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Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 by Georgia O’Keeffe Part 3

March 26, 2016

Remember our friend in the cabin? She's made a bold decision...

WWSM (Widowed Woman Seeking Man) for sporting events, opera, symphony, dining, and whatever else we want to do... (she thought about specifying an age range for respondents, but she really doesn't care if her new friend is just out of college...)

Must be a man who appreciates simple pleasures, and is unimpressed by logos, bling, and obvious displays of wealth or debt. (if they're hanging around with her thinking that they'll get written into her will, they've got another thing coming!)

I will buy tickets if you do the driving! (maybe this will give them a hint that she remembers when Nixon ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 by Georgia O’Keeffe Part 2

March 25, 2016

When we left our heroine, she was unpacking her things in her new cabin...Remember, her original wardrobe inspiration was this:

After a few weeks of settling in, she had met new friends and discovered a new routine of activities, interspersed with delightful leisure... And she realized that her love of wearing jeans was a reflection of her need for relaxation, which was now being fulfilled! So she decided to invest in a few new ensembles, to give herself a few more wardrobe options.

Her new home was a perfect combination of urban and rural: street lights on poles in the front, fireflies among trees in the back; city water in the front, a natural spring (far) in the back; mail delivery in the ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories: Denim, Stone, Pink and Soft Blue, 1 at a Time

March 24, 2016

This wardrobe is such a nice mix of casual fabrics with soft and pretty accents, I thought that I would try to continue the theme of femininity in the accessories, without getting too girly or sissy... I love these challenges!The original wardrobe is from yesterday; this is the starter outfit:

While I felt that jeans and a sweatshirt strongly suggested boots, I limited my choices to softer colors or boots with a metallic sheen to them. A lady-like boot might be a stretch, but these at least have a lighter feel to them!For the first bag, I wanted to see something in the stone neutral, but with a bit of softness, or texture, or "pink-ness" to it...

An all-navy outfit strongly suggests a scarf that ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Denim, Stone, Pink and Soft Blue: 1 Piece at a Time

March 23, 2016

This woman is one who really love denim, and a good sweatshirt, but who also has a side that wants a bit of the feminine, and the softly colored...Her starting "favorite" outfit:

shirt – Uniqlo; sweatshirt – H&M; jeans – L.L.Bean; scarf – Hinge

And this is the color scheme she has in mind. This is a really good scheme, in that the two neutrals are both typically available in a variety of casual fabrics, so they're a good "couple" to work together. And since both of the accent colors are equal in intensity and value, they will also be usable in the same situations, and very likely to appear together in prints and patterns. When your chosen colors have a certain "feeling" in common, ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories: Cobalt, Black and Grey, 1 at a Time

March 22, 2016

I love this wardrobe...This wardrobe was originally put together in this post; with the starting outfit I'm leaning toward a pair of shiny black flats:

And for no better reason than to show some variety, I think that we'll give our mystery wearer a nice clutch bag. If you're not usually a handbag person, maybe all you really need is one nice bag for dressy occasions!

I'm changing the order of the accessories here so that I can find a scarf to really tie this outfit together. This is another thing that you really want to bear in mind when you're finding accessories for your wardrobe - they should be sourced (purchased, gift-hinted, etc.) in whatever order you need ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories: Grey, Blue, Lilac and Black, 1 at a Time

March 18, 2016

The more I look at these colors, the more I like them; for a wardrobe with only 16 pieces, there are wide-ranging options from somber black to gentle pastels. This shows the possibilities of just a few pieces of carefully-chosen clothing.Here's the original wardrobe, and this was out starting point:

I thought it would be nice to show the possibility of some metallic accessories!

And small, simple, classic silver earrings...

But you are always going to want a pair of neutral shoes. (well, I'm sure someone out there would be happy wearing silver shoes every day. If that's you, then do it!)

