A Navy Common Wardrobe for Fall: Accent Pieces & Core Accessories

In my previous post, I developed a navy-based The Common Wardrobe (TCW) for fall from items in my closet. With these 14 simple items, a lot of different base outfits can be created (as shown in that post).

But woman does not live by basics alone! Well, this woman doesn't. So the next step is to see how accent pieces work with this TCW. In Janice's post, she selected one pullover sweater, one cardigan, two shirts, a scarf, a necklace, and a pair of earrings as her accent pieces, using a palette of soft dark purple and graphic black and white prints. I decided to stick to the same number/types of items as Janice did, but obviously needed my own color palette.

When I think "fall," the first color to come to mind is olive, which is a gorgeous color with navy. We can argue about whether olive is more properly categorized as a neutral, semi-neutral/colored neutral, or accent color, but for the purposes of adding an accent color to TCW, I think we can define "accent color" here as "any color that isn't already in the palette." I don't remember whether I've shared before my ideal Fall (Oct 1 - Nov 15) & Fall/Winter (Nov 16 - Dec 20) sartorial season color palette, but it looks like this (with olive/moss is the neutral category):

Neutrals: Navy, olive/moss, brown/tan/beige, burgundy; cognac & brown leather

Accents: Focus on earth tones (e.g., red/maroon, coral/orange/rust, mustard, dark green, dark teal)

When I put together the 6 Scarves palettes, the #6 Grey & Navy, Sophia capsule had navy and the lighter aloe vera green, but olive appeared only with black and beige in the #4 Olive & Beige, Kiwi capsule. So I haven't had much opportunity to play with the navy and olive combination on the blog this year...all the more reason to include it here!

For my first two pieces, I followed Janice's lead with the accent color sweaters: an aloe vera cardigan and aloe vera pullover sweater. I then added an olive long-sleeved T to create a modern twin set with the cardigan. (Although the aloe vera is a lighter and slightly cooler color than the olive, they work interchangeably in my wardrobe. I have an olive cardigan that is a warmer yellow-olive, but it has an open weave that makes it less practical as a fall garment.)

Next I looked for a long-sleeved print top that contains both navy and olive, and I was immediately drawn to this "fall foliage" print blouse that has a perfect color scheme and seasonal print. I also just love the flowy fit of this blouse worn alone or layered over. (I purchased it last December, so this is my first opportunity to wear it in the fall.)

I perused my scarves for one containing both navy and olive and saw a plaid navy/olive/apple green/aqua scarf that would work with all the core neutral pieces and the olive/aloe while also reflecting the aqua accent color in the floral print blouse. To finish up the "accent" accessories, I went with large bright blue crystal earrings that work with all the colors and (surprisingly!) my DIY dark blue/periwinkle/silver multi-strand seed bead necklace that just felt right.

At that point, seeing two pops of aqua from the prints, I reconsidered my aloe vera pullover sweater. Given I had the olive/aloe twin set, the aloe pullover seemed redundant. So I substituted in a dark aqua cable knit sweater to coordinate with the scarf and to bring a true "accent color" to the capsule. Looking at the resulting collection of accent pieces...yes, this looks great to me!

To demonstrate how well this TCW core capsule + accent capsule concept works even with all the customization I did to mine, I put together the same core + accent outfits that Janice did, just substituting my own items. (As you can see, she made two outfits from each of the accent garments.) I declare it a success based on these outfits!

One thing that really struck me when adding the accent piece accessories was that, like Janice's other capsule frameworks, there aren't any core accessories. But when I selected the blue earrings and necklace, I chose colored statement pieces with the idea that I would already have some core neutral pieces selected. What might that set of core neutral accessories look like? I thought it would probably consist of metallic / pearl jewelry (that can be work with any neutral or accent-colored clothing) and a pair of neutral shoes.

I knew that I should (uncharacteristically!) keep this set to a minimum, to operate as a basic core. I immediately knew two pieces to add: my faux white pearl/silver rabbit stud earrings and the set of 3 silver bead stretch bracelets. These are workhorses in my wardrobe that work with everything and that I do not tire of wearing, which feel like important criteria for a set of core accessories.

For a necklace, I would normally select a string of pearls as my go-to, but with the pearl earrings already in the set, decided to pick a silver necklace instead...and realized that with the pullover sweaters in the capsule, a larger-scale, bolder necklace that can stand out against the sweater would be a good choice. I knew right away that I wanted to include my long silver-tone multi-ring statement piece as the necklace.

For shoes, I kept things subtle but not super-basic with navy suede loafers with a fun blue/navy tassel that go well with pants and with skirts + tights outfits. (For a warm weather capsule, my navy pointy-toed flats would be better because they work well with skirts and bare legs.) To round out the collection, I added a pair of silver multi-hoop earrings (which I am just now realizing are a nifty repeat of the 3-rings-together pattern in the necklace!) and a navy/blue beaded bracelet.

So for the core accessories capsule we have:

-1 necklace

-2 earrings (1 hoop, 1 stud)

-2 bracelets (1 metallic, 1 neutral)

-1 pair of shoes

Here are some outfits I put together from this whole shebang of 14 core garments, 6 core accessories, and 7 accent pieces...for a total of 27 pieces.

Outfit #1

Outfit #2

Outfit #3

Outfit #4

Outfit #5

We can create a lot of outfits from this 27 piece capsule; I have only begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities!

Here's the entire capsule by the numbers so far:

-4 bottoms (2 pants, 1 jeans, 1 skirt)

-5 tops [T or blouse]

-3 collared shirts

-3 pullover sweaters

-3 toppers (2 cardigans, 1 vest)

-1 shoes

-1 scarf

-2 necklaces

-3 earrings

-2 bracelets

At 27 pieces, we are getting very close to a 33 piece Project 333 capsule! In my next post, I will expand the wardrobe from 27 to 33 pieces for a capsule that would cover my Fall & Fall/Winter seasons (Oct 1-Dec 20).

Are there any pieces of this capsule so far that you would change out? If you were expanding the capsule, what pieces would you add?

I link up with:

Nike at Life as a LEO Wife (Sundays)

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

Michelle at My Bijou Life (Mondays, Fridays)

Mica at Away from the Blue (Mondays)

Debbie at My Random Musings (Mondays)

Roxanne at Glass of Glam (Mondays)

Claire at Claire Justine (Mon, Wed, Fri)

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)

Nicole at High Latitude Style (Thursdays)

Suzy at The Grey Brunette (Fridays)

Nancy at Nancy's Fashion Style (Fridays)

Erika at A Little Bit of Everything (Fridays)

Lucy at Lucy Bertoldi (Fridays)

Kimberly at Being a Wordsmith (Fridays)

Rena at Fine Whatever (Saturdays)