Hi Imogen,
I´m a big fan of your blog, and I´ve read all of your books 🙂 I hope it´s alright if I ask you some style advice 🙂
I´m a petite (5´2´´) figure of 8 with a balanced, short mid body. I have slightly warm coloring, dark blond hair and blue green eyes, and I´m a classic-feminine personality style (classic in cuts, feminine/classic in colours and feminine in clothing materials – think cashmere – my favourite 🙂 I´m also a jeans girl – here in Norway business casual (including jeans) is the standard clothing option unless you work in finance (which I do not). I´m also a busy mom of two boys aged six and four – and because my youngest has cerebral palsy and has to be carried around a lot + I play with him on the floor, skirts are often difficult.
I love the idea of the capsule wardrobe, but I´m finding it hard to combine that with the principle of a column of colour (which I would love to do to give me those extra visual inches). Could you do a post about how to combine the capsule wardrobe with the column of colour?
With love from Norway,
Jasmine
Wardrobe capsules are just a formula for finding a bunch of clothing in colours that work together and can be easily mixed and matched. One of the benefits of having a colour analysis is that you will find that automatically your wardrobe has this function when you choose colours from your palette as they are designed to work harmoniously and easily be mixed with each other.
A column of colour can be created in two ways:
- Through the centre of your outfit – so find a top and bottom of similar colour and value (that’s the technical colour word for depth of colour)
- Through the outside of your outfit – a suit is an easy example of this, but you can create it simply just by choosing a cardigan or jacket that is a similar colour to your trousers or skirt.
Don’t forget that if you want the most elongation, you need to continue the unbroken line of colour through your feet – so wear shoes that are either a similar colour to your bottom (or your version of nude if you’re wearing a skirt and no tights), or go slightly darker (won’t draw attention the way a lighter colour will).
If you really want to stick with always wearing a column of colour, you won’t find that your capsule will be as interchangeable as if you don’t, but you can get many outfits still from working with these principles.
More posts on Wardrobe Capsules
This is great to see both concepts together – but which colours would you use to work around a cool colouring? In neutrals and accents,to replace beiges and browns in this example. Thanks for any tips on this.
Cool neutrals to work around include;
Navy
Charcoal
Shades of Grey
Rose Beige
Ideally, check out the posts on Neutrals to go with your hair colour that I’ve written – that will give you lots of ideas.
Thank you for putting this together- very helpful to see .
I have a question about wearing skinny jeans, ( straight jeans in my case ) during summer. In winter, to balance top heavy upper H body you suggested wearing heavier shoes such as boots. What can be worn during the summer?
I tried dark neutral ballet flats, but I looked a bit off balanced. Perhaps it should be bright coloured ballets flats ?
Please help.
Thank you
Irene
Thank you Imogen!