When the scarves for the 2022 capsule wardrobes were introduced at the Vivienne Files, of course it's interesting to see what color combinations we will be following for the year. The choices are quite lovely, and it makes a lot of sense to dedicate a wardrobe to each of the most common neutrals. It's going to be fun watching the capsules develop. And yet I was a smidge disappointed that there is so much overlap in accent colors in the color palettes.
#1 - Black with beige, cognac, and green
#2 - Beige with ivory, pink and green
#3 - Grey with pink, light blue, and soft green
#4 - Olive with teal, duck egg blue, and yellow
#5 - Navy with white, soft green, and pink
#6 - Brown with white, aqua, and yellow
Four wardrobes that include a shade of green, five if you include the olive one, is quite a lot. Two wardrobes feature the not-very-favored accent color yellow. The use of pink in three wardrobes could make sense given that one is a bright pink and the other two are soft, muted pink/lavender/lilac versions. But there's a whole range of color wheel colors across Orange, Red-Orange, Red, Red-Violet, Violet, and Blue-Violet that are missing. I feel a bit for readers with vivid, high-contrast Winter coloring because the black based wardrobe uses very warm accent colors (which is interesting because Janice has high contrast coloring herself) and we're not really seeing any of the jewel tone colors.
As a person with coloring that slants cool, light, and muted, I could follow either the grey wardrobe or the navy wardrobe without difficulty. Right now, the two seem quite similar, but I hope that with time, they will differentiate themselves. But I wasn't very excited by either of those color palettes...maybe because last year's stellar Mountain View wardrobe got the soft colors so right.
So instead I turned to a color combination that I sadly had been unable to fit into any of the 6 Scarves 2021 wardrobes despite it being one of my very favorites:
Why yes...the color combination of navy, white, and red does look like the French flag!
When I shared a round-up of 14 red, white, and blue outfits around July 4, a few of them had a lighter/brighter blue color, but most featured navy as the form of blue. I think it's a great, classic color combination that works in every season.
With those colors in mind, I knew I wanted to use this scarf as the basis for my 2022 color palette. Pink is another great color with navy and white, so I'm happy with that as another accent color. The beige stripe is less of a slam-dunk: it brings in the possibility for various tan/stone/cream colors to fit into the wardrobe, but it's not a go-to color for me. I would find it easier to work with grey as the secondary neutral instead of beige, but I'm going to try this out and see what happens!
With the scarf and color palette in place, all that's missing is our rabbit mascot! This one was an easy decision I have no reservations about whatsoever. Meet Rea, the red-eyed white Mini Satin! She livens up her silky white fur with pops of pink and red. I struggle to pair pink and red in an outfit, so I will be looking to Rea for inspiration.
With our guideposts in place, let's get started building this wardrobe!
I decided this time around that I would hew more closely to the wardrobe-building process Janice presents over the 12 months of 2022 than I did with the 6 Scarves 2021 project. I've chosen a color palette that's entirely independent of hers but am curious to see how her process (or at least a version of it, since we probably all customize it to fit our lives and preferences) plays out. Once again I am building this wardrobe from my own closet, so some of these items will have appeared in the 6 Scarves 2021 project, including the inspiration scarf itself. But there are other navy + red items that did not make it into any of the 2021 capsules that you will see this year.
Janice started out all her wardrobes with five basic, neutral garments that can form the foundation of the capsule. Along with the scarf, she selected a t-shirt, a cardigan, a pullover sweater, and two pairs of pants. Here are my choices, which you probably notice cover a range of versions of navy. The long-sleeved T is a bit of a bright navy, the boyfriend cardigan is a dark navy, the sweater is a dull navy, the pants are a slightly light/faded navy, and the skinny jeans are a medium-dark wash denim.
