March 29, 2024
She’s pretty happy… she needs an entirely new warm weather wardrobe!
And she’s starting with this as her inspiration:
She knew all along that she wanted navy and bone to be her neutrals, and when she saw these bracelets, she realized that orange would be an AMAZING accent color…. You don’t see it every day!
She’s a sensible woman – she started with her neutral colors, making certain that she included shorts, a pair of pants, and a skirt…
Striped polo – L.L.Bean; hoop earrings – Luv AJ; navy striped linen shirt – L.L.Bean; sailcloth tee – L.L.Bean; navy tee – Lands’ End; navy cardigan – J.Crew; navy tank top – Lands’ End; antique white canvas pants – L.L.Bean; straw bag – L.K.Bennett; asymmetric navy skirt – Nordstrom; antique white shorts – L.L.Bean; navy shorts – L.L.Bean; sandals – Bare Traps; sneakers – Keds
Here’s where the fun started – sort of! Orange isn’t the easiest color in the world to find! But she managed…
Bracelet – Anchor & Crew; carnelian earrings – Lori Kaplan Jewelry Design; brooch- Danai; orange polo shirt – Lands’ End; cardigan – Ralph Lauren; huge sheer scarf – Echo; sandals – Sarto by Franco Sarto; sneakers – New Balance
yes, I’m working with this computer ON MY LAP in a room at a skilled nursing facility… I owe Alison at Fierce Lynx Designs a big apology, because I forgot to include our inspiration bracelet!!!!
Sigh…
This is the wardrobe that our heroine has at the end of her shopping extravaganza. It’s not huge, but she’s pretty confident that it will cover all of her needs. She only wears casual clothes on evenings and weekends, and she can wear the same outfit for 2 or 3 days in a row after work – she doesn’t need 30 outfits!
Even though she feels pretty confident that she has enough clothes for the summer, she takes the time to look at a range of outfits. She balances them between “all neutral” and “accented” outfits; some days you want to wear orange, some days you’re good with just navy and bone…
Imagine if these are the uniform colors of your favorite baseball team!
Also, if you don’t love orange, imagine how this would be with bright green. Or hot pink. Or….
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, I went on a small but heartfelt rant about how much clothing some of us own, and how we need to be a bit more sensible… If you want to do some of these calculations for your own wardrobe, I built an Excel gizmo that will do the math for you…
Of course it’s an easy choice on what colour lipstick (if you want to wear lipstick) to wear with these clothes and the bracelet…
Colour of the red dot.
Great bracelet teamed with a great versatile wardrobe.
Thanks to both of you.
So comprehensible, so clear… If fashion had its own grammar, You could write a dictionary!
What a gorgeous bracelet. Orange is one of my favourite and most flattering colours, so I’m delighted you’ve included it here, Janice, although I’d probably swap out the navy for brown. And not a trace of the almost ubiquitous black! Lovely. Hope you’re soon home from the nursing facility and enjoying some spring sunshine – which sadly we don’t have here in chilly wet Scotland!
I’m with you Maggie! I could wear orange every day. All my little bits are orange, coin purse, phone cover etc. I have green rather than brown currently. I love this and I will use the everything pic toward finding more neutrals. I’ve had my eye on that sailcloth T from Bean.
I incorporated orange/rust last year. I don’t have solid orange tops, but tops with a print of orange and navy or a rust orange/bone. I do have a solid orange sweater. I absolutely love the combo and get compliments almost every time I wear it. I also have green accents, based on this post:
https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2023/01/start-with-art-the-mountain-lake-by-dorrit-black.html/
So thank you Janice! Have a great weekend everyone.
Thanks for the reminder on this post! Those are some of my colors for spring, along with some turquoise and brighter berry pink.
Our heroine is lucky this spring. There’s a lot of orange out there. Talbots is a good source this spring. Probably Ann Taylor too.
Just want to say that I so enjoy your short stories.
I could not agree more. Talbots is my favorite store and I’m definitely in the orange zone this spring!
I have to tell you how much I am *digging* orange right now. I used to be afraid to wear orange, but now I’m mad for it. Ironically, I’m wearing an orange, navy, bone and camel outfit today. So, thank you for picking up on this adventurous and fun vibe.
Looks great – and there aren’t so many pieces in the orange added. As you said, if you want to add a few other colors, hot pink or green would be amazing. The scarf you added has BOTH of those colors in it, so “accent bridging accessories” could be a thing, and then you end up adding more options with very few clothing pieces! I love orange, hot pink, AND lime green, so it would work really well for me. Only thing is, orange reads late summer/fall to me, while the lime reads spring/early summer… I wonder if it is a combination of the light in the sky and the color the trees are…
Beautiful selection as always – fun and versatile!
That flower brooch! So neat!
Do you have a link to the Excel sheet for wardrobe calculation? I would love to see my results.
Thank you!
Love this wardrobe. It reminds me of the upcoming eclipse, the light and the dark we’ll experience in the path of totality. Even your “pie” color image with its graduated orange slice seems to reference the eclipse.
One of my favorite combinations. Sent me to my closet to put together a similar capsule. I have two tops in a deeper orange, and am on the lookout for a cardigan in the same shade. This post is a wonderful guide. Thank you!
And I, oh dear, I hope that room in the nursing facility is a very temporary situation for you!
Hi Janice,
The post from 2014 is so genius!! Yes, I would love the Excel link… and your calculations are genius (per usual). You are really so insightful.
Navy + orange is a no-brainer since it’s a complementary color scheme. The bone makes a really good second neutral with it. I agree with Ezzy that the multi-color scarf is a nice guide for how a person could expand upon the color scheme. Add some star motifs to the accessories and she’s ready for a Houston Astros game. Of course I’m curious about what scenario presented our heroine with the need for an entirely brand new complete casual summer wardrobe capsule.
