YouLookFab Forum » Topic: More style shift musings

YouLookFab Forum » Topic: More style shift musings https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:02:33 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php catgirl on "More style shift musings" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings#post-1364252 Sat, 27 Sep 2014 16:20:29 +0000 catgirl 1364252@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I've severely limited what I buy now in terms of color, although I've kept old items that are outside the spectrum.  Black, grey and navy for neutrals.  For colors, citron, emerald, and I'm adding dark red too.  There are other colors that suit me but this imposes some discipline in my otherwise "I LOVE IT ALL" approach. Elly on "More style shift musings" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings#post-1364247 Sat, 27 Sep 2014 16:16:52 +0000 Elly 1364247@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Becky-- you deal with a much more extreme set of limitations on  your wardrobe than most with the multiple climates and living out of a bag scenario. I've been doing the 3.5 days here/3.5 days there thing for over a year now, have budget constraints, and have a climate that swings between daytime highs in the teens (F) and daytime highs in the high 90s -- so I thought I would throw my 2 cents in. My suggestions are just that and may not work for you. I've figured out that I really need cold weather clothes and hot weather clothes. That doesn't mean I don't wear some of my short sleeve summer tops and some of my jeans and jackets year around, but I've found it is easier to pack and wash tops than it is toppers--- so I have mostly separate winter tops and summer tops (with exception of the few I wear with a warm layer under in winter and with a tank in the summer) I have separate wool winter slacks for business and a pencil or rayon slacks for summer business. I have 4 jackets and 1 cardi and I wear everything but my leather year around by adding a coat in the winter, sometimes a warm "jacket liner", and by changing tops to long sleeve and adding l/s tees or merino tees or heatgear innerwear. I find this a space saver in a suitcase and a laundry saver because toppers warm enough to wear over a shell in the winter are bulky and it is much easier to just toss 1-2 layers into a washer than it is to hand wash or dry clean a bulky topper. Tops pack smaller and weigh less and you can have more! I always pick at least 2 neutrals that work together for each season and try to make sure I have 1 topper, 1 top, and 1 bottom minimum in each of my neutrals. That way I have the option of wearing a column of neutral, neutral bottom with neutral topper and pop of color in between, or I can mix the two neutrals together to add depth to my outfit and don't have to worry about 2 pieces (i.e. colored topper, colored top) fighting with one another. This winter I'm wearing navy, black, and charcoal.    Then I try to add 2-3 colors --- in my case this fall I'm shooting for evergreen/deep greens, dark red/burgundy, and plummy dark purple. Then I usually pick an accent color -- this year it will be a warm cognac color. These are usually tops that can be mixed with my neutrals --- while they all look good on me and all "go" I don't have to worry about having the "red topper" that I can't wear with my navy without looking like the 4th of July. When I want to layer colors, I add it scarves or layering tees or jewelry, hats, shoes or bags. Orange is one of my favorite colors but I run into the fact that during the winter it can look "off" or "holiday-ish" or "Denver Bronco fan" with charcoal, navy, and black. While I could work around this by very carefully layering other colors and neutrals with it, that puts a lot of strain on my brain juggling laundry and the suitcase. So, instead I buy a "rich" looking scarf or bag or hat that I can wear with my red sweater, my purple top, my grey top w/ blue jeans, etc.  Now, I hear you-- this is starting to sound like alot of clothing and colors. But, in reality I have a base 9 (3 neutral toppers, 3 neutral tops, 3 neutral bottoms) with 3 additional tops + scarves, layering tees/innerwear, a "jacket liner", a coat, and shoes. From there I add duplicates or different silhouettes in the colors I wear most --navy and black are my top 2 neutrals -- I actually have 3 toppers, 6 tops (3 are all season), and 6 bottoms (2 are business dress, 3 are jeans, plus casual black pants) in those colors-- or a work/weekend version (I have a dress code that means I can't wear sweatshirts or graphic tees, so I have 2 green tops -- 1 work, 1 weekend, and I have a band tee I layer on weekends).  All said and done, I have 13 tops (5 are all season), 8 bottoms (3 are business, 4 are all season), 4 toppers, 1 jacket liner, and 5 pair of shoes for F/W. I have a lot of shoes because I need hot weather shoes, medium shoes that can be worn in light rain, and winter boots and am on my feet at work and they kill without options to rotate through.  For summer I add 1-2 skirts, 1 pant, 1 shorts, 4 or 5 tops and 5 shoes. My neutrals are navy, grey, and olive. I also wear black, cobalt/turquoise, and orange/coral -- my summer accent is usually red, sometimes ivory which is usually a bag and shoes-- maybe a belt.  That leaves me with a grant total of 18 tops, 4 toppers, 1 jacket liner, 1 coat, 12 bottoms, and 10 pairs of shoes and a handful of layering tanks, tees, and accessories (3 bags, 3 scarves, 2 belts, 3 hats, jewelry). I tried it last night and can comfortably get everything I own except shoes, my coat, pjs, and gear in my carry on and if I wear my tall boots I can get all the shoes in a space about the size of 1/2 my carry on. My coat is a down number that can always go in a compression sack if I was moving when it was hot. Of course, If I needed to get the pjs and gear in my suitcase I could cut down tops by 4-5, bottoms by 2-3, and shoes by 2 without it hurting much.  I will also add the disclaimer that I have 2 button down shirts that I own that I bought when I was interviewing and didn't include but did want to count -- I wear them very rarely except when going to or hosting a training or for interviews and I could easily do without them (I have a nice black blouse, a nice summer blouse, and nice sweaters as part of my regular capsule I could wear easily) and one of my 2 pair of slacks (I could wear my pencil skirt with bare legs hose or tights for the situations where I wear the rayon slacks) but I do own them and wear them.  