Today I am sharing two outfits from my fall/winter capsule wardrobe that incorporate cheerful magenta pieces along with capsule items from my 7 color palette. You might think that 7 colors would be enough for anyone, but shades of vibrant pink have become the de facto eighth color in my palette. I really like bright pink with black and white for winter, but for these outfits, I am featuring slightly different color combinations.
My first outfit is a white-with-bright color scheme dominated by magenta and cobalt blue. I first paired the striped shirt and blue skirt from my capsule, and when considering a topper piece, I decided to pick up the pink in the stripes with the magenta quilted vest. I love many variations on the pink + blue combo for summer outfits, so I thought I'd try this bright and cheerful version for the grey days of winter.
I had planned out a few necklaces to layer for this look, but when I had the other pieces of the outfit on, I decided that I really didn't need anything more added to it. The saturated colors and the layered garments had enough interest that I thought the necklaces would get lost in it. Did it feel strange not to wear a necklace? YES. But do I regret leaving them off? No.
I think one reason we don't see a lot of white-with-bright outfits, particular skirt/dress ones, in the winter is that it can be hard to know what color to choose for tights and boots. Darker neutrals lend themselves to this a lot more easily than white. I mean, are we going to wear white tights and boots? I think bare legs and white boots can be a cute look (though I am not convinced white boots would fit my style) but with tights...I don't know. But rather than over-think it, we can just add some black tights and boots to the colorful outfit and move on with our day.
I was happy to debut four new bracelets in my all-DIY beaded stretch bracelet stack {tutorial}. (No paper beads this time? I know, it's unusual!) I had bolstered my meager supply of bright pink and magenta beads, so I turned some of the new purchases into bracelets. From the top, we have: 6mm magenta wood beads with silver disk spacers; 8mm pink/black fire agate beads; 8mm magenta/white glass beads; and 8mm pink stone (more agate?) beads with round gold spacers. (I had made the crackle glass + black bicone bracelet before, but I liked how it worked in this stack.)
I made the earrings with white, black, and magenta beads to match a magenta polka dot scarf. It's funny, I purposely picked all round beads to continue the "dot" theme, but the dots on the scarf aren't actually round! I guess we can just call the roundness of the beads a "unifying element" for the earring design instead.
My second outfit (#31 for the capsule) adds both magenta and grey to the capsule color palette, but it was created around the black and white tipped blazer from the capsule (which I love). Because this jacket has a strong "false plain" appearance, looking grey instead of a small black and white pattern, I thought I'd try it with my grey skirt. Stunningly, we had such a warm front at the end of January that I was able to wear a short-sleeved magenta T-shirt under the blazer.
Even though the temperatures didn't demand a scarf, I did wear one to pull the colors together and add some more interest to the look. I styled it in the "tucked into the neck of a jacket and let hang" method (Method #1 in this post) so that the scarf framed the cute 70s style articulated owl pendant.
With the grey skirt, grey tights were an easy choice. I took advantage of the warmer day to wear grey-and-black leopard print wedges instead of boots.
This all-DIY bracelet stack was built around one of my oldest paper bead bracelet sets in shades of pastel blue and pink with black and white (see set 2 in this post for design details and page-to-bead photos). I liked the idea of playing up some of the softer hues in the butterfly print scarf with this set. And as a happy coincidence, the paper tube bead bracelet has a butterfly bead as its focal.
I made very simple beads-on-a-stick stack earrings incorporating several colors from the scarf: beige, light blue, dark grey, white, black, and bright pink. There was nothing special in the order of the colors on the earring; I just picked beads in my desired colors and stacked them by size with the smallest at the bottom and largest at the bottom. This "graduated bead stack" style earring is extremely easy to make (a great use of bead soup!) and is a nice way to quickly put together earrings to complete a jewelry set or to coordinate with clothes or accessories in your outfit. It's 100% beginner friendly, yet I do see experienced designers on YouTube come back to it again and again as a simple but effective option.
These two outfits added two garments and 5 accessories to the pink module that supplements my capsule wardrobe (indicated with orange stars).
To the neutral accessory capsule, we added the pewter owl pendant. (The tall black boots and leopard wedges were already in the capsule from previous outfits.)
The magenta color and butterfly motif in these outfits are definitely putting me in mind of spring! Minnesota is still far removed from the springtime beauty of colorful buzzing gardens, but I can channel a bit of that vibe with my outfits at least. And I can look at this lovely insect-and-flower photo from Zoo Tour 2017 and dream...
Do you often wear a top/dress without a necklace or scarf? When you wear jewelry, do you gravitate toward pieces that coordinate with your outfit or jewelry that pops against it? Do you still wear magenta even though "Viva Magenta" is no longer the Pantone color of the year or have you moved on?
Blogs I link up with are listed here.