November 20, 2024
Let’s suppose that you really like what I’m packing for Paris, but you wear coffee brown, cream, toffee… (oh my that sounds tasty!)
Let’s start with the “old school” Common Wardrobe, and see what I can do. For those of you who weren’t here when I first realized the existence of The Common Wardrobe, you can look here to find out what it’s all about. I truly was in a big room full of creative people, and virtually every person was wearing at least one piece…
This is where I started:
Black cashmere turtleneck – Lands’ End; black long-sleeved tee – L.L.Bean; black cashmere cardigan – Lands’ End; chambray shirt – J.Crew; white and China blue shirts – Lands’ End; short-sleeved tee shirts – Lands’ End; jeans – L.L.Bean; stone twill pants – L.L.Bean; black knit pants – L.L.Bean
This is how I picture replicating the above wardrobe, only with warmer colors, and with long-sleeved tee shirts, since it is getting close to winter! (in the Northern Hemisphere, of course! I don’t forget my friends in the south…)
Vicuna heather cashmere crewneck – Lands’ End; brown vest – Saks Fifth Avenue; vicuna heather cashmere cardigan – Lands’ End; silk shirt – Orvis; natural denim shirt – Lands’ End; striped shirt – Lands’ End; honey beige tee shirt – Lands’ End; coffee long sleeve tee – Lands’ End; ivory tee – Lands’ End; maple brown jeans – L.L.Bean; Heritage stone pants – L.L.Bean; black coffee knit cords – L.L.Bean
You could – of course! – just pack nine of these twelve items, wear the other three, and be pretty well set for any autumn/winter trip. (well, assuming that you don’t try to wear three tee shirts and nothing else – some people do funny things…)
But I like to assemble a travel capsule wardrobe “outfit by outfit,” so that I can be sure of having everything that I need. This way, if I pack two outfits and I’ve run out of space, I know that I have two choices: go with the smaller wardrobe, or get a bigger suitcase. Either way, what I pack has a coherence to it that’s essential.
Let’s start!
Earrings – Auree Jewellery; scarf – Ralu Fine Art; hat – Gobi Cashmere; ivory turtleneck – Lands’ End; toffee heather quarter zip sweater – L.L.Bean; bucket tote – Madewell; jeans – Lands; End; gloves – Gobi Cashmere; boots – Trotters; vest – J.Crew
This heroine is just traveling with a vest – pretty tempting! If you’re just going from a car to an airport to a cab to a hotel, you’re not going to be outdoors enough to need to be burdened with anything heavier/more bulky.
So now, let’s add in a “packable” down coat. I put my coat in the bottom of my suitcase and then pack everything on top of it. By the time I’m done, the coat is packed down to the size of the September edition of Vogue…
earrings – Argentovivo; sweater – J.Crew; alpaca scarf – Novica; silk shirt – Orvis; Golden sand coat – Lands’ End; black coffee knit cords – L.L.Bean; loafers – B.Ø.C.
Knowing full well that you can travel with two outfits and get by (if not happily!), I pack the “iffy duo” next – a sweater vest and light pants. It’s hard to imagine weather being SO cold that a sweater vest isn’t enough under a down coat, but it could happen.
I CAN imagine so much rain and slush that light-colored pants would be daft…
brown vest – Saks Fifth Avenue; earrings – Nordstrom; scarf – Artifact.; natural denim shirt – Lands’ End; Heritage stone pants – L.L.Bean; sheepskin mittens – Australia Lux
This last wardrobe cluster could easily be assembled with pants instead of a skirt. If you’re a leather pants person, this could be where they show up. But I’ve found that a skirt is pretty handy in wet weather, because the hem is so far from the ground that it doesn’t get wet! Pack warm tights – maybe find a pair of fleece-lined ones?
