6 Scarves 2021: Jan-April Recap, #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.

OK, it's hard to believe we are a third of the way through the building of these capsule wardrobes! Time is just speeding by. So here is our familiar Gina wardrobe color palette, with that light blue wedge that is mocking me.

This feels like a good time to check in with our wardrobes to date on a couple of different points dealing with their completeness and coherence. There are a LOT of ways to operationalize these concepts, but for this January-April review, I will stick with two questions:

Regarding completeness: What colors or garments are missing or under-represented?

Regarding coherence: Are there any items that look like they belong to a different person's wardrobe because it's hard to imagine the same person wearing those colors/contrast levels?

First, we'll analyze our garments.

Regarding completeness: Blue is lacking, white is minimal, and there is only one pair of pants...which isn't in a neutral color. This might work okay for winter (when tights/leggings and boots are the dominant outfit formula) but with the transition to warmer weather, more pants would be useful!

Regarding coherence: Looking at the pink colors, it does strike me that the person flattered by the wine, light pink/blush, and dusty rose colors does not seem likely to be a person who wears that bright pink very well. The overall feel is cool, greyed, muted, and low-to-medium contrast. If I were picking the outlier garments, the bright pink crane sweater, bright pink jacket, and black and white reedy striped skirt would make the list because they are brighter and/or higher contrast than the rest of the wardrobe. The black skirt with the Art Deco-like floral print and the grey/black horizontal striped skirt are borderline, but don't seem as extreme.

Now for the accessories.

Regarding completeness: All of our colors are represented (though clearly blue is still scarce) and I'm not noticing any obvious omissions.

Regarding coherence: The yellow gold pieces are warmer toned and the pink ombré scarf fit is extraordinarily bright. The white/bright pink/blue striped scarf is high contrast, as is the black/white rabbit scarf. (The cicada scarf jumps off the screen when I focus on the bright pink insect figure for a photo, but when the scarf is worn--it is thankfully!--less dramatic.)

And what about Gina as the mascot of this wardrobe? She is very high contrast! Luckily Gina isn't going to wear ANY of these items, so that's perfectly OK. (Though if Gina were going to wear one of them, that bright pink jacket would be pretty cute...)

We are not going to vote any items (or rabbits!) off the capsule on the basis of this analysis, but I did find it interesting to see where these questions led my thinking.

OK, let's build some outfits with our full wardrobe next, starting with our only pair of pants. In Outfit #1, April's print blouse is added to wine garments with which it coordinates so easily, producing that "column of color plus some wacky print arms" look...which is really only a thing in my world, I know, but what can I say, I like it.

In Outfit #2, April's grey sweater vest creates another classic Sally look of "3 pieces, 3 colors," which I know is not a popular outfit color scheme but is one that I am very drawn to. (These two outfits also give us an opportunity to compare the silver and the yellow gold bracelet options, and it's no contest which is more harmonious with these cool colors, is it?)

Outfit #3 doesn't rely on any new April pieces; it's just another reminder that the outfits that we put together each month are only a fraction of the possible combinations. In this one, I like the repeating "dot" theme in the earrings, skirt, and background of the scarf.

In Outfit #4, the wine blouse and cardigan combo is coordinated with matching scarf and boots so that the reedy striped skirt is the stand-out element. Without working within the constraints of this capsule exercise, I don't think I would normally have put such a vivid black and white print skirt with a muted twin set, but I actually like it. (And I would definitely go with black tights here.)

Now for a combination I have been eager to test: the Art Deco floral skirt with April's orphan dusty rose cardigan. None of these pink colors match, but I think they blend fairly well...even the more saturated pinks of the scarf seem reasonable to me here, though for a less "all the pinks" vibe, a necklace like the faux pearl one in Outfit #1 would be a solid alternative.

Now we'll work through our April skirts. This grey polka dot one, which is such a favorite of mine, makes for all sorts of relatively low-key print mix outfits. In Outfit #6, the only-barely-not-solid blush pink star T and dark grey heathery-patterned blazer bring the number of prints up to three, but it doesn't seem too much to me. I added all 3 bracelet colors to repeat the metallics from the necklace.

Outfit #7 tries something that I'm not always sure is legit: wearing a pullover sweater and cardigan together. This is clearly silly because a traditional twin set is, in fact, a pullover sweater and a cardigan. Just because this one has two different sweater knits, instead of the completely identical ones of the traditional version, shouldn't somehow invalidate the concept! And the print mix of the scarf and skirt (and lack of pearl necklace, haha) keeps it from looking too conservative or vintage. I really like this one.

In Outfit #8, the borderline-too-high-contrast striped skirt gets put together with two very bright items identified in my quick analysis of the wardrobe above. This outfit may not be the most flattering to Gina's Sally's coloring (Sally: wear a bright pink lip!), but it is at least inherently consistent.

I put these outfits together long before I sat down to write this post, so it amuses me to see a second outfit in which I clearly felt the black/grey striped skirt should be worn with a too-bright watermelon pink item. In Outfit #9, though, a scarf with cooler, more muted pinks is added on top of the blazer...which might reduce the impact of the bright pink enough to work.

Outfit #10 reminds us how different the cicada scarf looks when wrapped compared to laid out flat: now it's basically a grey and black polka dot scarf with small flashes of bright pink, blue, green, and yellow. I like the punch those colors give this otherwise neutral outfit.

I have put the black/grey striped skirt through its paces over the five years I've owned it. Here is a trio of sample outfits. First, a somber January outfit of dark grey and black gets a pop of color with this seasonally-appropriately-icy mint-blue scarf.

The "dark neutrals + colorful scarf" formula is repeated in this February outfit with a salmon pink scarf featuring black and blue-grey elephant figures.

In this March outfit, I vary the formula a bit by wearing a wine pullover sweater and a floral scarf with swathes of orchid, white, and coral against a dark wine background.

This post is getting crazy long, so we will discuss the April rabbit additions at another time.

Do you like to keep your accent colors tight or do you feel comfortable having a range of an accent color in your wardrobe? I am not bothered when there are multiple variants of an accent color, even if some of them are not compatible; not every garment needs to be wearable with every other garment, and having some variety within the accent colors keeps things interesting.

In my next post, we will look at the January-April recap for our second wardrobe: #2 Navy & Beige, Darcy.

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