6 Scarves 2021: June Additions, #4 Olive & Beige, Kiwi

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

For a description of my method, see this post.

In June, Janice added two print tops (a beige/coral floral and an olive camo), an olive midi skirt, and olive sandals to her olive and beige wardrobe. I have a similar skirt in my closet, but I'm pretty sure it's not being added to the Kiwi wardrobe this month; that's the kind of garment I would tend to reserve for that late summer/early fall transition.

So what will we be seeing from this color palette for June?

I had earlier identified short-sleeved tops and a lightweight vest or cardigan for all the capsules. For this particular wardrobe, I was thinking a white or cream T and some coral garments as likely contenders.

How do our June additions compare to Janice's additions and my thoughts about the wardrobe? Well, like Janice, we have an olive short-sleeved T in this set, which also checks the "short-sleeved top" box from my list. The light salmon pink short-sleeved cardigan gives us the "lightweight cardigan or vest." We have two items with coral in the print: the exuberantly colorful pullover dress made from the world's cheapest/worst polyester fabric but nevertheless is a fun hang-around-the-house item (that yeah, I would not buy if I had it to do over again, but I will wear it and get my $5 of use out of it) and the beloved cheetah-print blouse. The white or cream T didn't appear in this set, and as I thought, there's no olive skirt. But we get a great pair of summery pants that are on the opposite end of the quality spectrum from the dress.

Bright painted plants dress - Shein - 4X - $5.14 - 7/2020

Black ankle pants - thrifted, Eileen Fisher/Goodwill - XL - $15.00 - 5/2014

Grey-blue cheetah blouse - Evri/Kohls - 2X - $16.65 - 8/2019

Light salmon pink short-sleeved cardigan - thrifted, Woman Within/Goodwill - 1X - $3.74 - 10/2018

Olive Henley T - Croft & Barrow/Kohls - 2X - $11.59 - 6/2018

Looking at these accessories earlier, I noted that we could use a pair of colorful ballet flats and some necklaces that aren't red.

Well, we are batting .500 on the accessories front. Rather than an accent color, the ballet flats are a very nice pair of black buckle flats that have a professional look but are quite versatile. We added four necklaces this month, none of which are red and all of which have different origins: a floral mixed-metal one I bought at retail, the orange/sandstone/gold seed bead and chain necklace that I made last month, a black/clear crystal swirl and chain necklace that was a gift from my mom, and a bulky chain and faux pearl necklace I bought from ThredUp. And as a bonus, a pair of large black earrings.

Mixed metal floral necklace - Kohls - $10.00 - 12/2014

Orange/sandstone/gold multi-strand seed bead necklace - made by me - 5/2021

Black and white faux infinity necklace - gift

Black buckle flats - Me Too/Nordstrom - $53.56 - 8/2013

Black/silver branch earrings - Outfit Additions?

Bulky gold chain and pearl necklace - thrifted, ThredUp - $3.00 - 12/2019

Just to try something different, I'm not pairing the orange necklace with the cheetah blouse today, despite that being such an obvious combination! Instead, in Outfit #1 the necklace will bring a cheerful pop of bright color to this olive-and-black outfit. I wasn't at all sure how this would work out, but I really like it! I think I'm a much more adventurous print-mixer than I am color-mixer, so I am trying to reach for the less-obvious color combinations at least occasionally to stretch myself in that direction.

In Outfit #2, let's bump up this cheetah blouse outfit with a simple layered necklace look. You could certainly wear either of the necklaces on its own, but I would try pairing the more low-key swirly one with the bold floral one for a unique look.

Finally, the bright dress doesn't need much in the way of accessorizing, but for a weekend of chilling or especially for a work-from-home day, it doesn't hurt to add a couple finishing touches to an outfit. Big earrings are a nice summer option because they aren't hot to wear (and if you have shorter hair or spend the summer with your hair up or back, this is a prime opportunity to show off your earring style). I threw in this necklace because I keep my apartment cool enough that a bulky necklace is not an overheating issue. (And due to the cheap fabric, this isn't a dress I'm likely to wear when going outside where I might get hot. Luckily my thought in purchasing this dress was "I would like to experiment with having an easy one-and-done loose pullover dress to wear around the house in the summer" and not "I could use a really nice dress to wear to work" so it's OK. I wish I had qualified my purchase requirements to include "loose pullover knit or cotton/linen fabric dress" but now I know.)

