I mentioned recently in a post on wild cards that I added olive items to my wardrobe to refresh and evolve my style for Autumn and Winter. I chose olive items across a range of wardrobe categories to create ample variety. An equestrian anorak, a full-length pair of slim-fit boyfriend jeans, an avant-garde shirt dress, a fluid pullover, and a guitar strap crossbody bag. The shades of olive vary. Here are the exact items:
As I chose the olive items, I kept colour palettes and complements with my existing wardrobe in mind. I can plan my wardrobe and style this way because I know exactly what I have, how it fits, and how it currently makes me feel when I wear it. The results of regular closet management are manifold, but most importantly it allows me to keep quite an accurate inventory of my wardrobe in my head. Accessing that frame of reference when I shop so that I think in mix-and-match capsules is a helpful wardrobe planning tool.
I have a high affinity for colour-mixing and a wardrobe rich in neutrals and non-neutrals. This makes creating head-toe-outfits with a new colour a lot easier. I have my entire wardrobe represented in YLF Finds so I can also capsulate my wardrobe more accurately at my computer. But the assessment I do in my head is an excellent starting point, and gets the creative juices flowing. Better still, I fit on potential outfits to make sure that I like them.
As I scanned my wardrobe, the black, cream, pearl grey, cognac and toffee items stood out as a slam dunk support act for the olive newcomers. Here are the exact items from my wardrobe, along with the olive darlings.
I can build satisfying outfit combinations that make me feel fab with these items when I’m in a completely neutral mood. But since I need to wear non-neutrals several times a week to lift my spirits, change things up, and combat Seattle’s very grey sky — the neutral palette is limiting for my sartorial preferences and emotional state of mind.
The palette needs blue to cool down the warmth and add crispness to the colours. A metallic for texture and glitz. And some happy brights to liven things up. I scanned my wardrobe further to come up with ink blue, navy, blue denim, chartreuse, citron, gold and a smattering of tomato red and turquoise, as the next level of additions to wear with my new olive darlings. MUCH BETTER. Here are the exact items from my wardrobe with the olive pieces. Half the dark tops that look black are actually ink blue. The gilet and military coat are ink blue too.
You can be very organized, logical and methodical about building capsules, complements and outfits in your head, on the computer, or even laid out on your bed. But nothing is certain until you’ve tried them on. Having done so, I have peace of mind that newcomer olive can be successfully integrated into my style.
I’ve also put some of the outfits through their paces and I am thrilled with the results. I LOVE my new olive items. They’ve remixed quite organically into my wardrobe and style.
The image below does not show my olive capsule in full, but its a good representation of the colour palette, the items, and the the silhouettes of the items.
