Accessories for your capsule wardrobe: shape, size and contrast

My previous posts on accessories have covered what I consider to be the main criteria when choosing accessories for your capsule wardrobe: colour and personality. However, as I hinted last time, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration.

If your face and your features are rounded and you choose accessories with straight, sharp lines, they might not flatter you. I'm fairly lucky in this respect as I have combination features, however I'm still better wearing necklaces, for example, that are a mixture of round and sharp shapes and handbags that aren't totally square or round. The one shown below has straight edges, so isn't ideal.

I'm petite, so large handbags tend to dominate me. If you're taller than me, or big-boned, you will probably look better if you choose larger accessories rather than delicate pieces. You can also choose bigger, bolder patterns, which would overwhelm me and other smaller women. In the photo below I'm carrying a large bag that doesn't particularly flatter me, however sometimes you have to be practical - and this bag is ideal when travelling as I can put so much into it!

In the photo above I am wearing both dark and light neutrals (with a touch of turquoise, as I love colourful accessories). This combination is flattering on me, as I have high value contrast, though low colour contrast. Just look at my pale skin and my dark hair and you can see what I mean. If your personal contrast is medium, you should be looking for medium contrast in what you wear. If I was wearing dark trousers with this top, I would need lighter accessories to provide the right contrast. What I need to avoid of course is high colour contrast, which is why neutral colours are the best choice for me, even though I can't resist a dash of colour in my accessories!

Now you can take a look at the accessories in your wardrobe with a more critical eye. Are they a flattering shape and size for you? Do they add the right contrast when worn with the items in your capsule wardrobe? If you're buying new accessories, these factors should be kept in mind, as well as making sure they suit your colouring and your personality.

If you want to find out more about accessories, you might want to join Sylvia of 40+ Style's latest course, which I'm finding really helpful. This may not be my last post on accessories because I'm learning so much more about accessories from the course, however the next post will be about adding more items of clothing to your capsule wardrobe. I've been shopping for clothes in London, looking forward to spring and summer, so I will share my latest purchases with you.

Accessories for your capsule wardrobe: adding personality

Have you ever worn a necklace or scarf, or tried on a pair of shoes in a shop, and felt that they weren't quite right for you, but you didn't know why? The scarf might be in a colour that flatters you, so why don't you love it? You saw the shoes in a magazine and thought they looked great on the model, so why don't they work for you? The answer in both cases could very well be that they didn't suit your style personality.

Perhaps you have a fairly strict dress code where you work and you feel bored in the clothes that you wear during the week. Maybe you are retired, like me, but want to look a bit more stylish in your jeans and t-shirt "uniform". If you add accessories that reflect your style personality, you will look better and feel happier in your outfits. That is why this topic deserves a post of its own.

Let's assume that you look good in pink. You may decide to buy a pair of shoes to go with your favourite pink necklace, but what style are you going to choose? Here are a few options, some of which may appeal, but I'd be surprised if you love them all, as I've deliberately chosen different styles to suit different style personalities.

My style is colourful casual chic, so I would be drawn to the pair of Vans trainers on the right rather than the high heeled pumps below them. I also like the ballet flats,  as my style recipe includes the words "with a Parisian influence", The boots appeal to the "little bit quirky" part of my style personality, but it would also depend on how comfortable they are to wear! If you are more of a dramatic, you might choose the boots or perhaps the pumps in the centre. Classic personalities would probably lean towards the ballet flats or the loafers at the top.

Pink of course looks better on those of you who have a cool colour palette so it wouldn't be my first choice for accessories, as it wouldn't match my warm neutrals. Orange however would look fine with my brown and camel basics.  The bags below would be better options for anyone with a warm colour palette, though not so good with cooler shades.

I'm sure by now that you've got the hang of this and can see how the bags won't suit everyone's style personality. The two bags on the top row are pretty casual so classic or feminine personalities are more likely to be drawn to one of the bags in the centre. I like the bag in the bottom row on the left, as it is a little bit quirky in my view, however anyone with a strong dramatic personality might find it far too ordinary.  It's all a matter of what appeals to your individual personality.

Have you identified your own style personality? Are you relaxed, feminine or more of a classic? Perhaps you are dramatic, creative, rebellious or even elegant chic. If you're not sure, take a look at my post from last year on Style Personality and in particular the last paragraph.

We've covered colour and personality, but that's not the end of the accessories story. To give you a clue: I'm just over 5 feet tall, so even if I find accessories in a colour that flatters me and a style that suits me, they might not look right on me. Why do you think that is? I'll give you the answer in my next post!