I fell in love with this cheetah print blouse as soon as I saw it in the store, and it went into heavy rotation as soon as I bought it. As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for what I call "zoological" prints that show the entire image of an animal (as opposed to "animal" prints that look like the hide or skin of an animal). It's also polyester, but it's not the hot, shiny polyester of that colorful dress; it's a modern, nicer quality polyester. (I got curious about polyester and found this article an interesting read.)

In this outfit from two months ago, I drew on the black and grey in the print to select the rest of items. Amusingly, the shoes are a black-and-grey leopard print so I am mixing a "zoological" print with an "animal" print.

I shared this outfit from last month already, but wanted to show the cheetah blouse with the orange necklace again. Both of these outfits feature cardigans my mom gave me recently because they were too large for her; they are a bit small for me but work well with a sleeveless top.

This was the debut of the cheetah blouse in August 2019, and the photo gives you a good look at the print. I purposely kept the rest of the outfit low-key so that the blouse could command everyone's attention (and it did...I got quite a few compliments on it). I was quite pleased when I realized I had a lightweight open weave cardigan in a compatible shade of grey-blue to pair with the blouse.

I usually only share three looks when I spotlight a garment, but I wanted to throw in this outfit from September 2019 in which I wore beige, which is something of a rarity. Good grief, I look sun-burned! But no, I'm just pink, and sometimes my camera likes to exaggerate contrast in such a way that I look very pink indeed. (Although sadly, it's not the extreme exaggeration that you might assume. Um, maybe there is a reason I don't frequently wear beige...)

After all this discussion of variable fabric quality, let's turn our attention to something that is absolutely first-rate: our new rabbit addition, Vanna the Havana! Doesn't she have a gorgeous sheen? This lustrous fly-back fur (i.e., the fur will fly back into place after brushing from the rump toward the head) is why the breed is sometimes known as "the mink of the rabbit family." Once again, the name is misleading: the Havana breed originated in Holland, not Cuba. But the first Havana rabbits were a dark chocolate brown that reminded people of the color of Cuban cigars from the city of Havana. The brown Havana was accepted by the American Rabbit Breeder's Association in 1916, but it took time for other colors of Havana to be developed. It wasn't until 1980 that the first black Havana, like Vanna, was recognized by the ARBA. There are currently five colors of Havana rabbit.

Vanna certainly makes a notable contribution to the color diversity of the Kiwi menagerie! Though a few of the rabbits have visible black coloration in their pattern, Vanna is the first all-black rabbit in the capsule. She is also the mid-weight rabbit of the group, weighing in at 4.5 to 6.5 pounds.

Do you wear polyester? Do you ever wear it in the summer? I am most likely to wear polyester in exercise/hiking clothes since many moisture-wicking garments are made from polyester, but I do have some polyester blouses (and that one dress) in my closet. Most of these garments are for cooler seasons, but some of them do get worn in the summer. I used to not much like wearing polyester, but most polyester today compared to even 20 years ago is a huge improvement. These days when I do run into low-quality polyester like in this dress, or come across weird polyester in some older garments in thrift stores, it's kind of a shock. But in defense of the polyester of yesteryear, I do have to remember that when polyester entered the scene in the 1950s, it made for a HUGE improvement in the quality of life of women who didn't have to iron it! (My mom has drilled this point into my head the first approximately 100 times I complained about polyester.)

As for why Shein is selling trashy polyester in 2020's...well, I have to assume it was extremely cheap for them to use. But man, in the future, I will spend my $5 on a second-hand garment from a reputable brand. (But the print of that dress is really cute, haha.)

In my next capsule post, we will look at the June additions for our fifth wardrobe: #5 Brown & Black, Nelly.

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)

Claire at Claire Justine (Mondays, Weds, Fridays)

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)

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)