February 19, 2024
Love at first sight…
Her favorite neutral colors, and a wonderful pink accent that she KNEW she could wear forever… It’s THE Current Accent Color this year, but pink never goes out of style!
She’s taking an unconventional – but very practical – approach to her packing. She’s going to grab four of her favorite outfits, and then see if the sum of those pieces will work do the trick… If you stick with a disciplined color palette, there’s no reason that this shouldn’t be brilliant! And if you make certain that each of the outfits can be worn with your new favorite scarf, the color palette will fall into place…
First outfit is a black “suit-like” ensemble with a tan vest:
Black cardigan – Boden; earrings – Bianca Milano; scarf – Echo; chinchilla vest – Boden; pants – L.L.Bean; bag – SBRI; loafers – G.H.Bass
Next, she feels certain that taking her pink pants is a good idea…
White shirt – Alex Mill; earrings- Simone Rocha; scarf – Echo; black vest – Boden; bag – Olga Berg; pants – Halogen; ballet flats – Vionic
She’s one of those people who always travels with a dress – in this case, her classic black shirtdress, with the cardigan that MATCHES her “1st outfit” vest…
Chinchilla cardigan – Boden; scarf – Echo; earrings – Lila Rasa; black shirtdress – Lands’ End; handbag – Marc Jacobs; shoes – Kelly & Katie
Last, a much more relaxed outfit, with sneakers and chinos:
Sangria sunset sweater – Boden; earrings – Tuckernuck; white tee – L.L.Bean; scarf – Echo; stone pants – L.L.Bean; sneakers – Easy Spirit
She loves all four of her outfits – but how does it look as a travel capsule wardrobe?
Pretty good, I’d say!
But here’s where the metaphorical rubber meets the road – will she be able to figure out other ways to wear these things?
I suspect we can all see this coming MILES away… This is as close to a foolproof wardrobe as one might get…
Do you ever have travel planned for which you want to pack and then NOT think about clothes very much at all? I’ve found that if I’m moving around a lot, of if I’m somewhere that I don’t speak a language well, I’m happy to have at least one thing really really easy arranged…
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, we started with a Van Gogh seascape, and created a warm weather wardrobe in navy, shades of green, and beige. Still very wearable and lovely!
Like this wardrobe? Save it to Pinterest!
Morning Ladies. Even though they are not colors I would wear I like the outfits and they are lovely. I’m not quite sure about the white? For some reason it doesn’t look right to me, but on the other hand I don’t know what I would switch it to. Have a great day everyone.
I’ve found that many of the items featured in these capsules come in colors I love to wear. If a cardigan or pair of shoes appeal to me, I check the link for other colors. For example, I’m just about to check out the Bass loafers. Love them, but I really don’t like wearing black- no matter how chic other women might look in it.
Love this although the dress is not my style. I would change the dress for a sleeveless shift and the loafers for black sandals. I have pink trousers and a pink cashmere cardigan, will now have to look for pink shoes.lol
Love this wardrobe. The clothes are beautiful and versatile, and not boring that clothes from only LL Bean can be. I also love the colours even though navy is my core, and I can see this in navy instead of black
Ah, I get it now. So these “vests” are actually part of a cardigan/tank twinset and can be worn either as a 1st or 2nd layer. Never looked of tanks that way as they’ve always been more for warm weather and vests were for cooler weather. Sizing might be tricky to be both fitted enough to wear as a 1st layer and loose enough for a 2nd layer. But definitely going to take another look at my tank tops to see if any will work as 1st/2nd layers and consider this option for future purchases. Good to know.
Clarification. Should have used “shell” or “sleeveless top” instead of tank which is skimpier and generally made of lighter fabric. Seems the vest/shell piece works best in a knit.
Janice,
You did it ! The 4 outfit packing plan that you referenced a few weeks ago ! Love it ! However, as I am bottom heavy, the pink pants are out , so a third neutral bottom would be in order for me, perhaps repeating the color of one of the other bottoms, or a slight shade of either value or texture difference so that it doesn’t look like I’m wearing the same exact pants all week . Wow, that was a long sentence ! Take a breath, Shrebee ! I also love your cluster methods too !
Oh, the look back is just what I’ve been thinking of for spring! Going with navy, tan and then shades of blue and green. I often include a red/pink, but I’m thinking I might want to skip that this time. Maybe it’s the relaxing vibes of blue and green, but I’m feeling it.
Excellent variety and perfectly combinable!! This is a great formula to use – fill in with you favorite color and fits! Well done!
What a great idea to use a scarf as a capsule wardrobe color guide.I just went on the Echo website to browse and saw all kinds of inspiration. I love capsule wardrobes, but I love getting fresh color ideas.
Isn’t it great when your 4 favorite outfits break down into 2 3-piece sets, a 2-piece column, a dress, and 2 white tops?? I think when you have such discipline about limited colors and silhouettes in your outfits (and I assume your broader closet), this packing method works out to be not very different from the usual packing methods we see here. The best use case I can think of for this method is when you have several set events where packing specific outfits that are event-appropriate ensures you’re covered. But even there, I’m not sure you’ll get a ton of mix-and-matchability unless you have a very tightly defined set of preferences.
Having the identical beige twin set and black twin set (plus a pink cardigan from the same brand that looks like a very similar length/cut) brings up the question of when buying multiples make sense. On the plus size, it makes for much easier mix-and-matching because you’re working with a more standardized and interchangeable shape (if one vest/cardigan/sweater works, so will the others) but could also be monotonous in the long-run if one tires of the shape. In my large wardrobe, I can get the benefits of standardization within a subset of my wardrobe but have several different groupings so I don’t get bored. But in a small wardrobe, I’m curious how people would approach the trade-off.
I can tell I’m used to typing “plus size”…I meant “plus SIDE”!
I was kind of chuckling about that woops! :)
I like the standardisation, Sally! But I can tell you and I have very different wardrobe preferences & novelty-seeking. In over 3 years of retirement and paring down, I haven’t got tired of 2-3 neutrals for the whole year, plus 2-3 accents, and they’ve been the same for 3 years :) And I’m not saying all my knitwear and tees are the exact same shape, but they are definitely interchangeable, and the variety in shape is limited to perhaps v neck, perhaps crew :) Whoop whoop :)
This is really food for thought. I love the colors. For me I’d change the dress style and would try for a dressier pink shoe and swap in black tennies. Maybe a pink ballet flat or sandal. Thanks to TVF I have packed using a scarf as the inspiration. It’s fun to play around with my closet after looking at the latest (and older) postings. Have a good day one and all.
This is a beautiful wardrobe and I like the idea of choosing favourite outfits to start with. I’d swap the black for navy and do cream in place of the tan shell and sweater. I’ll be marking this post as I think about packing for a trip to Europe this summer.
So beautiful. I assume that our heroine is taking a city trip to Paris!?
I would take a patterned shirt instead of the white one.
and maybe a pair of beige shoes instead of 2x black.
Could you send the rest of the outfits, I believe there where 11. Thanks!
Please supply a better link for the pink purse. Thanks
It was sold out at Wolf & Badger, so I’ve linked to the designer’s website!
Thanks for letting me know it was a dead link,
Janice