My Wardrobe, Myself

Well, my wish was granted… I’ve been able to continue wearing my summer wardrobe well into October, which has made me happy. Other than a few cool and overcast days, the warmer temperatures have persisted such that I’ve kept on wearing my cropped pants, tees/tanks, and sandals. I’ve often needed to add a cardigan or jacket to my outfits because it’s not as hot as it was back in July through September, but I welcome that change.

Anyone who’s around me on a regular basis knows how much I love my toppers, especially cardigans, and I usually rate my ensembles that include third pieces higher than those that just consist of a top and a pair of pants. But one thing that changed this year is that I’ve been able to create quite a few two-piece looks that I felt good in and enjoyed wearing. The proportions weren’t perfect, but I’ve made peace with the fact that maximizing my emotional comfort in what I’m wearing means that I generally won’t hit that “golden ratio” of one-third on top to two-thirds on the bottom. Luckily, I’m tall, have long legs, and like to wear heels, which mitigates the fact that I prefer my tops to be a bit longer than “the rule of thirds” would ideally prescribe.

As the warm weather season is wrapping up, I wanted to share some of my favorite outfits that I wore over the past four or so months. While it’s happened a few times that I’ve been able to wear summer clothing well into November – and even December – a few times, I definitely can’t count on that! So, I’ve been working on preparing for the cooler days, when I’ll get back to wearing jeans and closed-toe shoes. Before I do so, however, I want to celebrate the style successes that I’ve experienced this warm weather season.

Summer Outfits Overview

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve mostly been wearing cropped pants instead of dresses and skirts during the warm weather season this year. I’d thought that maybe I’d integrate more skirt and dress ensembles into the mix, but I only ended up having a handful of such looks. It’s partly because I gained a bit of weight and don’t feel as slim in knit skirts and dresses (which all my current pieces are), and it’s also because my life is super-casual and pants outfits usually lend themselves better to the types of activities that I do. I’d love to find a few woven dresses or skirts next year for less “cling factor,” but I don’t need all that many pieces in this wardrobe category, as it’s just not what I wear most often anymore.

My favorite outfits this year consisted of stretch woven pants worn with knit tanks or tees and low-heeled sandals. When a topper was needed, my preference was usually for a duster-length piece, although I still like thigh-length cardigans, too. In terms of shoes and purses, I stick with black and silver/pewter tones, and my shoes are all low-heeled (1.5 to 2 inches) in similar styles. I have a relatively large jewelry collection, but I’ve mostly been gravitating toward black and silver pieces in that area of my wardrobe too this year. I’m sure I’ll come back around to the more colorful items again in the future, but I’m just going with what I’m feeling the most inspired to wear lately.

About the Photos to Follow…

Below I’ll share photos of my favorite pieces, as well as some of the outfits I wore this summer. As I stopped taking outfit pictures several years ago due to being too self-critical, I put together collages of my ensembles instead. I know that “flat-lay” outfits usually aren’t as fun or interesting to look at, but that’s the best I can do given that I don’t have photos of myself wearing them.

I don’t purport to be any sort of “style expert” and most of my outfits aren’t on the cutting edge of fashion, but I felt happy wearing them and that’s what’s most important for all of us. Back when I tried to “keep up” and stay current, I found that I shopped more often and was less happy with what I wore, as I always felt like I was chasing a moving target. I often didn’t like a lot of the current styles, but I felt compelled to try them anyway, for fear of looking dated, frumpy, or just plain old.

Now that I’m mostly opting out of trying to keep up, some people may use such words to describe me, but I’m trying really hard not to care. If I leave the house feeling good in what I’m wearing and I feel both physically and emotionally comfortable, I consider that a huge win that’s far more meaningful to me personally than impressing a bunch of people who I don’t even know (and even those people who I do know).

This will be a very picture-heavy post, but I’ll pepper in commentary as needed among the images shown. I hope you’ll find this post interesting even if my closet pieces and outfits are very different from what you own and wear. I know that I always like to see other people’s clothing and looks. Maybe I’m nosy in that way, but I find it interesting to see what others have, and sometimes I’m also inspired by what I see. If nothing else, maybe you’ll get ideas for organizing data to keep track of your items and ensembles.

