A couple of weeks ago I posted about my quirky clothes storage (in brief, my hanging clothes are located in the office closet on the ground floor of our townhouse, and my folded clothes are located in the bedroom closet two floors above).

I gleaned some great ideas from that thread about how to tweak my storage and my systems to make it easier to deal with the quirk, but haven’t yet been able to put them in practice.

Still, the thread inspired me to try to be a bit more diligent about planning outfits ahead, reducing “bedpost dressing,” and making better use of the clothes in the downstairs closet.

I’ve discovered that I don’t mind running up and down the stairs *as long as I know what I’m going downstairs for.*

Another insight has been to *keep a fast fallback outfit within easy reach* upstairs so that I can just throw it on if whatever I had planned for a particular day proves unworkable.

Anyway, last week I challenged myself to wear the most outrageous pattern mixes I could come up with. I definitely came up with some noticeable ones. The title of the thread is something that my husband* said to me more than once last week when he saw what I was wearing.

*Husband is NOT particularly tuned in to fashion/style; as evidence, I’ll offer that he has been married to me for almost 18 years and yet claims not to know what fair isle is. Excuse me???

So here, 4 pattern mixes and a midweek palate cleanser of summer simplicity:

1-4: I’ve had trouble making outfits with this thrifted elephant-print skirt in the past (usually defaulted to solids or Breton stripes) but then I realized that this floral tank has the exact shade of cobalt in it so decided to give it a go. Interesting to realize that the elephants basically become irregular polka dots from a middle distance. I tried 3 pairs of shoes with it; I think they were all workable but went with the cream wedges, I feel like a little height is good with a long, full skirt like this. Full skirt + boxy top is maybe not the most flattering formula but I had fun with this.

5-7: Encountered a bit of a tradeoff here between best color match (the shorter cardigan) and more flattering silhouette (the longer cardigan) here. I went with the latter. Dress + cardi is a much easier formula to get right than skirt + top + cardi! I like the idea of this sort of tie-dye top as a slightly boho version of Breton stripes. But, the top is way too sheer for my taste. Also, I don’t care for tops with elasticized hems, I just find them fussy and not terribly flattering. Around noon I swapped out the top for a Breton tank — no pic, but was 4,000x more comfortable and at least 2x more flattering. Top went straight in the donation bag.

8-10: I think a lot of people find that their style skews more boho in the summer; me too, and in fact I have a bit of attraction for what I would call minimalist boho. I’ve had this inspiration pic with a sweeping black skirt and cognac accessories in my Pinterest for years, and here’s my version of the outfit. My contribution to “summer simplicity.”

11-12: Fun to try a different silhouette with a knotted button-up as a topper. I don’t wear this gingham shirt much these days, and in fact felt that it was a bit too high contrast: the very dark navy kind of overwhelms me (similar to Breton stripes: when the navy is bright and clear they’re great on me, but when it’s almost-black they’re no good). I’m moving the shirt to my holding zone.

13-14: A Mexican embroidered dress + espadrilles featuring a Mexican salamander (yes! Those are axolotls! Can you even?? I cannot!) is maybe a little on the nose as far as combinations go but I really liked it. Or would have, if I hadn’t been forced to admit that these shoes are too small. Sad trombone. So, this week has also been an exercise in realizing that lesser-worn items in my closet are often so for a reason…and maybe shouldn’t be in my closet at all.

Thanks for looking! As always, grateful for any comments or suggestions.