NAS round 3 plus fall bootie look: critiques?

If you read through NAS 1 and 2 (dress and jacket; boots)
here is round 3—merino cardigan and Tencel shirt. Also shown are 2 non-NAS items I’m working with for fall wardrobe.

--1 & 2-NAS Halogen merino cardigan—too hot for more than some quick
pics. I had the black, too, but it doesn’t tick all my boxes for replacement
black V-cardi, whereas the berry color adds color to specific outfits, and the
zipper detail and button contrast is better—so I’m keeping just this one

—2 &3 (non-NAS) Jcrew vacation-thrifted paisley shirt. Not sure if
the pattern is highly date-able, but I love the colors (any Mardi Gras
participants out there?!) and it’s a silk-cotton blend that is very nice, so intentionally
liked the more fitted shape as I plan to play with it for comfortable layering.

--3 & 4 (nonNAS) discount Madden Girl perforated bootie. Not quite the old
desert boot.. Shown with rolled BF jeans, and EB jacket I’d been threatening to toss out, but
to me this gives it new life. This is a
very easy-to-wear outfit for a fall casual look. Am I back to the 70’s (or
something), or does it work? An inexpensive “fun” bootie that works with all my roll-able casual
pants to extend wear past tennie-season. It could “compete for wears” with my tan
oxfords, but I can wear those at work, and mid-summer; these are actually more
comfortable for errands and such, and more fall-seasonal (and shhh—I can sneak
in a sock or footie). Can experiment with where I want the hems to fall.

--5--NAS Tencel shirt. Want, but not sure. Summertime makes me feel the love for a roomy“white” shirt. Neither white nor off-white are “face colors” for me, but I like the classic neutral vibe of it ( white shirt, Gap gray linen pants!) . I think it looks better IRL because of the drape of the fabric. The tempting thing is how little it “grins” for a white shirt—the Tencel fabric is really nice.This would be a casual-wear shirt (an alternative to plaid!)—so“competes” with all other casual tops for my limited casual time. Probably wear untucked. It’s a lot of shirt for me to tuck in to pants, though I have a skirt I could wear it with. Not wrong to keep, but it might be in my imaginary lifestyle wardrobe. Or, it might motivate me to toss out something I'm not wearing so much anyway and sub this in.

I’ve had to do a whole wardrobe review after all, to see how
these items and the 2 random ones from the last post, fit in to the “big
picture” and ha, I was able to finally let go of some years-old things I was
sure I might wear again, but haven’t. More on culling, later.

Fire away if you've made it through! Or, chime in if you are working with any of these items yourself.

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11 years ago

Meredith

Veteran

I like 2 and 4 the best. Perhaps this is because I am ready for fall layering! And I love paisley!

I see your point about the amount of fabric to tuck with the tencel shirt. If it were me I would only keep the shirt if I could make peace with leaving it untucked.

I also just purchased a tencel shirt (from TJMaxx, not Nordies) and agree the fabric is great. I got a kick out of the description on the tag: "The New Age Fibeer. Tencel is a natural cellulose fiber from wood. It offers optimum moisture transportation for your skin's well-being." Almost as humorous as my all-time favorite tag, a content label that listed the material as "100% cashmere-like polyester." Who comes up with this stuff?

unfrumped

Meredith, thanks. I have had a new interest this year in wearing woven shirts untucked for casual wear, along with wearing knit shirts with the semi-tuck, but with all the semi-tucking I'm not sure I know how to keep stylish look. The shirts need to have some drape, such as thin cottons or the Tencel. I am keen to see how to distinguish frumpy-untucked from fashionable-untucked! For me, the pant rises are low, and with the slight taper of some of the pant legs, I sometimes want to avoid having yet another cut-off point. Plus, it's just more comfortable!

Firecracker (Sharan)

I like everything, unfrumped! I The paisley blouse, tencel white shirt, and berry cardigan look great as to style, fit, and complementing your wardrobe. The desert booties are really fun, too. I like your plans for them.

Thank you, Firecracker. Since the Tencel shirt is for casual, I think I will try some layering of "slouchy" shorter sweater over untucked shirt, and see if that works for more options.

Beth Ann

Love the sweater and the booties! Those pieces will be incredibly versatile. I like the paisley shirt better than the white, but then I'm not wild on tencel (just a personal preference --- some folks love it).

You're ahead of me in fall planning! well done!

shiny

How is the paisley shirt dated? My heart stopped when I saw that shirt, I am such a huge sucker for paisley that I can't see past the paisley to comment on the rest. I hope paisley is not dated, as I always need a dose of it in my closet.

CocoLion

(website)

I like the sweater and paisley shirt! Both keepers, and the paisley isn't dated, it's classic. I would like to see the white shirt tucked or semi-tucked. Untucked, I'm not loving the length. I think it needs to be either longer tunic length or shorter to work untucked.

Cocolion, I think you are right. This one may go back. Most shirts I'm wearing untucked are roomy but not oversized. I don't do actual tunic lengths well as cant get bottom half to be as fitted/ skinny as needed for proportion.
I still love the freshness of the off white and the drapey fabric. but when I look hard at my wardrobe " needs" this is on the margin of usefulness and could
easily become something I wear but just a couple times a year, therefore another closet- clogger.
More booties and less big shirts!

Anonymous

I really love the fit and color of the cardigan on you. A little bit of a warning, though. I've had a bunch of these cardigans from previous years and they seem to wear through in the elbows pretty easily. Although it might just be that some detail of my desk setup makes me somehow rub my elbows against surfaces more than most people do, or something odd like that.

I like the two tops too, although button-downs are always harder for me to judge, and I like the boots from what I can see. They sound like they'll get a lot of wear!

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