Earrings – Smilla Brav; tee shirts – Lands’ End; cardigan – Peraluna; necklace – Farra; tights – Falke; skirt – YAL New York
Here’s our heroine’s complete travel capsule wardrobe! I must confess – I printed out the image of my wardrobe for Paris, and hung it on my gigantic idea board, right in front of my face…
This wardrobe might not be foolproof, but you would be hard put to pull together a truly ugly outfit from this! Let’s look at eight possibilities:
What could our heroine do if she’s going for a long trip? To me, that would be 3+ weeks. Another pair of jeans or pants, and maybe these things:
Corduroy shirt – L.L.Bean; camel sweater – Banana Republic; boots – Earth; Fair Isle sweater – L.L.Bean
Dreaming about packing – and about other places – feel so nice…
love,
Janice
is anybody interested in one last travel capsule wardrobe in navy and grey, with a touch of…. red? since we’re heading fast into the winter holidays?
Like this wardrobe? Save it to Pinterest!
I could easily live in this capsule. I’ve rediscovered the beauty and versatility of brown leather shoes, bags & belts. It would be so easy to pack a small stack of scarves in bright colors for those of us who crave the variety.
Yes, to another neutrals capsule. LL Bean has an alpine blue (cotton tee, turtleneck and shawl collar top) that is a brighter navy than most. It’s absolutely beautiful and easily distinguishable from black!😁 I’d buy it head to toe and in skirts, blazers and dresses if I could.
That alpine blue is gorgeous! I like it as an alternative to those dark navy colors that, as you say, are hard to distinguish from black. I think it would work well as one of those “colored neutrals” or “semi-neutrals” that function as a neutral with accent colors but has some extra oomph when combined with other neutrals. I can’t quite visualize if you could treat it as just another navy when grouping your navy pieces together or whether it would work better as its own separate color. In any case, I would also like an entire collection of items in this color, though I will resist :)
Oh yes, I’d love a navy and grey (though I don’t wear red still I can mentally substitute pink or blue or that lovely jewel tone green that is so popular this winter).
Loving this small series!
I was just thinking the exact same thing!
A navy + grey + ____ wardrobe sounds lovely. Yes please!
This screams Thanksgiving travels…Thank you for creating this! I love warm colors. A million years ago, I had my colors “done” and learned that I’m a deep Autumn. I’m always drawn to these tones. That being said, I’ve never been a slave to a label, so I’ll add pieces from your capsule wardrobe from last post to mix and match for more options. I’m also someone who happily wears brown and black together! For what it’s worth, I own a number of these pieces from J Crew and Bean’s….you’ve inspired me for different ways to pair them, so merci!
Please do post navy, gray and red for the holidays. I’d love it!
Yes please for navy and grey. And fyi – pretty chilly in Paris today and tomorrow (high around 8°C). If your bus is slow to arrive, you want to have several layers on!
Yes to the navy and grey wardrobe with an accent color for the upcoming winter holidays!
Looking forward to seeing if a fun brooch makes it into the accessories collection.
Yes! I would love to see what you put together with navy, gray and red. Navy is my main neutral. But I struggle incorporating gray.
This wardrobe makes me so happy! Although I would have to add in my favorite dusty rose…
I would love to see navy and grey plus an accent color. My choice is true purple for the third color but I know that is very hard to come by right now. Lots of burgundy out there, but that does not work well for me. PS, I’m so glad you are feeling better and sleeping better! Paris light at the end of the tunnel.
Ooh! Yes, please! I’m living in navy right now. And may I suggest this mistletoe brooch? https://www.danforthpewter.com/mistletoe-and-holly-pewter-brooch
Yes to navy and gray, although I’ll substitute pink for red. Thank you!
Another vote for navy and grey! I use sea green and light blue for my accents plus some red and teal for Christmas We have so many different accent colors that I can see a whole series of ‘Navy and Grey + Accent Colors’ posts for winter, both cold and warm winter climates. I’m so glad you’re feeding better and are going to Paris!! You deserve it. 💕
Another great travel capsule and exactly how I dress. Yes to navy and red please!
