bags Archives

Some Wardrobe Update Ideas – Pantone London Autumn/Winter 2024/25 Fashion Week Colors

June 26, 2024

Some of us are diligently wearing our well-crafted wardrobes regularly, but still have... an itch? a yearning? for just a little bit of an update. Something fresh (for us). A bit of a wake-up call for our usual outfits...

And Pantone delivers, with ten colors that they isolated from what they observed at the London winter fashion week. Does this mean that these colors will be readily available or easy to find? Heck no! But they do give us ideas, and ideas are where all beautifully-dressed women start!

Oddly, there is NO shade of pink here.

Please note that I really don't think anybody will wear ALL five items in these images at one time. I'm not sure that you should buy all five, unless you've got a serious ... View the Post

Looking for a New Accent Color? Part 2 – Pantone London Fashion Week Spring 2024

April 12, 2024

It's always interesting to me how difficult it is to find some of these colors! One would imagine that a reasonable range of ALL colors should be available, given the literally hundreds of thousands of products I see...

Let's jump in and evaluate what I DID find!

The next color on Pantone's list was the beautiful Sun Orange... It wasn't terribly hard to find things, except a scarf that was mostly orange. So I decided that I would share with you this really pretty, bright, versatile and cheery scarf from Echo, which includes the orange and a bunch of other summery colors:

don't you like the way that the pattern of the earrings echoes the pattern of the headband?

They call it Fiesta, but I called it coral. ... View the Post

Looking for a New Accent Color? Part 1 – Pantone London Fashion Week Spring 2024

April 10, 2024

"New" Colors! Or at least we can say "colors that have been identified as being influential for this spring..."

I'm going to confess right now - I'm in a complete muddle about WHICH of the many Pantone seasons I have and have not covered, and further, I'm not 100% sure that this is the most recent! Neither of these facts is really a big deal, when you get right down to it; the big thing to learn from posts like this is to give yourself some room and some time to consider if a new color in your wardrobe might be fun.

Or might be super-useful.

Or might make you happy. Happy is really the bottom line for getting dressed...

Let's jump in with 5 of the 10 colors from London Fashion Week...

This first color? As ... View the Post

Accent Color Ideas! Pantone NYFW 2024 Spring colors – Part 2

December 15, 2023

Have you reached the point in the autumn/winter (or spring/summer, depending on where you are!) when you've worn ALL your clothes for the season, and feel the need for something to brighten up or refresh your wardrobe?

Or maybe you've been thinking that a different accent color in your wardrobe might bring something delightful to your mornings...

Pantone's ALWAYS got ideas - I'm finishing our look at their New York Fashion Week colors today, but in the next week or so, I will visit the London colors too! I'm never quite sure how they choose these colors, and I certainly can't explain how they name them. But I can find lovely things to give us inspiration, and ideas:

I think this Watercress green is lovely, ... View the Post

Adding Accessories! Start with Art: Windows by Robert Delaunay

March 31, 2023

Accessories make SO much difference; I think we're going to see that pretty quickly!

Remember this painting?

And this wardrobe?

Let's work our way through a bunch of outfits, to see what accessories our heroine needs...

First up - the all-beige ensemble! Some people make this look wonderful...

For this next outfit, if the weather gets too hot to wear a scarf around your neck, you can always wear it as a belt, or in your hair, or tied to your bag...

One could make a summer-long project of looking for accessories that worked with their summer capsule wardrobe!

Even a very small scarf - literally a pocket square - can add a touch of color when worn as a bracelet, or around your neck, ... View the Post

Part 2: HOW CAN YOU WEAR A NEW ACCENT COLOR? PANTONE AUTUMN/WINTER 2023/24

February 27, 2023

Let's spend some time with the other 5 colors that Pantone identified as "important" for Autumn/Winter 2023/24...

yes, I would definitely put a brooch over the logo on this cardigan; I just couldn't resist this, because the color is so perfect!

Of course, this color is lovely with navy:

I think I could have found a better name for this shade of green, but they never ask my opinion!

I'm not sure about this with navy - I think I will pull together a beige core wardrobe next week and try all of the colors with it...

I love this color!

And I love it with navy; navy is a great neutral!

