So, in essence, this is the same post as I did on Friday. No clashing accent colors, but still starting with a scarf and wearing lots of brown. Many of the same garments and accessories. My goal here is to make it really clear that a handful of basic garments, and a handful of excellent accessories, can look distinctive, even if the clothes don’t change a lot.

And I know it must feel like I show brown every other day, but this is the first winter in just about FOREVER that brown has been so widely available. When you start at the “home page” of Nordstrom, there’s a whole happy family with their holiday gifts, and THEY’RE wearing brown! It’s a thing.

I understand that this is a reflection of the poor economic conditions; I don’t know if that’s true, but at least we have something positive to come out of inflation…

A few of you have expressed your interest in wearing some brown, but you always feel like you need something “pretty” to go with it. I hear you – we were a generation who often heard that brown was the color of mud, dirt (ahem, that’s SOIL to the nature-lovers among us!), and other less mentionable substances. When I was a child, brown was positively shunned, as if we had enough clothes among my entire hometown to be picky about colors!

To Hades with that!

Let’s start here:

Scarf – Echo

Yes, it comes in another color – mostly blue!

And then the world’s simplest color palette. It’s interesting to me that the very edge of this scarf is a quite vivid fuchsia, but the “main” pink in the background of the books is a soft, somewhat warm shade. Lots of pink options!

Scarf – Echo

These are great cardigans – I have the purple one, and I really like it. The pink is lovely…

Ballet pink cardigan – Alex Mill; pink earrings – Chiarella; scarf – Echo; brown wool pants – Eileen Fisher; ivory tee – Lands’ End; shoulder bag – Jeffrey Campbell; Wallabee Chukka boots – Clarks Originals

Familiar brown shirt and pants, with the prettiest pink:

Pink earrings – Kate Spade Outlet; brown poplin shirt – Alex Mill; pink wool sweater – Alex Mill; scarf – Elizabetta; boots – Abeo; tote – Quince; corduroy pants – L.L.Bean

And yes, the brown corduroy skirt! How was I going to resist this pink Fair Isle sweater?

I’m noticing that there are three of my favorite things everywhere this year – Fair Isle, argyle, and sweater vests. Has anybody else noticed this, or is it just that I’m highly alert to such items?

Pink Fair Isle sweater- Boden; earrings – Reiss; brown cashmere cardigan – L.L.Bean; corduroy skirt – Banana Republic Factory; woven bag – Quince; deepest brown tee – L.L.Bean; Mary Jane flats – Naturalizer

Imagine is these 10 items were front and center in your closet – a week Wardrobe Valise that feels just a little bit like a chocolate-covered cherry…

One of the best things about sorting outfits ahead of time is that… well… you have complete outfits to grab from your closet in the pre-dawn darkness! But if you choose three outfits that all fit into a theme, you have LOTS of possible ways to get dressed:

I’m very tempted to do one more Wardrobe Valise using the blue version of this scarf, and with denim as a neutral. What do you think? It’s fascinating to me that you can get so much mileage out of 21 carefully-chosen items…

love,
Janice

p.s. Ten years ago, I was in Italy, and we were looking at Tote Bag Travel (the least one can pack for an overnight trip!), in black, sand and teal. 

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The post Loving Brown, but Needing Pink? Start With a Scarf – Bookworm by Echo appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

It’s a question you send me more often than I would have ever expected, 16 years ago when I plunged into this adventure: “What do I do when my two favorite accent colors don’t go together?”

WELL… I could, of course, launch into a diatribe about how “all colors go together – if they exist in the world, they are meant to be together…” 

Which is small consolation when you still don’t feel like they look right together!

Let’s start with this gorgeous thing:

Scarf – Silk & Soul

To me, the most prominent colors here are orange and purple! They look so good here; there’s something to be learned from that.

And – again to me – it appears that there’s both brown and black in this scarf, so we have two neutrals, as well as enough white that you could always include the happy white shirt and/or tee shirt.

This is my vision:

Scarf – Silk & Soul

I’m becoming a big fan of arranging my wardrobe in groupings of 9 or 10 garments, which I think of as a “Domestic Valise.” To me, if I get this assembled at the beginning of a week, then I can dress from the front of my closet, and from a double-handful of clothes that can all hit the laundry at the same time, over the weekend (but only if necessary – don’t over-wash your clothes!)