Lovely collection but not my colours. I would love to see navy, gray and touch of yellow packing ideas.
Are the cream pants the Heritage from LL Bean? These appear to have an elastic waist. Could you provide a link?
https://shopstyle.it/l/ciK9D
I think maybe I’m using an old image… uh oh!
Sorry,
love,
Janice
Love all the common wardrobe neutrals+ posts! And yes please to navy + grey + red (well, if I’m being selfish, I’d really like burgundy but I’ll take what I can get :D ).
This wardrobe is cozy and comfy, could easily take me through the winter with a few modifications – change the crewneck tees to turtlenecks and add a pair of warm, weather-friendly shoes or booties. I live in turtlenecks during the colder weather.
Interesting how color availability changes. This season, it’s the darker “coffee” brown while my preferred “chocolate” brown is hard to find.
Yes to navy and grey. red would work as an accent for both but also yellow, light turquoise, pink or light blue.
I’m curious as to why you didn’t include blue jeans here or a denim shirt. I think they would have fit in just as nicely with a warm wardrobe as with a cool one.
I would like to see a navy and grey wardrobes as well.
You’re entirely right – they would both be excellent in this wardrobe.
Honestly, I think about how these images will look on a tiny screen, like a phone, and I try to make them as homogenous and uniform as I can so that nothing will stick out or look awkward. I’m really picky about things…
And there are people who just won’t wear blue, no matter what – one of my closest friends won’t wear a thread of it!
love,
Janice
Rebecca,
I would probably do exactly that, to break up all of the warmth a bit.
Janice, A year ago I was in a wardrobe meltdown. At 70ish! Although I had t changed clothes size in 15-20 years, suddenly my clothes didn’t look well. I searched and searched for solutions, reasons, help!, and my sisters received far too many selfies asking what about this? I found your blog and it gave me a framework to peace over my clothes. I’ve never worn black and white, or layers etc, but the framework is there. I also appreciate your consumer stance of fewer clothes, which I’ve always done, buying quality to last and wearing out rather than throwing out. Although I did get rid of a few things that just were’t working. I’ve added 2-3 garments each season this year and now feel I have a functional wardrobe. I appreciate you.
Debbie, you made my morning! Thanks for taking the time to share your progress with us.
love,
Janice
Love these posts. Navy and Gray with a touch of red for fun would be a delight.
Janice,
Thank you for thinking of us warmies ! I do have a week long Thanksgiving trip coming up next week, and this post is a great inspiration for it !
In my packing thoughts, I have recently planned on wearing a given pair of pants 2 or sometimes 3 times, but with different tops and toppers ( 6 tops , 3 toppers, and 3-4 pairs of pants ) for a week. If the trip gets extended, I just do a remix. I’d like to get to a confidence level of taking fewer tops and rewearing them , and I would, depending upon the group of people that I’ll be around . If it was just hubby and me, no problem ! I like the 5-4-3-2-1 method, but another top or two . .
I am loving all of these warm neutrals here, but the magpie in me would need to sub in an accent color or two .
Navy, gray, and red travel wardrobe, yes, please!
Yes please to a navy and grey with accent color! I’d love to see a very pale dove grey. I don’t wear red, but can imagine navy and grey with various shades of purple and green and rose and blue. I am enjoying your many takes on the common wardrobe.
The patterned grandpa cardigan in this set really made me smile – it’s a fun piece. The J Crew quilted vest is a style that looks terrible on me but is so great for the right person.
Navy and grey is one of those theoretically obviously great combinations that can actually be tricky in practice, so I would love to see what you assemble for a capsule and how the pieces go together into outfits. I’ll be curious to what extent some/any outfits are dependent on the specific accent color vs. could work with a wide range of accent colors. Often accent colors are easily substituted but occasionally it’s something about that color that makes the outfit work.
