April 30, 2025
Every time I work on this wardrobe, it appeals to me more! I could easily see the merits of having clothes that were all earthy or leafy colors…
A wardrobe with everything from boots to sandals, and from tee shirts to warm sweaters… If I wore a uniform most of the time, this might be a nearly complete wardrobe for my “real” life.
Our heroine found a scarf that’s perfect for her wardrobe! After that, she decided that maybe this is a good month to fill in gaps in her wardrobe, and stock up on basics.
Maybe these aren’t the most exciting clothes one can buy, but when you have these kinds available, it’s SO much easier to get dressed.
And that pointelle cardigan isn’t really boring!
Earrings – Capucine De Wulf; jute brown tee – Lands’ End; cotton cardigan – J.Crew Factory; tank top – Lands’ End; scarf – Artifact.; pants – Alex Mill; ballet flats – Aerosole
Here again, with the addition of four new pieces of clothing, our heroine’s wardrobe doesn’t look really changed – just more complete. Unless you’re trying to make a radical change, that’s what new clothes should do – give you more options!
And her accessories are wonderful – her earrings, and her SCARVES!!!
What are the chances that next month our heroine can find four of the garments for Spring that she doesn’t yet have?
It was incredibly easy to find these outfits – it took more time to arrange the images that it took to figure out how to put together ensembles!
It’s a really good thing that I don’t need to start from scratch with my wardrobe…
love,
Janice
The earlier posts about this wardrobe are here: Christmas Day Preview, January, February, March, April
p.s. Ten years ago, a friend of mine wanted a bright green bag…
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This is one of my favorites this year. Oh, they’re all beautiful.
With dark blue, this wardrobe would be wearable year-round.
Light blue and white are so easy to find in stores. I’m excited to see how the individual capsules grow throughout the year.
While I’m drawn to brighter accent colors, I’m in love with the neutral basics you have shown here. Honestly, who doesn’t need khaki, white and chambray in their wardrobe? Even if I’d be drawn to Kelly Green, rather than the soft teal, this is so easily tweakable that I can see this working for a wide variety of women.
Are you still in Ireland? I hope you are having a wonderful time!
The accessories for this wardrobe are my favorite, hands down! I like the casual style, too. Those pants are certainly interesting. I wonder if they would work on a short stumpy person…
Lovely. I have a bright kelly green crossbody. Every once in awhile I think I’d like something different, but I have received more compliments and comments on that bag than any other purse I’ve ever owned. I don’t know what it is about the bright green.
I love the accessories in this grouping. I could live with the outfits, but would need a little more variety: a couple of casual skirts, a darker pair of slacks/jeans, and a few things with a print.
Love the garments would keep the white bit just find the other colours terribly dull for me.
I have thought many times but not said that I appreciate that Janice is selecting an array of current pants/jeans styles in the capsules/French 5/etc. that she creates (as well as more classic and evergreen styles). Personally, I experience updating to different pants silhouettes as difficult and feel some resistance, so seeing the new silhouettes over and over again helps make them feel more familiar. I tend to stick to my tried-and-true styles but it can be fun to experiment with different styles. For example, early last year I successfully added a couple pairs of jeans (one dark blue denim, one with more fading) in a silhouette that is somewhere in the straight leg to wide leg spectrum, and I’m enjoying the change up.
Obviously not every single current style will work for any heroine, but I think once we get over the “weird” factor and/or the “been there, done that in a previous decade” factor (and I do think we can easily experience both at the same time to some degree!), we might find something that helps update our wardrobes, adds some fun variety, and helps us engage with fashion trends in our own way, to our own extent.
For heroines with a limited and tight color palette, adding variety to silhouettes can be a nice way to not feel like you’re wearing the same thing over and over. And if a heroine has a small wardrobe, there is less risk that a current (not necessarily fad/extreme trend) silhouette will not get worn enough to justify it than heroines who have a large wardrobe.
My biggest struggle with a new silhouette of pants, once my eyes adjust to the change, is figuring out if/how it impacts my choices of tops and toppers…both in terms of what pieces I wear with it and how I style those pieces. This is an area where seeing flat lays isn’t as helpful in us visualizing what an outfit would look like on a body or bodies (since obviously there is no one “body” we all have!). The styling piece is tremendously important. My #1 personal observation from my own closet/outfits and body size/shape is that different kinds of partial tucks can work wonders in making the pieces come together in an outfit that looks/feels good to me.
I’m curious how others manage the pants piece of a wardrobe in terms of adding/changing to a new silhouette or styling various silhouettes in outfits.
