Accent Color Skirt Winter Capsule Wardrobe Outfits + DIY Earrings

Today I am sharing two outfits from my fall/winter capsule wardrobe that feature colorful solid knit skirts worn with tights. Sometimes people shy away from wearing bright colored skirts in cold weather because they think darker colors are more "appropriate" for winter or they don't know how to style them for cold weather. I hope these two outfits help you see how easy it is to wear a colorful skirt in winter and/or provide some outfit inspiration for skirts in your closet.

Fall/Winter Wardrobe Capsule Color Palette

My first outfit (#32) brings the poppy red knit skirt into the mix, circled in grey below.

Black and red is a color combination I like a lot for winter, so it's not surprising that I chose to pair the red skirt with a black top. This tunic length textured sweatshirt (thrifted Lands End) works well with slim-fitting bottom pieces like a pencil skirt or skinny pants. The combination of the tunic top and the knee-length skirt creates a 2/3 to 1/3 proportion that looks interesting.

Capsule OOTD #32: 2/1/24

My scarf is a new one for the capsule: a pretty peacock print in various shades of dark pink to red to maroon with black and blue accents (a gift from my sister). As I typically like to do with a short scarf, I added a long pendant necklace to break up the expanse of black sweatshirt. You've seen this red and silver necklace (and its sibling, the black and silver version) before in my capsule outfits; I really like how it pops against a black background.

The skirt has an asymmetric hem, which adds a bit of interest to an otherwise basic piece. With the black sweatshirt, I naturally gravitated toward black tights and boots. You certainly could consider other options, but for a simple, low-drama look, continuing with black is an easy choice.

I am wearing this taupe/beige-based paper bead bracelet set again with a slightly different line-up of supplemental glass and metal bead bracelets to finish off the all-DIY stack.

It can be easy to wonder how to wear multi-color bracelet sets (paper bead or otherwise) when the primary color doesn't match anything in the outfit, so let's work through it with this taupe/beige-based set. This case is actually quite easy because taupe/beige is a neutral, so you can really just ignore it. That leaves black and red with bits of blue, orange, yellow, and maroon in these bracelets. You can then reinforce the colors of interest in choosing the bracelets to complete the stack, hence the black, red, and blue bracelets that match the colors in the scarf plus a gold/silver bracelet that pulls together the silver tone necklace with the rest of the bracelets.

Remember that it's perfectly OK to wear extra bits of color that don't match anything else in the outfit. We sometimes think of an extra color in terms of making a bold statement, like adding a bright solid "pop of color" piece to an outfit in focal point styling, and that's definitely a great way to do it. But even when you have an outfit that is highly color coordinated like this one, it's not like a small bit of extraneous color is going to be particularly noticeable, let alone something that dooms the look to incoherency.

So I added giant teal and purple swirl earrings...okay, no, I did not. Jodie could probably totally own that kind of wild random accessorizing, but my heart called for some matching earrings. So I made glass bead earrings that coordinated with the scarf in black and red with a small bit of warm blue. This low-key earring blends in with the outfit and lets the red skirt, scarf, and necklace take center stage.

My second outfit also introduces a new garment from the capsule, an ivory pullover sweater (#33 in purple below). I actually have a couple of these sweaters, and I think I pulled one that is not the exact one pictured here, but that's OK with me; I just included one in the capsule image, realizing that I might select a different specific one when it came time to make an outfit.

This outfit combines my dark purple skirt and black moto jacket with the ivory sweater adding some lightness. Arguably that creates a higher value contrast than is ideal for my own coloring, but y'all know I don't use "most flattering possible outfit" as the standard for being happy with a look. Personality is also important, and I like the dynamic feel of high value contrast outfits sometimes.

Capsule OOTD #33: 2/6/24

This outfit has some nice textural contrast too; the sweater knit, the smooth but wrapped up scarf, the faux leather with wooly fleece of the jacket.

The leopard print shoes are nice because they can be worn with either grey or black tights. I went with black to match the jacket.

The leopard print shoes inspired me to choose this DIY bracelet set made from snowflake obsidian (see this post for details). The repetition of the mottled grey and black print from the shoes to the bracelets is the kind of little detail that makes me happy.

My earrings are a very simple one bead + charm style using a clear glass bead and silver snowflake charm. This seems like a recipe for a nearly invisible earring, but it actually stands out nicely against my golden hair and the black-based scarf.

Because the bracelets and footwear were repeated from previous outfits, we're adding four pieces to our accessory collection (circled in yellow below): one pair of neutral earrings, one pair of multi-colored earrings, and two multi-color scarves (one red-based, one black-based).

Accessory capsule to date: Neutral colors

Accessory capsule to date: Accent colors

The black and red color scheme of my first outfit reminded me of these painted metal insect sculptures at the Missouri Botanical Gardens...which, given their size, are in turn reminiscent (in my strange mind) of the Fire Ants in the game Fallout 3. Luckily these sculpted bugs did not attack me or my husband because I did not love our chances against them in hand-to-hand (hand-to-leg? hand-to-mandible!) combat. They are wearing metal armor (or are made of metal armor) after all, which is an unfair advantage! But on the plus side, I think even I could outrun them.

Missouri Botanical Gardens - 10/1/2017

Do you wear colorful skirts or dresses in winter? Do you wear tights with them? What colors do you like to pick? Do you ever wear winter-themed jewelry like these snowflake earrings? Has the end of tights season happened yet where you live?

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