I'm very outdoorsy, so I also have a gear capsule of 1 pant, 1 tight, 2 shorts, 2 l/s tops, 2 short sleeve tops, sports bra, fleece, hiking boots and running shoes. If I didn't live in CO and this wasn't a priority I would probably tour in the sneakers and boots in my capsule with jeans, ponte, etc.  Your plan sounds good-- I think that you might find it helpful to have 2 neutrals that you enjoy enough to have a topper, top, and bottom in that you will wear year around. Otherwise the color combos sound very nice and like they could work in both seasons -- if you add neutrals, then you have room to play with a few other favorites in the form of layering tees or scarves without causing the "GARRRRGH--- I only have an orange top and black pants left" syndrome or the " i want to wear my citron scarf, but only have a blue top and red pants and I will look like crayons".  froggiebecky on "More style shift musings" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings#post-1363409 Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:59:34 +0000 froggiebecky 1363409@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I'm not starting totally from scratch. More like..."10 tops to see me through 4 seasons" (my current count) means that things get worn out very quickly, so I feel like I'm always shopping. As we're going into fall, it's occurring to me that I'm not really able to cope well with the whole "wool jacket in the morning, short sleeves in the afternoon" kind of arrangement.   Rachy, like you, I've done that in the past. I think I'd like to go for doing it deliberately and seeing how I go.  rachylou on "More style shift musings" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings#post-1362918 Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:20:17 +0000 rachylou 1362918@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I have just discovered I've accidentally limited my colour palette. I may change colour palettes, but I think I always work with a limited one. For awhile at least. Anyways, I've gone grey, black, red and white - with red and black plaid in those colours - and an occasional touch of blue. Carla on "More style shift musings" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings#post-1362917 Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:19:46 +0000 Carla 1362917@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ If starting from scratch (or almost) look at Vivienne Files building wardrobes with groups of 4. I work with a limited palette -- the usual neutrals and similar colours to you (cobalt, red, purple, and yellow) for the most part. I have 1 plaid shirt, but it has cobalt and red! Patterns (floral, paisley) are represented, but they include my limited palette and/or the neutrals. Shopping is so much easier, and whenever I add something to the closet, it almost always goes with everything else. Alassë on "More style shift musings" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings#post-1362912 Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:10:46 +0000 Alassë 1362912@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Limited colours sound good; you can always add more brights later if you crave them. You have a good plan going forward! froggiebecky on "More style shift musings" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/more-style-shift-musings#post-1362892 Thu, 25 Sep 2014 21:36:26 +0000 froggiebecky 1362892@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Hi Fabbers,  Maybe I'm overthinking. Maybe not.  I took your advice and went and found me some plaid. I've got myself a plaid shirt dress (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.riverisland.com/women/dresses/day--t-shirt-dresses/Red-check-shirt-dress-659386">http://www.riverisland.com/wom.....ess-659386</a>) and blue plaid flannel (It came from TJ Maxx, hence no link). The flannel I'm very excited about. It's royal blue and white, with a little bit of pink running through it. to me, it looks very American Prep (a la Tommy Hilfiger. I think I've lived too long outside the US, to describe something as American Prep...) I like that it's light/bright enough in colour that I can wear it in Sydney. And being flannel, it can carry me through my long winter.  I've been doing some thinking, though, and I think that I am one of those people who would benefit from having a limited colour palette in their wardrobe. I'm getting to the point that I open my closet doors and feel like I have nothing to wear. Part of that is my own fault--I've either bought or brought over from the US a little too much 'occasion wear'. I've also put back a little weight, so things aren't quite fitting the way I'd like. And part of it is that some things just don't look the same up here as the did in Oz. It's 'just off the beach' vs tartan. They just don't work together.  With that in mind, I think I am going to transition to a more limited colour palette. I want things to go together, roughly, and I don't mind wearing the same things over and over again. I think this is the list, and I'd love to hear your thoughts:  Neutral: Navy Blue. By far, it's the best neutral for me. It makes my skin glow, it sets off my hair. It's my neutral. This includes denim, which remains an inescapable part of my wardrobe.  I Light Neutral: White. I don't have much, but I've been making an effort to wear it more. I'm not going for a strict inclusion here--anything that's warm based....white/winter white/cream. Not platinum (cool) white, not so yellow as candlelight.   Black--black, for me, is a colour, not a neutral. I like it, but it washes me out a little. I don't look good in head to toe black. I want to include it, but not treat it like a neutral.  Red--I'm LOVING the return of wine colours. I don't want to invest so much as to make it a neutral for me, but it's another one that looks awesome. I'll also expand here and get into maroon and brighter reds. But not raspberry or the more pink tones. If I had to pick two colours for myself, it would be navy and red.  Purple--I like purple, it looks good on me. I lean toward warmer, red-based purples. The occasional plum shows up, too.  Blue--as a colour as well--adding in some royal and ink blue, and maybe even Carolina (sky) blue.  So that's my list. I'm willing to expand into other colours through accessories, (scarves, etc), but I think I'll do best not trying to include oranges (even though I love them), citrons/brights...greens, etc. I just struggle too much to come up with good outfits when I'm staring at a bunch of mis-matched clothes because my jeans are all dirty and I need something to wear.  What do you think? Too dark? Am I leaning this way because it's autumn and I've got 'cozy' on the brain?