March 15, 2024
Some of us like lots of colors in our wardrobe. And sometimes, we’re looking for an inspiration for a new accent color (or two…)
How about this clever and beautiful scarf for some inspiration?
Let’s assume that our heroine wears black as one of her neutrals, and is interested in adding at least a couple of new things to her warm-weather wardrobe in black. She then has three really “off the beaten path” accent colors from which to choose!
Most of us can stand to replace summer pants every few years, and a nice cardigan is never a bad choice. But this year, instead of a black & white striped tee, how about butter yellow?
Cardigan – L.L.Bean; earrings – Michael Nash; tee shirt – L.L.Bean; chinos – L.L.Bean; scarf – Echo; bag – Oryany; loafers – Blondo
For some of us, this dress might feel short – others might find it just right! I personally would wear it as a tunic over narrow pants…
But why NOT grab some lime green accessories?
Seaglass t-shirt dress – Treasure & Bond; peridot earrings – Harfi; scarf – Echo; bag – MM6 Maison Margiela; sandals – Franco Sarto
Our heroine loves both the sea glass color of her dress AND the yellow from her new tee shirt, so she decides to try combining them in a casual outfit. Could the bracelet have better colors in it?
Seaglass tee – Treasure & Bond; earrings – Tuckernuck; scarf – Echo; shorts – L.L.Bean; bracelets – Soul Journey Jewelry; sandals – Bueno
Replacing white tee shirts is necessary every few years, as is the replacement of shorts. This year, she’s adding MORE lime green accessories! The belt is a lifetime investment, but if you wear it every week or two for the rest of your life, it works out to be a smart thing…
Tee shirt – L.L.Bean; scarf – Echo; belt – Etro; shorts – J.Crew; bracelet – Mimi & Max; sandals – Beach by Matisse
Frankly, she doesn’t really NEED a dress, but this one is pretty irresistible! A fresh pair of black sandals, and some more peridot jewelry… (was our heroine born in August?)
This heroine was NOT shopping for a trip, but for a long weekend, one could do much worse than pack all of this. Yes, you may not need two pairs of lime green sandals, nor two peridot bracelets…
Knowing that she has five outfits “in the bag” for her trip, our heroine may not be too worried about how her wardrobe “works” for more outfits, but she gives it a bit of thought…
If you’re in the mood for a new and fresh color (new to you; of course there are no new colors!), a new scarf can be the easiest way to find coherent inspiration!
love,
Janice
p.s. Five years ago, I dreamed up TEN ways to wear a yellow dress. It would still work any dress!
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Ooh, this is lovely, and so summery. Got my wheels turning. That peridot green is so pretty!
I am tempted to redo my wardrobe with these colors! So pretty!
Gorgeous colors!
Very cute! I would happily wear all of these outfits.
Janice,
Sometimes I hang onto a given colored item or items in my wardrobe that I find that I’m not wearing often because I just haven’t figured out what I want to pair it with ( I know, a dangling participle here) . The obvious answer is to pair it with a neutral , but once in a while I like to wear two actual harmonious colors together , as this scarf and you demonstrate. I love finding new color combinations , resulting in” aha” moments !
And then find color linking items to pull the outfit together . Oh to be able to wear colored shoes on these big feet of mine ! Maybe a colored sandal would seem less like wearing a colored block on my feet than wearing an enclosed shoe.
And then room to store all of the colored shoes and bags !
Spectacular! I would love this whole wardrobe! So talented and generous with your offerings!
Love the names of your animals! Especially the goldfish.
What a pretty wardrobe and what a pretty scarf. I think we’re talking “whappage” here :)
Great colours and inspiring outfits!
When I first looked at this I didn’t quite know what I thought. Now that I’ve revisited it a couple of times it’s grown on me. Not sure I personally could carry off those colors, but that more I look at them the more I like them. Have a great weekend everyone!
One of the things I’m most enjoying about blogging with ALL 100 of the Echo scarves is the endless challenge of the color combinations with which I’m confronted. It’s good to move out of one’s comfort zone, eh?
hugs,
Janice
This is a very interesting color combination that could definitely work for the right person. I was happy to see the heroine planning to combine the accent colors together in outfits rather than sticking to neutral + 1 accent combos.
I did get a laugh at the “lifetime investment” belt; oh to be a heroine whose waist size does not change for the rest of her life! I liked the multi-strand bracelet very much, but you do have to wonder what retailers are thinking in offering a bracelet in 3 sizes but not telling you what those sizes represent in terms of inches despite the existence of a sizing info tab.
With the commentary about replacing summer pants, shorts, Ts, etc. sprinkled through this post, it got me wondering how quickly people’s clothes wear out. Obviously with a small wardrobe it happens faster than with a large one simply because you wear the items more often in a short period of time, and there are probably a million and one other factors influencing it. And I do think that our lighter weight summer items wear faster than our thicker, more hardy winter ones. How many wears do you think you get out of a summer item before it wears out and needs replacing?
Looking at a past TVF summer capsule post with 18 tops/dresses, I did some quick calculations. If you had a spring/summer capsule to use exclusively over half the year (26 weeks), that’s 182 days. If you had 18 tops/dresses in the capsule and wore them evenly, that would be 10 wears per year per top/dress. In 3 years, you would reach 30 wears for each of these top/dresses. Can that be right? Even with what I would consider a very small wardrobe, it takes 3 years to reach the 30 wears mark? Somebody tell me if my calculations are wrong because this result surprises me!
