Hi all

Here are some work outfits that I put together as part of the challenge.

First, some background:
* There is no dress code at my work so the dress standard is variable. The only rule is no jeans except on casual Friday. At this time of year most people wear shorts on casual Friday.
* I rarely need a topper at this time of year. Our overnight temperatures stay fairly warm and humid days are the norm. I don’t have arctic air con at work. However, I frequently wear a scarf outdoors in summer for sun protection (I walk part of the way to work), to cope with cold public transport or in case of a cool change. Sometimes I will wear it while at work. I like that I can shove it into my bag (or tie it onto my bag) if I start to overheat.

Outfit 1: Black and white jacquard A-line skirt; black cotton top; black block heel sandals. I wore the scarf outdoors only. I am fond of repeating motifs in outfits. Here I went for a circle motif in my accessories with a circle bangle, circle necklace and round pearl ring. The skirt pattern is tiny squares. Geometric heaven! If only I could have found a way to add some chevron. (Temp: low 30s, humid)

Outfit 2 (change room pics): Black ruched skirt; black and white striped top; tan, black, white and pink sandals. Worn with a dark floral scarf and loads of necklaces. (Temp: mid 20s, humid)

Outfit 3 (early morning face with wet hair pic): Green silk top; black, white, tan, pink and blue floral pencil skirt. I wore this with the tan, black, white and pink sandals shown in outfit 2 that I had left at work the day before (hence the weird downward shot taken at work). The fourth pic shows the scarf that I wore while outdoors. It’s a silk ombré fringy thing. This outfit had a lot of colour for me but it still felt like my style because it was very grounded in black and white. (Temp: mid 20s, humid)

I have included some challenge stuff below for those who are interested. Feel free to skip.

Comments are welcome

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Challenge stuff

Goals:

My goal is to use my existing wardrobe to build a summer dressy casual and work capsule over the course of 30 outfits. I am aiming for a capsule of around 30 items (not counting shoes, bags or accessories) that have a high happiness factor and/or versatility.

As per Sterling’s suggestion, I don’t plan to actually limit myself to wearing 30 items. I am going to feel free to experiment, evaluate and add or delete items as I go.

I am doing the challenge as an exercise in wardrobe planning and editing. I hope to identify what’s working, what’s not, what’s missing, any changing preferences and anything that could be donated. I would like to be less impulsive and more planned in making future additions.

I am also hoping that this process will make it easier for me to identify what to pack for travel. I struggle to limit myself when packing.

And it’s a bit of fun.

My capsule so far (@outfit 8):

1. Black ruched skirt (Metalicus)* 4 wears
2. Blue abstract print silk top (Saba)
3. Green silk knit top (Trenery)* 2 wears
4. Black and white floral asymmetric skirt (Sportscraft)
5. Black ribbed cotton top 2017 (Uniqlo)* 2 wears
6. Black and white floral silk top (David Lawrence)
7. Black and white jacquard A-line skirt (David Lawrence)
8. Black and white striped top (Veronika Maine)
9. Black, white, tan, pink and blue floral pencil skirt (Portmans)
10. Teal blue cotton jersey wrap top (Veronika Maine)

*Items worn more than once are noted because it will help me identify MVPs at the end.

Observations:

1. I am starting to suspect that I have too many statement pieces (patterned tops or bottoms) in my summer wardrobe and not enough plain coloured non-black tops and bottoms.

2. On casual Friday I wore wide leg pants (see find), sandals and a blue wrap top (no outfit pic). The pants are new this summer. Every year I seem to buy a pair of summer pants and every year I struggle to wear them. I hate the way that they stick to my legs in the humidity. I overheat easily and can get quite panicky when I do.

These pants are very voluminous, which I thought should help with that issue. But when I wore them on Friday, I ended up having to wait 30 minutes for a bus and, during that time, I became quite sticky and uncomfortable. And when I went out at lunch time I didn’t feel great.

So... I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t want to repeat them anytime soon. At this stage I haven’t included them in my capsule. I may end up relegating them to lounge (after work) wear. They are very forgiving around the waist and hips, and well suited to loungewear, so it’s not a huge mistake. But one I should try to avoid in future.

More next week