6 Scarves 2021: March Additions, #5 Brown & Black, Nelly

For an introduction to the 6 Scarves 2021 project, see this post.

For a description of my method, see this post.

Once again it's time to review the Nelly wardrobe color palette and guess what colors will enter this wardrobe in March.

Well this is a strikingly different set of colors this month! To supplement the black and burgundy/maroon items in the wardrobe, we are adding brown, teal, and a skirt that contains both colors. And for reasons that aren't completely apparent to me at this many months removed we are adding a pair of burgundy jeans, too. (That feels a bit redundant with the burgundy skinny pants already in the wardrobe; I guess we'll see how that plays out in the coming months. If I were doing this again, I'd perhaps add it to the #3 Navy & Grey Lily wardrobe instead.)

Brown jeans - Gloria Vanderbilt/JCP - 20W - $22.49 - 2/2018

Brown quilted vest - Croft & Barrow/JCP - 2X - $16.99 - 12/2019

Brown zip pullover sweater (men's) - thrifted, Claiborne/Goodwill - $5.00 - 12/2016

Burgundy jeans - Gloria Vanderbilt/JCP - 20W - $22.49 - 2/2018

Dark teal-green pullover sweater - EVRI/Kohls - 3X - $8.49 - 12/2020

Brown/orange/pink/teal floral skirt - thrifted, Who What Wear Target/Goodwill - XXL - $3.99 - 10/2018

The same colors dominate our accessories options this month; a solid teal scarf, two pairs of brown boots, a pair of brown earrings, a brown leopard scarf, and a brown/teal paisley scarf. The one outlier is this striped-scarf-of-many-colors that has an overall gold and dark pink look to me.

Teal-green scarf - Target - $12.00 - 12/2013

Brown leopard scarf - Kohls - $18.30 - 11/2014

Teal/brown/rust paisley scarf - Chaps/Kohls - $17.49 - 11/2014

Gold striped scarf - thrifted, ThredUp - $4.20 - 5/2020

Brown/brass leather leaf earrings - Amazon - ?

Taupe-brown ankle boots - Easy Spirit/Nordstrom - $65.90 - 11/2014

Tall brown boots - Fitzwell/Zappos - $104.99 - 3/2014

Ready for some brown and teal outfits? Let's start with two outfits based on a brown column of color consisting of a brown pullover sweater, brown jeans, and taupe-brown ankle boots. In Outfit #1, this base is topped by a brown quilted vest and leopard scarf for a very brown outfit. There are a few different shades of brown represented here; what do you think of them? I'm often a little disappointed when I realize how warm a brown the leather earrings are; I would like them to be cooler and blend more easily with the other browns. But's not a deal breaker for me.

Outfit #2 adds in a splash of color with this paisley scarf. Confession time: this is a sweater that I always wear with a vest because it fits a little funny across the upper back and makes me feel self-conscious to wear it. But I'm invoking my limited traveling-pants-like magic to make this sweater fit Nelly's Sally perfectly so she can wear it however she wants.

And no for something...well, not completely different, but different. True, this is the same style of jeans as the brown ones, but now we are playing with a lot of different colors! It's interesting; I did not hesitate to add both burgundy and teal to this wardrobe's color palette, and we have seen a plaid shirt dominated by these colors in the capsule already, but it feels daring to me to pair burgundy pants with a teal sweater. I guess it's just SO MUCH of each color. With this multi-color scarf, the combination rests easier on me...even though neither teal nor burgundy match any of the stripes precisely. But something about this scarf with that teal/burgundy combination says, Yes, I am wearing a lot of color and I own it! And who can argue with that kind of boldness?

Outfit #4 puts this teal sweater into a more traditional example of color mixing. This is the classic "start with a print and add colors in the print" approach. I really like the combination of teal and brown. It look just as good as teal and black, in my opinion, but is much less common. This skirt has that wonderful quality of including a range in its dominant color; there is an orange-y/cognac brown all the way to a deep brown that is indistinguishable from black (that I just treat as black). The warm brown earrings, medium chocolate brown vest, and very dark cool brown boots all work well with the skirt and together.

As we have been doing with all the March wardrobes, let's take a look at three outfits I have worn with this floral skirt. This January outfit is based on a bunch of items from these March additions; everything but the cognac brown/black horse scarf, in fact.

Here is an outfit I wore in August, which feels like a great time to wear this skirt with its late-summer-turning-toward-fall vibe. I played up that transitional seasonal feeling by wearing a brown T and (fake) brown tortoiseshell beads to represent fall and a pink cardigan to represent summer. (And yeah, the way these "nude" beige shoes contrast with my skin go to show just how pinkish-white I am. Luckily, after growing up very dissatisfied with it, I have made peace with my paleness.)

Finally, in this early winter outfit, I wore the same brown T as above but layered it with a brown jacket. This is a thrifted item that has since left my closet because I was never satisfied with its fit or comfort. I've learned to be more wary of garments like this that have no stretch; they might feel fine for the short time I try it on in the store, but it's not always comfortable enough to want to wear it all day. This image also serves as photographic evidence that I don't always wear boots November through April. It's nice to have 365-day-a-year flats that can be worn with pants + no socks, pants + socks, skirt + no tights, and skirt + tights. (And I'm pretty sure you will see these brown flats enter the Nelly wardrobe at some point.)

What a pleasure it was to see brown and teal in the wardrobe this month! What's the deal with brown, anyway? It seems like an underutilized color in women's clothing and accessories...even in leather goods. Given how many people have brown hair that would work beautifully with it, I would expect brown to be a lot more popular. I can't tell if the issue is that it's unpopular with consumers, designers/manufacturers, or both.

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)

Unlike some wardrobes that remain very much dominated by a color or two, the Nelly wardrobe has already developed solid representation of burgundy, black, and brown with teal slowly sneaking in there. I'm curious to see how this capsule looks with all these colors put together. We'll find out during the Jan-Mar recap when we build outfits using the entire capsule to date!

What do you think about brown? Do you like it? Wear it? Is it hard to find in stores in your size/style/etc.? Do you find it difficult to put outfits together with it?

In my next post, we will look at the last of our March additions: the #6 Grey & Navy, Sophia wardrobe.

I link up with:

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge (2nd Monday; 3rd Thursday)

Mica at Away from the Blue (Mondays)

Laura at I Do deClaire (Tuesdays)

Emma at Style Splash (Tuesdays)

Jess at Elegantly Dressed & Stylish (Tuesdays)

Gail at Is This Mutton? (Wednesdays)

Jodie at Jodie's Touch of Style (Thursdays)

Carrie at Curly Crafty Mom (Thursdays)

Ada at Elegance and Mommyhood (Thursdays)

Suzy at The Grey Brunette (Fridays)

Nancy at Nancy's Fashion Style (Fridays)

Rena at Fine Whatever (Saturdays)