I can already see that this blue silk top is going to be a wardrobe staple over the next few months, now that spring (and summer!) is firmly in sight. Although it’s brighter than the blues in my wardrobe palette, it goes really well with the other colours in it. Funnily enough, this whole outfit is off-palette for me, since it’s brown-based. I don’t (typically) do brown. It’s just … meh. I don’t hate it as viscerally as other colours, but I don’t particularly like it either. With that said, I can’t bear to part with this skirt, because it’s such a special piece, brown or no brown. The brown tweed jacket has a nice fit, so it stays too. And the two pieces do go so well together, don’t they?

The cobalt works to “punch” up the brown, which makes the outfit a bit more visually interesting. Sparkly nails help too, I suppose. At the risk of looking matchy-matchy in a dated sort of way, I decided to go with (matching) blue shoes, to up the “oomph” factor a bit more. Or maybe I’m just telling myself that as an excuse to indulge a craving for colour – a sign of the changing seasons, for sure. I am inclined to think that my style is fairly season-less, but I may well be wrong. It will be interesting to see if and how my outfit remixing changes as we move towards summer.

I’ve been enjoying this culottes moment I’m having, even though it poses its challenges. Balancing all that volume at the bottom, while accommodating a high waist, can be tricky. My go-to solution has been a variety of slim, tucked-in tops … and then I remembered my cropped J. Crew sweatshirt. You know the one. If you’ve ever searched for it on eBay, you probably came across my face because I somehow became one of the top Google image search results for “J Crew dutch floral”. So I feel like we have history, this sweatshirt and I. I haven’t worn it in recent months because — funnily enough — I was having trouble balancing its cropped length in outfits. So you can say that this pairing was the answer to a couple of different style dilemmas. Kismet.

I added the jewelled collar blouse to “fancy up” the sweatshirt for the office, and it worked passably well. To keep the outfit from going into “overloaded” territory, I stuck with neutral shoes; in this case, my neutral was a dark burgundy that almost matches the colour of the pants. I forced myself to switch bags, from the Coach tote that has become my de facto everyday bag to my beloved but neglected YSL. It hurts me to say it, but I kinda missed the Coach. It’s just so darn functional! And, unfortunate monogram print aside, the camel colour is so, so versatile. I’ve come to love it a ridiculous amount. I mean, I’m talking about it and it’s not even part of this outfit. Oops.