6 Scarves 2021: February Additions, #1 Black & Grey, Gina

For an introduction to the 6 Scarves 2021 project, see this post.

For a description of my method, see this post.

In February, Janine added another pair of pants, a shirt, and some accessories to each wardrobe so that they would suffice for a quick overnight trip...which, you know, might happen again some time soon for some people!

But since February is the cruelest month in Minnesota (or at least the coldest), the Sallys will be enjoying very different wardrobe additions: print skirts! I know a lot of people associate that type of garment with summer, but hear me out. A long-sleeved shirt and/or sweater, a quilted vest, a scarf, leggings, and tall boots = ready for -20 degrees F and all the snow they can throw at us. That is pretty much my February outfit formula...at least when I am leaving the house to go to work.

Janice's selections for the black and grey wardrobe included black jeans and a classic no-iron light pink button up shirt. The resulting 2 month wardrobe is highly mix-and-matchable. Gina's Sally's wardrobe is going to be...well, less so. Let's jump to it.

The print skirts for the Gina wardrobe are an appropriately graphic, high contrast black and white wavy reed print skirt with a swooshy quality and a much more subtle stretchy black pencil skirt with white polka dots. The tall black boots will make the skirt + warm leggings combinations cold- and snow-friendly. Last month, wine garments entered the wardrobe for the dark pink wedge in the color palette, but to brighten up dreary February, this month we have bright pink! The fun crane sweater is a very lightweight polyester/rayon/wool blend that can layer easily under the year-round-wearable unlined stretchy cotton watermelon pink blazer. And huzzah, the wardrobe is already getting a power player: a plain white long-sleeved T!

Bright pink crane pullover sweater - Loft - XXL - $29.75 - 11/2017

Black/white polka dot skirt - George/Walmart - XL - $12.88 - 11/2015

Black/white reeds skirt - Liz Claiborne/JCP - XLT - $11.30 - 11-2015

White V neck long-sleeved T - EVRI/Kohls - 3X - $5.00 - 1/2020

Tall black boots - Fitzwell/Zappos - $104.99 - 3/2014

Bright watermelon pink blazer - thrifted, Jones New York/Goodwill - 20W - $6.74 - 9/2018

Does that seem over-excited for a white t-shirt? I think our eyes have been trained to see a white shirt as the ultimate neutral that can be worn with pretty much anything. In the Sally wardrobe, a white t-shirt is an outfit multiplier: since it can be worn with almost everything, having one in the wardrobe makes the number of outfit possibilities skyrocket. Take virtually any outfit you have come up with and substitute the white T for the top: that's a new outfit. And if you add the white T to something like a pair of jeans or solid neutral pants/skirt, even the most pattern- and color-mixing averse among us can starting adding print scarves and get yet more new outfits effortlessly. Having a ton of outfit options is not some kind of strict requirement, of course; some people are happy wearing the same few outfits over and over again. But for a Sally, that sense of something "new" and "different" is necessary, and in a capsule with a limited number of items, mix-and-match possibilities is where that happens.

Of course we need scarves to complete our February outfits, and I like the variety that we are getting here. Yes, rabbit print for the win. A solid bright pink (that looks on screen like a terrible shade to work with the pink sweater and blazer but that in reality looks just fine...or so I recall). A striped knit infinity scarf with yet more bright pink. And a scarf with an uncertain print (it's got polka dots and who knows what else) that contains the black, a bit of bright pink, and a good amount of grey that harkens back to the January wardrobe additions.

Black/white rabbits scarf - Amazon - gift - 12/2018

Blue/grey/black/pink/green mystery print scarf - thrifted/ThredUp - $1.50 - 12/2019

Bright pink tassel scarf - Target - $12.00 - 12/2014

Neon pink/white/blue striped infinity scarf - thrifted, Gap/ThredUp - $2.91 - 8/2020

Let's take a closer look at the mystery print...

WHAAAAAAAT?????

YIKES!

Who designed this crazy thing? Um, yeah, then who bought it? (In my defense, the ThredUp site does not show scarves laid out flat, only wrapped like I have photographed in the earlier image, so I had NO CLUE what I was getting myself into.) My husband Robot calls this the "cicada scarf," and I'm not saying he's wrong, but I can't abide that name, so let's go with floral/bug scarf...even if it's really bugs/more bugs. Fortunately, when it's worn, it looks like a polka dot/vague lines scarf.

And oh happy day, the wine pants and vest incomplete trio from January is getting filled in now with a long-sleeved blouse and classic button-up cardigan! And we can round out our accessory additions with a lovely shades-of-pink ombré infinity scarf and super-cute faux-pearl rabbit earrings. (The rabbit scarf and earrings were both gifts from Robot, who knows a sure thing when he sees it.)

