6 Scarves 2021: July 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.

Stores are filling up with fall clothing, but even in St. Paul we still have two months of summer left! We will continue making our wardrobes warm weather compatible, starting with this black and white based capsule. Janice added dresses to all of her wardrobes in July, which I can guarantee will not be true of ours.

At the end of June, our garments looked like this. For warm weather wear, we have:

-7 skirts: all warm weather appropriate

-3 pants: 1 cropped, 1 lightweight, 1 four season

-2 short-sleeved tops: 1 black, 1 white

-2 3/4 sleeve tops: 1 white, 1 white/pink striped

-1 3/4 sleeve cardigan: bright pink

-2 light-to-medium weight long-sleeved cardigans: 1 wine, 1 dusty pink (these maybe too warm for the height of summer)

Gina's Sally really needs more warm-weather tops than this! It's nice to have the black and white short-sleeved tops in there, but that's not enough. Another topper piece that is wearable in summer would be welcome also. As for our color palette representation, I would like to see more light pink and to finally start seeing blue in this capsule.

Here are our July garment additions, starting with a core of casual black pieces and a wild-card choice in the form of this quite silly t-shirt dress (a dress, but not of the type Janice included in her wardrobes).

Black and white birds T - Apt 9/Kohls - 2X - $6.55 - 11/2018

Dusky pink/black striped dress - Shein - 4XL - $16.28 - 7/2020

Black open weave cardigan vest - Croft & Barrow/Kohls - XL - $11.04 - 11/2015

Black skimmers - Lee/Kohls - 22W - $29.99 - 5/2018

Not only does the dress feature a bunny wearing a hairbow (harebow?) and eyeglasses and very boldly striped fabric (which makes me think of some combination of the 1951 Disney animated Cheshire Cat and a girly Hamburglar), it inexplicably has the word "fashion" on it. (It made me wonder if having an English word on something to make it fashion is to some other country the way having a French word on it to make it fashion is to the US. I was amused because the most straight forward way to do that would be to use the word "fashion" itself. Here is a tongue-in-cheek T playing on the French word "mode.")

Anyway, I purchased this last summer, another person looking for an easy stay-at-home lounge option. In my case, I was specifically looking for an extremely comfortable one-and-one dress to wear on summer weekends, and because it was never intended to be worn in public, I could indulge myself with silliness to the fullest. Hence this striped rabbit dress. But who am I kidding? I am about 90% sure that it was marketed as a nightgown (with pockets? Odd!). But at a time when people were working from home in pajamas and worse, having a t-shirt dress/nightgown for purely stay-at-home weekend wear didn't seem as ridiculous as it would have a year earlier. And the dress has stayed in my weekend rotation this summer too.

Our other garment additions are four extremely welcome short-sleeved tops that cover the range from casual (top row) to exercise (bottom row). And note that the striped one is blue, finally getting that color into our closet! I had not initially planned to include any very casual/exercise type clothes in these wardrobes, relegating the whole lounge/exercise/sleep category to a different realm from these wardrobes. But after looking for moisture-wicking options and purchasing some exercise tops with that feature this summer (including the grey one below), I became curious about the possibilities of at least some of these exercise tops crossing over into the regular wardrobes for casual wear. Let's give it a shot!

Light blue/aqua/black striped T - Croft & Barrow/Kohls - 2X - $4.99 - 5/2018

Grey zebra T - EVRI/Kohls - 3X - $5.00 - 8/2019

Grey heather exercise T - Xersion/JCP - summer 2021

Black grey swirl exercise T - Kohls - ?

We have a pretty well-developed set of accessories built up in the first 6 months, but can a Sally have enough accessories? Surely the answer is NO.

Our new accessories have a black/white/silver theme and a couple subtle bits of color. The scarf is made from a very lightweight material that works well for me in the summer. These flats are a strangely great casual shoe because they are made from a water-resistant, seemingly indestructible material, are extremely comfortable, and are not hot to wear in warm weather. I like seeing a couple of my simplest DIY beading projects in this grouping: the hoop earrings with glass pearl beads and the seed bead bracelets.

Gauzy white scarf - thrifted, ThredUp - $1.50 - 12/2019

Chunky silver blob necklace - JNY - $27.00 - 11/2013

Hematite/silver necklace - made by RB

Grey/mustard/silver tassel necklace - CJ Banks - $5.39 - 5/2020

Pink/mauve pearl/silver hoop earrings - made by me - summer 2021

White seed bead bracelets - made by me - summer 2020

Black and white seed bead bracelet - made by me - summer 2020

Black Lifestride flats - Macy's - $46.75 - 9/2013

Now it's time to put together some easy, casual summer outfits from these new additions. Outfit #1 could quite seriously consist of just this dress and the black flats because that dress is a LOT of look all on its own. But for fun, of course it can be accessorized! (I just would be wary of taking a nap in those earrings, though, because the ones I made in this style are easy to break if you sleep in them. Ask me how I know...)

