Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature
A color I don't ever wear, but posts that I really enjoyed preparing. The images still make me smile...
Packing: Navy with classic accent colors
Warm Weather Travel in Navy and Coral - Step by Step
Four Pack: Burgundy and Navy
Breaking All the Usual Packing Rules: Navy and Green love, Janice ... View the Post
October 1, 2015 Olive today! Some of these were difficult...
I'm including these Yves Saint Laurent pants, even though they're the ONLY pair available, to remind you that a garment with a range of shades of green could work really beautifully with your olive neutrals.
This is a case in which the scarf really plays a key role. And this scarf is a stylized map - it's a really good thing it's not my colors.And I have to point out the earrings from Louise et Cie; this is a company that has made shoes for a few years, and just now ventured into jewelry (at least in the US). Some of their jewelry is really cool, and not at all expensive. I'm making a note of this company for when my shopping ... View the Post
August 31, 2015
For all of us who are art lovers, it's important to remember that we can indulge ourselves while supporting our favorite museums. Gift shops make a real point to find the most beautiful items available, and they always have a certain quality that you just don't see in every store...This beauty screams fall, doesn't it?
What really appeals here is the way that the strong camel and brown tones provide a perfect backdrop for the clear red, green and blue:
Under the Radar She wanted to travel. A lot. She has a project, and some goals in mind. So she wants to get out of town, maybe as often as every other weekend, through the autumn and winter...
There are LOTS of cities really close to her - ... View the Post
August 28, 2015 If you are a fan of floral prints, get yourself to the Ted Baker site... I stopped into his store in Chicago on Saturday, and it was an oasis of beautiful floral fabrics. His items sell out really quickly, so if you see something that really grabs you, it's worth acting quickly. The prints are intricate, beautifully rendered, in lovely fabrics, and very feminine without being at all prissy or twee. Gorgeous...
Silvie Shadow Floral scarf – Ted Baker
There are at least a couple more colors that I could have pulled from here - there are touches of apricot, and of course a soft white would be ideal - but this is what I'm working with:
You don't dress like a scientist... She has like ... View the Post
August 27, 2015
A very special request! This is such an interesting color combination - distinctive, but calm and very grounded in nature. The woman who wears this is going to be very special...
Although the obvious neutrals here are olive green and navy, I gave each color equal weight in the color scheme to reflect the balance that I see in the painting. Your view may differ!
She Just has An Eye... Nobody else seems to ever get sent to the auctions - especially the big ones in Europe. But, in all fairness, after she found that Jasper Johns that NOBODY else believed to be authentic, nobody else can realistically expect to go. When it comes to spotting the overlooked gem in the market, nobody is her ... View the Post
August 25, 2015 What a striking painting - a juxtaposition of colors not often found together. And they work so well... thus, the title is Understanding - these colors have found a way to live together with joy and beauty.
This is a great, uncommon color scheme - and it could easily be flipped to use a lot of the beige from the upper left areas as a neutral too!
Eyes the Color of Pond Scum Well yes, her family had always been a little bit... harsh when they teased her about her coloring. Green eyes and red hair were uncommon in her family - unseen for generations, to tell the truth...
But for decades, she's believed that her eyes held depth of beauty, and that ... View the Post
August 20, 2015 French Realist painting at it's very finest...
And this suggests for us a color scheme using one of my favorite combination of neutrals: camel and grey!
Our heroine is going on a voyage, so this seems like an appropriate template around which to build her wardrobe:
Clarity, and Commitment She knew she was on the right track. Now she knew that she had to share what she knew.
It would require travel. It would require speaking to anyone who would listen. It would require unflagging confidence in the merits of her cause.
She can do this!
She knew that a pair of jeans would be handy when she was between meetings and speaking engagements; as she started to pack, this ... View the Post
August 18, 2015
The morning after the board meeting, they called her into the Manager's office for a conversation...An hour later, she was the first, and only, Commercial Relationship Coordinator in the entire company. It is a position with a somewhat nebulous job description, but one which is going to be PERFECT for showing her diplomatic skills to their best advantage!
Remember, this was her work wardrobe:
Which was based on this painting and color scheme:
She finally felt that this was the right time to break out a new, and heretofore unseen, facet of her personality. Within her there was a brightness, and a strength, which she had downplayed in the past, in order to fit into the organization. Glimpses of ... View the Post
August 15, 2015
We have looked at soft and warm accents, and strong warm accents, so now it's time to look at some really beautiful soft, cool touches in a capsule wardrobe. Someone mentioned sea glass as an inspiration, and so I chose a bracelet to anchor my color wanderings, and then went looking!
(I have the very BEST job....)
When I was looking about, I kept in mind that I wanted organic, soft items, that held onto the warmth of the summer sand (I mean the beige neutral clothes...)
As with all accent color purchases, the colors don't have to be perfect matches. If you keep wandering around the same general color(s), you will find that things either match or blend pretty well without a lot of effort. This is supposed to be ... View the Post
August 13, 2015
In honor of the season (in the Northern Hemisphere) of the ripening of all delicious things, I give you the "Tuscan inspired" capsule wardrobe of wine, olives, and gold that was sent to me a few days ago.This reader really goes all out - she finds photographs and paintings that illustrate the colors that she likes, and builds me a little collage that is my reference material. I need to find out if she'd mind if I showed the illustrations here - they're really beautifully chosen and constructed, and serve as a glorious inspiration to my already hyper-drive imagination!
And yes, I did choose that bracelet because it reminded me of olive trees and grape vines...
For easy reference, here are the original ... View the Post
August 10, 2015
You remember these guys, right? They're the colors that Pantone assured us would be the BIG colors for this fall and winter.Well, I've seen a lot of Marsala in the windows at Ferragamo. Other than that, I can't say that, in my hours and hours spent each day looking at clothing and accessories, I have seen any of these in large quantities. And for what it's worth, I had to do some serious hard-core digging to find some of the goodies shown below.
I think we can conclude that Pantone's either not as accurate as they would like to be, or that the market is much less dependent upon their advice than they once were. This is a real annoyance if you fell madly in love with one of the colors that was supposed to be ... View the Post
August 5, 2015 As soon as I saw this painting, I knew we were going to have some fun. I really admire the juxtaposition of the very traditional navy and grey with the striking, almost shocking, colors of the apples. That Matisse knew what he was doing...
If I were to expand this wardrobe further, I would pull in more shades of grey, and a wider range of blues... so many possibilities just from this limited palette.
Just the slightest suggest of unplumbed depths...
The subject of her came up before the Director's meeting started. It wasn't anything that they could actually put their finger on; they agreed that nobody in the room had ever even seen her knees!
She was always dressed ... View the Post