Yes to navy and gray….and an accent color that is softer than red. (peach, rose, aqua, or china blue)- as I’ve gotten older, with gray hair, I can no longer wear ‘strong’ colors….
I find your common wardrobe posts so very helpful!
Yes,I would love to see a navy, gray, and red capsule wardrobe! I’m so glad you are revisiting the capsule wardrobes, I keep going back to your earliest ones and I appreciate the updates you’re doing with what is currently available. Please do more of them if you feel like it! I particularly loved the common capsule wardrobe for blue eyes. It’s hard to find blues that go together except for navy and that can be tricky, too.
I’m also so happy that you’re feeling better! Have a wonderful time on your trip!
Diana
The shades of brown are perfect in a common wardrobe. I could easily replicate this idea with shades of grey, shades of purple, shades of teal/aqua or shades of burgundy/plum/pink.
Then I think of doing a common wardrobe in shades of blue and get stuck, even though I have been avidly following the Magill blue wardrobe every month. I was interested to read the comments by AK and Sally in St Paul about blue. I wonder whether a blue common wardrobe is tricky because it has so many different tones? In order to blend, the blues have to have the same tonal quality in the light or dark. My blues have to have a soft and muted tone to them apart from in the summer when I can wear a brighter turquoise. Very pale grey looks better with the blues I wear than white or ivory which is too much of a contrast. Other people might wear bright or clear blues but do you worry about the tonal mix in an all blue outfit?
Thank you for the look-back. I like to wear embellished and sparkly knitwear at any time of the year.
Purple/lilac or pink would be my choice as an accent with a navy and grey wardrobe but the navy can’t be too dark.
Beth T, I messed up my response so it is a free-standing comment below rather than nested beneath your comment!
Janice,
Yes, one more, please. This really takes the headache out of planning for a trip. I would really like to see what Mr. Beloved is packing. My son, wife and two teenagers are going to Paris for Christmas. We will be house sitting and dog sitting in a large east coast town. I need to think about clothes for slouching around the house on many days.
Hope you have a wonderful trip.
Penny
Ah, Belovedest isn’t going with me! That’s a big part of my waffling about going – I need to keep my independent skills in hand, but it’s going to be a worry for him, thinking of me wandering around those NARROW sidewalks and streets. I will have to Instagram every hour, and text him in between!
But I will talk to him about what – if any – packing theory he practices, and let you know what he takes when we go to Europe in the spring. Either Ireland or France – we’re still deciding…
I have to tell you – when we were in New York, he bought a GORGEOUS peacoat. I wasn’t at all sure how he would get it home, but he managed to fit it into his already pretty full carry-on bag. I swear I think he’s got magical skills…
love,
Janice
Love that Fair Isle sweater. Funnily enough, I have just bought myself a similar one from Marks & Spencers – but dark chocolate brown main body instead of cream (even at my age don’t trust myself outdoors around food with anything paler than beige). Goes with practically everything I own, to the point I may only take it off for the time it takes to wash it until April.
Navy and (silvery/light) grey – yes please! Those are the work horses of my winter wardrobe, with “berry” (red, burgundy, pink) accents. I need to replace some pieces so would love to see what you come up.
Many thanks for all the work you do on our behalf
So happy you are feeling better, Janice! What you experienced is what frequent travelers fear the most, accidental falls! Enjoy your new found health, you deserve it!
May I chime in about the possibility of navy and gray ensembles? It seems that most of your faithful fans are of a more mature age, perhaps silver foxettes. Would it be beneficial to your readers for you to consider choosing lighter, warmer hues of navy and grey? I can attest to my deep gratitude well in advance. Thank you for your help and consideration, have a blessed Thanksgiving with your beloved.
A faithful fan,
Trish
I second the warmer and lighter idea. I’d love to see bright navy and dove gray!
I am all for a navy and red grouping. I love cognac shoes and accessories (belts, etc.) with my navy and red instead of the grey that is supposed to be my color. But I do have a little grey floating around in my Christmas capsule and some green too. I hope you have a great trip to Paris! Belovedest does sound like a male Mary Poppins getting that coat in!!
