For an introduction to the 6 Scarves 2021 project, see this post.
For a description of my method, see this post.
In May, Janice introduced a skirt outfit to each of her capsule wardrobes. For her Black & Grey wardrobe, she added a black short-sleeved T, black ponte knit skirt, lightweight black cardigan, black sling-back pumps, and (for a hint of color) purple crystal earrings.
Adding the wardrobe's first skirt in May is sensible for how most people seem to view skirts: as a warm weather option. But as we've seen, skirts with tights and boots are the base of my winter wardrobe, so my wardrobes have many skirts already. It's pants that have been lacking.
For outfit planning purposes, I have created 8 sartorial seasons to cover the year, and for each season I have (among other things) identified a dominant bottom garment. The seasons look like this:
Winter: Jan 1-Feb 28: Skirts with tights
Winter/Spring: Mar 1-Apr 15: Skirts with tights
Spring: Apr 16-May 15: Pants
Spring/Summer: May 16-Jun 30: Skirts with bare legs
Summer: Jul 1-Aug 31: Skirts with bare legs
Summer/Fall: Sep 1-Sep 30: Skirts with bare legs
Fall: Oct 1-Nov 15: Pants
Fall/Winter: Nov 16-Dec 31: Skirts with tights
Now these aren't rules that I follow religiously or anything--they are just reminders of what I usually find to be the most useful way to dress in these seasons. 2020 was an odd year for a lot of reasons, but working from home definitely changed up my sartorial seasons! My apartment is warmer than my office in all but the height of summer (because my home is very well insulated and the A/C is pretty good; my office building is drafty and the A/C is pitiful), so I wore more pants and skirts with bare legs and fewer skirts with tights than I have in the last 8 years. And the number of times I wore tall boots I could probably count on one hand. Wait, what am I saying, I don't have to count! This is what I keep records for. In the year 5-1-20 to 4-3-21, I wore tall boots exactly...zero times! Wow, OK. That is very strange indeed. But when you never go out, tall boots really aren't needed.
Anyway, as you can see from the information above, the start of the year is dominated by skirts with tights outfits. Then with the beginning of the spring transition, I wear a lot of pants while I wait for the weather to warm enough to wear skirts with bare legs. So it makes sense that I have mostly added skirts to our capsules so far, and it seems like May is a good time to start adding more pants. (In other words, kind of the opposite of what Janice did, haha.) Is that what actually happens? Let's find out.
As usual, let's start with a review of our color palette and our mascot. Because the April recap was so extensive, I skipped the April rabbit additions and am instead going to add both the April and May rabbits to the menageries in this post instead! So stay tuned to the end of the post to meet our new lovelies joining Gina & Friends.
First we'll take a moment to revisit our wardrobe to date: garments then accessories. I'm no longer able to mentally keep track of this at all.
In the Jan-April recap, I noted that blue is lacking, white is minimal, and there is only one pair of pants.
So does this capsule get pants in May? Yes! A pair of soft, elastic-waist black pants with a pink, grey, and white floral print. This may not be the most obvious kind of pants to add (ahem, black or grey pants), but aren't they a fun pair for spring? Much more obviously useful: a black textured knit tuxedo jacket that I LOVE and a white textured knit tunic with 3/4 sleeves. And nobody can expect me to create a wardrobe with black and white but no black-and-white striped T, right? Those last two items also help strengthen the white contingent of the capsule. Blue, however, is not happening this month.
White/black striped long-sleeved T - Lands End - 2X - $9.58 - 5/2019
Black/white/grey/pink floral pants - CJ Banks - 3X - $11.38 - 9/2020
Black textured tuxedo jacket - thrifted, Chico's/Goodwill - 3 - $4.50 - 6/2016
White textured tunic - CJ Banks - 3X - $13.01 -9/2020
Here are our accessories so far. I didn't observe any glaring omissions in the Jan-April recap, though I did note that blue is scarce. But with the arrival of May, I would typically be expecting necklaces (rather than scarves) and warm-weather-compatible flats (i.e., ones that do not need hosiery/socks) to be added to the mix.
Very good! We have four necklaces (surprisingly, three pendants and one plain silver chain; no statement necklace), only one scarf (which is very lightweight and suitable for warm weather), and a versatile and lovely pair of grey flats with a black ribbon detail (which I happily wear with socks or without, depending on the season).
Black cat scarf - ? - $12.00 - 12/2013
Faux grey pearl pendant - ?