Accessories for your capsule wardrobe: adding colour

My basic capsule wardrobe is already well under way with fourteen items of clothing, ten of which are in neutral colours. I already have some accessories that will go with my wardrobe, many of which are in neutral colours as shown below. The first pair of shoes and the bag are warm neutrals so will go perfectly with my capsule, however the last two pairs of shoes are black and navy, so they are far from ideal. Although my new neutral colours are brown and camel, I still have a pair of navy jeans, for example, so I'm not quite ready to discard these shoes. It's more important to choose warm colours for tops and scarves, which are worn close to my face, before I think of replacing all my trousers, skirts and shoes. Of course when I do need to replace any bottoms or shoes I now know to look for warm colours.

I would recommend spending more money on accessories in your neutral colours, as they are unlikely to date, so long as you choose classic styles. However once you have your basic neutral accessories covered, the fun can begin! I have to admit that a few years ago I didn't give much consideration to my accessories but nowadays I appreciate how much they can add to an outfit.

I will be writing about choosing accessories to suit both your personality and your lifestyle at a future date, but for the moment I'm going to concentrate on using accents of colour to make your capsule wardrobe even more versatile.

Hopefully you have worked out your best colours, whether through an in-person colour analysis, an on-line consultation, trial and error or using your own judgement. The important thing is to know whether you look better in warm or cool shades. Once you've established your neutral colours, you need accent colours that flatter you and blend well with your neutrals. Consider using accents that bring out the colour of your eyes, contrast with your hair colour or match the colour of your lips.

My signature colours

The picture above shows some of my signature colours, which blend with my hair, eyes, cheeks and lips. As you can see there are blues, greens and reds there, however I have to make sure that I wear warm shades of blue, green and red and not cool versions.

Look through your existing accessories to see if there are any colours that you love, especially if people compliment you when you wear them. If they look good with your neutrals, they can be the start of your accessory beauty bundles as defined by blogger and author Brenda Kinsel.  Beauty bundles are a collection of accessories of similar colours that go well together, which you can use to brighten up your wardrobe. Please note though that it is not advisable to wear every item in your bundle at the same time!

As an example, if your neutrals are warm, you might like to create one of the following beauty bundles in warm accent colours.

If your neutrals are in cool shades, then your accessories should be in cool accent colours that go well with your neutrals. Maybe one of the bundles below would look good on you?

I don't like to dictate what everyone should wear, even though I advise you to discover what colours flatter you the most and base your wardrobe around them. What if you love red but red doesn't really love you? It might not be the best colour to choose for a scarf or top, but you might get away with a red bag or red shoes. Sometimes you have to follow your heart.

Remember what I said about needing to consider your personality and your lifestyle when choosing your accessories? You also need to think about your body shape, face shape, colour and value contrast. Looking at the sets of accessories above, you may have noticed that the shoes are flat and the bags are fairly casual. I chose items that appealed to me, so even though some of the colours wouldn't suit me, the styles certainly would. More of that in my next post!

From day to night - using accessories

I mentioned in my last post how useful accessories can be in changing your look. This is particularly relevant when you are planning your holiday wardrobe: choose the right accessories and you can create many more different outfits from the clothes that you have packed.  I thought it might be helpful to show you an example.

Here I have used the same top and trousers for a day time and evening look: by changing the accessories and adding a jacket I have smartened up my day time outfit for going out in the evening.

Starting with the same three items of clothing and accessories, I have added another pair of trousers, a skirt, a pair of shoes and three more tops.  This will give me many more outfits to wear both during the day time and in the evening.

Using the four tops and three bottoms shown, you will have twelve different outfits. These can be worn both during the day and in the evening, depending on which accessories you choose. I haven't shown the jacket in the second picture, but as it is a neutral you can wear it with any combination you choose.

All the clothes shown are available from People Tree, who sell sustainable and fair trade fashion at reasonable prices and deliver to international destinations (including Spain). The shoes are vegetarian shoes, which goes to prove that vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean boring!

Using the full potential of accessories

We've reached day 6 of the New Year Style Challenge and the theme of the day is: do you use the full potential of your accessories? As an additional challenge, we have to choose an outfit and accessorise it in three different ways - how could I resist?

This is the basic outfit: my new lobelia top from Kettlewell and a pair of charcoal trousers from Marks and Spencer. It's an outfit that is ideal for wearing for both casual and slightly smarter occasions.

These are some of my day to day accessories:

 

However sometimes I prefer a dressier look, in which case I might choose the following accessories:

Or how about these funky accessories?