The look back at wardrobe inventory numbers was interesting, but I always have the same response that the analysis for whether to BUY something is very very different from the analysis for whether to KEEP something you already own. The sunk cost fallacy goes both ways here. Sure, you’ve already spent the money, we always hear about that in these discussions. But to get rid of an item that you like, that’s in good condition, etc. just to reduce your closet to a particular number of items is potentially quite wasteful.
For example, if you have two white T-shirts that are both items you like and would wear, how is it helpful to decide just to keep the favorite one and ditch the other? Your favorite white T-shirt will wear out and need replacing faster if you only have one. If you don’t really like the other one and are happy to purchase a new one of your favorite kind (assuming it’s available) when it wears out, that’s one thing; but if you actually like both, you’re better off switching off wearing both of them or (for those who have a high degree of intolerance with too many options in their closets) putting the second one in storage as a replacement for the first one.
Concerns about splitting wears by having too many similar items, etc., make so much sense at the shopping/purchasing stage. But if you have two white T-shirts for $50 total and wore them a combined 50 times, that’s $1 CPW for your white T-shirts whether you wore them each 25 times or wore your second-favorite 10 times then ditched it and wore your favorite one 40 times. Removing something from your closet does not magically clean the slate to zero. The sunk cost fallacy tells you not to throw good money after bad (which Debbie has discussed a lot in the context of poorly chosen alterations for garments, for example). It doesn’t mean that you should get rid of things that have a current/future value to you. That just perpetuates a buy-purge-buy-purge cycle that is bad for the wallet and for the planet.
And yes, someone might buy that garment you donated and get more value from it than you would. There are certain items that are popular in the secondhand market. But we need to be honest with ourselves: most clothes that are donated do not find a new home with a loving heroine.
I guess I come down on the side of: Be slow to purchase and be slow to purge. Wearing the clothes we already own is always going to be the absolute best option.
Amen! This is the exact same conclusion I’ve come to with my wardrobe. Nothing makes me hotter under the collar than “minimalists” who get rid of everything in order to have an edited capsule wardrobe, just to go out and replace the entire capsule the next season! I’ve heard this brand of minimalism likened to an eating disorder with the binge-purge cycle, and I couldn’t agree more. What is the point of continuing to buy just to get rid of other things? It’s still excess consumption and just adds to the waste stream, ultimately. Purging does not change the fact that an item already exists.
I completely agree.
Janice,
First of all, so sorry that your location is of necessity ! If the reason is what I think it may be , prayers for all in this time of stress and need ! I have been in those shoes !
Recently I decided that orange could be worn by me in the Sorting with either beige, navy , or stone. Wearing orange with brown is too Autumnal for me in Springtime, but rather reserved for the Fall . However, I like to get more wears out of all of my clothes , hence my new attitude ! I have also been wearing coral with navy, which is telling me that navy might just be my Springtime primary neutral, along with tan or beige or stone .
Someone posted several years ago about a clever ( to me) rotation of her primary neutrals with each of the 4 seasons, adding a different neutral with each passing season , while also dropping one. For instance, maybe navy and stone for Spring, stone and tan for Summer, tan and various browns for Autumn, and various browns and navy for Winter , kind of a concept . Plus accent colors in whatever desired rotation.
Make that Spring, not Sorting ! What is going on with my incorrect autocorrect ?
Oh yes, Shrebee, I also thought that was clever. So now I am Winter charcoal/navy, Spring navy/bone, Summer bone/silver, Autumn silver/charcoal. Theoretically, lol. In practise, I never entirely let go of navy, so there’s a bit in all seasons, but it works.
I can’t wear orange but I do love navy with coral pink. I wear a lot more grey and blue in summer. Dark purples/burgundy are put away.
Navy and bone! Couldn’t be better. And you could easily swap out for an equally delightful charcoal and bone. My favourites. I used to suit orange, but not any more. But there are plenty of other medium value (for me) accent colours that would work with these neutrals. Starting with (for me) aqua (a long time favourite), dark pink (a new thought) and green (almost any green, but not acid!). I like the orange cardigan, & it’s lovely in the yellow as well.
Lovely post. I had looked back at the look back two days ago and was re-inspired to do better. I have enough!!! Part of that is because I don’t change sizes and I do keep things for years. I guess sometimes I just want something new. Anyway I always like to read TVF and the comments. Sally I immediately thought of how this wardrobe would work for the Astros’ games. Shrebee I do remember that post about the rotation. If anyone finds please let us know. I am still having some luck in wearing all like fabric for a specified time. Corduroy and knit bottoms September, October, November. Velvets and dressier December & January. Jeans/denim February, March. And cottons, linens anything light from April through August. I do believe I’m getting all into the rotation by using the outside temps. Of course if I want to vary this I do but it has kind of helped me.
Janice I hope things are going well. Finding the right facility can be so difficult.
Happy Easter to those celebrating.
I checked out the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe about a year ago (which I loved). Instead of seasons, I grouped according to outside temperatures. Long sleeves with high necks, polar fleeces – long/3 quarter sleeves, lighter jumpers – short sleeves – singlet tops, shorts. Our year typically goes from very cold, cold, mild, hot, mild, cold, very cold.
Amanda Hudson,
Found it ! I had taken a screen shot of it as I liked the idea so much ! The post was on July 5, 2017, but regrettably, I did not get the name of Janice’s reader who had posted it .
I found it again. The original post was entitled something like “ Can you Plan Your Entire Wardrobe , Maybe “ by Janice , and the individual response thread was done by a person named LENA .
Love the accent color and the neutral mix is spot on.
I haven’t been here in a while. Still love it!