Pants are the hardest part of a wardrobe for me. The ease of finding pants is complicated by the fact that I don’t like jeans (they just aren’t “me”) and I am refusing to buy any more pants with spandex. I will continue to wear what I have until they fall apart. That said, once I find the everyday pants that are perfect for me, I plan to purchase several pair, and I don’t really care if they are all navy.( and most likely will be) This has become my philosophy since the majority of the female population seems to wear black leggings every day all day.
Trousers are my bugbear. I have very short legs but recently the petite length has been creeping up to 28″. Some petite length are just regular trousers chopped off so the rise is too long too. I’m also plus size and petite ranges are often not available in plus sizes. Once I have found trousers that fit, I stick with that brand and style only varying the colours to fit in my colour palette. I have a very discerning daughter who is my fashion critic. She has steered me away from ‘mistakes’. I’m better off emphasising my top half or wearing top to toe in one colour.
I do the same thing with pants; stick with style and brand and just vary the color (usually varying shades of blue or khaki). The thing that has over-turned my apple cart is that one brand changed their fabric content and another discontinued 😬. Both styles had 93% approval ratings from consumers. I don’t get it.
Can anyone help me out? This is so ridiculous. Many moons ago Janice ran a review of a book that suggested wearing x number of items for a month. I think the magic number was 21, but I’m not sure. Does anyone remember that? I”ve tried various search terms both here and on Amazon, but can’t seem to come up with the right combination. Thanks in advance!
is it this one? https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2020/10/a-great-book-and-a-fun-new-wardrobe-idea.html/
I just searched the word book! Good luck :)
yes it is! And you know what, it did come up on my amazon search, and for some reason I thought it had a different cover and without reading the blurb said “oh , that’s not it” Always the details! Thank you Kristi I thought I might like to try it (again) I experimented shortly after she posted it, but can’t remember how it went. duh.
I bought these books at the time but have yet to be read properly. My problem would be sticking to a total of 21. I’d want to have 21 garments in all my accent colours for cool and warm weather.
Patrick Grant of the Great British Sewing Bee recently said that there are more than enough clothes in the world now to clothe the next six generations. Less is more sustainable as long as we buy quality and look after our clothes. A challenge for all of us.
My husband observed that his very small palette and small wardrobe of shades of green, brown and burgundy with touch of charcoal grey, navy and teal has served him well all his life. He also wears his clothes ‘forever’. I did point out that men’s clothes have not changed in style for over forty years. Several people have complimented him on a teal shirt that he has worn a few times recently. I bought that for him over 30 years ago but he rarely wore it. When we thought about it, many of his clothes, shoes and accessories are decades old, mostly bought for him by the adoring females in his life. The last time he went clothes shopping was about ten years ago for a suit. The only items that are replaced regularly are his white work shirts, black trousers and black shoes. He can wreck a pair of leather work shoes in six months as he walks four miles a day, to and from work.
I love this wardrobe SO MUCH! Maybe because I wear earthy, leafy colors (to coordinate with my earthy, leafy lifestyle of nature-based projects. It’s inspiring as I look for new spring items. Just bought a pair if barrel-shaped khakis that I might not have considered without seeing these posts.
Someone mentioned in previous comments how they wear the darker versions of these colors for fall and winter as seen in the Delaunay “Eiffel Tower.” That makes so much sense—I do the same.
Plus the art is interesting, as is the artist’s bio.
I love this wardrobe, and these are my colors. Eileen Fisher has some nice linen dresses in these blues and greens this summer!
Janice,
Really loving this one ! A balance of warm and cool !
Love this wardrobe!
You could get ‘dressed in the dark’ with these clothes. Everything goes together. It wouldn’t matter to me to dress in three or even four different colours at once – including accessories. Adds depth and breadth to the colour palette.
This wardrobe really does tempt me to add taupe/sand and a soft teal into my wardrobe. They would fit right in, but ohhh…do I really need more colors? I already have navy, gray and white, with pink, blue and periwinkle/lilac. Decisions, decisions. Lol
And that comment about starting from scratch reminds me of the starting from scratch wardrobes! I love that series. I wouldn’t mind seeing some updates to that, maybe with menswear as a focus. I’m revamping my son’s wardrobe for adult life now, and will be working on my daughter’s shortly.
It’s the lovely accessories that make this wardrobe work for me. The colours are so restful.
I’d like to see a long swishy skirt with this wardrobe. I was remarking to my husband that I’ve got to an age wear plain/textured materials are more appealing than full blown floral patterns that I often wear in summer. Something to think about.
This grouping has the best earrings! Just beautiful.
Love the soft muted colors that flatter my gray hair and slightly warm complexion!
Thanks for including items that work for those of us who do not color our hair!