I think Pantone almost always include some shade of blush peach/pink. It's a pretty ... View the Post

Adding Accessories to a 20-piece Navy and White Spring Wardrobe

February 20, 2023

Let's revisit the friend who has lost her wardrobe; she wants to start to rebuild with this scarf as her inspiration:

For reference - this was the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe 13 garments that she is wearing for Spring:

And these are the bonus garments that will round out her wardrobe:

But accessories! She still has a pair of sandals, and her sunglasses, as well as the earrings she was wearing when they were away and their house was destroyed...

I don't have a clear plan - I'm going to assemble 10 typical outfits from this wardrobe and make certain that she can wear those outfits with appropriate extras. Most important are certainly shoes and a bag or two, in my thinking...

First up, a spring bag, ... View the Post

Accessories! Project 333 based on Composition by Ernest Mancoba

January 20, 2023

It's the 20th already? Holy chocolate-coated Buddha on a stick... So Far, So Good... Our heroine has her color scheme all sorted:

And she has all of her clothing (except for 1 piece - that's the bonus #33 item!) chosen, too:

At a minimum, I'm thinking that this heroine needs 3 pairs of shoes, a couple of bags, and some jewelry. Maybe a scarf or two...

The best way I've found to make sure that you have what you need - packing, or planning a Project 333 Wardrobe - is to work your way through a number of outfits and think about what you want to wear with the clothing.

She can't easily resist gold loafers, and a matching handbag...

A backpack is always handy - many of us have started carrying ... View the Post

Six Paintings, 12 Months – a 2023 Preview!

December 23, 2022

It's like an early Christmas gift! And if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's just a gift, full stop.

This was quite a bit harder than choosing 6 scarves; there's something to be said in defense of any painting, so rejecting any of them was difficult...

Let's get started!

I couldn't resist this! Black and white with pink and purple, and just enough blue to include denim in the wardrobe...

Flash back to the wardrobe from when we first saw this painting.

I'm starting each of our heroines with some simple essentials:

Yes, we looked at this painting just recently...

But for those of us clamoring for brown, this is worth looking at some more!

Her basics are pretty lovely, ... View the Post

Accessorizing! Adding to a Navy, Green & Yellow Wardrobe

November 28, 2022

It has only been a few days - I'm sure you remember the wardrobe that we looked at last Wednesday!

I left that heroine with almost no accessories...

My favorite approach to adding accessories to a wardrobe is to choose a range of outfits, and then accessorize each outfit with what they need. After the 2nd outfit, I find that I can start re-using shoes, at least!

If you can find a lovely pair of shoes in your accent color, consider grabbing them! Some of us don't feel comfortable with accent shoes, but other people look amazing in them:

A seasonal brooch and a dressy bag will make it possible to wear an otherwise "not really dressy" outfit to all kinds of events:

Accent socks! And a scarf ... View the Post

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Sōkō Frost descent

October 24, 2022

This is just about the time each year when you realize that you're going to need to wear a sweater (or sweatshirt) just about EVERY DAY. If that's what you're facing as autumn peaks, and winter starts to make itself felt, maybe you deserve a really NICE sweater...

If you start buying cashmere sweaters when you're 30, and you buy 1 per year, you will have almost 3 dozen of them by the time you retire! Not a bad wardrobe to wear through your "golden" years, eh?

It goes with every neutral, and probably flatters almost all of us - what's not to love about burgundy/wine/merlot/berry?

Of course, if you look good in gold, WEAR GOLD! It's so lovely...

Frost can be beautiful...

Autumn and winter do ... View the Post

Some Pretty Things aka Have You Written Your Holiday Wish-List?

October 14, 2022

Let's just look at some pretty things, eh?

I ended up arranging things by color/mood, because they seemed to look good on the page like that!

Something like this, assembled with appropriate links or information, might make gift shopping easier for those who want to get you something that you really love this winter...

My first love here was the scarf. Or maybe the bracelet. It could have been the ring, too...

I have one of these little rectangle necklaces from Carved. They're lovely - very well made, and VERY affordable. And they come in dozens of colors... Take a look!

This scarf delights me - I could imagine folding and tying it in a couple of different ways to show the purple/pink ... View the Post