It's interesting to me that you find white and off-white difficult to match. You have so many cognac and tan accent pieces, I feel like white -- and white/black patterns like this one, would be very easy for you to incorporate into your wardrobe. I love the striped skirt with the denim jacket and Bed Stu sandals -- feels like a perfect picnic/walk in the park type outfit to me, especially if you add the hat.

I'm pretty terrified of white garments myself, because my life is quite messy, but I added Angie's Kut denim jacket last summer and it definitely plays an important role in outfits, even if it is not an everyday piece. When you have a predominantly dark base wardrobe, white has a significant wow factor.

I love the advice you have been given. I vote keep both. Whilst similar to your current black skirt, the new one has less volume and looks great on you, and it does not have the emotional baggage associated with your Mum's funeral.

My Mum died last year, so I do sympathise with the baggage associated with what you wore to your Mum's funeral. I wore a blue floral dress (in finds) that I knew that my Mum would have loved to see me in. My Mum dressed me almost exclusively in blue as a child because I have blue eyes. I still wear the 'funeral dress', but when I do I am so very much reminded of her. It probably was a strange choice because I have a lot of black clothing, but my Mum always hated me in black.

I had a bit of an epiphany that I posted about in blog comments yesterday. Angie noted that she craves color variety more than silhouette variety. I think I’m the opposite. I’m happiest wearing a dark column in a variety of silhouettes, with some sort of statement accessory or topper. That’s not the ONLY formula I wear, but maybe 75 or 80% of the time. I’m going to keep the striped skirt for some summer interest, but it doesn’t slide easily into my my formula, which makes it more of a statement piece in my wardrobe. (This might be part of my difficulty with the EF sweater too. It’s not statementy enough to be a real statement, but also is too light to fit into my formula.)

Love the stripe for summer! So fresh. You will find more ways to wear it.