Wine blouse - CJ Banks - 3X - $18.00 - 2/2021

Watermelon-sandstone/magenta scarf - thrifted, ThredUp - $4.20 - 5/2020

Faux pearl/silver rabbit studs - Amazon - gift - ?

Wine cardigan - CJ Banks - 2X - $14.40 - 2/2021

Now let's turn these garments into outfits. We'll start with making one for each item that we added this month, using only our February additions to see if we successfully added a coherent group. Assume that warm black leggings/tights will be worn with each outfit!

Outfit #1 jumps right in with several of the most exuberant selections: the bright pink crane with coordinating blazer, the eye-catching skirt, and the adorable rabbit earrings. (I would say "rabbit studs," but every rabbit views himself as a stud!) Seeing the much cooler pink scarf with the warm pink "twin set" has me second-guessing myself about its color; well, if it turns out to be a poor choice, the scarf can be left off/removed and the crane image left to stand out.

For Outfit #2, I brought the white T and pink blazer together with the scarf that contains both colors. The downside of the scarf choice is that the smallest stripes are a medium blue, not black to tie in with the skirt, but (1) the stripes are small and at any normal distance, nobody is going to register them as more than "dark-ish," (2) black on the lower half of the body is so common that even when your outfit doesn't otherwise tie into it, it still seems normal, (3) the inclusion of the black boots reinforces the black skirt a bit, and (4) the white polka dots of the skirt do tie in with the solid white T and the white stripes of the scarf. And that's good enough for me.

Outfit #3 involves some print-mixing that might be outside some people's comfort zones but that a Sally is happy with. (Would the floral/bug aka bugs/more bugs aka polka dot/vague lines scarf work even better in this outfit if it contained some white? Yeah, it would, but it's no tragedy that it doesn't. The white T brings in the white from the skirt and the scarf and skirt both contain black.) One way to mute a print mix is to leave some visual space between the two prints; here, the ultimate neutral white T separates the scarf from the skirt and is a palette [sic] cleanser for the eyes.

Outfit #4 pairs the new twin set and the black skirt/boots in a low-key background that lets the rabbit scarf and earrings shine forth in all their lagomorph-esque goodness.

I usually end up layering with the crane sweater, but it can stand on its own. I like some of the subtle details in Outfit #5: the repetition of the white polka dots in the shape of the white faux-pearl bunny faces and the repetition of the black color from the skirt/boots in the pattern of the crane. One thing I find useful about ombré scarves is that they have a "solid-ish" appearance while making it easy to blend different versions of a color together, and the readiness with which my eye accepts the scarf with this bright warm pink sweater is a good example of that.

I looked back in my outfit tracking spreadsheet and photo archives to find when I'd worn the crane sweater, coordinating blazer, and one of these skirts together...which I just know I have done multiple times. And yet, apparently not! Hence the value in outfit tracking, my friends! It always feels like we have worn something more often than we actually have. But I did turn up this combination: the crane sweater and black polka dot skirt with (astonishingly!) a many-pinks swag necklace instead of a scarf and a totally different jacket. This is enough to make my point that the sweater and skirt are totally fab together even when worn on my actual body, and it's a good demonstration of the easy layering of this lightweight sweater.

Now one of the downsides of the thinness of the sweater, at least in combination with it being on the smaller side as a size XXL, is that it doesn't leave the contours of my torso a mystery like most of my other sweaters do. It pretty much tells it like it is re: your body's lumps and bumps, so you've got to be on board with that...which sometimes I am reasonably comfortable with and sometimes I'm like no freaking way (depending on the bumpiness du jour and the context in which I'll be wearing it). It actually had a halfway decent body-skimming quality when I was a smaller size, more so than I had any right to expect with the sweater being this thin, so I don't know. One thing I haven't tried (at all? at least not much) is layering underneath the crane sweater. I'm not sure if the thin material would reveal every wrinkle and crease in the I'm-imagining-woven-button-up-shirt beneath it or what. For the Other Sally's sake, I am applying some magic wardrobe dust here to make it just the right size it needs to be at any given moment for her, but in my own wardrobe, it's a bit of a niche player. But a VERY CUTE niche player, it must be said.

I'm quite happy with the additions for this month. Bright, high-impact garments are a nice way to deal with the fiercely frigid and dreary month of February. And it's always satisfying to complete a trio as we did with the wine group!

For the seasonal wardrobe matrix, recall that in each season, for each color category, I can mark what has been added each month:

x = solid piece

T = tonal piece (i.e., tonally works with this color though it is a different color)

O = ombré piece

P = print piece (not ombré)

Do you wear print skirts? If so, do you limit them to particular season(s) or weather?

In my next post, we will look at the February additions for our second wardrobe: #2 Navy & Beige, Darcy.