June 14, 2024
She loves the painting. She REALLY loves the colors – she believes that the top section is brown, and who are we to disagree?
This is an important thing for us all to remember – just because our painting of inspiration and motivation includes (in this case) four colors doesn’t mean that every wardrobe we assemble MUST include all four colors…
So while our heroine has a “shades of pink” and brown wardrobe in her dreams for the upcoming cool weather, right now, she’s liking blue and white…
Earrings – Sita Nevado; scarf – Pashmisy; blue cotton gauze top – J.Jill; bracelet – Michael Nash Jewelry; cotton gauze cropped pants – J.Jill; flats – Free People
She’s found a dress she loves, as well as a handbag that’s gorgeous…
Earrings – Elk & Bloom; dress – J.Jill; necklace – BaubleBar; cardigan – Eileen Fisher; bag – Brahmin; sandals – Talbots
She already had lots of white clothes, so this year, she found new sneakers with blue trim, as well as a bracelet, and a new band for her hair!
Headband – Tasha; sailor blue top – J.Jill; white gauze shirt – J.Crew; bracelet – Loft; linen shorts – J.Crew; sneakers – Adidas
The floral pants were a bit of a reach, but why not be bold in the warm weather?
Sweatshirt – Lands’ End; earrings – Mignonne Gavigan; white top – L.L.Bean; tote bag – Target; shoes – Minnetonka Moccasins; pants – J.Jill
She has trips this summer… Nothing noteworthy, nothing that’s going to be on Instagram. Just visiting people she loves, in places she likes to visit. Having a wardrobe planned out ahead of time gives her one fewer thing to have to think about when she’s getting ready to travel!
Here’s her Perfect 10 Packing template; she could easily add a pair of jeans, a couple of summer tops in any color of the rainbow, a chambray shirt…
She’s not surprised – but she IS kind of delighted – to find that she can combine her small travel capsule wardrobe into quite a few outfits. She can dress for anything from the shore, to a casual dinner, to a religious service, from just these few items:
Of course, she could have chosen to use the colors pink and white for this wee summer wardrobe; should we take a look at that possibility too?
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, we considered the wardrobe of someone who prefers to wear only solid colors!
p.p.s. If you’re summer shopping and you want to support The Vivienne Files, you can always go to this page and see if your favorite retailer is part of my tribe! I’m always very grateful to you…
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This is the perfect summer wardrobe and one of your best! Thanks for sending this cool, happy set just as our temperatures soar here in the South.
I am really liking the royal blue as a substitute for navy, as a neutral. So much better for summer. Actually maybe all year! Navy is my dark neutral, and I’m finding it just that. Dark. And rather gloomy. Of course, I loved the look back. I don’t do prints. I know many here love the prints, but not me, although I admire them on others. Sometimes I Try the prints, but not for long, lol. I also like the painting. I am finding more appreciation for abstracts now!
Me too, Sandy, I feel wrong and uncomfortable in prints, except for 2 color stripes. I have two flowery J Jill tops; colors go with my stuff, but I hardly ever wear them. I like that I can wear 3 different colors of the same value and tie them together with a scarf. Can’t do that with prints.
And you are finally able to use J Jill, Janice? Spiffy! They must be picturing clothes without models someplace. Currently, my favorite place to shop. Lovely blues in these pics, but too bright for me….as a navy person.vb
Sandy B,
AsI have gotten older I have had to trade in navy blue for more of a denim blue color. Dark colors of any hue are now overpowering me, including my former friendlier dark brown. I now require a lighter chocolate or rust brown .
I would definitely add in the mauve-pink for variety and extension. Probably a blue and mauve floral blouse/skirt/dress with a mauve cardigan. The patterned trousers would be a skirt. I would swap out the white shorts and trousers for blue and mauve pairs of trousers or a mauve top.
The problem is, for some us, the lack of white pants in the closet because we refuse to wear them on our larger frames.
White pants, esp. in this thin gauzy cotton, would look terrible on me. I’ve never found white pants to work for me at any size from medium to 2X so I think it can be a function of the way we’re built in addition to our size.
Luckily a pair of chambray pants (or a white skirt) would substitute readily into this capsule.
Diane,
I am bottom heavy and wear a stone color instead — it’s more forgiving than pure+white and works better with my warm complexion.