If you wear a uniform for work, you may only need two or three of these “valise” for a season. At the most? Maybe?

In my wardrobe, a valise is three outfits with an extra garment or two – whatever gets us to ten!

Start with an obvious favorite for me:

Purple cardigan – Alex Mill; amethyst earrings – Auree Jewellery; scarf – Silk & Soul; black ponte knit pants – Eileen Fisher; black tee – L.L.Bean; shoulder bag – Brahmin; loafers – Vionic

Let’s give equal time to the second neutral; note that the addition of a black cardigan gives us a black “suit-like” pair of clothes:

Deepest brown tee – L.L.Bean; smoky quartz & obsidian earrings – Farra; black cashmere cardigan – Banana Republic; scarf – Silk & Soul; boots – Munro; tote – Longchamp; corduroy pants – L.L.Bean

There’s a very similar cardigan available for quite a bit less – it’s the one I own, and I love it!

If we’re including three outfits in this “valise,” I would usually make the third bottom a skirt. If you abhor skirts, don’t do it – grab another pair of pants instead. And I wasn’t going to resist this Fair Isle turtleneck for this heroine:

Orange cardigan – Boden; Fair Isle Sweater – L.L.Bean; carnelian stud earrings – Ink+Alloy; corduroy skirt – Banana Republic Factory; woven bag – Quince; brown poplin shirt – Alex Mill; boots – Abeo

Note that I put the bright garments with the conflicting accent colors in two cardigan – no temptation to wear them together, but they’re still both here and highly visible:

But how does one wear these clothes – except for the three outfits that I’ve already shown?

Some ideas – some a bit more adventurous than others:

A really beautiful scarf can open the door to just about any color combination!

love,
Janice

p.s. Ten years ago, I was in Italy! The post of the day was a “Tote Bag Travel” for someone who was invited to a quite dressy evening out, at the very last minute…

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Our last heroine, but NEVER the least! In my next life, I’m going to major in French, and make my living translating arcane French documents buried in the Bibliotheque Nationale…

And I will use this painting as my inspiration, just as our current historical architecture expert does:

When she left for her autumn term teaching in Paris, she had this wardrobe. I suspect that she packed everything – 40 garments isn’t insane for 4 months if you’re in one place, and can unpack, hang things, and do laundry:

And I’m QUITE certain that she took all of her accessories with her – they’re the fun part!

This month, the first thing our heroine wanted was another black dress. As much as her sleeveless dress is a true wardrobe workhorse, she was really interested in a second black dress, with sleeves…

And she tried to NOT buy the black floral cardigan that she’d see here on The Vivienne Files, but in the end, she caved! A couple of tops to wearing under the cardigan (one casual, one dressy) and she is set!

The scarf was unmissable. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day? In HER colors? And with a sort of hint of Christmassy festiveness? Yes, please!

floral cardigan – J.Crew; earrings – Monica Vinader; red turtleneck – Lands’ End; cotton bow blouse – Boden; black ottoman dress – Boden; Thanksgiving Day Parade Scarf – Macy’s; pumps – Quince

Now, when she puts her new purchases into her wardrobe template, things still look… well… pretty doggone good! And that’s a way to describe things that our heroine would NEVER use…

When she gets her clothes into an armoire and takes a good look at things, she couldn’t be happier:

And her accessories? Perfection…

Of course, this is a woman who knows how something will be worn long before she hands over a credit card! Let’s peek at some of her ideas:

When she does her shopping next month, she might be thinking about preparing for holiday festivities. Not that she doesn’t already have plenty of appropriate things to wear for all kinds of events!

love,
Janice

Would you like to go back to the beginning of this heroine’s wardrobe to see how this all has come about? All of the earlier blog posts can be found here:  Christmas Eve Preview, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September

p.s. Ten years ago, we wrapped up a multi-post “Starting From Scratch” with some ideas for evaluating what you might need to add to your wardrobe.

The post October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

She’s a statistics expert, and she works with BIRD data – what a great combination of technology and nature! Her inspiration for her personal style is this dapper creature:

Going into full-tilt autumn, our heroine felt that she was relatively well prepared for most of what life had to offer:

I have to share this with you: in the year of my birth, 1960, the average woman’s wardrobe (in the US) was 42 garments. That would be the wardrobe above plus two.