Favorite Pieces

In this section, I’ll show you my favorite items that I wore this warm weather season. This isn’t everything I own that I could wear when it’s hot out, but it’s the bulk of what I was happy wearing and what I’ll most likely wear when the temperatures warm up again. Many of the pieces shown will also carry over into the cooler, “not summer” seasons, too, but the cropped pants, sandals, dresses, and skirts will likely remain in my closet until either next summer or a welcomed unseasonably warm day. Fortunately, I’ll still be able to wear the tops and toppers for most of the year through the use of layering, and the purses and jewelry are great year-round, so there’s tons of “double-duty” in those areas of my wardrobe.

I know that many women wear skirts and dresses in the cooler months with tights and boots, but the pieces I own are very much summer-specific due to styling and fabrication. If I come back around to wanting to wear skirts and dresses on a regular basis again, perhaps I’ll search for some items that are more suitable for cool temperature wearings. Until then, I’ll mostly wear jeans and black pants with boots when it’s too cold for open-toed footwear.

My cool weather wardrobe is actually simpler and more straightforward because it’s so jeans-heavy versus my more colorful summer wardrobe. They’re both good in different ways, but the wider variation in bottom pieces is something that I appreciate about the warm weather section of my closet.

Pants, Skirts, and Dresses

These were the bottoms and dresses that I liked best this past summer. While I enjoyed wearing all of them, my “all-star” bottoms were my three pairs of Athleta Brooklyn Utility cropped pants, in black, olive, and “shale” (a sort of muted purple).

I thought that I’d wear my cropped jeans more often than I did, as they’re so versatile and can be worn with pretty much anything. But perhaps because I wear jeans so much during the cool weather season, I needed a change. Also, no matter how comfortable a pair of jeans is, I don’t usually feel they’re as comfortable as my stretch-woven Athleta pieces. I wish I could get pants like those in a full-length, but sadly even Athleta’s tall pants have been running too short on me the past few years. The current trends call for a shorter full-length, but that’s not to my liking, perhaps due to my many years of wearing “flood pants” when there were no tall sizes to speak of.

While my skirts and dresses weren’t worn often, I was still glad to have them on hand. They’re all in the midi length that I prefer and in silhouettes that are flattering on my figure. We’ll see if I reach for skirts and dresses more next year. For years, that was all I wore during the summer months, but that hasn’t been the case for seven or eight years now.

Tops

The bulk of the tops that I preferred wearing this summer were black or black prints, but there were a few other colors in the mix, too. Almost all the summer tops I wore were knits, but there were also two tried-and-true mixed-media pieces from five-plus years ago that I continued to love in 2024. Only a few of the tops shown were new this year, but several others were newly-altered to make them more wearable now (taken in or shortened).

I enjoyed pairing the black and black-printed tops with colored pants. I’ve found that having one color in a mostly black/neutral ensemble is an outfit formula that I enjoy, as you’ll see in the ensemble photos later in this post.

Toppers

As with my tops, I like to bring in color and pattern with my toppers. It’s hard to discern some of the differences among these pieces in the small images below, but even the toppers that look similar are distinct in important ways. For example, the space-dyed cardigans and the black cardigans are very different in their lengths (thigh-length vs. duster-length, as well as a black cropped tie-cardigan that I pair with dresses and skirts).

As I’ve moved to really liking duster-length cardigans this year, about half of the pieces shown are new in 2024. Most of them are lightweight and were relatively inexpensive, but I’ve found that they make a big difference in my wardrobe. The black cropped cardigan is also new and was a replacement for a shorter version that I had become self-conscious wearing due to some proportion changes in my aging body. I like having a bit of extra coverage in the upper-hip region these days.

Shoes and Purses

I mostly wore/carried the shoes and bags below in the recent warmer months:

Except for the cross-body bag, which was a 2024 acquisition, I’ve owned everything else shown since at least last year and often much earlier. I’ve gravitated toward very similarly-styled shoes for years now, but I think I’d like to add at least one alternate summer shoe style in 2025. I’m open to suggestions…

The two pairs of black sandals in the second row are actually not the same, as one pair is a snakeskin pattern and the other is smooth black (and the metal details are also smooth versus patterned). They were both purchased on eBay several years back as replacements for an older pair of shoes that wore out. It’s always nice to purge something because it got “tired” rather than because we got tired of it!

