As you might recall, yesterday I tried a core outfit of this Wool& Camellia lapis-blue dress plus a gray beaded cardigan with a variety of boots and tights, to see how many different outfits I could achieve.
For today's experiment, I opted instead to combine the dress with one pair of tights –– my new Snag tights in "slate" –– with my gray-green Doc Martens. On this template, I superimposed my entire cardigan/sweater collection, in turn, to see how many things worked with this base-level combination.
As it turned out, most things did work very well. Even the combinations that weren't my absolute favorites were at least okay. Here's the rundown:
GRAY CARDIGANS AND SWEATERS
I have a lot of gray sweaters. I like gray. It's a good neutral for me. None of these were exact matches for my slate-gray tights, which was good, since I am trying to avoid matchiness. Note that all of the sweaters pictured here were thrift finds. I did omit yesterday's beaded cardigan, because I figured by now we all know what that looks like.
Sweater #1: thrifted microfiber asymmetrical-hem pullover in a kind of ombre effect.
This obviously isn't a natural-fiber piece, but it's incredibly soft and light, and I've always liked it. Because the neck's sort of stretched out, I generally wear a scarf with it, but I didn't bother with scarves for these photos. That can be another day's outing.
#2: light-gray thrifted Athleta drape cardigan.
Another great favorite.
It has strategically-placed magnets, so that you can style it in various crossover ways. I can never reliably find the shoulder magnets, but here are the lapel magnets put together:
#3: gray longline patterned cardigan.
Also thrifted. I think it's all cotton, but I haven't read the label that carefully. It's starting to get a hole in one shoulder, but not that noticeably yet, so I'm hanging onto it for a while longer. I got lots of wear out of it last year; it really made any number of outfits.
Yeah, sorry, didn't bother cropping out my drying rack. Real life here. But I like this a lot. This is a great cardigan for all kinds of reasons, but not least is that it instantly and obviously provides the pattern in the light-dark-color-pattern outfit formula that I like to follow when I can. Here, my shoes are lighter, my tights are darker, my dress provides a hit of color, and the cardigan adds pattern. I like all of the combinations I've made so far, but this one really hits that particular target.
#4: finally, in the gray category, my thrifted taupe boyfriend cardigan.
This is yet another piece I've worn a LOT since paying fifty cents for it. I think it plays well here.
BLUE CARDIGANS/SWEATERS
Not surprisingly, I also own a lot of blue sweaters. Here they are. Like the grays, I think they all work well with this dress-tights-boots combo.
#5: another pullover.
This one is a Liz Claiborne Sport cotton mock turtleneck sweater, very soft and comfortable, and a favorite of my husband's.
I'm not sure about where the sweater's hem hits . . . I wish it were just a hair shorter OR longer. But as a blue-on-blue tonal effect, it's nice with the dress, while the slate tights and gray-green boots keep the whole thing from being TOO matchy and monotone.
#6: one of two non-thrifted cardigans.
This was a cheap Amazon impulse buy back in January, when I wanted a longline cardigan. One of my chief reasons for embarking on this hundred-day dress challenge was to rehabituate myself to not making purchases like that, but in the meantime, as I do have this cardigan, I enjoy getting lots of wear out of it. It's not a natural fiber, but it's pretty light, soft, and comfortable, and I love the blue marl knit, which adds some subtle pattern to the equation of this outfit.
#7: a thrifted duck-egg blue drape cardigan.
It's a Loft piece, and all cotton, I believe, very soft and lovely. I often knot it at the waist, but here I didn't bother.
This is a great transitional piece, since it's so airy, but it is surprisingly warm, too.
PINK AND PURPLE CARDIGANS/SWEATERS
#10: I'll start with another pullover, the last of the ones I currently own.
This is a thrifted J. Jill ramie/linen kind of thing, very light, but also problematically boxy. Here I did bother to knot it at the hem.
#11: this fifty-cent find, which I'm never sure about.
It has odd butterfly sleeves, and I've never felt quite right in it, but it actually sort of seems to work here:
Maybe it was just waiting for this dress? Here's another angle of the same:
I've never been sure that I liked this cardigan, but suddenly I really do. I also wasn't sure that these purpler hues were going to work with the blue, but I think they do. They're both muted/grayed enough shades that they seem to harmonize, especially in combination with the tights and boots. Camel boots wouldn't work here, I don't think, but the Docs, being in the same gray-toned color family, do work.
#12: another thrifted cardigan, bought last year and worn a lot, though I don't know.
It's so hairy and bulky, like a bathrobe. Still, the colors work nicely together in much the same way that the last outfit did. I just wish the hemlines didn't fall in so exactly the same place. I'd like the sweater better if it were six inches longer.
AND THE REST
I also wasn't sure about these last few cardigans with this particular combination of tights and boots. They might do better with navy tights, I thought, and/or with my camel tall boots. But I dunno, none of this is bad.
I don't wear a lot of brown, but I do wear and like both of the following cardigans:
#14: thrifted ramie-linen Loft waist-tie cardigan.
It's hard to see in this photo, but l like this cardigan a lot with the dress. It has a subtle ribbed knit with a little cabling, to add some pattern interest to an outfit. It doesn't not go with the slate tights, though I think it would look better with lighter ones –– a lighter gray, or the mustard-yellow tights I've ordered, or something. OR the burgundy tights I was trying on yesterday. That would actually be a really good combo with these boots, this cardigan, and Camellia.
#15: Ditto for this thrifted brown Talbots cardigan:
Again, I think either yellow or burgundy tights would be a welcome note of color, but I like the blue and brown together.
#16: thrifted soft green Loft boyfriend cardigan, another favorite item generally:
Despite my fondness for this cardigan, this is probably my least favorite combination of the outfits I've made here. Maybe it's just that the grass-green cardigan feels so springlike to me. I wear it a lot as a light layer in the summer, too. I love it with my dress, but not with the tights and boots. The green cardigan does not at all harmonize with the gray-green boots, or really with the gray tights. I imagine, however, that I will wear it a good bit into the fall with my new-to-me Birk Madeiras, once they arrive. It would work better, too, I think, with navy tights and the Madeiras. I can anticipate getting wear out of this dress/cardigan combination, but not with these tights or boots.
Now you've seen my entire sweater collection, all seventeen of them (these plus yesterday's beaded cardigan).They fit relatively neatly in one bin under my bed. Even given that most of my sweaters are either gray or blue, I think that as a collection they offer me a satisfying number of different outfit options. And this isn't even adding accessories like scarves, or changing my hairdo, or any of the other things you can possibly do to transform your look.
I'm sure I'll pick up this series again at some point, though having run through all the sweaters and 3/4 of my new tights, I'm out of steam for now. Meanwhile, I have collected all these shots, plus some extra takes, in a cooler-weather Camellia style file album. I'll continue to add to said album as I try new combinations.
What is good about all this is that I could see getting through the entire year with this one dress, possibly not repeating an outfit once I start to have to add layers for warmth. I hope by the time it's truly winter here I'll also have my reward dress; I also really might give myself a third dress for my birthday, since thanks to the miracle of Ebay I'm not buying an expensive pair of investment shoes this fall. A rota of three dresses that I could wear with all these sweaters, plus the tights, shoes, boots, scarves, and other accessories I already have –– I would be unstoppable. Or so I think. We'll see how it goes.