Tag Archives: fall 2018 wardrobe

Faux Fall outfits!

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Faux Fall outfits!

This is 30 days of outfits, fashioned from a total of 27 garments and 5 pair of shoes. (See the closet inventory for details.) There are also probably another 10-15 to be had simply by swapping out, say, one of my other two camisoles for the green one pictured, or a different pair of the wide-leg pants in nearly any scenario. These also range from not really warm at all (fine at the moment) to too warm if there’s really no cooling trend in the next 30 days, but I think I’ve given myself a fair chance of not having to think about getting dressed until the end of October. And with the light layers and sweater vests and closed shoes, and a little bit of sleeve action in there, most of these outfits do give me at least a hint of that Fall feeling. Hopefully that will keep me content until actual sweater weather arrives! (Although I should note that 6 of these involve the faded old jeans that are currently at Indigo Proof, so those combos are fictional until the jeans come home to roost.)

I believe there are only 5 garments here that have not factored into previous rounds of Closet Rummy™, and 2 first-appearance pairs of shoes (although one of those is just a replacement pair of white sneakers, so not exactly a paradigm shift), and yet I think there are only 2 or 3 outfits out of the 30 here that I’ve ever worn in these exact combinations, and then only once. It’s not that I’m averse to repeating outfits within a span of a season or whatever — this summer I’ve basically worn the same five outfits over and over and over again — but this is really the central challenge of a slow-turnover closet for me: forever finding new ways to put the same things together, as I am a person who is easily bored and who also finds joy and creativity in getting dressed.

Faux Fall outfits!

One of my favorite things about this exercise is that, once I have a given set of garments laid out in a grid like I do, I can see things I never would have thought of. Like in the top row up there: a Wiksten Kimono + Fen Top twin set! We’ll see if I ever actually wear it, but it amuses me greatly. And the more I’ve done this, the easier it is to also just glance at the grid and spot combinations without needing to actually spell every one of them out like this.

I’ve had a lot of questions lately about how I do this, and I truly have found it to be the most beneficial thing in understanding my closet and choosing more wisely about what to add and subtract from it, so I’ll dedicate a whole blog post to it during Slow Fashion October.

Faux Fall outfits!

PREVIOUSLY in Fall 2018 Wardrobe: Not-quite Fall closet inventory

Not-quite Fall closet inventory

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Not-quite Fall closet inventory

As much as I wish it were the onset of Sweater Weather here, I’m trying to be super realistic this year and just straight up accept that it will likely be late October before I can put on an actual sweater. So rather than taunt myself by including pullovers and cardigans in my not-quite-fall inventory, I’m pretending for the moment that they don’t even exist. What I can do now is start in on some lighter and/or sleeveless layering and switch (mostly) from sandals to closed shoes, and those little tweaks will at least make me feel like there’s a progression happening. I’m thinking of it as Sweater Vest Weather. If the temperatures do drop, I’ll be pleasantly surprised and will have no trouble reaching for the sweaters! Otherwise, you won’t see them here until I get to do winter-ish outfits (but if you care to see them in the meantime, I did a full sweater inventory last month right here).

I alluded yesterday to the idea that I’m organizing Slow Fashion October this year around the process of assessing, editing and (re)building a slow closet, and for the sake of this inventory and my need to change things up a bit, I’ve jumped ahead and pulled a few new/old items from the periphery of my closet to breathe some new life into the things I’ve been wearing ad nauseum.

That said, I’m holding off creating any kind of Make list until I’ve completed the deeper dive that’s about to happen. Right now, I’m all about what I already own. So above are the 33 garments that will form the backbone of my wardrobe for this in-between moment and beyond. It’s quite late at night as I’m putting this together, so I only have time to highlight the few recent or resurfaced things. For details on the rest of the items, please scroll back through the closet inventory archive.

ROW 1

— Khaki cotton blazer (J.Crew c. 2009)
— Black cotton kimono sweater (Elizabeth Suzann, sample sale 2017, no longer available)
— Blue striped kimono jacket (2018)

For ages, a blazer was my favorite kind of garment in all the world — I wore one nearly every day. When I moved cross-country I donated most of them to Dress for Success and kept only two, one of which I’m suddenly eager to dust off and start wearing again. I’ve also decided to hang onto the previously debated Elizabeth Suzann kimono sweater thingie and give it a chance. Many are the times when I was unconvinced about something and wound up addicted to it, and since it’s already in my possession I feel like I should try. If that doesn’t happen, I know there are plenty of people who’d like to give it a good home. And I’ve also decided to let my pajama-y Wiksten Kimono (which I lovingly refer to as “my housecoat”) leave the house. It’s the lightest imaginable layering piece and gives me a hint of that fall feeling without creating any real warmth.

ROW 2

Second from the left is the ES Clyde jacket I refashioned into a vest in May, and far right is the State Smock that was white in previous inventories but I indigo dyed at Squam in June.

ROW 4

Second from the left is an Everlane sleeveless tee that I screenprinted under the tutelage of Jen Hewett in SF last week. The op art is an old piece of my husband’s, and there’s a second one with a cactus drawing on it so both will turn up in future outfits. (They’re not likely to be white for long, but it’ll be great while it lasts.)

ROW 7

Left is the linen-cotton pants I made a couple weeks ago, and center are my tissue-thin old beloved jeans that have now made their way into the queue at Indigo Proof, for those of you on the edges of your seats about that! (Or is that just me?!) They’ll be back with me soon, shored up except for the giant hole in the thigh, so that one will have to be patched, but I’ll be able to wear them again!

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PREVIOUSLY in Wardrobe Planning: Spring ’18 Mood and Strategy

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Fall ’18 wardrobe planning: Mood and strategy

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Fall ’18 wardrobe planning: Mood and strategy

I’m not really sure what we’re in for. Officially, calendar-wise, Fall is here. The trees in Nashville are getting a tiny bit droopy and the temps have dropped into the upper 70s, but the humidity is as high as ever. So it’s cool and sticky, is what I’m saying. It feels as if actual sweater weather is still a long ways away, but I’m thinking about how to bust out of my boring summer uniform and trick myself into thinking it’s fall, even when the weather isn’t about to cooperate. Which means, of course, I’ve started a Fall ’18 Mood board.

This particular mood board is a bit of an oddball, as it won’t likely convey to any viewer what it does to me. My mood isn’t nearly as colorless as this board, for one thing, which is more about shapes and accents and ideas for ways to combine things. (Color-wise, I’ll be hanging onto the blues and army and spot of orange you’ve been seeing the past couple of seasons.) As always, though, I’m in the mood for loose, comfortable, easygoing clothes, along with an unexpected detail, some last-minute sandal action giving way to oxfords and loafers. And I’m thinking a lot about volume. And that dickey. What the board doesn’t convey is that my faux fall wardrobe plan will involve all of the vests and smocks — basically a still-sleeveless layer on top of my summer uniform — so I’ll get into all of that as I take inventory and start putting together some new outfits with my same old clothes.

But I’ve also been mining my closet for a few “new” old things with which to change things up. We’re only a week out from the start of Slow Fashion October, and I’ll tell you at this point that what I have planned for this year is a very action-oriented month. We can debate definitions and so on all you want, but I know I’m in need of a proper full-closet assessment and responsible clean-out, and I know many of you are too. So I’m partially doing my normal wardrobe planning steps this week and partially jumping the gun on what I’ll be inviting you all into starting next week! More on all of that will be revealed …

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PREVIOUSLY in Wardrobe Planning: Packing a mixed bag for the Cities by the Bay

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