The cross-body bag comes in handy during travel and when I’m walking around for hours at a time. It’s smaller than my other purses, but it still holds a decent amount of stuff. I generally tend to use the same purse for weeks at a time, but I’ve learned that it’s not that difficult to make a change, so I’ve started to do that more often for a bit of variety.

Bracelets and Necklaces

Like my shoes and bags, all my favorite jewelry pieces this year are also black and metallic (silver), including the following bracelets and necklaces.

The pieces shown above have mostly been in my jewelry box (well, I now have jewelry drawers in my dresser) for years. However, the studded bracelet at the top-left is new, as are the silver stretch bracelets in the bottom row. I saw the studded bracelet in a store with my friend and kept thinking about it, so I went back and purchased it a few weeks later. I’m glad I did, as it has already become a “workhorse.”

Earrings

At the risk of sounding like a “broken record” (a term the younger generations react to with a blank stare!), my favorite earrings are also mostly black and silver combinations.

The bulk of the earrings above were purchased at my favorite jewelry and gift store in Lake Tahoe over the years or gifted to me by my mother, although several of them came from alternate locations. What’s difficult to discern in the thumbnails are the sizes of the earrings. Some of them are relatively small (I like to pair those pieces with necklaces), while others are larger statement pieces. Although there’s some “splitting of wears” with my earrings, they’re all worn often enough year-round to justify my owning so many.

However, I’m not wearing my colored earrings and other pieces as much recently as I once did. Perhaps my strong preference for black and metallic accessories will be short-lived. While I’ve always loved this category of accessories, I typically wore other colors, too, fairly regularly (although my footwear and handbags have almost always been black or metallic). I own a lot of silver jewelry with blue stones, as well as some pieces with red, green, and white stones or beads. I also have quite a few silver-only pieces that I don’t wear as often as in the past. I’m keeping everything that I ostensibly still like even if I’m not currently wearing it. Jewelry doesn’t take up too much space and I believe I’ll reach for my other beautiful pieces again at some point in the future.

Skirt and Dress Outfits

Now it’s time to look at some of my summer outfits, starting with the ones that featured either dresses or skirts. Again, black predominated in this category of looks during this past season. Although I own a few dresses that don’t include black, they’re either in my “holding zone” due to fit issues or they’ve fallen out of my favor. I only own one skirt that doesn’t include black (it’s a mauve print), but I didn’t reach for it at all this year (but in fairness, I just didn’t wear skirts or dresses all that often in general).

In this and the following outfit sections, I’ll show the collages and add some brief commentary about each outfit underneath the picture.

This two-layer maxi-skirt was a favorite for years, but it no longer resonates as much with my personal style. I mostly keep it around because my husband likes it. I could see wearing all the other pieces with a midi-length skirt instead, and next summer I’ll give that a try.

This outfit skews “dressy,” but I really liked the way it looked and felt. I could probably tone the look down with more casual accessories and perhaps a bright topper if I wanted to do so.

I felt a bit overdressed in this ensemble, too, but the dress is more “artsy” looking than the one above, as is the necklace. I’m okay with being somewhat overdressed, as people tend to dress extremely casually where I live, and I don’t feel good wearing those types of outfits (think tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops).

This was my favorite of these four skirt/dress outfits, and the look exemplifies my current style aesthetic well. I remember wearing this to have coffee with a friend and do a bit of shopping, and I felt comfortable, attractive, and true to myself in it.

In closing out this section, I’ll say that I think my black pieces can read “dressier” than if they were in alternate colors, so perhaps I’ll play with including more non-black items in my skirt/dress outfits next summer. I already own such pieces, so I won’t need to go shopping to make it happen. Since I haven’t been gravitating toward skirts and dresses nearly as much as I used to, I think I should hesitate to make many (or any?) purchases in those categories unless something changes.

Two-Piece Pants Outfits

A big improvement in my summer style this year was that I had more two-piece outfits that I enjoyed wearing. There are usually two or three months of the year when it’s too hot to wear a topper during the day, so it’s important that I be able to create two-piece looks that I like. The main reason why I experienced more success with this category of ensembles was that I bought some pants that fit well in the back (this is often a challenging area of fit for me). I often have excess fabric under my rear end because gravity hasn’t been all that kind to that area of my body, but this is much less an issue with these newer pants.

