Designated (Fall 2022)

Here's some colour inspiration for this fall. Yes, you've seen it here before.

Sonatina Per Due, by Rosina Wachtmeister, poster found at a flea market

And there's this:

Vintage scarf and beads, same flea market

And one more:

An orchid which happens to be in full bloom right now.

First Round: Thinking it Through

She blew the clothes budget on one pair of pants. Which she needed, truly. And she decided to buy something Canadian-made and sustainable, that would go with all kinds of things.

Duffield Design Stovepipe Pants in Charcoal

But she won't be buying much else this season! So what's already in the closet? An immediate strikeout: the fleece cardigan that she thought she would match the pants. It's dark, it's heavy, it's got a lot of  ribbing on the collar and cuffs. She might feel differently about it come snow and January, but for now, nope. 

But all is not lost. She recently thrifted this grey jacket, which is a little more interesting:

And there's a cardigan she's had for awhile, so she's good for grey layers.

She considers this t-shirt dress, which she often passes over in the closet because that's a lot of dark grey all at once, especially in summer.

But she tries it on, and then she remembers why she thrifted it in the first place: it actually looks better on a person than it does on the hanger. Plus, the ruching down one side makes it reasonable to wear hiked up as a tunic, or even a top, without feeling like her clothes are folded inside out. Plus again, the dress is the same shade as her new pants. AND...she can wear them together with the lighter grey cardigan.

Not too exciting as is, but she'd be totally up for wearing it, say, with a scarf.

She adds in a short-sleeved "lilac" sweater (very pale lilacs!), and a white shirt that she just found on the thrift store dollar rack. Plus (if you notice the photos above), she owns a jersey tunic (almost a dress), and a long-sleeved t-shirt, both in garnet red/cherry pink.

So she's already halfway to a Vivienne Files Weekly Timeless Wardrobe.

Second Round: What Else?

What's still missing? She thinks about the weather, and what she will be doing during the week. So far, the colours feel a bit dark; she would like it all to look a little pinker, a little lighter, a little more like happy faces playing oboes or recorders or whatever those things are.

But this is where she runs into trouble, as she starts adding more possibilities to the pile. If you have something that goes with something else, shouldn't you keep that in the rotation? Does this sweater work with those pants?  But then she would probably want to add a skirt that also matches the sweater, and so on, and that's not good. 

Well, it's good that her clothes seem to go together and she likes them all, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't curate just enough of everything to be sane and sensible. She looks up synonyms for curated, because that's such an overused word. Prioritized, okay. Tabularized? Not really. How about Designated? "To have set aside or reserved for a particular purpose." Yes, that works. She designates nineteen pieces of clothing as frontrunners for the next three months. Some of them will be worn only in the early fall days, and others won't come out until the temperature drops, but they'll all be on standby.

Here's the list:

Pale lilac sweater, short sleeves (thrifted)

Black jersey top, 3/4 sleeves (hand-me-over from daughter)

Garnet-red t-shirt, long sleeves (thrifted)

Cherry  tunic top, long gathered sleeves (thrifted)

White shirt with ribbon trim (etc.)

Pink and white oversized shirt

Grey cowlneck sweater

Plum turtleneck sweater

Off-white linen V-neck pullover, from her summer clothes

Off-white mockneck pullover, for colder weather

Grey and burgundy cardigan

Grey cardigan

Dark grey moto-style jacket

Charcoal knit pants

Black jeans

Black midi skirt

Grey t-shirt dress 

Grey sweater dress, for colder weather

Berry-coloured jersey dress

Third Round: The Rest

She needs some clothes for just hanging out in, which is, actually, a lot of the time for her. Also, the list so far is short on pants, so she needs to add more of those. (On the wish list: a pair of cords.)

Off-white V-neck t-shirt, short sleeves, thrifted to replace one that she ruined by washing it with something that leaked dye all over it. Luckily, plain t-shirts aren't hard to find.

Magenta t-shirt, short sleeves

Grey-blue ribbed t-shirt, long sleeves

Orchid zippered sweatshirt (photo above)

Grey and navy leggings

Blue jeans

White and grey poncho sweater

Maybe a different colour sometimes? She's fond of teal and green, and she has a pair of teal boots that are at their best in the fall.

Green t-shirt, long sleeves

Teal sweatshirt

Green handknit cardigan (vintage, from antiques market)

Teal jersey blazer

 
Teal jersey dress

And she might as well count coats and jackets.

Jean jacket

 
Purple vintage ultrasuede coat

 
Winter jacket with zip-out lining (so she can wear it before the snow comes)

(Total items of clothing: 35)

Choosing Accessories

OPI Nature Strong nail lacquer in "Knowledge is Flower"

Scarves

Shoes and Boots

Purses

She's a little bit mad at herself, because a few days ago she saw a nice grey purse at the antiques market, but she wasn't sure about it, and when she went back a couple of days later, it (unlike the Turtles Purse) had disappeared. So for now she'll be sticking to her burgundy and pink-ish options.

Jewelry

Sophisticated Lynx bracelet set, from Fierce Lynx Designs: red garnets, freshwater shell beads, dyed grey jade, and purple aventurine.

Hats and Belts

  

 

Embossed purple belt from an antiques market

A Few Outfits

I am grateful, as always, for the things I've learned from The Vivienne Files. And if anyone doesn't know by now, #Project333 comes from Courtney Carver's Be More With Less.

Last updated Sept 1st, 2022