I have to say I am bigger on top, so I don’t mind light colored pants for that reason. But I’m going through menopause and not knowing when things might happen means light colored/white pants make me really nervous!!
I am still not on board with the matchy shoes/handbags in the accent colours. I tried two years ago and found I spent a lot of money on items with limited wear. In my case I was building a wardrobe with a golden yellow and navy/black. I bought expensive Reiker sneakers in the golden yellow they are so comfortable but….realized that I really don’t love that combo on me and have gone back to my black/white with pink and blue accents. I can wear the shoes with black and a scarf or with jeans but I won’t get the pay per wear out of them that a neutral might have seen and they won’t make it to a limited travel wardrobe as they won’t be ‘heavy lifters’. A few years ago I was in my red accent phase and purchased pretty red Bueno sandals and a red Longchamps bag but I think of red as a timeless neutral so no regrets there. Those items work with all my neutrals even the orphan navy pieces.
I think I’ll stick to matching $$ shoes and bags with the neutrals or a metallic and using the accent colour in smaller less $$ accessories.
Also I will no longer take council from those who insist that black cannot be worn as our hair turns grey. Forget it…as one IG posted, my season is: Eternal Night, black is my colour. I look great in it and I love it and most of my cashmere and other big ticket items are black.
I felt like a flight attendant in navy…scratch that.. my niece is a flight attendant and has the chicest grey and burgundy wardrobe…..I just felt frumpy. Lesson learned in future I will keep to my own lane.
I agree wholeheartedly with you about wearing black when your hair is grey. I tried getting rid of black but nothing works like it with the colours I need. ( ok, navy is good too ) I’m a dark winter and just look much healthier when I wear my colours.
I love the style of these clothes, and I like the medium blue with the white. Personally, though, I get bored with a two-toned wardrobe and would want to add in at least pink. The dress and floral pants both come in a bright pink that makes me drool. I’ve You said it before: always find the most amazing accessories!
I like “keep to my own lane”. I love this wardrobe. The white wouldn’t work for me personally, but as a general substitution I don’t know what I would swap it out with. The old me would have used navy, the new me not so much. I might work in another color. I also have given up matching shoes and bags. I have primarily neutral shoes, and then a brightly colored bag – in whatever color. The bag I got the most compliments on, no matter what I wore it with, was a bright kelly green. Currently I’m using a periwinkle blue bag, which goes well with almost everything I wear. Anyway, I have my beautiful embroidered magenta outfit on today so I’m feeling very happy. Have a good weekend everyone.
Expanding the wardrobe with 3 items using the mauve accent color would add interest. Solid top, print top, and a bottom either a solid or print. As for the shoes – 1 sneaker, 2 casual flats and 1 dress – you could eliminate one of the casual flats if you want to take it down to 3 pairs.
I’m liking revisiting of the Perfect 10 Packing template in recent posts. Starts with 4 outfits that are then remixed into 4 more. The Perfect 10 is an easy base to build on if you want to add a few more pieces. Will be using the Perfect 10 for upcoming trips.
Pretty wardrobe Janice :) I’m finding the “stay in my lane” comments interesting. I think, if you know your lane, feel free to stay in it. And by that I mean, do not ignore all the personal lessons that you have accumulated through your life experiences! However, if you don’t know your lane/are still looking/want to change lanes, that is not a bad thing. Experiment, make “mistakes”, remix your mistakes to find unique combinations…. And maybe buy new/expensive/comfortable shoes in your personal nude ;) my feet have had changing requirements over the years, my body shape has changed significantly multiple times, my age continues to change… I find my lanes expand, shift, merge, encounter a roundabout or 2… Life is a journey.
Have a great weekend all!
Yes! Well said.
Well stated! At 64, I pretty much know what I like, but don’t mind a detour or two. A recent trip to New Mexico has me longing for a pleated denim skirt with a plain white tee shirt and white sandals ( a chic outfit in a window display in Santa Fe) even though I no longer wear denim. Sometimes new experiences broaden
our perspective and results in subtle change. The color wheel today are my colors for summer!
Totally agree!