And when I really try to remember what I wore through high school and college (when I was not interested in clothes much at all!), I may have had this many pieces. But I don’t think so…

Now, the average wardrobe is OVER 150 things. What has changed so radically in 66 years? Your thoughts are of great interest to me, since I suspect that quite a few of us have lived through this transition!

But on to our heroine’s accessories. I find the power of accessories to be astonishing:

After returning from the Vermont college adventure of analyzing data from all kinds of new (to her) birds and meeting ALL kinds of bird people, our heroine is amazed to find that her “professional/social” calendar is filling up! She’s now a recognized expert in her field, and she’s welcome at all kinds of luncheons, cocktail parties, one-day conferences and the occasional small dinner party.

Thus, her shopping this month is dressy, with just a whisper of the upcoming winter holidays:

Earrings – The Met Store; black velvet blazer – Eileen Fisher; cardinal brooch – The Met Store; beaded cardigan – Nordstrom; cotton Fair Isle cardigan – Ella Simone; black velvet skirt – Eileen Fisher; velvet flats – Birdies

The bird brooch was intentional, buying flats from a company called Birdies was strictly a coincidence!

Now, when she fills in her wardrobe template, she has filled in those “2nd layer” spots and everything lines up perfectly! 

How does it look in her closet? Pretty delectable!

Her bird brooch brings a certain je ne sais quoi to her accessories!

Our heroine bought her velvet jacket and skirt without ANY intention of wearing them together – the jacket is just long enough that it’s going to hang down over the tops of the gathers of her skirt, and she knows it will look lumpy and draggy…

But that’s no reason NOT to buy two velvet garments! Everything doesn’t have to be worn in every possible combination; she has plenty of other ideas:

Some people get their holiday wardrobe in place really early, like this heroine. Others wait until the stores are jam-packed with beads and sequins before they start looking.

And some of us wear the same things we wore last year! And the year before…

love,
Janice

Would you be interested in “flashing back” to the earlier posts in which is heroine assembled her wardrobe? Those posts are here: Christmas Eve Preview, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September

p.s. Ten years ago, we were almost finished building a wardrobe in navy, beige, pink and soft blue; in this post we added a complete outfit of a sweater, shirt and shorts!

p.p.s. If you’re shopping at a website that you don’t see in my links, but you would like to help support The Vivienne Files, check out this page, where I’ve put links to a lot of retailers with whom I have some kind of business relationship. I’m not going to get rich, but I can at least afford plenty of coffee!

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

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Our heroine, the professional listener, is overwhelmed by how many clients she has right now… Calmness is in short supply!

So let’s draw our own personal relaxed mindset from the muted colors and soft focus of this beautiful painting:

At the end of September, our heroine’s 40-piece was this:

And this was her accessory collection. There’s something particularly wonderful about brown shoes – I can’t come up with the right word!

Our heroine didn’t have a clear idea about what she wanted to buy this month. Well, she had been pondering the idea of a flannel shirt, if she could find one that would fit in and be worn a lot. And another skirt – wearing a skirt to work seems to make her feel more businesslike. If it works for you, do it!

First stop was her favorite – Alex Mill. When she saw that they had colors called “maple syrup” and “brushed bark,” she knew she had come to the right place:

Maple syrup cashmere sweater – Alex Mill; brooch – J.Crew; brushed bark poplin shirt – Alex Mill; scarf – The Met Store; flannel shirt – Buck Mason; bouclé skirt – J.Crew; boots – J.Crew

Now, when she looks are her 56-piece wardrobe template, she realizes that for one of her next three shopping events, she will NOT need to buy a bottom…

When she looks at all of the tops that she has, she feels pretty well stocked!

She could picture either a dress or a pair of dressy pants for the upcoming winter holidays. Her choice will be influenced by what’s in the stores in a month; she needs to be both strongly committed to her chosen palette, but also flexible enough to be able to shop within the limits of what’s available!

Her jewelry is wonderful…

Her shoes and bags are so lovely… Brown’s pretty undervalued in the fashion world!

This heroine gets all of her new purchases into her home and spends some time trying things on and assembling outfits.

