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Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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How to Choose a “Project 333” Wardrobe Based on a Scarf – Ted Baker London’s Gem Garden

March 2, 2017

 

Monday I put together a wee wardrobe based on a most beautiful scarf, and today I'm going to add some accessories. Given my incredible fondness for numbers, I early on realized that the overall number of items here was going to be very close to 33, so I specifically aimed at that number...

First, let's refresh our collective memory of the scarf, and the colors we were using:

In case you didn't see this on Monday - the scarf is also available with a cream background in place of the black. Did you need more temptation? And this design/pattern is also available in other sized scarves, as well as some lovely bags!

And these were the pieces of clothing that I chose; there are 18 pieces here, so I'm going ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – March 2017

March 1, 2017

 

Always one of my favorite days of the month!

For no good reason I can explain, the earliest glimpses of spring make me want to wear a skirt, but not really get dressy. It's hard to explain, but I'm a firm believer that a skirt in a casual fabric can be a great substitute for shorts or pants; the world will think you're all dressed up, when in reality it's just a simple garment switch...

So - let's see what I found this month:

I really tried to find the perfect brown, black and grey scarf in "current production," but I finally realized that this Missoni scarf was going to be my choice. It's second-hand (but probably never worn, as is so often the case!); I have confidence that Missoni will do this color ... View the Post

How to Wear Aquamarines – the March Birthstone. I Have Suggestions…

February 23, 2017

 

From now on, I'm going to try to write the "birthstone" post a few days before the beginning of the corresponding month - in case you have a gift to find. (and yes, gifts to yourself are legitimate gifts!)

This turned out to be a much more difficult blog post than I expected. Normally, the first thing I would do is Google the word "aquamarine" and see how the color is "defined," i.e. how you arrange your RGB settings to get that color. (RGB is Red Green Blue - numerical settings that you can combine to get any color of the rainbow...) Then I'd change the word "Aquamarine" on each page to that shade of blue, as well as change the wee diamonds in the page dividers to that hue.

Well, THAT was interesting. ... View the Post

How to Wear Garnets – the January Birthstone? I ALWAYS have some ideas…

February 21, 2017

Yes, we're playing catch-up here; the idea of writing about birthstones wasn't sent to me until late in January, so I missed writing about garnets during "their" month. And going forward, I'm going to write about each stone a few weeks before it is "in season," so that if you're inclined to get something in anticipation of a birthday, you'll have a chance to plan ahead some.

Since this posts follows so quickly on the heels of the post about the February amethysts, I stuck with the same garments (for the most part) and just found new and lovely accessories!

One of the fun things about garnets is the range of shades of red available - everything from a pretty bright "true" red through to a deep maroon or burgundy ... View the Post

How to Pick Accessories for a Grey-Based Wardrobe – Start With Art: Paris Dreaming by Peter Rumney

February 15, 2017

 

You might remember that yesterday we were looking at this very pretty painting and building a wee wardrobe around it:

 

And that we left that post with this capsule wardrobe assembled using our backbone template:

There's an interesting conundrum around the idea of accessorizing this wardrobe - it's inherent in the very different two "sides" of the template: bright vs neutral. One the one hand, a few bright accessories are going to be good fun to complement the bright blouses and sweater that I've included. However, you don't ever want to go overboard in that direction, because you can end up looking a bit cartoonish, and you don't want to leave your "all-neutral" outfits without any jewelry, ... View the Post

How to Accessorize a Capsule Wardrobe: Head by Pablo Picasso

This is really growing on me! Remember, on Friday, we started with the painting, "Head" by Picasso (which you may or may not really love - that's certainly up to you!):

 

Which, through a couple of steps of planning and shopping, gave us this 13-piece capsule or travel wardrobe. This is a wardrobe that's extremely versatile, giving you appropriate things to wear for every activity from a nice evening out to a hike in the park!

Cardigan– Scaglione; long-sleeved tee – Uniqlo; sweater – Uniqlo; tee – River Island; skirt– J. Crew; pants – J. Crew; jeans – L.L.Bean;  

  capris – L.L.Bean; shorts – Patagonia; long-sleeved tee – Uniqlo; shirt – Lands’ End ;sleeveless top – L.L.Bean  

 

I also ... View the Post

Build an Accessory Wardrobe 1 Piece at a Time: Soir d’Octobre by Maurice Denis

January 6, 2017

 

Yesterday's capsule wardrobe based on Soir d'Octobre was pretty great, but we can't just leave our imaginary heroine like this:

Let's remember our inspiration:

So let's work step by step - just as we did yesterday - and add all of the essential accessories (and a few fun ones) to this wardrobe.

