, I couldn’t wear the floral shirt with the periwinkle/larkspur cardigan that I have because they are too different in style. The cardigan has a ruffle collar and waterfall front that looks wrong with a standard shirt collar. Also the cardigan looks best with a soft cotton top rather than shirt material. However, I have soft lilac and pink jumpers/cardigans that look great with the shirt. The variety is in texture and style as well as colour.
Thank you all for your help with the what to wear question. I’m not sure how many of our ethnic restaurants are truly authentic except for a small Thai place that is very casual…though the food is to die for good. We definitely don’t have a Chinatown… I’m looking forward to a new experience for our Christmas and will be more comfortable with the outfit thanks to the kind suggestions.
Sally and all who have commented I love to read what y’all think. I personally thought the gray shirts too similar partly because I would re-wear often so yes I would rather have another color or stripes or a print tossed in. Still think the number of garments is ample at least for me. It’s definitely thought provoking.