February 8, 2019
Maybe you don’t want to limit your wardrobe to just a few accent colors… It could be that you’ve received scarves as gifts that you want to keep, and wear. Maybe you just like a range of colors – you really don’t have to explain yourself to anyone!
But you also don’t have to buy tons of things…
Stick with me here!
Let’s start with this most lovely scarf, and the color palette that it suggests. It’s not an outrageously odd color scheme, and it lends itself beautifully to a travel capsule wardrobe.
Water Mandala Scarf – GISY
This heroine seems to love the juxtaposition between a skirt and a somewhat rugged jacket…
earrings – The Met Store; sweater – Boden; scarf – GISY; skirt – Lou & Grey; watch – Tissot; pearl and aquamarine bracelet – Farra; jacket – Topshop; boots – Mercedes Castillo; tote – Sole Society
She’s only going for a few days – mostly dressy-ish activities, but she will also want a pair of pants at some point:
striped shirt – Treasure & Bond; yellow drop earrings – Eshvi; black earrings – Talbots; dotted shirt – Uniqlo; yellow sweater – Caslon; dress – Uniqlo; bag – Botkier New York; striped sweater – Halogen; scarf – Saint Laurent; pants – AG; loafers – David Tate; pumps – Donald Pliner
Everything that she will have with her looks really nice together, and offers her quite a few options:
I’ve seen a dozen outfits here – there could be more… And why don’t I wear a sweater over my shirtdress more often? I wear sweaters over shirts and pants, or shirts and skirts, ALL THE TIME. A shirtdress isn’t that different, and wearing with a sweater offers a different look to the dress. Yes, one would need to tie the waist and tuck the dangly bits tidily away…
But if you’re as analytical as I am with these things, you may have already realized that one can substitute just 5 items from the wardrobe and change a LOT about the overall feel. Monday I will show you what I see…
love,
Janice
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I’m so excited to see where you’re going with this.
Having been inspired by your work, I’ve pared most of my wardrobe back to navy, tan/cognac and that blushy-taupeish pink. (I can’t wear black or white).
I wear my hair covered most days though and have a pathological scarf situation. More scarves than clothes, in all colours and every pattern you can imagine. I’m looking for sensible ways to prune the collection, or at least a way to plan to wear the scarves I keep. And I love your kind but sensible words of advice.
Love this article – and all of your posts. As someone who has been advised to wear a neutral and two colours I was very interested in this approach and your very good advice. Thank you.
You’ve taught me well.
I love my accent colors – Bright blues and greens including teal, some purple and a little hints of pink.
But you’ve stuck with your primary black and white wardrobe here as the neutral base. And then the accessories tie the different colors all together.
OK, you’re very convincing! I am in the process of purging my previous sizes and styles from my closet and am working on bringing in my current fits and faves.
Thank you!
I did a huge purge over the holidays and donated all of my colored knit tops except for kelly green, red, and shades of purple. (I had well over a hundred of basic satin-trim layering tanks in just about every color imaginable.) Since then, I start with navy bottoms and either a white or navy top, then add a brightly colored cardigan and a multi-colored scarf. I have Chadwick’s boyfriend cardigan in eight or so colors, and rotate them.
I also kept one black bottom (some of my “library shirts” call for black bottoms, unfortunately). Most of my cardigans (except the navy) work well with black, too. I just love navy.
I can hardly wait until Monday! (Now there’s a sentence you don’t hear every day, lol.)
I love the idea of brightening my basic black with two bright pops of totally different colors tying both together with the lovely scarf. Well done, Janice, especially at this point in winter when we can use a bit of fun. I also love the shirtdress with the sweaters and the simplicity of the accessories.
It’s funny about jumpers (sweaters) and dresses, isn’t it. We often (in cooler climates) wear cardigans with dresses, or sweaters with skirts. You’ve made me think here! And this wardrobe has such cheerful accent colours. It would work well with navy instead of black, too.
This doesn’t feel like working with a lot of accent colors when only the scarf, and two sweaters reflect the accent colors.
And they blue is given a big space in the color wheel, but, again, only one top and one scarf.
I thought that’s why we started with neutrals – so we could have as many accent colors as we wanted! ?
Not a comment on your content, but on all the inserted advert images. They (there are so many!) completely disrupt the flow of your post and even confuse the issue of what is yours as vrs advertising. Please cut down on the inserted advertising, it ruins the experience.
Lovely! Yet here are only 2 accent colors and 2 neutrals, like allways.