It's all too easy to get into the habit of wearing a particular outfit in a particular way. It's either a casual outfit or one of your smarter ones. Even a pair of jeans can be worn in the evening with a dressy top, some killer heels and a statement necklace - and look completely different. I already own the silver cascade cardigan, so now all I have to do is buy those wedge shoes and the handbag to create a totally different outfit! Or maybe the zebra cuff, gorgeous rose silk handbag or skull print scarf?

Mixing and matching

When you have a capsule wardrobe, especially if there are no more than 33 items of clothing, it's important to change the combinations if you want to avoid boredom. Be aware that boredom often triggers the urge to shop and we are trying to cut down on unnecessary purchases! It's all too easy to always grab the same bottoms when you decide to wear a particular top and I'm as guilty of that as anyone.

In yesterday's post I wore the yellow striped top with my blue skirt for the first time, as I usually wear it with one of my two pairs of linen trousers. I rather liked the result of mixing and matching, so I thought I would look at other possible combinations.

The yellow top would go well with the three pairs of trousers and stone skirt above, giving me a total of five outfits. Changing my accessories and jewellery will create even more new looks.

The blue skirt can be mixed with many other tops in my wardrobe, including the ones show below.

This gives me eight more outfits, but if you then mix these tops with some of the trousers or with the stone skirt you have even more permutations (around 30) - not forgetting the option to ring the changes with accessories and jewellery. Remember that I am only showing 14 out of a possible 33 items and with them I have more than enough outfits to wear something different every day of the month.

Why not take a look inside your own wardrobe and see if there is a combination that you've never tried before? In fact, here's a challenge for you (you know how I love challenges!): next week try and create a new outfit every day, either mixing and matching your tops and bottoms in a different way, or through adding accessories and/or jewellery. Please comment on here to let us know how you get on and if you can send me a photo of your new outfit I will be happy to post it.

April Style Challenge - Coloured Accessories

After showing restraint yesterday and sticking to monochromatic colours, today I allowed myself a little treat.   I decided to use coloured accessories with my outfit of the day.  I recommend reading Imogen's post on this subject: Using Accessories in Colour to Create Interest. I love the way she shows four different outfits and matches them with different coloured accessories to create a new look.

I thought it would be interesting to use similar colours to the ones I wore yesterday - different shades of blue - but this time brighten them up with red. Yesterday's outfit was calming, being mainly blue. Today's outfit felt livelier because of the touches of red. Are you affected by the colours you wear?  I know when I was working in a particularly tricky job, I would wear red if I had a difficult situation to deal with.  My colleagues would comment: "Take care, Sue's wearing red today!"

I don't wear belts very often, partly because my waist has seen better days and partly because I am short and belts have the effect of cutting me in half and making me look even shorter. However fashion isn't just about making you look slimmer/younger/more chic.  It's also about enjoying what you are wearing and I enjoyed wearing this outfit today.  Enough said!

I have worn this top with turquoise accessories before however I think I might try it with yellow accessories as a change or with coral (another favourite colour of mine). Next time you wear an outfit that you have worn many times in the past, why not try using different accessories to create a new look?

April Style Challenge - Senior Moment!

There's only one problem with being an over 60 blogger: sometimes we suffer from Senior Moments! It's been challenging enough having to take photos with my mobile phone, due to my camera having been sent off for the lens to be fixed.  But then we met friends for a Spanish-British intercambio on Saturday and somehow (don't ask me!) I left my mobile phone behind.  With photos of me - complete with my accessories  - ready to upload for this post. Doh!

One accessory I have already shown before on this blog, and that is my gold bracelet:

Looking again at this outfit, there were a lot of different accessories, apart from the bracelet.  You can see a necklace, which matches the coral cardigan, plus a green ring and (though not shown here) I also had a green watch. Isn't there a saying that less is more?  In my case, more was more - I think I got slightly carried away here!

In the photo that I can't show you: I wore the bracelet with a purple top this time and a simple gold necklace that didn't distract attention from the bracelet.  I like to think it was a more elegant look, but unfortunately I can't post it for you to agree. I just hope that you have a vivid imagination!

I mentioned my green watch above.  I like watches as they can add a subtle touch of colour to any outfit. I also wore a pale lilac watch with the purple top - though I can't remember whether it can be seen in the photo (short-term memory problems!). Most of my watches are inexpensive.  I recently bought a Spanish magazine for 4.95€, which included a white watch and a perfume sample.  The lilac watch was even cheaper, as it came with a different Spanish magazine that cost me the princely sum of 2€!  I like having a selection of coloured watches to brighten up my basic outfits.

