Some random discoveries that I hope will help shape my purchases and outfit creations over the next few seasons; maybe will help someone else who wears a lot of work trousers. Plus, a WIW.

I have too many prints and not enough solids! I think; and maybethat makes some of my mix-and match goals more difficult, or items less versatile. But I think I know why, maybe!

A lot of my prints are fairly “neutral” rather than bright, and some are in nice wovens, like silk. I think I’m drawn to them because I’m trying to achieve something mid-range on the color scale. Solids in woven tops are harder to find in neutral colors other than black or white/cream, and especially in interesting fabrications. It seems harder to find the neutral solids I would like such as a range of medium-toned grays, taupes and certain cool beiges, or even pseudo-neutrals like burgundy. The options in knits are better—think grays and beiges and subdued colors in cashmere or merino (but seldom taupe).

Next, pant and shoe aha! moments:

In my quest to move away from my schtumpy AT trousers, I found 2 “straight” black pants, one AT and one Louben flat-front from Nordies’, that are narrower by few inches but not skinny. Maybe 16” bottom leg openings. I really like how they look. BUT—they are harder to style with a lot of my shoes, which are high-vamped—oxfords, ankle boots, some chunky slip-ons. Meaning, they’re not tapered so as to scrunch above an oxford or bootie, but not wide enough to flow over for a longish PPL. They even “catch” on loafer-type shoes, but I make do. Low vamped, low heels mean either ballet flats or harder to find 1" full-heel "pump" . This is not a deal-breaker to avoid this type of pant, but it was kind of unexpected fall-out from the straight-not skinny style.

Then—after trying on lots of other pants, Theory and others that did not work at all (but I have some slouchy Theyskens’ on order to try something unusual), I made another AT pant discovery after finding 2 pairs—one consignment tags-on deal and one internet order in a nice taupey-gray fabric—aiming to try that color/fabric. Both of these looked more modern and longer-legged on, so I assumed they must also be narrower at the hem, but no, they’re also 20”! BUT—they are narrower through the thigh by a couple inches than are my trouser-style. So, it’s kind of a minimal bootcut, just not very obvious.

I feel like back to the future—this style may actually be the best for me, and goes back to the universal bootcut, when I thought straight was the answer.I would never have identified these style differences from the catalog descriptions, so it's another eye-opener --how to scope out different styles that may actually be out there.

If you’re still reading, thanks; these lightbulb moments helped re-focus me on pants and shoes as a package, and also how they relate to seasons—for example, the black "minimal bootcut" pair above is unlined, and I had targeted it to help my summer options, but it works well with boots; while the AT straight pair is lined and a heavier triacetate or something, so I targeted it as a cool-weather workhorse, but has the narrower leg openings. So I have to keep in mind how to create useful pant-shoe capsules and PPL's with different styles.

Meanwhile I wore my track pants --"juxtaposing" slouchy pants and top with dressier flats and jacket. Leith pants, Topshop flecked T, WHBM jacket, Tahari flat. How does it work? I found in daylight the gray and the tweedy jacket don't work so well as in artificial light, but too late.