Wardrobe Architect, Week Six

This week's exercise is to organise last week's colour palette into neutrals (buy lots), nearly neutrals (supplementary colours), and statement colours (a few pops). I'm tempted to paint-chip them all as Sarai suggests to make my own wallet colour palette.

Neutrals: Camel, black, white, heather grey, and natural or mid-brown leather, dark-wash denim

Nearly Neutrals: Navy, wine, tomato red, shell pink, deep pine green, navy and chambray blue

Statement Colours: Coral, goldenrod yellow, rich orange, emerald, royal and dark teal blue, summer-sky blue

Metallics: Yellow gold, silver/white gold, and brass

Wardrobe Architect, Week Five

"Undoubtedly, there are colors that you feel naturally drawn to. Some colors just make you happy, some feel exciting, others make you feel calm and peaceful. What we’re going to do today is start collecting those colors. Don’t worry about how to incorporate them into your wardrobe yet. We’re going to get to that next week. For now, just think about what you love and what you wear... Review the words you came up with, along with your style moodboard or inspiration. Begin pulling out the colors you associate with these words and images. To do this, you can list the color in text form (“ballet pink,” “scarlet red,” etc.) or use a color picking tool like the palette in Photoshop. Or, see the resources section below for more color tools you can try."

I'd already done this and it really helps keep my wardrobe cohesive. I know I'm an Autumn if we're talking seasons, so I lean to warm versions of any cool colours, but I don't do the brown/cream thing; I much prefer black and true white. Here are my colours:

• Coral, wine or tomato red (i.e warm, not cool-based red).
• Shell pink
• Goldenrod yellow and rich orange
• Deep pine green and emerald
• Rich blues: navy, royal, and that blue that's almost dark teal but is still definitely blue
• Classic mid-blues: chambray blue, dark wash denim, warm summer-sky blue
• Camel
• Black
• White

Wardrobe Architect, Week Four

"Start with the shapes you rated last week and pick out the ones you rated highly. You can feel free to add to this list if there are other types of shapes you love and wear often... Now start brainstorming how you would combine these favorite shapes with other items to create balanced silhouettes.

A silhouette either covers or emphasizes different parts of your body. It does this either through ease (how tight/loose or full/tailored it is) or through length (how much it covers up)... I think each of us has a comfort zone with how much of our bodies we want to show and which parts we like to emphasize. our silhouettes should reflect these preferences.

Look over your shapes and ratings from last week. Start combining them and list out 5-10 silhouettes that you believe would make good outfit formulas for you. If you live in a place with dramatic seasonal changes, you might want to make a warm weather list and a cold weather list."

Cold Weather
1) Fitted v-neck/boatneck with straight-leg jeans
2) Button shirt with pencil skirt
3) Fitted pullover sweater with skinny jeans
4) Shirtdress or straight tunic with leggings or tights
5) No-waist dress with tights
6) Mid-calf boots, jazz shoes, or simple flats
7) Cardigans

Warm Weather
1) Relaxed tee shirt or simple tank with shorts
2) Simple tunic dress
3) Fitted no-waist dress with straight neckline and straps
4) Relaxed tee shirt with skinny jeans

More Reasons to Avoid Fast Fashion

Two fabulous blog posts from Shannon Whitehead, a sustainable fashion consultant, on the ways fast, disposable fashion is bad for people, bad for economies, and bad for our environment. And some ways you can help bring change: buy local, buy indie, buy used, buy less. Sounds like a good mantra for the October Dress Project.

Wardrobe Architect, Week Three

This week is about exploring shape; that is, identifying what basic types of garments make you feel comfortable and which you should not waste your time with. I loved this week! Just rating different garments shapes to figure out which you are happy in. The worksheet is here and I'd recommend doing this one even if you don't do the longer, more involved ones from the previous weeks.

Basically, here's what I came away with.

-I like tops/blouses/shirts that are somewhat fitted to somewhat loose (more often fitted) and long to hip-length in the body.
-Shirtdresses are my right up favourite. And tunics, I love tunics.
-Garments that cinch at my natural waistline or have no waistline are my favourite, but I do sometimes wear garments with an empire waist.
-I like pants to have a medium, straight fit but will sometimes wear skinnies (flare is not my style) and absolutely hate low-rise pants.
-For jackets and outerwear, I like a fitted shape that hits at mid-thigh or at tunic length.
-I like dresses that are fitted or straight, no longer than knee-length and no shorter than mid-thigh, with straight or pencil bottoms (which are also the only kind of skirts which suit me).
-I like both fitted and drapey cardigans which hit about tunic or hip height.
-For necklines, boatneck, crew neck, and shallow v- and u-necks are my favourite. I will sometimes wear square or cowl neck but not often. Turtlenecks are disastrous.
-For sleeves I adore 3/4, a fitted full-length (no bell sleeves!), and like t-shirts and tanks, but not spaghetti strap. I don't like cap sleeves much, and don't mind above/at the elbow one way or the other.

I sort of knew this already, but the worksheet helped solidify this in my mind and will affect how quickly I shop, I think, (whether window shopping on the Internet or real shopping!)