If you explore my closet, you’ll find a lot of solids and very few prints. While I don’t think I’ll ever have Oona’s flair for mixing patterns, I would really like to add more of them to my wardrobe, because wearing an outfit consisting entirely of neutrals always ends up feeling unfinished when I do it. (I know, I know, texture and accessories are the name of the game with neutrals. I don’t have enough of those, either.)

If my current wardrobe is any indication, my favorite pattern is dots. I like small- to medium-sized dots, and prefer even arrangements to random ones. I’m iffy about spots.

Blue with White Dots // Aqua with Gold Pin Dots // Red with White Dots

A close runner-up to dots is stripes. I’m pretty open about them: skinny or wide, balanced or unbalanced, monochrome or multicolored—it’s all good with me.

Navy and White Stripes // Purple and White Stripes // Grey and White Chevron

Behind dots and stripes you’ll find tartans, madras, and checks. I’m pickier about these; I tend to stay away from anything too traditional in favor of brighter and more graphic designs.

Lime Madras // Navy and Purple Plaid // Teal, Black, and Blue Plaid

Trailing behind are geometric and floral prints, which I take on a case-by-case basis. I don’t care for ditsy florals or prints that are too messy or chaotic. Paisley, however, is one pattern I often come back to.

Blue and Green Paisley

I’m not much for novelty prints, although I’m not silly enough to believe there aren’t ones out there that could change my mind and jump into my cart. No reason to tempt fate by claiming I’d never buy them, right?

Eventually I’d like to have something like a 70/30 or 60/40 mix of solids to prints, but for now I’m just looking forward to expanding my horizons beyond a few dotted t-shirts.

What’s your favorite print? Least favorite? What’s the craziest novelty print you’ve ever seen?

As I approach the halfway point of the Wardrobe Architect series, it finally feels like a cohesive style is starting to emerge from my choices. Where before I was floundering through each assignment, I’m now trying to resist the urge to rush out and buy an armload of patterns and fabric for the new wardrobe I’m envisioning.

Neutrals

No changes from last week. When I compare my actual wardrobe to this ideal, I see that I have plenty of grey but could use more browns, especially in pants and skirts. I also need more white basics: short- and long-sleeved t-shirts, a cardigan, and a versatile skirt or dress are on my to-make list.

Nearly Neutrals

I’m really fond of all three of these colors as more interesting versions of neutral colors, but all three are lacking in my closet. I especially want more navy, both in garments and accessories.

Statement Colors

Since I promoted olive to nearly neutrals, I replaced it among the remaining colors with Kelly green, a color that’s been growing on me recently because it pairs so nicely with navy.

Metallics

I’m on the fence about this. For a very long time I’ve preferred silver tones to gold tones, but in the last year or so I’ve found myself gravitating more toward gold because it complements my warmer complexion. I also gifted myself the Naked 3 eyeshadow palette last summer, and discovered that I look surprisingly good in rose gold tones. I guess I’d like to have a little of both silver and gold, so that I can accessorize as fancy strikes.

I suspect this palette will evolve over time, especially since it leans more toward autumn/winter colors. I’d like to wear brighter colors in the spring/summer, which means I’ll probably lean more heavily on statement colors and may add a few, too. I’m really looking forward to exploring solids and prints next week, and putting them together with these colors.

I like stories. I like telling them, especially through writing but also through conversation, although I’m definitely prone to rambling and vigorous arm-waving while I’m doing it. I like listening to them—I like experiencing them. A compelling story is paramount for me when I’m considering what to read or watch. The story doesn’t have to be unique or original, it just has to be told in an engaging way. I see narratives not only in books, television, film, and video games, but also in what the news chooses to report, in how my coworkers and I talk about our relationships with clients, and in how I understand my own life.

Despite this fascination with stories, it had never occurred to me that color can also tell a story. I’ve appreciated the harmonious color composition of a piece of art or the striking contrast of elements in nature, but I’d never considered that colors, with their various associations, could in combination create a sort of through line for my wardrobe.

I’d always assumed that the point of having a clothing color palette was to make shopping and getting dressed easier, because the more items you have that keep to that palette, the easier it is to mix and match to create outfits (and the less likely you are to get bored and feel like you have nothing to wear). Practical, sure, but if wardrobes were only about pragmatism than we’d all have own uniforms that we never deviate from.