Remember, any time you get something in your closet and can’t find at LEAST three ways to wear it, maybe you’ve gone awry. Admit the mistake and DO THE RETURN. Don’t leave things hanging there with tags still on…

It’s kind of amazing that I never ended up with a wardrobe like this; my brown eyes were the marvel of my family for years…

love,
Janice

Are you interested to see where this heroine started, and how each step of this wardrobe happened? All of the earlier posts can be found here: Christmas Eve Preview, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September

p.s. Ten years ago, I did a couple of additional “Starting From Scratch” wardrobes. Ten years ago tomorrow, we started from scratch with a palette of navy and tan, with pastel accents…

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The post October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

Our aspiring bank employee is our heroine today! I particularly love this woman; she’s doing things MUCH more cleverly than many of us did 40 years ago when we were trying to take over the world…

Her inspiration is this lovely painting:

At the end of September, our heroine had a 40-piece wardrobe. She’s never had any sense that anybody at her office every notices that she wears a lot of navy, a few accents colors, and nothing else. Clothing isn’t nearly the most important thing at work!

This is her current collection of accessories. She knows that her co-workers have noticed these – especially her scarves! There are occasional questions about where she found something, and also occasional compliments!

Our heroine noticed that the FIRST DAY back in the office in September, everything seemed a bit more dressy. She also her noticed, over time, that her male co-workers own more than one navy suit. Usually they have more than two!

That makes this shopping decision much easier:

Pearl earrings- Anne Klein; pine branch brooch – Anne Klein; cabled cotton vest – J.Crew Factory; navy pinstripe pants – Boden; navy pinstripe blazer – Boden; white cotton shirt – Lands’ End; suede loafers – Vionic

She’s thinking that she will always wear this suit AS A SUIT, i.e. with the two pieces together. This frees her to wear her solid navy suit as separates – blazer and pants.

And she wouldn’t rule out eventually buying a suit with a jacket and skirt. Or a jacket and dress…

Her 56-piece wardrobe template looks serious, but not somber. She’s hopeful that next month she will be able to find some tops that will be able to be worn for that “desk to dinner” transition that starting to loom over many of us at the end of the year!

Grouping all of her tops together makes it clear that this heroine doesn’t struggle to get dressed:

Her bottoms make it easy to get dressed too! Having three dresses means that there is always something fast, but appropriate, to wear to work:

Adding an autumn or winter-themed brooch is always a touch that helps one look festive…

A second pair of navy loafers? Well, one is leather and one is suede. And she wears navy pants a LOT – having two pairs means that neither pair gets worn day after day. Shoes like a day off…

This is the heroine who has planned more than most of us EXACTLY how she will wear her new clothes. She has no cash to waste, and she wants to have a wardrobe plan that’s so clear that she only has to think about banking things:

Our heroine plans all five of her outfits for the week each Sunday evening. Each morning, she gets dressed without a lot of stress, and gets on with her day.

If only we could all be this organized!

love,
Janice

If you would like to see how this heroine got started, and how she built this wardrobe, you can find all of our earlier blog posts about her here:  Christmas Eve Preview, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September

p.s. Ten years ago, we started with a soft and lovely painting by Claudio Bravo, and added grey and mauve accents to a neutral black, white and denim wardrobe.

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The post October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

Let’s drop in our landscape designer, and on her favorite Georgia O’Keeffe painting:

At the end of September, as the weather began to turn grey and misty, our heroine had this 40-piece wardrobe:

and these accessories:

Our heroine has decided that she needs to go visit a couple of ongoing work sites; heretofore, she’s only met with clients in the company offices. But she’s been asked, and she will go!

And she really wants to get into the mood of the season – grey mist and fog with bright sunshine breaking through.

And she’s seen a scarf that really calls her name. At a distance, the scarf seems mostly soft greenish-blue, but up close, there are lots of sunshiny details. The heart will have the scarves it craves, I say!