Short silver pendant - thrifted, Goodwill - $10.00 - 12/2014
Faux pearl/rose gold 3-strand necklace - Kohls - $13.26 - 12/2020
Silver chain - gift
Bright pink seed bead bracelets - made by me - summer 2020
Light pink seed bead bracelets - made by me - summer 2020
Grey ribbon flats - Louise et Cie/Zappos - $50.00 - 12/2013
Black/silver pendant - JCP - $15.37 - 11/2015
The wild card addition: those seed bead bracelets that aren't very professional-looking! Well, friends, one of the hobbies I picked up over the pandemic summer 2020 was making seed bead jewelry. I bought myself one of those big packs (not an affiliate link) that include 3 mm glass seed beads in a variety of colors and stretchy cord for making bracelets, and I got down to it just like I was at summer camp, beading while listening to the alternative radio hits of 1990. (Eventually my abilities may improve to the point of making jewelry with more serious beads, but for now, in my callow youth, inexpensive seed beads suit me just fine.) I made a bracelets in a bunch of colors, and this month I will add the ones that make sense to each capsule.
These additions make for an easy outfit-building enterprise this month. Outfit #1 is a suitable transitional weather option with long sleeves and a jacket. You know I'm a fan of the stripes + floral print mix, so I would happily wear or remove the jacket as befits my micro-climate (which at my office can change from my office to the conference room next door!).
Outfit #2 is a variation that replaces print mixing with texture layering (in the top and jacket) and necklace layering. Yes, the necklaces look quite strange when thrown together from their separate images, but with some experimentation, I expect they could look interesting and not as strange in real life.
Outfit #3 assumes warmer weather, with no jacket needed, and with the 3/4-sleeve top, the pink bracelets can add a nice pop of color to the outfit. And we are back to print mixing, this time with the black and pale grey cat scarf...braided like a necklace! I tried it with the scarf worn in a more classic way...long...then with a jaunty bow...and I just wasn't feeling it. So I braided it up as Jodie at Jodie's Touch of Style shows us (and yes, if you haven't tried it, it really is that easy--try it out) and boom, I like it.
Last month I wore these pants and flats during my Spring "pants" season with a grey tunic, bright pink cardigan, and layered necklaces.
Last November during my Fall "pants" season, I wore the pants with a burgundy marl sweater and two accessories from the Gina wardrobe: burgundy flats and the excessively bright pink pashmina.
And now for a bit of fun--adding new rabbits to our Gina capsule!
First, our April rabbit is Charlotte, the Champagne d'Argent. This is the black version of Darcy, the Creme d'Argent who is the mascot for our second wardrobe. When d'Argent rabbits are young, they do not have the silver at the tips of their fur; their silver comes in at maturity (like for some humans, haha) and the fur keeps lightening as they age.
Keeping with the silver theme, meet Sylvia the Silver Fox, May's new rabbit! This breed is named after the silver fox of the Arctic because it has a similar type of fur: extremely dense, short fur that stands up straight in the direction it is brushed, which is unique among rabbits. The Silver Fox rabbit was developed in the US, probably from a combination of two very fitting rabbits for this capsule: the Checkered Giant rabbit (like Gina, this capsule's mascot) and the Champagne d'Argent (like Charlotte above). This was unintentional on my part, but sometimes you just can't beat serendipity, whether it's in building a wardrobe or a menagerie of rabbits.
These two rabbits have definitely added some variety to our capsule. It's interesting that despite the varied looks here--silvered, long-furred, black and white broken patterns--all these rabbits share the same basic black fur...and that seems very appropriate for this capsule. Both of our new rabbits are on the large side: 8-11 pounds for the Champagne d'Argent and 9-12 pounds for the Silver Fox. Polly the Polish in the center remains the only small rabbit.
Have you ever experimented with making bead jewelry? Or a new breed of rabbit :D?
In my next post, we will look at the May additions and two new rabbits for our second wardrobe: #2 Navy & Beige, Darcy.
I link up with:
Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge (2nd Monday; 3rd Thursday)
Mica at Away from the Blue (Mondays)
Debbie at My Random Musings (Mondays)
Leelo at Beauty by Miss L (Mondays)
Roxanne at Glass of Glam (Mondays)
Laura at I Do deClaire (Tuesdays)
Emma at Style Splash (Tuesdays)
Jess at Elegantly Dressed & Stylish (Tuesdays)
Gail at Is This Mutton? (Wednesdays)
Shelly at The Queen in Between (Wednesdays)
Jodie at Jodie's Touch of Style (Thursdays)
Carrie at Curly Crafty Mom (Thursdays)
Ada at Elegance and Mommyhood (Thursdays)
Jacqui at Mummabstylish (Thursdays)
Suzy at The Grey Brunette (Fridays)
Nancy at Nancy's Fashion Style (Fridays)
Michelle at My Bijou Life (Fridays)
Erika at A Little Bit of Everything (Fridays)
Rena at Fine Whatever (Saturdays)