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".
