An embarrassment of blog riches....

coat - Uniqlo, clothes, L.L.Bean, scarf, Etro, deck shoes - Sperry, square scarf - Hermes, boots - Acne

I'm also guest-posting today at A Femme d'un Certain Age, where I played around with a gorgeous lavender short trench...  I don't NEED another jacket....

Packing: Start with Scarves

Sometimes, when you need to pack for just a few days, it can be impossible to get started - just to get that first garment off of a hanger and into a bag.  One idea I've had for giving impetus and focus to this project is to start with a favorite scarf of two, and to build a mostly-neutral wardrobe around it.  A few brightly colored garments brighten things up, and give you a lot of mileage for just a few things, in a small bag.

Hermès silk scarf, Black UK cashmere shawl 

Tee shirt - Hugo, cardigan – Patagonia, earrings – Lele Sadoughi, watch – Movado, pants – L.L.Bean, loafers – Objects in Mirror, tote bag – Gucci, suitcase - Tumi 

Necklace – J. Crew, dress – Faith Connection, drop earrings – Wendy Yue, pearl earrings – Astley Clarke, taupe suede wedges – Debenhams, cotton sweater – Roberto Collina, skirt – L.L.Bean, cotton cardigan – L.L.Bean, gold necklace – Blue Nile, , silk blouse – Michael Kors,  tee shirt – BLK DNM,  bracelet – Astley Clarke, ballet flats – Repetto 

9 more! Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

Sigh... L.L.Bean clothing is NOT frumpy.  It can be frumpy, but so can clothing from 3.1 Phillip Lim. Frumpy is the person, and the way things are worn, not the garments themselves.  Some accessories, some attitude, some good posture, and these clothes will look as chic as anything that costs 10 times as much.  Make your own style!

UPDATE:  I welcome all comments.  You don't have to love what I do - it would be impossible for me to create web posts that everybody loved.  But everybody IS welcome to come by here, share their opinion, read the opinions of others, have a laugh or two, pick up something to think about, and stop back another day for a post that might be more to their taste.  As long as everybody stays civil, I say let the conversation continue!

More feedback:

"More navy - there's never enough navy!!!"

Variation: The LOTS of navy Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

"Love the navy, but it needs a sunny accent."

Variation: The Navy & Yellow Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

"Navy with pink please - my favorite color combination."

Variation: The Navy & Pink Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

 "Whoa, hold everything!  I can only wear warm colors..."

Variation: The Warm, Neutral, Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

"Could we have a wardrobe of warm colors with some flattering accents?"

Variation: The Warm, Peachy Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

"Could this idea work with warm neutrals and some green garments?"

Variation: The Warm, Green, Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

 "I like to wear green, beige, and a bit of navy.  Will the Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe work for me?"

Variation: The Green, Beige & Navy Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

 "Wait!  I need MORE black!  I only want to wear neutral colors, and it should be MOSTLY BLACK!!!"

Variation:  The Mostly Black (but enough other colors to keep people from thinking you're going Goth) Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

 "I love to wear black and white, accented with a bright shade of blue.  I'm afraid that the Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe won't work for me..."

Variation: The Black & Blue (but not bruised) Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

All clothes - L.L.Bean

Whew!  This is just one brand of clothing - I think it's clear that there are virtually limitless possibilities inherent in the baker's dozen, carefully curated and deliberately distilled.

The Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe - 6 variations

Pretty much 45 seconds after I posted the 13 = 81 summer wardrobe, in which you can literally wear whatever's clean, and it will still go together, I got suggestions.  Dozens of suggestions...

"This is wonderful, but I can't ever let me knees be seen in public!!!"

Variation: No Visible Knees Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

all clothes - L.L.Bean

"Okay, this is great, but you need to do a version that doesn't have anything sleeveless in it - my armpits are horrible!!!"

Varation:  No Visible Knees, nor Armpits Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

all clothes - L.L.Bean

"Please do a variation that doesn't include any black - I never wear black!"

Variation: The "No-Black" Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

all clothes - L.L.Bean

"Since I retired, I refuse to ever wear a skirt again - please do a version of this wardrobe with only pants..."

Version: The All Pants Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

all clothes - L.L.Bean

 "This is wonderful, but I don't like olive green - could you use blue instead?"

Variation: No Green, More Blue Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

all clothes - L.L.Bean

 

 "Could you please do a version of this wardrobe that doesn't have black and beige in it?  I'd really like to see it with blue and white as the main colors!"

Variation: Lots of Blue, No Black, No Beige, Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

all clothes - L.L.Bean

Tomorrow - six more variations!

A PINK coat...

Trench – Alice & Olivia, hat – Kate Spade, loafers – T&F Slack Shoemakers, earrings – Wedgwood, trainers - Hogan

Today, I'm guest-posting (have I recently mentioned what an HONOR this is?) over at A Femme d'un Certain Age.  My project is to take seven really basic pieces of clothing (from L.L.Bean), and snazz them up with a great coat and some amazing accessories.  It's great fun...

Getting Dressed with 33: Week 8

13 = 81, or the Whatever's Clean Summer Wardrobe

A baker's dozen of simple summer clothes...

All clothes - L.L.Bean

Considering Colors - 2 more books

A Book of Colors, by Shigenobu Kobayashi, available here for around a dollar!

This first book is chock full of color combinations, with specific references to a variety of adjectives (which you might find appropriate, or laughably odd).  Not everything to my taste (NOTHING should ever be exactly to my taste, unless I wrote it myself), but certainly many good ideas, and lots of thought-starters.

Color Image Scale, by Shigenobu Kobayashi, available here, starting at $30

Turns out that all three books by Kobayashi are fascinating little volumes, and cover a great deal of the same ground...

Remember the 180 words, from which we were requested to choose our favorites and least favorites, that I wrote about back on February 5th?  Color Image Scale printed a list of the 30 preferred and disliked words...  Clearly, the list from which these were drawn was quite different from the list in the original Colorist book, but I still think that these word choices are fascinating.  Bear in mind that this research was done in Japan in 1987 and 1988; I think some clear biases of time and place are evident.

Maybe everybody should email me their ten favorite and least-favorite words from February 5th (to the viviennefiles@gmail.com) and I'll pull my hair out working on a spreadsheet to aggregate what words were chosen by all of us...

Spring 2013 Accent: "Tender Shoots" in the office

Some of these garments just hint at the presence of "tender shoots"...

Necklace – Max & Chloe, cardigan – Michael Kors, sweater – Marc Jacobs, flats – Urge, scarf – Hermès, blouse - Erdem 

Turtleneck – L.L.Bean, blue striped shirt – Golden Goose, blue shirt – D&G, white shirt – Theory, navy blazer – A.P.C., grey sleeveless sweater – J. Crew, grey cardigan – J. Crew, navy v-neck – J. Crew, navy shirt – J. Crew, navy pants – A.P.C., grey skirt – Comme des Garcons, grey pants – Theory

Pantone Spring/Summer 2013

 With that, I have exhausted both my ability to work with neon green, and the Pantone Spring 2013 colors.  And since one of my WONDERFUL readers found the link for the Fall 2013 colors, it begs a question - when should I start looking at the Fall/Winter colors?  As soon as the fall clothes are in the stores, in July?  Chime in with a suggestion!