On behalf of us for whom the accent colored shoe is our lane, I thank Janice for the hard work she puts into finding well-coordinating accent colored shoes for her capsules. It is dead easy to mentally substitute in a neutral/metallic/nude-to-you shoe for the colored ones, but sourcing the much harder to find just right accent color is such a benefit for those who want to visualize the accent color or would like to purchase them.
The observation about cost per wear with accent colored shoes is very interesting. I can definitely see how this could be a problem, especially when you’re unsure how you’re going to like it. I think this is where there is some tension between Janice’s idea of experimenting with “the best quality one can afford” and wanting to get good value from our purchases (and minimizing excess shopping for environmental reasons). I understand the rationale that if you want to know whether you like wearing red flats, you should test a really nice pair of red flats so that you can rule out the possibility that you *would* like good red flats but just dislike the particular cheaper pair you are experimenting with.
But it’s much easier (for me at least) to stomach a mistake when it’s a less expensive piece than a costly one that requires a high number of wears to get the value from it. If one is willing to sell a costly but failed experiment on a secondhand website, some of the price can be recouped (and some of the waste of resources canceled out), but it may still not be worth it depending on how you value your time.
Our heroines on TVF tend to know their own style very well, including their desired colors and how to wear them. But when one’s lane becomes a rut, and a person wants to experiment with something new, it’s actually difficult to know how to manage that in a way that’s not painful for our pocketbooks or the planet. In part, it no doubt depends on how much experimenting a person is doing and how often…since this will relate to how much your mistakes end up costing.
This is not to beat anyone up for making mistakes! I’m just grappling with the very real conundrum of how to experiment sensibly and not create a damaging, expensive degree of closet churn. Our environmental footprint and expenditures are a function of how much we BUY, not how small our closet is at any given time. So how do we shop smarter when exploring the fashion possibilities outside our comfortable and known style lane?
Hi Sally! Have you been gone lately? I don’t think I’ve seen a comment in awhile? Or am I going crazy with the end of the school year and not registering things. In any case, I always love your comments and analyses so it’s good to see you back.
Sally, I think you have hit upon a problem that is especially true with shoes. It’s quite possible to experiment with a color when dealing with jewelry or scarves or even tops. There are inexpensive T-shirts and scarves and plastic bracelets and inexpensive earrings available quite readily. But buying cheap shoes is another story altogether. They are usually uncomfortable and don’t look that great. But, as mentioned, investing in expensive shoes in order to try out a color can be more of an investment than we want to make. Looking at my own closet, I’ve realized that most of my shoes are neutral, except for a few pairs of loafers. I keep buying leopard print flats and then not wearing them. You’d think I would learn my lesson. I prefer not matching shoes and handbags, and I do have handbags in more colors than shoes. Right now I’m carrying a blue bag that I love, and that I’ve received so many compliments on. Because I wear a lot of blue in all different shades as well as white in the summer, the bag is a good match for what I’m wearing on most days.
For those of us with narrow feet, most shoe purchases are expensive. Some B widths work so I always look for comments that say “runs narrow.” Typically, I like to have a pair of “professional” shoes, loafer/flats, booties, and dress sandals in each of my neutrals – black, brown, navy and olive, recently added. Still looking for navy booties and am considering white or light neutral slip on sneakers for travel.
Now that I’m retired, the work shoes are not getting worn much unless I go to an event in cooler weather. Shoes in accent colors are worn less, mostly in warmer weather, and are mostly found on sale, at DSW, online, etc. Examples are loafers and sandals in both red and orange; moccasins and sandals in teal. And then there is an array of “nicer’ flip flops in assorted colors. But what I mostly wear now, in rotation and except in the hottest weather, are my four pairs of New Balance sneakers whose B width runs narrower and works for me with creative lacing.
I don’t think all this leads to closet churn as my shoes are classic styles and worn. (Except for the pumps, will I ever wear them again?) If a pair is in gently worn, I can donate them to a nearby, “nicer” St. Vincent de Paul thrift store. If more worn, I can donate them to the locally owned shoe store where I buy NB that has a bin for donating shoes for the needy here and abroad.
Thanks to you all for chiming in on this! I agree with SewLibrarian that you can often get a good read on a new color in a relatively inexpensive t-shirt, etc. My handbag is so boring, haha. I think an accent color bag would be fab but I’m not sure what I’d choose. A person could probably test drive a color in a low-cost tote bag, though.