I love these ideas. I’m going on a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest at the end of April. I can’t wait to see the navy and gray wardrobe. I’m all about the cool colors or blacks and brights.
Gosh, this was interesting. What a beautiful wardrobe, Janice. I’m in the blue, green and grey team for flattering colours, but I do love cognac leathergoods, and I really like the coffee-coloured items, as opposed to the chocolate-coloured. (These items do have lovely tasty names!) I’m pondering if coffee is a colour that could fit in well with navy, grey and off-white neutrals, and I think it could. Hmmm :) I do love a fair-isle jumper, and it is such a great way to tie in one’s preferred colours. We knitters have an advantage here, as it can be hard in ready-made fair-isle to get all the colours you want, and none of the others! I’m really enjoying revisiting the Common Wardrobe, and I’d love to see the navy/grey travel capsule. Thank you, and all the very best to you for your travels and continued good health. Enjoy!
yes please for a navy set like this! Thank you for always coming in clutch with fun ideas.
Not a warm body but love the clothing shown with one exception…that cardigan. It’s just so ugly and frumpy looking. Can think of so many other lovely cardigans, coatigans, wraps or ruanas that would do the job with more style. . Also Lands End packable down coat is a better choice for travel. It’s waterproof, warm, light and does not have the bulky fur ruff and on sale! 60% off available in the most lovely copper brown too. Packs down into its own pocket. I know there are many bloggers who swear by it. I have it in black ( of course)
Have fun in Paris, it’s good on occasion to travel alone for pleasure. We do need to keep exercising our independence muscle as we get older, keep up the practice of being self reliant when away from home. It can be a challenge setting the itinerary, getting to places on time, even eating alone in a restaurant with out the SO or friend to keep us on our toes but how rewarding to do so on our own! Know a few sad clinging vines who learned that lesson the hard way always deferred to the partner but now unsure how to manage their lives on their own.
Absence does make the heart grow fonder!
A post for a capsule wardrobe in blue, grey and a touch of red? Yes please, looking forward to it
I would love to see a capsule wardrobe in navy, gray, and red!
For me, it would be navy, grey, and purple. Or lavender. Or ALL shades of purple. But I can use my imagination.
I love the idea of a common wardrobe, but I could not wear this one, too cold for me. I am allways surprised when I see ‘warm’ capsules and they are not the tones I consider to be warm. Is this an european approach maybe?
The way I see it, every color can be warm or cold. So blue can be warm and red can be cold. And in this capsule I see mostly cold browns, Some neutral browns and only a few warm browns. The only browns that I could add to my wardrobe are the nr 4, 10 and 11 from the common wardrobe, the tote, the boots and the vest from the travel outfit, the sweater and the shirt from the ‘I add’ and the shirt and the camel sweater from the ‘I buy’.
I would realy love to see a common wardrobe in colors for us autums. Warm olive and warm light grey with terracotta p.e.?
I love this! Thanks so much for the basics in warm colors!
Love the colours. Saw you are able to travel to Paris, so glad for you. I will be leaving on the day you are arriving. But, my wardrobe will be based on black, carrying as little as possible. Christmas markets, brocantes, and food from La Grande Epicerie, my favourite food store.
Bonne Chance
I agree that what works so easily with the brown colors is much harder with the blues. I wonder if brown is easy because it’s so very neutral in the sense of being a combination of different hues mixed together (if we think back to our youthful fingerpainting days and how often we ended up with brown…or maybe that was just me, haha). But with the blues, the specific hue of blue shines through…some with more green, some with more purple…and some of those blue hues play more nicely together than others.