So if you are getting slightly bored with some of your outfits, it doesn't cost a lot to rejuvenate them with accessories. Whether you choose scarves, necklaces, bracelets, watches, bags or shoes is up to personal preference. What is your favourite accessory - and why?

PS If the photo looks ok when uploaded, I will add it to the end of this post and republish.

April Style Challenge - Accessorize part 2

I mentioned in my previous April Style Challenge post that nowadays I wear a lot of scarves, as they are particularly flattering for those of us who are over 60 and whose necks show our age!  However I do love necklaces, and I still have many that I enjoy wearing, so today's outfit features one of my favourite necklaces.

My outfit is mainly navy, as I didn't want to wear any bright colours that would compete with my necklace for attention.  I think that the navy band at the top of my jumper helps to highlight the necklace, which is in one of my favourite colours, turquoise. This might have been a better look if I had worn a plain navy sweater rather than one with stripes, but my wardrobe isn't that vast! Turquoise is a colour that flatters most women, whether they suit cool or warm shades, so is ideal for those of us who are more mature. The shape of the necklace helps to draw attention away from the neck, which is a good thing too!

I bought this necklace on a trip to Madrid to celebrate my 65th birthday.  My husband had taken his son-in-law to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium where Real Madrid play, so guess what my step-daughter Sarah and I decided to do? Yep, that's right. Sarah and I went shopping and were delighted when we found a tiny shop called Tierra that sold hand-made jewellery.  We spent ages browsing before making our purchases and were even more delighted when we were given a tiny tub of ice-cream with our purchases, just what we needed on a hot day! You can check Tierra out on facebook, where I discovered they have shops in New York and London too.

April Style Challenge - Accessorize

I enjoyed the FABruary Style Challenge so much - though some days proved particularly challenging! - that I was delighted when Imogen decided to have another Style Challenge in April. I was also relieved when I saw that, instead of having to wear something specific each day, there was to be a different theme each week. As you can see from my heading, the theme for the first week is "Accessorize".

When I was younger accessories didn't have a large role to play in my wardrobe.  I suspect that my husband wishes that things hadn't changed, as my shoes keep teetering towards his side of the wardrobe!  As I get older I have realised that too many dark colours don't flatter me, though I know the value of good quality basics that don't date, so I use accessories to brighten up my look.

On Monday I wore my navy trench coat and navy jeans when we went out, which on their own might have looked a bit dull.  However I slung this green satchel over my shoulder and tied a multi-coloured scarf around my neck, which contained green and blue amongst other colours, so the overall effect was brighter and even (dare I say it?) slightly on-trend! I bought the bag last year and was pleased to see that green was to be one of the key colours for Spring, as I have never considered myself to be a trend-setter before!

Today my accessory was a scarf that I have owned for many years and never tire of, as it contains some of my favourite colours.  I decided to make the scarf the focus of today's outfit, so wore a top and some trousers that matched it.  I think that my overall look is improved by wearing this simple scarf, which pulls together an outfit that otherwise would have looked like I had grabbed the first two things that I had come across.

Do you have a favourite accessory that you wear to brighten up your basics?  I think it's a great way for those of us who are over 60 to look more up-to-date without appearing to be fashion victims.

Accepting the FABruary Style Challenge!

No, that's NOT a typo in the heading - it's a deliberate mistake!  One of the many blogs that I enjoy reading is the Inside Out Style blog by Imogen Lamport and Imogen is having a FABruary Style Challenge during the month of February, with a different theme each day.  The first theme on February 1st is "Arm Candy", so here is my contribution.

What I would really have loved to do is find a handsome young man and walk down the street holding his arm, but sadly it wasn't to be.  Instead I had to settle for some pieces from my wardrobe.  As I'm petite (i.e. short, but not that slender nowadays) I have to be wary of large accessories, so I usually make up for that by wearing bright pieces of jewellery.  I have a collection of brightly coloured watches, plus several dazzling though usually slender bracelets.

For today's challenge I decided to wear something bright on both arms, as I couldn't decide on which watch or bracelet to wear.  Even then I was looking at several turquoise bracelets, a red, gold and silver bangle, a purple striped watch, a bright blue bracelet and one or two other pieces before making my mind up.  This was my final choice of outfit for the day:

Here is my bracelet:

           

My bright green watch:

What would you wear as "arm candy"?  Do you have a favourite watch or bracelet - and do you go for simplicity too or do you like to pile them all on?