Navy long-sleeved seamed T - JCP - 2X - $9.10 - 9/2017
Navy boyfriend cardigan - Loft - XXL - $29.70 - 9/2017
Navy pullover sweater - Karen Scott/Macy's - 2X - $17.99 - 12/2019
Navy pants - thrifted, CJ Banks - 22W - $5.59 - 2/2020
Skinny ankle jeans - ana/JCP - 22W - $26.39 - 9/2019
Some people are driven crazy by varying shades of navy, but I think they are quite easy to wear together. As long as we aren't trying to wear a proper suit, which consists of a skirt/pants and jacket that are cut from the same exact fabric, I see no reason we can't blend various similar shades of navy together in an outfit. It's even easier when you have pieces in different textures coming together. It's funny, I can be something of a stickler about various shades of other colors (though I am working on being less so), but where navy is concerned, I'm happy mixing them up...which is convenient because navy/denim is my favorite neutral.
For January, Janice added 6 items to each wardrobe: a top and a cardigan in an accent color (or two); shoes, boots, and a handbag in the base neutral; and a pair of earrings. Well, as you can see, I've already varied from her template just a bit! For the top and cardigan, this was by necessity...I absolutely wanted to add this red T as the top, but I don't have a red cardigan that coordinates with it (which I'm not super-happy about because I love me a modern "twin set" look, but I'm not dissatisfied enough to seek out a partner for it). So instead of an accent color cardigan, I substituted a striped one, which I think will work quite well with my navy + white theme. I did follow along in adding navy suede ankle boots, navy suede loafers, and a pair of earrings. I couldn't resist picking these cute bunny faux pearl studs that Janice featured on a blog post quite a while back...and which I purchased immediately upon seeing them (for a very reasonable price at Amazon, I might add). I thought that instead of a handbag, I would substitute a couple bracelets, since that's become a must-have for me over the past year and I'm still in a stay-at-home mode. But then I realized, Wait, I do have a bag that would be great in this wardrobe! It even fits with the rabbit theme! So I put in my amazing rabbit tote bag that was a gift from my husband for Valentine's Day 2019. It's black rather than navy, but I think it will still work very well here.
Candy red long-sleeved seamed T - JCP - 2X - $11.24 - 9/2017
Navy/white striped cardigan - thrifted, CJ Banks - 3X - $5.99 - 12/2018
Navy ankle boots - Seychelles/Zappos - $140.00 - 10/2014
Silver bracelets - Amazon - ?
Navy/silver bracelet - CJ Banks - ?
Navy suede loafers - Hush Puppies - $66.00 - 12/2020
Faux pearl/gold rabbit studs - Amazon - ?
Rabbit tote bag - Kate Spade - gift
Here are all the pieces together. I think we're off to a great start! And it's going to be very easy to put some initial outfits together with these items.
Outfit #1 is an inner column of color with the fun striped cardigan over the top. The bunny tote bag looks terrific...no worries from me about the navy + black here. It does feel very strange to have neither a necklace or scarf, but I didn't want to add the inspiration scarf to every single outfit this month! (A light pink scarf would be a really nice way to repeat the pink ear color, though.)
Outfit #2 is another column of navy, this time jazzed up with the colorful inspiration scarf. The bunny studs [which is a term that brings up a hilarious mental image; my rabbit Leo definitely thought he was one] are a cute addition.
Outfit #3 has the strong navy + white + red color scheme going with the red T-shirt. I'd repeat the red color with vivid lipstick.
Finally, Outfit #4 puts a modern "twin set" with the jeans for a trio of matching/blending top, bottom, and topper. I'm visualizing the floral scarf tied in a faux-finity style. And isn't the tote bag adorable even from the back with the poofy rabbit tail?
I know I've mentioned it before, but it always strikes me how adding blue denim to a navy-based capsule just doesn't give us the same visual variety as adding blue denim to a capsule built around a different neutral. This is especially true for me because I tend to wear darker washes of blue denim. You could switch the jeans and pants around in all those outfits and they wouldn't look that much different; at most there's just a difference in their formality.
For today's "how I wore it" focus I am featuring the inspiration scarf for this wardrobe. It will be interesting to see how many of these items end up in the capsule because every one of them would fit right in!
If you were to pick a favorite color combination (a favorite; I know the favorite might be too hard), what would it be? Do you have a scarf or other item (or multiple items!) with a print in that combination? Do you like wearing red and pink together? (With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I'm guessing those colors are crossing our minds more than usual.)
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