Weekend Wardrobe: My Neutral Colors for Cool Versus Warm Weather (Plus Accent Colors/Prints)

From Women Fitness

Discovering The Vivienne Files blog a couple of years ago was a revelation to me when it comes to apparel and fashion.  I had never really thought too much about how I chose clothing before - mostly I based my decisions on availability, the best price, and whatever fit adequately.  There was no organized thought involved, and I sometimes struggled to put outfits together.  After reading The Vivienne Files posts for a while, I finally decided to give some thought to what and why I was buying.

I realized almost immediately that, although I admire those who can stick with a limited color palette, that technique would never work for me.  I love color, and will wear just about any hue as a top or an accent piece.  However, I like to mostly stick with neutrals for bottoms as well as second layers such as cardigans and sweaters, so I decided to attempt to limit my color choices for those pieces.

Despite my love of all color certain hues are clear favorites, while there are a few I almost never wear even if I own items in those colors.  I prefer warm shades to cool ones, and tend to avoid wearing navy, grey, and pastels.  I realized that I never wanted to wear those colors not because I dislike them, but because they did nothing to enhance my own warm, deep coloring.  I was reminded of this just the other day when I donned barn clothes that included a navy t-shirt with narrow white stripes.  Looking in the mirror, it was clear that blue jeans and this t-shirt made me look rather invisible, despite my strong natural coloring.  Navy blue with a small amount of white is not a color combination that works for me.

I am attracted to warmer and/or darker hues as my basic neutrals.  I used to purchase mainly black as my neutral color, because it was so easy to find and I can wear it, but I have never really liked black as I consider it to be a harsh and rather grim color.  I finally decided to expand my neutral palette to two sets of four colors, one for cool weather and one for warm.

For my cool weather neutrals, I selected dark brown, olive, rust/copper, and black.  I wear pants as bottoms pretty much all of the time, so below is an example of pants that I either own or that are similar to a pair that I already have:

Clockwise from top left: Coldwater Creek Pinwale Stretch Corduroys in Brown; Coldwater Creek  Knit Denim Straight-Leg Jeans in Copper; L.L. Bean Women's Original Fit Wrinkle-Free Bayside Pants in Black; L.L. Bean Women's Original Fit Comfort Waist Pleated Wrinkle-Free Bayside Pants in Olive (no longer available).

One of my quirks is that I absolutely cannot wear black in the summer.  I makes me feel hot, no matter how lightweight the fabric might be, and I loathe being hot (not very adaptive here in Georgia, but that's just the way I am).  For warm weather, I switch out black for denim blue, preferably not in heavyweight material, and in a medium shade (I do not like very dark blue denim as it looks too much like navy).  Of course I do not wear corduroy pants when the temperature is warm, but I will wear summer jeans in a lighter shade of brown.  I also switch out the rust/copper color for light tan shades, as the former just seems too autumnal to me.  Here are my options for summer neutrals:

Clockwise from top left: Coldwater Creek Hidden Stretch-Waist Chinos in Washed Sand (currently unavailable); L.L. Bean Women's  Relaxed Fit Double L Jeans in Stonewashed; Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda Stretch-Fit Jeans in Cocoa; L.L. Bean Women's Original Fit Comfort Waist Pleated Wrinkle-Free Bayside Pants in Olive (no longer available).

When it comes to tops, my mainstays are mostly solid-colored t-shirts, and I have to admit that I own an embarrassingly large number of them in a dizzying array of colors.  I have long-sleeve and a few three-quarter sleeve t-shirts for cool weather, and short-sleeve or sleeveless ones for warmer temperatures.  I try to justify my t-shirt habit by mostly purchasing well-made but inexpensive tops, and rationalizing that as these shirts wear out they move on to become barn shirts, which always need to be replaced frequently.

I tend to avoid white and very light colors, because they are always stain magnets for me.  A case in point - I had a doctor appointment earlier in the week and chose to wear a cream-colored top.  Before the day ended it had ink stains on it (fortunately stain remover worked its magic).  I almost always try to wear the few light-colored tops I own as layers under sweaters or cardigans.

Even though I own tops in many different colors, I do have preferences, namely shades of red and turquoise like the shirts below (red tends to be more of a cool-weather color for me, as like black it makes me feel too hot when the temperatures rise):

Left: Duluth Trading Company Women's Long Tail T Short Sleeve Shirt in Aquamarine; Right:  Duluth Trading Company Women's Long Tail T Long Sleeve Crew Neck Shirt in Barn Red.

I have a modest collection of button-down shirts, but I select those more carefully as fit can be problematic thanks to my broad shoulders.  I also have a small subset of print shirts.  When I purchase print tops, I try to find those in patterns I love (such as animal-themed patterns or very narrow black pinstripes) and which include colors that work with most if not all of the neutral bottoms I wear.  The blouses shown below are perfect examples:

Clockwise from top left: L.L. Bean Women's Duck Print Signature Lightweight Flannel Shirt in Darkest Gray; Coldwater Creek Owl About You Tunic (no longer available); Drake's for J. Crew Classic Popover Shirt in Horseback Rider Florals; Talbot's The Perfect Long-Sleeve Shirt in Hunt Print (no longer available); Center: AliExpress Women's Sleeveless Blouse in Black Pinstripe (no longer available).

Well, I could go on, but enough about my wardrobe preferences for now.  This was supposed to be a short post but has ended up being longer than usual!  I will be out of town over the weekend and will not take my computer, but I should be back in plenty of time to keep to my regular posting schedule.  Next week I will talk about apparel that I avoid, not because there is anything wrong with them in particular, but because of personal preference or the fact that they just do not work for my body type.  This could get fun!