First, one must have shoes! This time of year, a pair of short boots is a nice warm choice:

sweater - L.L.Bean; shirt - Lands' End; leather pants - J.Crew;   Top boots – Rockport; middle - Aerosoles; bottom – Ariat  

I know that many women would want a handbag immediately, but for me, I don't feel dressed unless I'm wearing earrings!

Here, I decided to test-drive the theory that I ... View the Post

One Navy Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear it With Muted Accents

September 2, 2016

One last adventure with this dress - this time, with muted accent colors like olive, burgundy, and mustard! (I have been hungry 24/7 for a week...)

You might notice more or less immediately that I'm reusing a TON of accessories from the recent post with the grey dress. I'm not doing this because I'm lazy, (well...) but because it all fell into place, unexpectedly.

When I put together posts like this, which are variations of previous posts, I reuse the original PowerPoint file. For this, I went through each page, deleted the original grey dress, and pasted in the navy dress. Then I changed the color of the divider stars... It was only when I went to the next step - changing the accessories - that I realized that I ... View the Post

One Dark Grey Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear It

August 26, 2016

 

I could wear this dress a lot...

Dress – Humanoid  

At its most basic, you can approach this dress with simple metallic silver accessories, or you can combine silver and shades of grey:

Dress – Humanoid;earrings – Gianluca Anzani; bag – Ina Kent; flats – Balenciaga; earrings – Madewell; scarf – BP.; quilted flats – Munro  

I love the contrast between the deep, cool color of this dress and the equally strong, but warm shades of camel or caramel. Mixing warm and cool colors isn't off-limits, if you balance the strength or intensity of the colors.

Dress – Humanoid;  earrings – Shlomit Ofir; bracelet – Carlos Munoz;  cardigan – Dorothy Perkins; loafers – ... View the Post

Essential Accessories for a Travel Capsule Wardrobe: What I’m Packing: Italy, September 2016

August 25, 2016     As of 6 pm Chicago time on Wednesday, I have no news about the town that I was going to visit next week. It is about 50 miles from the epicenter of the earthquakes, so I suspect that it avoided much damage. Nonetheless, we are considering the possibility of just staying in Rome for a week, and avoiding the region entirely. No decisions have been made yet, though... Of course, let's keep the earthquake victims, (and all victims, everywhere) in our hearts.  

  Let's jump right in! I've known for weeks what my travel outfit is, including shoes, so let's start building around that:    

For what it's worth, I'd buy the same Munro oxfords again when these wear out; they're ... View the Post

One Yellow Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: 14 Ways to Wear It

August 17, 2016  

One of you recently bought a yellow dress... It wasn't this one, but it was an equally simple, beautiful dress...

Dress – Who's Who  

What to do with such a nice dress, in such a statement color? Work your way through every color in the rainbow, and test them in your mind (in a PowerPoint presentation, or on Pinterest?) to see how they'll work...First up, knowing that the purchaser is a woman who wears "cool" colors and accessories, I thought I'd take a look at putting some black with it. Some people might feel that this is too much bumblebee, or University of Iowa, or Pittsburgh Pirates, but I think that it's a striking option.

In the first example, I used a bit of white (or of skin, showing ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories 1 at a Time: Brown, Khaki and Pink

July 25, 2016  

She was enjoying the shopping...Of course, she had to start with shoes. There are women in the world who don't need shoes, but that's not the general rule. So she started with something in her favorite dark chocolate brown:

Shirt – Lands’ End; pants – Lands’ End; sweater – Uniqlo;  scarf – Givenchy; top shoes – OluKai; boots – Pikolinos; bottom shoes – Born  

She couldn't WAIT to get some earrings - she'd been wearing demure, tiny studs for years, and she wanted something more fun. And something PINK!

 

Tee – L.L.Bean; pants – Lands’ End; sweater – Uniqlo;  top earrings – Charriol; middle earrings – Matta; bottom earrings – Latelita London  

And a scarf, ... View the Post