Outfit #2 is a simple black and white outfit of the kind I don't usually wear because I tend toward the brightly colored and generally extra, but I actually quite like it.

Outfit #3 is definitely right up my alley with the striped T in a variety of lovely shades of blue plus a scarf that can be worn around the neck or draped like a shawl for a bit of arm coverage.

In Outfit #4, I'm adding the open weave vest to the basic T + skimmers combination, and something about that third piece seems to elevate the look just a bit. (If it's possible to call the pairing of a same-color cardigan vest and long shorts a "suit", here's a "suit.") The tassel necklace is an irresistible coordinating piece with the zebras-of-several-neutrals top. (That zebra T gets so many compliments when I wear it. It's an unusual, fun, but not over-the-top piece due to the neutral color palette.)

Finally, if there is any time to wear the world's most basic combination of a moisture-wicking exercise T and shorts, surely it's in the second summer of a global pandemic. Actually this outfit using the black swirly top on right is what I wore for my second COVID vaccine shot, an occasion I wanted to wear a very simple and comfortable outfit that still looked presentable. I kind of feel like we have reached a point as a society that wearing a pair of pants/shorts from a woven fabric that has a zipper and a button/snap waist, rather than a pair of knit bottoms, is starting to seem a bit fancy! (If you have gained weight during COVID so that your pre-pandemic bottoms of this type don't fit you right now, you do have my sympathy. I have just used the "start fat, stay fat" strategy of weight maintenance during this time.)

Today's garment spotlight has to be this cardigan vest that has served me well (and continues to do so!) since November 2015! I have a LOT of choices when it comes to showing you how I've worn this vest in real life, so I decided to show three recent ones that feature other items from the Gina capsule.

First, in this June outfit, I have paired the bird T and vest from the Gina wardrobe with a textured white skirt, nude wedges, and...taking center stage...a very bling-y bib statement necklace with clear and blue crystals.

This June outfit features three items from the Gina capsule: the vest, black/light pink floral skirt, and grey/pink planet necklace. I like this combination with the watermelon pink knit top and light grey wedges.

Finally, this July outfit pairs the blue striped T and vest from the Gina wardrobe with a cheery, bold black-and-white enamel Mod-esque daisy necklace and a turquoise knit skirt (that blends with but doesn't exactly match any of the blues in the T).

The new rabbit mascot for July is a broken Mini Lop called Minnie! Despite the name, the Mini Lop is not a true dwarf breed, but is a smaller breed, weighing in at under 6.5 pounds (about half the size of the English Lop but about twice the size of the Holland Lop). These lops have a lovely roundness to them; the perfect Mini Lop body shape has been described as "a basketball with a head." And in the case of Minnie, also two itsy widdle paws sticking out. So cute.

Have you been batting for Team Elastic Waist this summer or are you in bottoms with zippers, buttons, and other stiff and complicated accoutrements? For me, it's been very close to my usual pre-pandemic summer mix of the two with an extra dash of goofy fashion rabbit dress on the weekends.

In my next capsule wardrobe post, we will take a look at the July additions for #2 Navy & Beige, Darcy.

I link up with:

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge (Mondays; 3rd Thursday)

Mica at Away from the Blue (Mondays)

Debbie at My Random Musings (Mondays)

Leelo at Beauty by Miss L (Mondays)

Roxanne at Glass of Glam (Mondays)

Laura at I Do deClaire (Tuesdays)

Emma at Style Splash (Tuesdays)

Jess at Elegantly Dressed & Stylish (Tuesdays)

Gail at Is This Mutton? (Wednesdays)

Shelly at The Queen in Between (Wednesdays)

Jodie at Jodie's Touch of Style (3rd Thursday)

Carrie at Curly Crafty Mom (Thursdays)

Ada at Elegance and Mommyhood (Thursdays)

Jacqui at Mummabstylish (Thursdays)

Suzy at The Grey Brunette (Fridays)

Nancy at Nancy's Fashion Style (Fridays)

Michelle at My Bijou Life (Fridays)

Erika at A Little Bit of Everything (Fridays)

Rena at Fine Whatever (Saturdays)