And I don’t just mean, did you only wear leggings or pajamas during lockdown? I mean, as you start interacting with the world again – do you feel the same about your clothing and style as you did before? Are you noticing any changes?

This (surreal) time felt almost like a palette cleanser for me. A little “dressing vacation.” Now, re-entering the world of “normal” dressing feels like a fresh start. I realize that all parts of the country (and world) are in different phases of That Coronavirus Life right now, but here in NY just about everything has re-opened – still with masking and distancing guidelines – and they are all still requiring clothing. Which is a bummer, but such is life.

Given a fresh start, do you feel differently about how you would like to present yourself to the world? I kind of do. It’s like that “living every moment” feeling right after surviving some life-threatening event. While I think I’ll always return to a neutral palette of mostly solids (and stripes), I’m feeling a bit of a pull right now to some more color, patterns, and different shapes.

The lure of the surreal. We lived through it…maybe we should continue to embrace it!

So I’m looking to add a couple new items to my wardrobe for fall: something whimsical, bright-colored, patterned, fun. I feel like the Osei-Duro dress was a step in that direction.  Here are some more of the types of things I’m looking at:

Pleated Leopard Skirt

I keep visualizing this with a hot pink twinset.

A what??

Right?? Fun! And both those pieces could go with many other things, as well!

Apricot Floral Blouse

Floral Blouse

I think both of those tops would look great with this chartreuse cardigan.

I love pink with chartreuse so even though the blouse on the left (below) has a little yellow in it, chartreuse is a very yellow-toned green, so it might work. It’s impossibly to tell til you get the items in front of you – the photography lighting affects colors, monitors are all calibrated differently…but it looks to me like it could work. And if you look closely at the top on the right, the little viney foliage bits are that sort of lavender-grey-blue and I LOVE that color with this yellowy green. Just think mid-spring…the maple buds are just popping that exact shade of green, and when there’s a stormy grey-blue sky behind it…it’s a dream!

And I’m not disregarding the sort of muted salmony-brick tone in the shirt…but while that’s not an obvious partner with chartreuse, a fancy designer somewhere determined that it was good with that lavender-grey-blue foliage in the print, and if that is good with the chartreuse and the muted salmony-brick, then ifso-facto, the CH and the MSB will be good together, too. And that is my highly scientific way of deciding if colors will play nicely together. It’s not always right, but…it’s usually a pretty reliable method.

If A goes with B and B goes with C, then A should also go with C. Just call me Alfred.

Peachy Pink Cardigan

I also like this peachy-pink cardigan with at least the top on the left, not so sure about the one on the right. Might be too much solid peachy pinky muted salmony bricky ditzy floral you get the idea.

Weird Jungle Cat Print Blouse This comes in a matching skirt as well, be still my heart.

And guess what??

Plaid Boyfriend Blazer

And what do you think of this??

It’s a little hard to tell on the computer, but I think I like it!

Peachy Floral Dress This print also comes in a skirt.

And oh, hey…

Telephone Dress

You know what’s coming next, don’t’cha??

Let me offer a caveat for the peachy-pink cardigan. I think this color, especially combined with this sort of nubby texture knit, can skew a little Golden Girls-esque. But I think layering it over fresh, modern prints can take 30+ years off its life. I think the smoother knit of the chartreuse cardigan on the right is just a more modern looking fabric. I would feel more confident if the color on the left came in the fabric on the right. As it is now, I would reserve opinion til I saw it in person.

And…cuz I’m me and old habits die hard….a neutral blouse to go over skirts and dresses.

So, nothing too crazy, but adding a few more colors to my autumn palette and a few more prints to mix and match could be fun!

What do you think? Think you’ll try something new this fall after surviving coronavirus??

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