Mixed-metal earrings – Madewell; grey quarter-zip sweatshirt – Lands’ End; scarf – Tory Burch; pale sunbeam yellow tee – Lands’ End; sweatpants – Lands’ End; striped cardigan – Alex Mill; gray rubber boots – Hunter

After these four additions, our heroine’s 56-piece wardrobe plan looks like this:

But let’s take a closer look at both her clothes and her accessories. Spending a bit of time looking carefully at what one ALREADY owns can make a shopping list much easier – sometimes it will be obvious what you need…

Her new scarf does look a bit different from the rest of her collection of scarves, but it still goes with all of her clothes:

Our heroine has pretty clear ideas of how she will wear her new purchases – maybe the striped cardigan won’t offer dozens of possibilities, but she couldn’t be expected to forego something so perfect for her!

It might be an unusual color palette, but it suits our heroine to a T, and that’s what matters…

love,
Janice

If you’d like to go back to the Christmas Eve beginnings of this wardrobe, and follow along each step, you can find those posts here: Christmas Eve Preview, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September

p.s. Ten years ago, we were wallowing in the Pre-Raphaelite beauty of a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and adding accents to a very neutral wardrobe.

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The post October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

OCTOBER! I don’t know why the very sound of the word fills me with relief – it’s not as if I absolutely hate hot weather…

Our heroine this month is travelling to New York two weeks out of four, for the foreseeable future. And those New York types do a LOT of dining out, so she’s thinking about hitting the holiday clothes early this year!

I’m almost nauseated by how much new clothing just hit the stores in the last two days; does EVERY store need to bring in literally hundreds of new garments each month? Sigh…

First and foremost, let’s admire, yet again, the beautiful painting that is the inspiration for our heroine when she goes shopping for clothes and accessories:

Our heroine’s current 40-piece wardrobe is this:

And these are her accessories:

Our heroine has been diligently looking – every month – for clothes in “her” shade of blue or green, and hasn’t been finding anything…

Combine that with the fact that she’s traveling a lot, and spending a lot of time in a big city, and we reach the point where she’s decided that buying versatile black things is her best option. And when she ran into a black velvet SUIT, she was set!

Velvet blazer – Boden; brooch – The Met Store; cashmere cardigan – Banana Republic; velvet pants – Boden; suede bag – Talbots; marled wool sweater – & Other Stories; embellished loafers – Boden

There’s a similar cardigan here, which is the one I own. Highly recommended…

Yes, our heroine bought two “second layers” this month, and when she updates her 56-piece template, all is back to normal! Of course, if you don’t fill in anybody’s template perfectly, you will be fine – these things are designed to help, not to boss you around.

Her wardrobe has now gotten big enough that it’s much easier to review it if we split clothes into tops and bottoms, and split accessories into jewelry and scarves vs shoes and bags. You may choose to do this any way that works for you.

Allowing more visual space for accessories is really useful – being able to see things in better detail makes it somewhat easier to see what you need:

But how does our heroine plan to wear her new purchases? You know she’s given this a lot of thought:

I’m really loving this wardrobe – it’s unfortunate that her accent colors are so scarce. But as those of us who love purple (or brown!) can attest, just be patient and some day you will be overwhelmed with choices!

love,
Janice

If you’d like to go back to all of the earlier posts in which this heroine is featured, you can find them here:  Christmas Eve Preview, January 2026, February 2026, March 2026, April 2026, May 2026, June 2026, July 2026, August 2026, September 2026

p.s. Ten years ago, I started with Van Gogh, and a 9-piece Wardrobe Building Blocks set, and experimented with adding accent colors to an existing wardrobe.

p.p.s. I know, I never talk about cosmetics. Or nail products. Or any of that kind of thing… but I’ve started using Manicurist Blur on my nails, and this stuff is amazing. Miraculous. My nails look great, and I swear even my cuticles are improved. I couldn’t NOT tell you…

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The post October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

I don’t know why I never think of combining these two colors – they’re both classic, and they go together beautifully. Sometimes, I have to see someone really eye-catching and elegant (but NOT expensive or dressy!) to get my brain started!

First – of course I found a painting! There is always a painting…

The first woman I saw was wearing the MOST simple jeans and chambray shirt, but her cardigan and boots were both burgundy, her scarf was perfection incarnate, and I have no idea what earrings she was wearing!

