Ok, I promised more color and a switch-up from bare ankles so here we go.

I am mildly (read: extremely) obsessed with this woman -- Renata Molho, a Milanese fashion journalist. At first glance her ensembles are quite elegant in a European/Italian way -- simple, classic cuts, rich solid colors, what I believe the blogger at Passage des Perles would call "strict" style, or at least somewhere in that neighborhood. But look closer and you often notice something a bit offbeat and funky about her ensembles, maybe insouciant or maybe just nebbishy journalist; approaching kooky even, but to my eye she always pulls it off. So, elegance that doesn't take itself too seriously.

What really struck me about this image was the color palette. I love olive and teal together (I'd love to add some *saturated* olive to my wardrobe but it's tricky to find), and the addition of robin's egg/celadon makes it even better. 

I can't copy the color palette exactly, so I abstracted another step: two colors of similar value/intensity (olive and teal) and one that contrasts (the lighter celadon), and two colors of similar temperature (teal and celadon) and one that contrasts (the warmer olive). I think the combination of balanced similarities and contrasts really makes the overall palette sing!

In my outfit, the two colors of similar value/intensity are the magenta sweater and orange in the scarf; the lighter and more muted rose/mauve top contrasts. Magenta and mauve are both cool; the orange is warm. (Side note: this orange isn't in my usual palette AT ALL, but I have always felt that I could carry off the scarf ok -- I think because the green, blue, and yellow in the print are very squarely in my wheelhouse.)

I added cognac riding boots (and an amber ring) to pick up the orange from the scarf; dark-wash denim (and dark blue glass bead earrings) to contrast with the orange.

Very happy with the overall effect here (and I would not have thought to put the scarf with this top/topper combo on my own, so happy with the experiment/exercise!) but open to your thoughts/suggestions. And curious if anyone else has admired Ms. Molho from afar?