Say yes to the scarf

Hey cuties and thanks for joining me for our Coral Colored month!

To kick things off I’m going to share one of the first coral pieces I purchased for this challenge and why. I’m also taking you through what happens after I pick the color and what steps I take!

So here’s what happens after after I land on the color of the month.

Step 1 – Creating Color Combos

so when I pick a color to focus on, I immediately start brainstorming color combos and ideas before I even start to shop! I do most of this “color-storming” by playing around with what’s already in my closet and experimenting with hues. I’ll also do a lot of it in my head to fill down time. When I can’t sleep, am waiting for something, or just get bored walking; I’ll keep my mind preoccupied by making up math problems or dreaming up color combos. A walk to Walgreens can quickly turn into a game of “how many color combos could I create with kelly green”, and BAM, color me entertained. So when I decided on coral I spent a lot of time thinking of what would pair well with our chosen color, some of my initial ideas included: yellow, cobalt, kelly green, teal, blush and more.

Step 2 – Research

Although you might think that research might be the first step after landing on a color it isn’t because I want to make sure I kick things off with a brainstorm session before I let anything else influence my process. After I’ve survived the color storm, then I do a deep dive into understanding everything from the history to the color to why it’s on trend now! Here I explore everything from what colors will go best with coral and why, what is making it some relevant right now, color related do’s and don’ts, how it’s impacting multiple industries, any emotional attachment to the color and more. To be fair I do a bit of this research before actually selecting the color to make sure I select something revenant and on trend, but this second round is much more extensive. If you’d like I can share more about what I learned in relation to coral in an upcoming blog post – let me know in the comments.

Step 3 – (cue White Chicks voice) SHOPPING!!!!

This is the most fun for sure because I get to go on a color of the month shopping spree! As I mentioned in my kick off post, I had to do more shopping this month than any other color feature because of a few reasons (all outlined here). I do do a lot of searching by color (going to touch on that in a later post because this was extra challenging for coral too) but I like to start my shopping by browsing the new arrivals at some of my favorite stores. When hunting through asos I came across this color blocked scarf and new it would be a great way to start my coral collection for a few reasons. For starters, it’s winter worthy and a nice way to make a traditionally warm weather color work for winter! Secondly, it is crazy versatile and super affordable so I know I’ll get some serious bank for my buck. And finally, it showcased some of best color combos for coral either confirming some of my previous predictions or pointing me in a whole new and exciting direction.

CORAL SCARF SHOP:

one || two || three || four || five
six || seven || eight || nine || ten

Step 4, 5, 6 and 7 include outfit planning, content creation, calendar development and the eventual publishing of these pieces!

Today’s look Is a casual weekend style I wore around the west village last Saturday. I paired a coral coat I had from previous seasons with denim culottes, my favorite shearling sneakers and my scarf! The nods of green, lime, teal and purple in the piece inspired me to layer a grape turtleneck and teal accessories with the look.

One way to get away with wearing a ton of colors without looking crazy is to play the numbers game. You pick your feature color: coral, and give it a major moment with one key piece: the coat. Then you give it two smaller features to keep things cohesive without over doing it, here those boxes are checked with the coral part of the scarf and a red coral lip (I’m wearing lady danger). Then you take your secondary color (mine is teal)and showcase it just as many times as your star color but in smaller ways like accessories or pops of color as I did with my had, scarf part and bag. So to recap, your star and your secondary get featured just as much (in this case 3 times each), but your star makes one major statement like we did with the coat and two very small features (lip and scarf), while the secondary color does three small doses (scarf, belt, beret). If you want to add a third color, because WHY NOT, just give it one medium sized moment and another smaller spot like I did with the turtleneck and scarf. And voila, you’ve got a colored look that’s just the right amount of crazy!

SHOP THE LOOK:
(click the images to shop in a new tab)

SHOP THE LOOK:
Scarf || Coat (mines old, one here); Similar coats here & here
Turtleneck (XS – XXXL), similar here || Bag (in pink); look for less here
Beret || Sneakers || Jeans: Similar here, here, here & here
PLUS SHOP: Coat || Jeans || Scarf || Beret || Turtleneck || Bag || Sneakers

I also wanted to bring something to your attention in this post – my bloat. I have serious bloat issues mostly tied to small food allergies (like a slight gluten intolerance) that I don’t let change the way I eat. About once a month I’ll get this weird stomach bloat that results in me looking like I’m 6 months pregnant, it’s also hard like concrete. It’s so odd! It first happened when I was on a dance trip at Disneyland and usually occurs because I over ate or ate a big carb meal after not eating for a while. I decided to shoot anyways knowing it would show because I wanted to showcase how bloating can drastically change the way you look. I have a really small waist for my size, kind of oddly small, but when I bloat all bets are off. It’s something I used to be really self conscious about but now I just know its part of my life, and probably until I’m willing to say bye to gluten forever It will always happen. For the record, I was gluten free for two years and it helped a bit also helped my fibromyalgia a bit but not enough for me to want to make the life long change. Also that was around the time Paris moved in, and cooking for someone who does eat gluten when you don’t can be very difficult so I made the switch back. Anyways, all this to say it’s okay if you bloat – please don’t let something like that stop you form doing the things you want to do 🙂 And to say, I go through it too.

What do you think? Would you rock this look?! Let me know!