I’m also thinking about how you can create “toasts” of a color by adding brown, and in doing so, you give the colors a common element. With the brown to cream spectrum, they are all just “toasts” so are very similar. With blues, you can make them “toasts” (with brown), “shades” (with black), “tints” (with white), and “tones” (with grey) as well as the pure hue. I wear all different kinds of blue but do have a nice collection in a mid-range soft and muted blue that is basically a “tone.” These items combine well with darker soft and muted blues like navy (a “shade”) but not so well with brighter blues.
Maybe it just comes down to the fact that the blue colors have a lot more variables than the brown colors do so it’s much more likely for any two versions of blue to have contradicting elements compared to any two versions of brown.
It’s interesting because in my experience, even grey, black, and white items are harder to blend together than brown ones. The undertones of grey and black come through in ways that make them clash (e.g., the yellow greys and the blue greys come to mind). It’s not that I can’t see the difference between warm and cool browns, but I feel that as long as you’re not trying to combine extreme warm and cool versions, it usually works OK in a way it doesn’t even with greys and blacks. Now once you start getting into the territory of mixing versions of taupe, with some being more grey and some being more brown/beige, it gets difficult again.
So my working hypothesis is that brown, as a sort of melange color that is definitionally “toasted” and has relatively few variables to it, really is easier to mix and match in its different versions than other colors. This has me wanting to disprove my own hypothesis by seeking out counterexamples where the browns really don’t work, haha.
Sorry, this was supposed to be a response to Beth T but something went wrong with the nesting!
Your analysis is spot on. When you find your perfect colors, you then have to find them available in clothing or at least in fabrics! And for The Vivienne Files, I insist that I have an image of each item that doesn’t have a model involved. I want to SEE what we’re buying, eh?
Thus, it takes a long time to assemble even what look like the simplest wardrobes. For me, and for everyone!
love,
Janice
O yes, Janice. I can definately see the time you put in assembling the wardrobes, they are so appealing! And actually it is nice that we have to spend so much time in gathering our clothes, just as a fine collection of wines, or porcelain, or paintings, right? I am glad you mentioned this, because it feels so frustrating sometimes.
I think I allways agree on what Sally says, but not this time. I have a lot of trouble finding the right hues of brown. I have brown, green and yellow in my eyes. When I put on a brown eyeliner my eyes become red. Funny thing with t-shirts: I can change the color of my eyes, make them green or brown, sparkling or dull.
Cold brown washes me out, too red brown is not right as well. And when I have the wrong color brown the rest of my clothes don’t match.
I allways envied all these dutch blue-eyed, denim wearing people. Jeans, black and white are so easy to combine. But now I know better. Even black is difficult.
I hope you have a nice, inspiring and easy holiday in Paris!
Thanks for chiming in on this. It is fascinating to hear that your brown eyes, with their changeability and complexity of various colors, makes it harder to find a good shade of brown to wear! It seems like brown should be an easy color for a brown-eyed heroine but of course it’s not ever that simple, is it. I do think that it’s possible for an outfit that looks great on the screen without a person involved can then look totally wrong when a heroine puts them on because of the interaction with her own coloring. I’m a pretty non-standard mix of pink skin, green/teal eyes, and golden blonde hair that doesn’t seem to line up with any of the “color seasons” so I also would have to do a lot of trial and error to find the best shades of a color.
Thank you so much for posting a wardrobe for us with warm undertones. I am a deep autumn. I wear neither black, true navy, white, nor traditional blue jeans. Many times I just pop your blog open and move on since you seem to gear most posts to cool toned. This was great! I want to tell you what I really miss: the posts where you took one outfit, like a dress, but accessorized it many different ways. I used to send my two wardrobe buddies one choice for each of them as well as the choice for me. Is there any way to revisit those posts? You are a brilliant stylist!
I can do some of those any time! Maybe with so many among us having to (getting to?) go to so many holiday events, it could come in useful…
love,
Janice
They were so much fun. I often printed them out. I just bought Jjill ‘s pleated teal skirt. I would love to see it styled 4 ways ( sneaks, funky boots dressier shoes, etc) with appropriate accessories. 🙃