Many of the outfits shown below feature one colored garment paired with a black garment and black-heavy accessories. That was a formula that worked well for me this year. Most of the tops, shoes, and jewelry pieces shown are not new, but acquiring the new pants helped me to better utilize everything else and generate highly-rated outfits.

The pants were the only new item this summer. I really like the blue-gray color and find that it pairs very nicely with my black and black-and-white tops and toppers.

The top was new this year and has become a fast favorite. I don’t usually wear light-colored tops, as they can tend to wash me out, but this top works well with my skin tone. I think the dark flecks in the off-white sweater tank help to balance the color out so it’s not the type of stark white that’s a no-go for me.

I always wore my three-quarter-sleeve tops with full-length pants in the past, but I started to think outside the box more this summer. I really liked the black-and-white-print top with my new olive pants.

Everything here was purchased at least a year ago, but I had never combined it all together before. I liked the resulting casual ensemble and felt that the jewelry gave some pizzazz to an otherwise very simple look.

I’ve had the shoes for at least two years, but never really wore them much until this year. They’re now my favorite pair of sandals. I like the two-toned effect and find that it echoes many of my jewelry pieces nicely.

I like how the green tank top was the “star” of this outfit against the black and metallic backdrop. The shoes can tend to look dressy, but I managed to dress them down with the casual top and pants.

The only way I would ever wear pants that bright is paired with black / black-printed pieces. I usually don’t like to wear bright colors on my bottom half, but I felt good wearing this ensemble.

I previously only wore the t-shirt with joggers or workout pants, but after doing the closet clean-out class a few months ago (I wrote about that experience in this post) and temporarily reorganizing my closet, I thought to expand its wear with my summer out-and-about pants.

I sometimes ended up wearing a topper with the outfits above, especially if I was in an air-conditioned space or outside during the evening hours. But what’s great was that I didn’t feel that I had to put on a cardigan or jacket for the outfit to feel “complete” or for me to feel emotionally comfortable in what I was wearing. I felt attractive in the looks even when it was just a top and a pair of pants (and accessories, of course).

Three-Piece Pants Outfits

When the temperatures cooled down a bit and I was able to add a third piece to my all-day outfits, they ended up being more interesting – and often more colorful as well. I usually still included black in my looks to “ground” them, but in many cases, my topper added a fun pop of color to the mix. My outfit proportions were generally better when a third piece was added because the resulting look adhered more closely to the “golden ratio.”

While cardigans remain my favorite types of toppers, I’ve also started adding more knit or stretch-woven jackets to my closet. I especially like the sweater blazers that have become popular lately. They’re a great option for my style, and they offer a nice change of pace from the thigh-length and duster cardigans that I wear most often.

Cobalt remains one of my favorite colors, and I love to pair it with black. The long cardigan adds a touch of drama to the outfit.

I’ve sometimes struggled with how to wear the earrings, which were a gift from my mom, but I liked the way they looked with this top and topper. It was a form of subtle pattern-mixing that I don’t do all that often.

This was one of my absolute favorite summer looks. The cardigan is very long, but it’s lightweight and pairs nicely with the sweater tank and purplish pants. The necklace is one of my favorites (it came from J. Jill and wasn’t very expensive), and I loved it with this outfit.

I probably shouldn’t have bought the top because it had a curved hem and I don’t like the way those look on me. But I loved the print so much last year that I was willing to have my tailor alter the hem to make it straight. I probably wouldn’t do that again because that can be a riskier alteration, but the top turned out great and I’ve enjoyed wearing it.

This twist-hem top was one of the only ones that I kept after my failed attempt at using this detail to help with my outfit proportions. The reason this one worked while the others failed is because it’s shorter in length. The other twist-hem tops were more of a tunic-length, and I didn’t end up liking the way they looked on me even with the shorter front.

While most of my favorite cardigans are now duster-length, I also like to wear thigh-length styles, which I find look more casual and subdued. It just depends upon my mood and what I’m doing on a given day.

