I only wear black for holiday parties. Otherwise, I wear navy and grey. For me, black is kind of harsh, and grey is more user friendly for my coloring. I have a friend who wears black 99.9 percent of the time, but it looks amazing on her. If it looked good on me I’d go with black because it would be so easy - everything comes in black.

Maybe I’ve just been oblivious to unmatching navies, or luckily gravitate to the same navy (almost an indigo navy). I rarely wear a column of solid navy and navy in a print to a solid is easier. I just bought yet another navy dress (it is my LBD) at a little store in Lyon, France. It’s one of my favorite colors. I think this one is a classic that is timeless.

I wear lots of navy all the time, and sometimes black in winter or on formal occasions. I do agree that navy in large dosis can look like a school uniform so I tend to combine it with other neutrals. The navy with cognac or chocolate brown look feels ‘gentlemenlike’ to me, a vibe I like. Navy with black shoes and bags seems perfectly fine to me.

Toban, I wonder if people have different tolerances for matching/ unmatching darks. Personally, my teeth feel on edge when I see blacks that don't match well! And most of my navies seem to work together quite well (with a few exceptions.)

Maybe that's just because I automatically gravitate towards blues with blue and black undertones vs. those with warmer undertones. The same is true for black in my own wardrobe. I have several black items that almost look ink blue, because the blue undertone is so prominent in them. Maybe this is why I see most of my navies as working pretty well together, and my navies working pretty well with black. Then again, I'm not trying to create a proper suit with these items, and if I were, I'd be much more sensitive to exact matching.

Nice dress, by the way. And I use navy for my LBDs also. (Little blue dresses) and have a bunch of different ones for different weather conditions and purposes.

3style if it is about budget and wardrobe size, then it would indeed make more sense to limit yourself to one dark neutral perhaps with accents in the other (as I do) rather than thinking in terms of complete capsules of both. As you see, I have quite a few of these black "accents" and happily buy items in black. But I have a medium-large wardrobe and this is for a four-season climate, so in fact there are not too many black items per season.

Thanks everyone for contributing to this thread. I’ve sorted out what things make sense in my scenarios.

First, I realized that I wasn’t counting a few of my most casual “borrowed from the boys” looking items as navy toppers. For example, I have a subdued red white and blue (warm muted shades of all three) plaid shirt which is oversized and which I can put several layers underneath in winter. And a rugby style open weave pullover with a big purplish navy stripe on a vanilla background, as well another sporty navy pullover. So, one category of navy toppers for me has become my most relaxed and recharged (but not at all dressy) toppers.

Another category is more smart casual. That’s where the slightly ill-fitting garments live. That’s also where Breton tops fit in. I think I can expand better on those with white shoes and jewelry, than with dressy navy pants which still get me stuck for toppers. See my recent post about my white sandals phobic for details.

The third is on the nicer end of business casual down to business formal. I don’t have anything good in navy in that category. I own a long navy shirt-dress that was once quite formal, but that has gotten too large and it makes it much more casual.

I’m sitting here typing this in a very casual navy and white (with a bit of yellow, pink, and mint) dress.

Clearly I’m not that motivated to update dressy navy that’s no longer dressy. However I am motivated to refresh my black more readily.

The Ann Taylor pants that I referred to previously are “dense twill” which makes them more suiting like, but they don’t come with a coordinated jacket. And I think I’m not currently interested in finding a matching faux suit type of blazer for those pants. So I will take Suz’s advice and swap them for black. I’ll stick to navy for an occasional dress or super casual item, and maybe at some point also a Breton update.

Sterling, I kind of lost track of your conclusions. There were lots of interesting comments from people responding to your original statement. Are you going to forge ahead with mostly navy? Or pursue two separate black and navy business capsules? And do you wear both colors casually as well?

I live in a four season climate extreme enough that very few items are truly trans-seasonal. My winter neutral is black, with white, red, and grey as my colours/accents (including some toppers). Most if not all of my winter footwear (boots and indoor shoes) is black.

My summer neutral is navy, with white, red, and some mid-tone blues. I also have a smaller black capsule for summer that I mix in. Summer footwear and accessory complements include navy, white, red, cognac, and taupe.

When it became the thing to mix navy and black, I thought I would achieve a trans-seasonal wardrobe, but other than the occasional Breton T with black pants, I gave up.

I never really got the uniform vibe with navy (except one outfit with striped shirt and navy vest that made me feel like a train conductor). On the other hand, I thrifted a good navy trench coat that never worked as I expected. I always felt like a Stormtrooper in it. Then I took a close look in bright sunlight, and it was actually black. (Moral: sometimes black is the colour with military connotations. )

Hi 3Style -- I wasn't around yesterday and am just now catching up on my reading. I am committed to two, but equal, capsules. I can easily wear black and navy together in casual settings. I have a harder time combining them in a work setting because a black blazer with navy slacks looks completely wrong to me.