Debra, I hadn’t thought how this would play out for those with narrow feet or other criteria that make shoes harder to fit, but it sounds like you have come up some good strategies that keep you clear of the dreaded excessive closet churn.
Sheila, you aren’t losing your mind! I was on a blog break for a couple of weeks, so I haven’t been commenting here recently. It was a refreshing break, and I’m glad to be back.
I love the lane comment. It can be hard to experiment with certain items because we all have different preferences. For example, my own reason for not wanting to spend on an experiment is because I don’t want to waste money. Sure, the cost to environment matters, but the hit to the pocketbook really hurts. I recently gave away a pair of beige shoes that were an experiment. They looked beautiful, but the leather at the back heel was so stiff that the edge ripped into my socks and my heel. I spent more money on those shoes than I normally would & they were a fail…my heels were dripping blood and my socks were destroyed. My puffy vest experiment though half the price of the shoes was a success. Both were mail order.
The only thing that may be workable for experimenting is really to test the best quality you can find for the least money. The vest was a Talbots so rather mid level, but I waited for a good sale so that if it wasn’t me, then I would be okay with donating. The shoes of torture were some expensive brand and more than I would have spent if I had thought that they would be donated. My takeaway is to plan how much that I am willing to spend if it fails…then decide if the experiment is worth it.
I’m with Debra in Indy on the narrow feet situation. It really can be expensive to try shoes. I have found ordering through Nordstrom easy and I just return them to my local Nordstrom Rack. Pretty simple. At my age, I am pretty comfortable with my lane and know when I’d like to venture out just a bit. To me that’s what makes fashion fun. For example I have never been sold on matching shoes and bags. I do know that I like a bright pop of color in a bag and find I get compliments on it. I have learned that almost any color pop works with a column of color outfit. It’s a way to use a color that you like but does nothing for your complexion.
The wardrobe 10 is my favorite and this one lines up with the reader last week who does the 1, 2, 3, 4 method. I liked that line of thinking.
Glad you’re back Sally. You always have such interesting insights.
Now as it’s June 14th, I’m going to check out ECHO’s newest 100.
It’s a balance between staying in your lane and experimenting. Your lane includes brands that work for you in regards to fit and style along within your color palette. For example, my style is classic and sporty in a Spring palette. Clothes for me are mostly Chico’s, Lands’ End and L.L. Bean. Once I find a garment that works for me, I’ll get multiple colors especially pants and tees. Chico’s allows me to step out of my lane style-wise, and their clothes are flattering to us older women. Experimenting with accessories can be easier on the wallet.
Mistakes usually happen outside your lane and are recognizable by how you feel. If there’s doubt, if an item doesn’t “spark joy,” it’s probably not for you. I’m thinking of the white, collared blouse that is supposed to be a basic in every wardrobe, and there it hangs because I don’t wear white. Or jackets and tops that end at high- or mid-hip which make me look like I’m all legs, out of balance.
The other way mistakes can happen is by following trends too closely. (Also in regards to paint colors, along with interior and exterior design.) Nothing wrong with some updating, we all like refreshers. But clothes, decor, etc. should reflect your personality, not what we’re told to do. That’s why TVF is a great place to get ideas and then adapt according to what works for you. A bonus is that TVF is a nice, supportive community.
These are all such beautiful colors! I love the inspiration and the wardrobe. As someone who never, ever, ever, ever wears hoodies, I’m always in the lurch to find a replacement for one. A cardigan is a good call, but what else would you suggest?
Would you wear a quarter-zip sweatshirt? They keep popping up on my phone, and they’re turning my head in a big way… Me, in a purple 3/4 zip with a striped tee shirt underneath? Oh yeah…
hugs,
Janice
Possibly—but, I’d feel as if this still qualifies as loungewear to me. I do wear 3/4 zips instead of hoodies, but mainly to Yoga or just around the house. I’m afraid my posh Grandmother admonishments of what is not appropriate to wear “out” is deeply ingrained. My lifestyle is far more causal than hers, but still…old habits die hard.
Seems like a good enough reason to never wear them – there’s certainly no reason that any person MUST wear any particular piece of clothing. I didn’t wear jeans for at least 2o years – from the time I finished college until well into my 40s. We’re all different… Some of us more different than others!
hugs,
Janice