I did some more subtle pattern mixing with this outfit, and I liked the way it looked. Both the top and the jacket are new this year. Red has become one of my favorite colors as of late, so I’m gradually adding more of it to my wardrobe.

More red… The graphic tee is a recent acquisition. I like graphic tees, but have rarely found any that I like and that fit me well. I prefer that they be relatively simple, like this one is with two roses and the word “Lucky” (it’s from Lucky Brand). My previous favorite red cardigan had become pilled after many, many wears, so I added this deep red cardigan to my closet this year. It’s the same style as the cobalt and purple versions shown earlier.

This last outfit was worn just last week. Sweater blazers have become a new favorite style for me. I love that they feel like a cardigan but look like a blazer. They’re also a more casual look than the more corporate-style blazers that many of us are used to wearing to an office.

Transitioning to My Cool Weather Wardrobe

It was fun to revisit many of the outfits that I wore over the course of the past four months or so. I’ll definitely feel a twinge of sadness when I need to stop wearing my cropped pants and sandals, but I’ll continue to wear a version of the three-piece pants outfits shown above on fall and spring days. I can swap out the cropped pants for jeans or black pants (I wish I had full-length pants in other colors, but those have proven difficult to find!) and the sandals for ankle boots, while keeping the rest of the outfit basically the same.

Once the days get much colder, though (usually in December through February or March), I’ll pull out my long-sleeved tops and warmer toppers. My outfit formulas will remain similar, but I’ll also integrate the handful of black vests that I own in various shapes and fabrics, as those look nice with long-sleeved tops (and with a long topper over them to keep warm when I’m outdoors). I created collages for my favorite cool weather ensembles, too, and I may share those in a future post, although I’m sure I’ll make some “tweaks” to my 2023 and early 2024 looks to better reflect my evolving preferences.

I think my wardrobe is in pretty good shape now for both warm and cool weather, and I mostly have what I need to get dressed for any occasion that arises in my life. Should a formal event come up, that would likely necessitate some shopping, but I don’t foresee that happening at this point.

Conclusion

What I hope to do is enjoy wearing what I own while making fewer strategic purchases to help me subtly refine and update my style over time. My focus should be more on what I have versus what’s “out there,” although that can be challenging with all the temptation and “noise” coming from retailers and influencers alike. I need to do better at both tuning out that noise and being increasingly mindful about what I buy (and remembering Sally’s sage advice).

Unless you’re committed to being a “fashion plate” who stays up-to-the-minute with the trends, I don’t think any of us need to worry too much about becoming a fashion “don’t.” Even if you just buy a handful of new pieces each year, that should be enough to keep your style evolving. The newest trends are always what’s most prevalent in the stores, so if we shop even just a few times a year, we’ll be evolving our wardrobe and style and staying relatively “current,” especially if we also regularly do closet audits and get rid of what’s no longer working for us. I’m not at all obsessed with what’s trendy, but I do see an evolution of my style on a year-to-year basis.

While you may not like many of the new trends, there will likely be at least some of them that strike your fancy – and chances are most of us already own some of what’s “hot” anyway, especially in terms of colors and patterns. While there are some women who do end up looking extremely “dated,” those are usually those who have stopped updating their wardrobes at all. But if they’re happy with what they’re wearing, that’s really all that matters. One beautiful thing about getting older is (or should be, anyway) caring less and less about what others think and marching more to the beat of our own drum. As I edge closer to the big 6-0, I’m slowly getting there!

Your Thoughts?

As always, I’d love to read your thoughts about the topics covered in this post. I know that summer is long past for many of you (I meant to get this post out sooner, but best laid plans and all…), so if you’d rather write about your fall wardrobe and outfits, I welcome that type of sharing as well (and of course, my Aussie and Kiwi readers share about their spring style). Other topics to potentially weigh in about are following – or not following – trends, potentially becoming “dated,” style evolution, and worrying (or not) about what others think. However, feel free to comment however you’d like.

Thanks for reading, and as we move into the “home stretch” of 2024, I wish you all the best with the remainder of this year. It’s a challenging time for many of us, either personally or on a more macro scale, so I wish you strength and I send you positive thoughts and love from my corner of the world. I hope to get in at least a few more posts before the end of the year, and I’ll be back soon to talk about something other than summer style!