Be an Elf (A clothes story)

December's coming. She doesn't have any exciting Christmas plans this year. Actually she's not expecting to go anywhere at all, or even to have company over. But she does own this red leather vest.

Red isn't one of her usual wardrobe colours, and in fact it clashes rather badly with some of the pinks and purples she usually wears. And, of course, a red vest is apt to get her asked, "Are you a Christmas elf?" Enough with the short jokes already.

But in December, she doesn't care. She rounds up ten other items of clothing:

Black jeans

Blue jeans

Leggings in a sort of brown-grey

Off-white cotton turtleneck

Grey short-sleeved t-shirt

Longer-style plum shirt

Jean-style Tencel shirt

Striped cardigan

Dark grey Revolve dress/tunic/top from Encircled

Teal green convertible shawl/poncho

(All items were thrifted except for the dress and the turtleneck.)

She also pulls out three scarves, a purse, and a brooch on a chain. (And some tights and shoes.)

Her only real rule is that she doesn't want to wear red with green, if at all possible. (Except for the scarves that combine both.) How many outfits can she make?

Shirt, vest, jeans

Dress, vest

T-shirt, jeans, poncho styled as wrap

Dress worn as top, jeans, vest

Shirt, turtleneck, vest, jeans

Turtleneck, vest, jeans

Plus a scarf

Dress, cardigan

Jean shirt, cardigan, jeans

Turtleneck, cardigan, jeans

Plus the jean shirt

Plum shirt, cardigan, jeans

Or with leggings

Dress as top, jeans, scarf

Shirt, jeans, scarf

Shirt over dress, scarf

Shirt over shirt, leggings

Shirt, scarf (pants or dress-as-skirt not shown)

Turtleneck, jeans, scarf as shawl

Dress, floral scarf

Turtleneck, jeans, poncho tied in front

Score so far: eleven pieces, twenty-one outfits (and you could probably make more).

What would stretch it out to fill ten more days of December?

She looks at her list and realizes that she doesn't have a long-sleeved t-shirt or top there, except for the dress which can be tucked up to be a top. She finds a green one with long sleeves. It can be worn with the pants, or under the jean shirt, although not so much with the poncho (it's more green than teal). So that would be good for another, say, three outfits.

(The green isn't quite as dull as it appears; it's one of those colours that this camera dislikes.)

She decides she wants another warm sweater, and she just happens to have a blue-and-grey cowl neck pullover that came her way recently at the thrift store. The sweater doesn't layer well (and the colour would look funny under the teal poncho), but she does have a lightweight grey poncho that could go over top if she wants to dress it up; plus the poncho itself works with other tops and the dress. So, at least five more outfits.

And after noticing that all the pants are jeans and leggings, she decides to throw in a pair of grey cords. It's not exactly dressy, but it's better than denim. That comes to 15 pieces of clothing, plus the scarves, shoes, etc.

Hmmm...two more days of December?

Oh, rules schmoolz. Red and green rock at Christmas time.