I like to think that she would approve of my earrings choice for her:

Chambray shirt – L.L.Bean; earrings – Myrto Katramadou Jewellery; cardigan – L.L.Bean; scarf – Elizabetta; jeans – J.Crew; boots – Comfortview

Plenty of women in my neighborhood wear denim skirts on a regular basis. Burgundy brings a certain loveliness to a classic skirt:

Cashmere turtleneck – Boden; earrings – The Met Store; scarf – The Met Store; boots – Camper; bag – Arezzo; denim skirt – Boden

Denim jackets are everywhere in my world, and they go with absolutely everything. I find them particularly fun over something slightly (or VERY) dressy – the contrast catches the eye…

Denim jacket – L.L.Bean; earrings – Alexis Bittar; bandana – L.L.Bean; corduroy dress – Boden; boots – Pikolinos; tote bag – Madewell

Denim blue doesn’t HAVE to be denim – this sweater is a perfect shade of blue…

Irish wool cardigan – L.L.Bean; garnet earrings – The Met Store; tee shirt – Coldwater Creek; corduroy pants – Coldwater Creek; handbag – Kate Spade; sneakers – Suavs

Your workhorse denim dress takes on a slightly different feeling when paired with burgundy! A denim dress can do almost anything:

Fig cardigan – L.L.Bean; earrings – Mounir London; scarf – Elizabetta; denim dress – L.L.Bean; bag – Baggallini; flats – Sam Edelman

If you’re looking for that “denim jacket feeling” without wearing a true denim jacket, maybe a trench coat is more your speed?

Silk shirt – Madewell; garnet earrings – Opium Jewels; brooch – Farra; corduroy pants – Madewell; denim trench – GAP; loafers – MeToo

I never understand why burgundy comes and goes – to me, it’s one of the classic autumn colors!

love,
Janice

p.s. Ten years ago, we visited a color that the manufacturer called “Neon Geranium”, but what I preferred to think of as hibiscus. Not that EITHER of those names makes it clear that we’re talking about bright pink!

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The post Combining a Pair of Classics: Chic Sightings – Burgundy and Denim appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

I’ve been seeing a lot of black with brown in my neighborhood, and I’ve been meaning to share it with you…

And then I stumbled across this painting! I’ve been having quite the run of good luck with paintings corresponding with my “real life” sightings; I think that’s a good sign.

The first brown and black sightings I made were of women wearing a brown skirt or pair of pants with pretty much everything else in black. A scarf with the two colors, or a pair of earrings in onyx and tiger’s eye, served to pull together everything and make it look intentional:

Cotton/cashmere turtleneck – L.L.Bean; earrings – Anabel Aram; scarf – The Met Store; suede tote – Madewell; corduroy jeans – L.L.Bean; loafers – Sam Edelman

I particularly admired this dressy version:

Black silk shirt – Banana Republic; earrings – Farra; scarf – Kueen; handbag – MKF Collection – J’OMOR; ballet flats – Sam Edelman; cashmere skirt – Nordstrom

A brown dress might be a fun way to experiment with brown; add a scarf and earrings, and your black “regulars” take on a new look:

Cotton cardigan – Lands’ End; scarf – Coach; earrings – Chico’s; corduroy dress – Boden; handbag – Talbots; boots – Munro

This heroine has a clear affinity to square motifs! And don’t forget – when you’re looking for a scarf, check the men’s department; they’re often much less expensive than “women’s” scarves, and they have color combinations that we don’t always see in the “heroine’s” department!

Black cotton-cashmere sweater – Alex Mill; earrings – Shymi; scarf – Nordstrom; corduroy pants – Alex Mill; tote bag – MZ Wallace; loafers – Gentle Souls

Let’s flip this idea on it’s head – you wear lots and lots of brown, but seldom wear black. Maybe adding a simple, timeless dress will open new “outfit doors” for you:

Jacket – J.Crew; owl brooch – Chico’s; feather earrings – Lily Charmed; handbag – Dolce Vita; pumps – Diba True; dress – Eileen Fisher

If you need a new way to wear your brown things, a pair of black jeans might spark some ideas:

Rich coffee tee – Lands’ End; earrings – Anthropologie; cabled cotton cardigan – Lands’ End; black jeans – L.L.Bean; tote bag – Patricia Nash; loafers – UGG

I wear brown sweaters and shirts with black often, but I haven’t had a pair of brown pants since… I was 10?

Maybe time to think about it…

love,
Janice

p.s. Ten years ago, turquoise was our chosen accent color; we looked at it with six different neutrals, with some fun results.

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