How many colours do you have in YOUR wardrobe?

I am a great fan of The Vivienne Files, and reading Janice's blog is helping me build a more coordinated wardrobe, however I was slightly worried by the implications of one of her recent postings: Two sides of the whole colour system question. Why not click on the link and see what you think of her post?

I started off nodding in agreement at her good advice to have three neutrals for the basics in your wardrobe plus three to six accent colours.  That makes sense, doesn't it?  Currently my neutrals are navy, black and brown, though I am looking at phasing out the black, as it's not as flattering now that I am getting older.  I have decided to replace it with either grey or camel as I already have a few clothes in both colours  Three neutrals should be fine for me, so long as I can decide between grey and camel! Grey would go well with navy, however camel would be a better choice with brown.  OK.  Let's leave that one for the moment. I know I can whittle it down to three neutrals if I think about it.  More or less. Did someone mention white? I really don't have much white if you ignore striped tops and polka dots and don't count my grey and white top.

So now, what about the accent colours? I immediately realised that three wouldn't be enough so I will allow myself six accent colours.  I am going to have a beautifully coordinated wardrobe with my three neutrals (once I decide on which of the six will be my three colours) with my six accent colours to liven it up.  Janice is quite right that this is the way forward for those of us who are trying to create a chic wardrobe.

Navy, grey, brown and black basics

I looked at my wardrobe and could immediately spot the following: a lot of red clothes and accessories; loads of green (a cardigan, many tops, a dress and a handbag) however green will be fashionable in the spring, so that's good; I realised that there were plenty of purple tops, shoes and jewellery too; my new deep pink jeans are almost red, so maybe I can add them to my red pile(?): there are two coral cardigans which look good with my coral and white dress; a pretty yellow and white top, and a few blue jumpers - oh dear that makes seven colours already.  My heart was sinking, as I knew there were other colours in my wardrobe.

What about turquoise?  It's another favourite colour of mine, and I have some lovely turquoise tops, necklaces and bracelets, which I enjoy wearing.  Does turquoise count as blue? I certainly hope so! My new orange scarf has to be included - but isn't coral close to orange?  Could orange and coral be merged?

Pink, blue, green and purple

Yellow, red, coral and turquoise

My problem is that I like all five of my possible basic colours (not including the black) and cannot decide on which six accent colours I like best from the nine that are lurking in my wardrobe.  Then I realised that I could have both a summer and a winter wardrobe, which means I can keep all fourteen of my favourite colours. What a result!

My winter wardrobe will have basics of navy, brown and camel.  The accent colours will be red, green, orange, turquoise, purple and blue as this allows me to include my long-sleeved tops.  For my summer wardrobe the basics will be navy, grey and white.  The accent colours will be pink, coral, yellow, turquoise, red and green, as I have several short-sleeved tops in those colours.  Problem solved!

So do you have an incredibly well-organised, colour-coordinated, minimalist chic wardrobe á la Janice?  Or is it more of a mixed bag of assorted colours and styles that only go together by chance - a rainbow wardrobe like mine?

As it's almost New Year, I have decided that one of my resolutions will be to buy less but shop wisely so that by the end of 2013, hopefully, I will have a small collection of good quality clothes that all go together beautifully.  Watch this space!