It’s much more interesting to imagine that color works with shape to form a visual narrative, where the most often-worn pieces are an exposition of one’s strongest or most enduring characteristics, specialty or special occasion clothes offer dramatic turns, and accessories or unique pieces are lyrical passages or poetic turns-of-phrase that enliven the prose.

(I…might have stretched that metaphor a bit, but hey, even metaphors need a little exercise now and then to stay healthy.)

My palette features a heavy dose of neutrals, with black being the only one not represented. I have a considerable amount of black in my wardrobe, but I find it rather harsh and would prefer to browns, greys, and navy instead. Blue and green is my favorite color combination by far—so much so that we used it for our wedding colors. I find a have more than a little purple in my closet, although I often struggle with what to pair it with. Most of the red in my closet is closer to an orange-red, but I’m trying to slowly weed it out and replace it with truer reds, which I find more flattering and easier to coordinate with. Mustard, mint, burgundy, and pink are all colors that I’d like to bring into the mix more, since they work well with navy and my neutrals

Laid out like this, my palette actually seems to have some cohesion, and there are some obvious and some not-so-obvious combinations that I can see even among this small grouping. I’m looking forward to further refining everything next week.

What colors are you most attracted to? What colors do you like to wear? Is there a lot of overlap between the two? If not, how do you reconcile the difference?

Building silhouettes to create balance is a point of intersection between the Wardrobe Architect series and Amy Herzog’s Fit to Flatter philosophy. Amy acknowledges that a proportional shape, where the top and bottom of the torso are the same width and are separated by a narrower waist, is often held up as an ideal, and then explains how the three basic body types—top-heavy, bottom-heavy, and proportional—can use clothing, particularly sweaters, to create or emphasize the appearance of proportionality. For instance, you can’t change how broad your hips are (because bones and stuff), but you can balance out wider hips with horizontal elements at the neckline of a sweater, creating visual weight to balance your overall shape. Of course, if a proportional figure is not your ideal, you can use all of the recommendations she makes to achieve other looks too.

Sarai, in the Wardrobe Architect series, takes things one step further and brings in the idea of balance in terms of length and snugness. This is actually an idea I had seen before, in a dressing room ad of all places: to create interest and balance between top and bottom, consider wearing a fitted shirt with flowing pants, or a billowy shirt with tight pants.

Since these are ideas that I’ve been exposed to before, it was less difficult to come up with silhouettes that I like than it was to come up with styles that I like. Here are a few of my favorites:

Skinny pants + drapey button-down shirt + drapey cardigan (for cool days/too much AC) + wedges

This is a favorite of mine for work three seasons out of the year. For casual Fridays or a weekend look, I’ll swap out the pants and shoes.

Skinny jeans + drapey button-down shirt + drapey cardigan (for cool days/too much AC) + ballet flats

During the late fall, winter, and early spring, I live in jeans and sweaters.

Bootcut jeans + pullover or cardigan-over-cami + heeled boots

My lounge clothes, which I put on pretty much the minute I come in the door after work and any weekend where I’m not leaving the apartment, is pretty simple.

Leggings + t-shirt

Unfortunately, both of my pairs of leggings have holes in them and I live in one super-soft t-shirt, so I’d really like to make myself some new, comfy, and slightly more stylish lounge wear before my current uniform is reduced to rags.

Right now I don’t have much in terms of skirts or dresses, which is another problem I’d like to remedy. When it comes time to fill those gaps, I’m currently gravitating toward these looks.

Cami dress + cardigan

Fitted knit dress + pumps

Knit dress with fitted bodice and flared skirt

I realize now that I didn’t spend a lot of time on shoes. I think it’s because I find it really difficult to strike a balance between comfort and style when it comes to shoes. Flat sandals have been hugely popular the last few summers, and they’d go great with my skinny jeans + drapey tops silhouette, but I can’t understand how people walk around in them for more than an hour without their feet aching from the lack of support or cushioning. On the flip side, my sister loves deck shoes because they’re so comfy, but every pair I’ve tried on make my feet look and feel like huge shapeless lumps.

What are your favorite silhouettes to wear? Do they vary a lot based on the seasons? Do you have a recommendation for shoes that a both cute and wearable?