I broke the cardinal rule of shopping. I bought something with no real idea of how I might wear it.

After saying no to the earth tone trend...it is an earth tone. Albeit a cooler toned "earth." But earthier than anything else in my cool toned closet.

How it happened: I ended up in another consignment shop. (This seems to be my late Friday afternoon entertainment.) The jacket is by Pink Tartan -- it is a taupe wool herringbone with an overlaid textural pattern in a sort of old-rose-pink. It has gently belled sleeves (another no no for me as a rule -- but I love these ones!) and the fit is superb. It cost me all of $40, tax included. Originally probably over $500. It was one of those items that everyone in the store started ooohing over when I put it on. So, yeah. It came home with me.

To me it reads sort of like a femme hacking jacket.

First showing in the cold fluorescent light of the store. Ugh! But even so, it seemed to have some potential. Weirdly, it looks more "yellowish" in these shots than IRL.

(By the way, those are high rise button fly Gap straight crops from the summer.)

The overall effect of the thing is a sort of pinkish taupe. It seems to look good with burgundies and pinks. But maybe the original owner passed it on because she couldn't find anything to wear with it!

It's a good thing I have a high tolerance for pattern mixing because I have almost no plain items that could even conceivably work with it. So here I'm trying it out with whatever I could pull from my closet that might work. I like some of these better than others.

5-7 J. Crew patterned blouse in burgundy/ berry and burgundy jeans.

8-11 Vince dress worn untucked and tucked like a blouse. Why not?

12. blush leopard?

13. floral surprise?

14-15. with basic white

16 - 17 How about true red? I thought the style might work with culottes and high waisted wide leg crops. I think so?

18 -- more pattern mixing...

19-20. -- extreme pattern mixing!

So. I have two problems.

1. I think it needs a berry-toned top of some kind. I don't want to spend a ton of money -- any suggestions? Coolish berry tones are great with my complexion and would make an excellent addition to my closet since they'd work well with all my blues and greys. Plus, I really enjoy them. Plum tones could also work really well. I just don't happen to have any. A lightweight knit top would probably make sense. This is a warm jacket, being 95% wool, a genuine high quality tweed.

2. I don't really have the right footwear for it. I think I need some taupe or some burgundy booties. I'm willing to buy a relatively inexpensive pair to make it work since either could be useful overall. Suggestions welcome!

I could also see layering it over a skirt or dress in a berry or plum tone. Again, suggestions welcome!

ETA: forgot my old J. Crew berry cashmere T -- it will work with that in winter.