I really liked the January outfit in Janice's grey and denim wardrobe: a simple pair of jeans, white T, and cozy blue marled cardigan. The Sophia wardrobe, while including those colors in its palette, is starting off on a somewhat less casual note.
Instead of blue denim, navy and soft blue building blocks are entering the closet for January. A navy pencil skirt (that is made from stretchy fabric, so it's quite comfortable) and navy T form a simple column of color (or pseudo-dress). (If that navy T looks eerily familiar to you, that's because I have two identical ones and you have already seen the other one in the #2 Darcy wardrobe!) The light-ish blue represented by the pie wedge in the upper left quadrant is going to come into this wardrobe in multiple variants, the first being this soft blue floral T and soft blue scarf (purchased a month apart from the same brand, so the colors are similar, though clearly the scarf is brighter and the T is more greyed out).
Navy pencil skirt - Lifestyle Attitude/Walmart - 20W - $10.50 - 2/2018
Soft blue floral 3/4 T - CJ Banks - $7.73 - 7/2020
Navy long-sleeved seamed T - ana/JCP - 2X - $9.10 - 9/2017
Soft blue scarf - CJ Banks - $5.70 - 6/2020
This slate blue skirt is a second version of blue for the Sophia wardrobe. In an ideal world, the skirt would be "soft blue" as well, so that we'd have a second column of color, but this was the skirt granted to me by the gods of thrifting. It doesn't match the soft blue items, but I haven't decided yet whether it still might work with that color in some contexts. Fortunately, that question can remain unanswered for a while because we are bringing in a couple of tops and a scarf that can work with any of our blues. If you look at the blush pink floral blouse with the slate blue skirt, clearly the light blue flowers on the blouse are a different color from slate blue. But that's one of the terrific things about prints--you don't need your colors to match when pairing a solid item with a print. I think of prints as being "generous" in what particular shade of a color they can go with. So when you can't match, value blend (same color but lighter or darker), or tonally blend (different color but coordinates tonally so that the items go together and look harmonious) another solid item, you can try a print item instead. It's kind of surprising how different the colors can be and still work together when one of them is a print!
Slate blue skirt - thrifted, MM LaFleur/ThredUp - 2X - $20.15 - 6/2020
Light pink/navy floral blouse - Loft - XXL - $35.70 - 9/2017
Pale dusky pink long-sleeved T - EVRI/Kohls - 3X - $5.00 - 1/2020
White lace infinity scarf - Walmart - $4.13 - 6/2016
To create a navy winter trio, let's add a boyfriend cardigan to the navy skirt and T introduced earlier. Sophia's Sally now has the option for a navy "suit," a column of color, or a twin set in navy...as well as the all navy trio itself, of course. Our inspiration scarf is joined by two other floral scarves. Are we noting a floral theme to this softest, most traditionally feminine-colored wardrobe? Earrings with a wash of various blues will be handy. For boots, navy would be an obvious choice with these items, and grey would reflect the second main neutral in the palette, but personally I am crazy about navy with cognac leather! Something about the richness of the cognac warms up the navy and looks terrific. And our standby mixed metal bracelet joins us here--speaking of which, did I mention that this is the first bracelet I have purchased?? No, your eyes do not deceive you, nor is it a typo...I really did buy my first bracelet in December of last year. I don't like bangle style bracelets because they knock into the computer keyboards that I use approximately 16 hours a day, and it took me a while to realize what my alternative options were. (In bracelets as in so many sartorial contexts, it's stretch for the win.)
Navy boyfriend cardigan - Loft - XXL - $29.70 - 9/2017
Soft indigo/soft blue/pink floral scarf - CJ Banks - $4.98 - 7/2020
Gold/silver chunky stretch bracelet - CJ Banks - $9.99 - 12/2020
Blue multi-hue earrings - CJ Banks - $3.99 - 2020
White/sandstone coral/soft blue/navy floral scarf - CJ Banks - $5.70 - 6/2020
Tall cognac riding boots - Sam Edelman/Nordstrom - $126.60 - 11/2014
Navy/green/pink/mustard floral scarf - Loft - $8.94 - 7/2020
I am pleased that these items have the "soft" feeling I was going for in this wardrobe, and starting with a navy trio should give Sophia's Sally a lot of options. Let's see what some of those outfits look like!
Outfit #1 tests the idea of color coordination generosity in pairing a solid color with a print, and I declare it a success. I would wear navy leggings or tights with all of these outfits.
Although I (Sally Prime) have not worn that exact outfit before, I have put the blouse and skirt together and can assure Sophia's Sally that it works just fine. In fact, in this outfit of the day from January 8, I am wearing 4 items that were introduced to the Sally wardrobes in these January additions! The only outlier is the silver scarf, which is coming in February. So, there you go--not only am I recommending these clothing options to the Other Sallys for January, I wear them myself.
Outfit #2 leverages the navy "suit" with the soft blues and the earrings of many blue hues. And even without a stitch of any color resembling a soft orange, coral, tan, etc. in this outfit, the cognac boots look wonderful.
In outfit #3, we go back to the slate blue skirt and try a different alternative to matching: just wearing your odd, one-off accent color with your neutrals. Here the navy, cognac, and white (print) all coordinate very well with the skirt, but it should look good (maybe even better) with the grey neutral that is being introduced down the road. As I look at our Sophia palette, the only color I'm unsure about with the slate blue (other than some of the other blues) is the aloe green. We'll have to take that as it comes.
Outfit #4 adds the navy cardigan to make a neutral twin set plus accent color outfit. Yes, in real life, the navy T is a lighter navy than the cardigan. If that disturbs your sensibilities, you will want to take care to match the colors more closely when you build your sets. For me, wearing two distinct shades of navy together doesn't bother me at all. In fact, sometimes when the two colors are distinctly different (but still share enough properties to coordinate), I think that works better than when the colors look like they are trying to be the exact same color but are off slightly...which can lead to a sort of an uncanny valley for color coordination. I lump all my "navy" items together without concern about the exact shade, but some people might prefer to treat navy more how I treat pink. Such a person might think of this a bit more like a navy, dark blue, and slate blue combination--a version of a monochromatic outfit--rather than one neutral and one accent. Either way, I like it.
Outfit #5 is a favorite color combination: version(s) of pink + version(s) of blue. (Remember when rose quartz and serenity were the Pantone colors of the year in 2016 and everything looked like a gender reveal party about to go wrong? This scarf would have fit right in.) I will admit that the cognac boots look a little less coordinated with this outfit than the previous ones, perhaps because the large amount of cool dusty pink creates a bit of tension with the warm cognac. It's still perfectly fine and wearable...I just think that in this instance I would have preferred navy boots.
I am happy with how this wardrobe is starting out. Despite my uncertainty about the soft blue/slate blue combination, having a versatile, basic navy trio of top, cardigan, and skirt to hand makes getting dressed a lot easier than it would otherwise be.
For the seasonal wardrobe matrix, recall that in each season, for each color category, I can mark what has been added each month:
x = solid piece
T = tonal piece (i.e., tonally works with this color though it is a different color)
O = ombré piece
P = print piece (not ombré)
I'm not 100% sold on the 3/4 sleeve top as a "winter" top, despite including it in January (haha, I know), so I have entered it on the transition season version of this chart instead.
Do you have a favorite wardrobe so far?
In my next post, we will jump ahead (or, well, back) to February additions!