Given that 30 wears is probably a minimum of what we would want our clothes to offer us, that suggests that to replace tops/dresses more often than every 3 years indicates we probably aren’t getting the kind of wear we would want from them (or we are shopping for reasons other than replacement). With the quality of short-sleeved Ts being what it is these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them did wear out before 30 wears. Replacing after 2 years would mean only 20 wears (in my simplistic scenario). I’ve given up on buying rib-knit Ts because they definitely get stretched out and misshapen before 30 wears, for example (and I wash on cold and hang to dry so I kind of baby my clothes).
I keep coming back to this idea that we probably have many fewer opportunities to wear things than we think we do. A year sounds long. A whole spring/summer season sounds long. But when you look at the number of days vs. the number of items, it’s not as long as it sounds! It’s a strong argument for not over-buying clothes. If you already own the clothes, purging them arbitrarily doesn’t do any good at all, but when evaluating adding to the size of our closets, it’s worth thinking through what that means for the clothes we already have.
Sally, I heartily concur. I’ve been using a Style App for a couple of years now and it’s been quite the eye opener. Many of my clothes can span three seasons – all but the hottest and coldest days. Yet, even when I look at the tops I think I’m wearing frequently they really aren’t being worn as often as I think they are. It’s only when I get into the tops I’ve had for a very long time that the wearing goes up and cost per wear goes down. It’s been so interesting.
Sheila,
Would you please share the name of your Style App?
There are so many available, all come with pros and cons. After two years you must have a treasure trove of comments for those of us interested in diving in.
Thanks,
Trish
Trish – I use Stylebook, but I think maybe it can only be used on apple phones? Not sure. I know there are others on here who use different style apps.
Thank you, Sheila,
I appreciate your iPhone recommendation, works for me! Smart women, like you, help me recognize my minimalist desire for a small, season-less, wardrobe.
Happy Easter, your style sister,
Trish
I find I can wear 2-3 outfits a day because during the day I might wear one top for work and then change when I get home in the afternoon or my evening event requires something different than what I’ve been wearing all day or the weather changes. Sometimes I’m just messy!!! Maybe it’s only me though. So how do we factor that in cost per wear?
Good for you. Many people I know wear the same outfit from when they get dressed to when they go to bed. I do know people who change outfits from morning to afternoon to evening. They will have ‘at home’ clothes too. I’m one of them! But then my Mum used to change from her house clothes into clean clothes when my father came home. She would change when she went out.
Cost per wear would be to mark down each time you wear a garment, irrespective of whether you might wear it twice in a week.
I have the smallest wardrobe which would probably be thought very boring by most people, but love accessories and the scarf along with the green and blue shoes, bags, etc. are just fabulous. Sadly beyond my pocket as I live in Europe and customs and duty charges from the US and UK are now exhorbitant. But along with the gnashing of teeth because of that, I do so enjoy all the ideas I get from The Vivienne Files!
As always I think the accessories really make the outfits. Janice does an amazing job finding great ones. Sally I would not question your numbers analysis and it is always fun to read and good food for thought. I do know that my newer tees wear out sooner than some I have had for years. And I do love a fresh white tee! I get one almost every spring and only wear it for “dress” the first year. Usually I alternate between a crew neck or a vee. Sometimes it might have a little detail. It then gets worn more often the next year and so on until it’s “done”. I think I get many wears from them but maybe need to analyze more closely.
I do open all the updates and have learned a lot about looking at my exisiting pieces in new ways. Thank you. On the other hand, a lot of the posts are ” muddy” colours like this one vs true clear colours. Even this one ” Do You Love Blue? Adding Accessories to a Start with Art Wardrobe – Blue on White, White on Blue by Paolo Quaresima – The Vivienne Files- with it’s torquoise has warm undertones. I’m sure you are aware of the ” Colour Me” principle. It’s not that often that I find myself reflected in your posts. Just happy when I am.
Here in the PNW the birds have returned and the blooms are showing their colours.
This post reminds me that it’s time to put away the darker winter colors I’ve become accustomed to wearing the past few months and bring out my lighter colored tops from the back of my closet. Thanks for your timely post, Janice.
Ok, when I look at the scarves I look at the motif. I don’t get what is going on here. What is the artist saying? I wish we knew more about the design. I am surprised how much I like this scarf folded/bunched up. It’s a pretty color scheme. Very Spring-y.
My feeling about the image on the scarf is that the artist thinks we should consider just “Cut to the chase” and not allow ourselves to wander and meander just because that’s the path that’s before us. Make your own path – a direct one!
One woman’s interpretation…
hugs,
Janice
Oh gosh, Beth, I was totally thinking about all that hedgeclipping too. 😊. I bet he’s gonna set a comfy lounge chair under that palm tree…
And I’m finding myself really muttering about that scarf. It would be awfully at home in my closet if the colors onscreen are true…. Janice, you may have got me again, darn it! I hope Echo’s repaying you for all the scarves you’re helping them sell!
Hmmm… I was thinking about the fun challenge of figuring how to mow all those paths efficiently – looks like he’s got it done!
… and the work involved in clipping all those hedges. Sometimes its just good to stop and ponder before continuing.
Love the blue tee with the green accessories. Such a pretty colour combo.
Love how timeless your throwbacks are.
Oh, my! That black dress looks comfortable and flattering on many body types. It has glowing reviews on the website. I ordered it in two sizes to be sure I get the correct size before they sell out.
Smart – all you need is a good roll of packing tape, and you can do lengthy try-ons in your own home! Much easier to make decisions without a lot of pressure when you’re in a store…
hugs,
Janice