The Ted Baker floral scarf was perfect with our first outfit, ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories, 1 at a Time: Navy, Yellow and White

March 9, 2016

I promised you accessories, and I try to always keep my promises! My plan is to take a representative outfit from each step of the wardrobe built earlier (this one is here), and then show a few choices for accessories. It will make more sense once you see it in action, I hope...

This was the "starter outfit" for the wardrobe in question. The first accessory needed, without exception, is shoes! With warmer weather coming, mules could be a fun choice, but there are those among us who are devoted to their driving mocs, or their ballet flats, so those are also possibilities.

For most of us, given the lack of pockets in our clothing, a bag is essential. I was trying to find a mid-sized, classically styled option ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Cobalt, Black and Grey: 1 Piece at a Time

March 8, 2016

I knew that I had more black and grey wardrobe requests, so I thought I'd jump on another one right away and see how much difference a change of accent colors would make.First up, the hypothetical starter outfit:

It's a pretty somber outfit, but when you drape the scarf over the shoulders of the cardigan, or loop it insouciantly under the collar of the shirt, everything changes!

Although this outfit includes an Hermes scarf, I imagined that this was being put together for a woman who really needed some more casual clothes. First up is to consolidate a solid column of black, as well as build a sort of fake twin-set in black.

Here's where we start getting much more ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Grey, Blue, Lilac and Black: 1 Piece at a Time

I thought that this would be challenging, but I really enjoy the options provided by including both black and grey with these soft accent colors:

cardigan – J. Crew; shirt – Uniqlo;

scarf – Ted Baker London; trousers – J. Crew Factory

If you like florals, I can't encourage you enough to look at products from Ted Baker London. While not inexpensive, they are SO beautiful, and you really only need 1 piece to be the starting point, and the lynch pin, of a beautiful wardrobe.

cardigan – J. Crew; shirt – Uniqlo;

scarf – Ted Baker London; trousers – J. Crew Factory

While my first inclination was to buy the sweater to match the cardigan, I thought that instead I'd invest in another ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Galaxy by Ibe Kyoko

March 3, 2016 I saw this Sunday at the Art Institute of Chicago, and I knew immediately that I wanted to show it to all of you:

The contrast between the strong, almost wood-like grey top and bottom, and the cloudy and beautifully color center caught my eye and held it for a LONG time...

Career Enrichment? Actually, she really does want to go to the training. After all, it's in New York!

Not just any place in New York, but at the VERY prestigious NYU... Having this on her resume can do nothing but good!

So when her employer offered the chance to go - at their expense - she was filling out the application forms before the email had cooled in her in-box. (metaphorically ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Brown, Cream, Aqua and Golden Yellow: 1 Piece at a Time

February 27, 2016 Wow, this was much more difficult than I expected it to be!

Tee – J. Crew; cardigan – J. Crew; pants – J. Crew

This is really a great color scheme - the accent colors are sufficiently different from each other that introducing them into an outfit gives you two very different sensibilities...And I didn't set out to find so many pieces from one source, but when I found that they had matching pieces in brown, it didn't seem like a bad idea!

Tee – J. Crew; cardigan – J. Crew; pants – J. Crew

So the matching brown pieces made it impossible to resist getting a brown shell, too. I think of this as a wardrobe that's ideally suited for changeable weather, or for those of us who have ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: The Sea Seen from the Heights of Dieppe by Eugene Delacroix

February 26, 2016 What a gorgeous image, especially in late February, in Chicago!

As much as this painting suggests a wardrobe with a LOT of gold and yellow, I'm going to have to work around that, because those clothes are NOT easy to find! So I'm going to take advantage of the boat in the foreground, the beige clouds and distant sea, and the glimpses of blue sky. Some mother-of-pearl jewelry would be logical, no?

They Met on The Internet Not that it's unusual to date someone you met online - much the contrary. Many of her nieces and nephews dated people they met on the internet, and she even knew of a couple of very successful marriages that started there. It's just not something she ever ... View the Post