This spring I have continued to design paper bead bracelet sets to coordinate with particular print items (clothing or scarves) from my wardrobe or color combinations that I wear frequently. I'm not sure I want to count how many sets I've made so far, let alone admit it! OK, my curiosity got the best of me. I guessed 100 sets but it's actually almost 140!
Today I'm sharing a recent OOTD created around one of these inspiration pieces from my closet: an aqua swirl print jacket that I thrifted at Goodwill in 2018 for $5.24 (CJ Banks brand). This is one of my favorite print garments in my wardrobe because my favorite color is anything in the Blue-Green section of the color wheel. It's also an easy piece to pair items with due to the many blended shades of mint/aqua/green (which means almost anything in that general range of colors will coordinate) and the presence of two neutrals, black and beige. It is a nice weight for wearing spring through fall, and it has classic styling that can be dressed up or down.
I was happy to pull out this jacket and create a simple, cute late spring/early summer WFH outfit with it last month. I chose my mint lace-front short-sleeved T to pick up the light aqua color in the print (a classic spring color) and to add some lovely texture to the look. It was still cool enough for jeans, so I selected my skinny ankle jeans, rolled up once at the hem. Isn't it amazing how the addition of a structured jacket can elevate a t-shirt + jeans combo into a smart casual look?
With the arrival of warmer weather (i.e., the end of the snow season), my layered necklaces come out to play again. I used a very simple layered necklace formula here: (faux) pearls + short chain with charms + long chain with tassel. With so much color in the outfit already, I used these neutral necklaces to add some lightness, brightness, and shine to the look.
I wore my comfy Skechers knit loafers in a fun black and white geometrical pattern for some low-key print mixing in the outfit. The jacket doesn't contain white, but with the white pearls at my neck, these shoes related well to the jacket + necklace combination at the top of the outfit. I really like that these shoes were knit in such a way that there are a couple high contrast areas but the rest is a more subtle black and white pattern that almost looks like a solid at a distance (aka a "false plain").
Now for the pièce de résistance...my new DIY bracelet set. Does it coordinate with this jacket astonishingly well or what?! I could not possibly be more pleased with how it turned out! I already had the gold bead bracelet (from Amazon) and the DIY black and mixed blue-green bracelets, so I only had to make the two paper bead bracelets to complete the set. I purposely designed the two paper bead bracelets to use black and white, no metallic spacer beads, so that they could be easily paired with either warm (gold, etc.) or cool (silver, etc.) metals in a stack.
In designing this set, I picked out the colors aqua, green, and black from the jacket as the main colors for my palette. I added white as a secondary color because it lent some lightness to the colorway...it's also a color I frequently wear with the jacket (a white T, pearl necklace, etc.). These created a color combination that is relatively easy for me to find in magazines because aqua/light blue, green, and dark brown/black are common colors for nature photos featuring sky (and/or water) and trees.
The first bracelet (with the black spacers) was made from this gorgeous peacock tail photograph accompanying a "peafowl in paradise" article. The colors here were a slam dunk match for my jacket's print, and I loved the addition of bits of yellow and orange...the complementary colors definitely bring extra energy to the page. Once I cut the triangular strips, I decided that the proportion of dark brown/black from the plain areas of the feathers was dominating a bit much, so I simply edged each strip with an aqua marker to bolster that main color. In some spots, I added a bit of orange marker instead because I wanted hints of that to come through on the beads. Because the marker has some transparency in the lighter colors, it didn't completely cover the colors/prints underneath; it just made the paper more colorful. The beads rolled up beautifully! I added black spacer beads to complete the bracelet.
For the second paper bead bracelet, I chose a full-page nature photograph with the sky/water/trees combination I mentioned earlier. I liked that there were some very light aqua-to-white areas in the image because I wanted my second bracelet to use white spacer beads and to have an overall lighter/brighter appearance than the peacock feather bracelet. I cut and rolled the strips (no additional coloring) into beads, very pleased with how they turned out. They have a lightness and delicacy that nicely balances the darker beads in the other bracelet, and I love that you can see that the green areas are leaves when looking at the beads up close. These beads just have a wonderful airiness and a delightfully spring-like color scheme.
I loved the colorful print jacket that Nicole featured in this post about "why a wild print jacket is the best for maximizing your looks." Her post definitely reminded me of my aqua swirl print jacket and how surprisingly versatile it is.
Do you like wearing (lightweight) jackets in warm weather? Would you wear a print jacket? Would you prefer a neutral print jacket or a colorful one?
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