Matching blacks and navys is important to me. I am sensitive to colors and seeing black that clash or navys that don't quite match is disconcerting. So far, I have not experienced that in my tiny capsules, but it is obviously something I need to think about going forward.

Yet another interesting thread, Sterling! I adore both, although I prefer navy dresses where I can find them, often to pair with a black belt, shoes, and other black accessories (this approach works well for me in a professional setting because it makes it seem more deliberate - I agree that a black blazer with a navy bottom would feel off to me; whereas a black blazer with a navy dress, black belt, and black shoes feels pulled together). Agreed that there’s no need to pick a favorite if you like and need both, and whether worn together or apart, your capsules sound like a good solution.

Followed through with returning the navy pants at Ann Taylor and luckily some black ones were available there as well, so I didn’t need to make another order.

Definitely been realizing that whether navy suits my complexion or not is very shade dependent. Whereas whether black suits me is more texture/sheen dependent. Have a limited black patent tolerance.

3Style -- I'm really glad you found the black pants. With the exception of beige I am personally NOT good at assessing how colors look on me. I can't really see a difference whether I wear black or navy. This inability to assess colors on myself has always bothered me because I can so easily see it in other people. Obviously if you can detect differences in shades of navy, then your eye is excellent at this.

@Sterling, you are not alone in this. Hubs has the eye.

Like Angie, I wear both and don’t really separate them out. I will say I gravitate to black more in the winter and navy more in the summer, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. I just duplicated some ankle pants I liked a lot in both navy and black.

3Style, I still don't think you need to separate black and dark blue i
you're on half the size of my wardrobe. I have about 125 pieces. And you?

Angie, I have roughly 90 pieces, excluding gear, pajamas, etc. but including tank tops that can be worn on their own, but which are mostly used as camisoles. However, I'm at a particularly stuck point with dark essentials.

My current problem is that I only have 6 decent dark essentials out of about 30 of my darker-colored heavy hitting essentials: basic dark bottoms and jeans, nicer toppers, wool coat, basic dark knits, dark dresses etc., are all right on the verge of wearing out, or are significantly too large. Furthermore, many of the larger garments have been taken in once already, but even for the few that haven't, I'm thinking that I might end up with a better fit with fresh items. And this problem extends to nicer (dark) summer clothing casual as well, nicer dark tees and shorts, etc... I don't quite know how it happened, but all of the dark items quit working all at once. Partly, it's just that I've had more success refreshing the lighter essentials. I got 9 of my summer light-colored essentials, (plus potentially three on order). I also got 3 mid-tone completer pieces. I've mostly been concentrating on sandals, shoes, underpinnings, swimwear. I'm suddenly not the same size in just about every category.

My five out of my six best (newest) dark essential items are black, and one is very dark green. That's why I feel like I just cannot afford to branch out right now. Some days right now, I'm wearing clothing looser than I would like. There's a physical an upper limit to that, because sometimes being too big actually makes clothing chafe.

As "luck" would have it, I returned the navy pants for for black, which I did at the end of a long day. And I decided to risk not trying the black ones out in the store. And the black pants are are incredibly large! A bit exasperated now. This is the second garment out of less then a dozen recently at Ann Taylor where two items that are labelled with the same size were not in actuality the same.

@3style, that is a pickle tonhave most of your dark color workhorses to give up the ghost at the same time.

Not sure how to unstick you especially given your sensitive eye for color and texture. And of course the affordability of filling out this capsule all at once.

Summer is almost over. Are you sorted for items here regardless of color? If so, then focus on fall and winter. Suggest that you buy two pieces to be worn together in coordinating navy tones...eg sweater and pants. Then force yourself to try on one of the pieces with some of the black pieces. Eg wear a black coat + sweater and pants, sweater+any top that looks good with navy+black pants

Then post the outfit for feedback. It may be just getting your eye used to combo in actuality rather than in theory.

For a small closet with one dark neutral, I think navy would be best because most people like it as a year round color, so your basics can more easily overlap seasons. The down side ( at least for me) would be finding all the basic pieces I want at once and in the same shade of navy...a big lay out of money. Except for prints, I can't pick up pieces of navy here and there and be sure that they would work with what I have.

@Bj111, I truly appreciate your advice. There are so many different subtopics that I could respond to embedded in your suggestions. My head is spinning, and I don’t know where to begin....

My understanding was that the topic of this particular thread was whether people had a preference for black versus navy, or whether they were choosing both. I tried to report upon my current situation, and somehow this has now become a thread all about me. And I’m not super comfortable with that.

I’m not saying that you offended me, only that I don’t currently have my own blog. Therefore there isn’t any easy way for people to keep track of what I’m saying, and there’s a limit to how much time I can spend repeating myself.

I’ll respond back to Joy later today.