This post is sponsored by ABLE, a lifestyle brand focused on ending generational poverty by working with women who have often overcome extraordinary circumstances.
In the last three and a half years I’ve taken my closet through a major overhaul. It all began in the spring of 2014 after my last baby was born, and I felt like I had nothing to wear. Worse, I didn’t even know what to buy, in order to feel like I had something to wear. With the help of Caroline’s capsule methods I began stripping down my wardrobe to the things I loved. Those turned out to be basic and modern shapes in very neutral colors. Since then my closet has been comprised mostly of: black, gray, navy, blue, white, cream, with the errant tan or brown.
I felt like anything that wasn’t black/tan/gray or white just wouldn’t be versatile or neutral enough to wear over and over again. I wanted everything I owned to be well-utilized and worn often, so I stuck to a strict palette.
Slowly, I’ve grown more confident in my personal style, and I’ve begun to add in new shapes and silhouettes. I’ve also started adding in a few colors – olive and burgundy (and shades in the burgundy family, like rust).
Little did I know, olive and burgundy could be just as versatile and worn just as often as my go-to’s of black and brown. In fact, I’d dub them ‘new neutrals.’ To show you what I’m talking about I decided to take my olive and burgundy pieces and style them together in two different looks. I truly believe this is just scratching the surface on the styling potential of these colors, but I wanted to give you some ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
LOOK 1:
Sweater: c/o Jamie + the Jones | Jeans: Everlane | Tirhas Saddle Bag, c/o ABLE | Miriam Mule, c/o ABLE | Necklace, gift from husbad
As soon as I started brainstorming looks for this post, I knew I wanted to pull this outfit together. This sweater is a winter and fall staple for me, and I love anything that complements it. When it comes to building out my color palettes, black is what I have a lot of, and black and cream isn’t always my first choice. I prefer midtones with cream because they pair so well together. Here, I absolutely love the way these, mossy, olive mules work with the muted blue jeans and cream sweater. The burgundy bag brings the pop of warmth that I’m usually craving this time of year, rounding out the palette of this outfit nicely.
Maybe we can all finally agree that our bag and shoes don’t have to match.
The Miriam Mules by ABLE are very easy to wear. I have them in a size 10.5 (up a half size) and the low heel makes them quite comfortable. Unlike some of my other mules (which I love!) these have a rubber sole, which makes them easier to wear in the rain. These have a looser fit at the instep than other slip-on shoes I own, which makes it a lot easier to get my foot all the way in the shoe. This also means they fit slightly looser when walking, but not enough to make a noticeable difference in comfort or how well they stay on my feet.
LOOK 2:
Sweater, Zady (no longer available) | Shirt, c/o Power of My People | Jeans, c/o Everlane | Tirhas Saddle Bag, c/o ABLE | Miriam Mule, c/o ABLE
For this look, I challenged myself to bring another color (light blue) into the palette. Also, it’s hard to see in the photos, but this sweater is actually charcoal gray, not black. I’ve got a cool-toned palette of clothing, but the olive mules and the burgundy bag work fabulously with it! Makes me wish I had started incorporating color into my wardrobe a little sooner.
The Tirhas Saddle Bag by ABLE has caught my eye many times over. I love the classic saddle style of the bag, and the size is quite nice – roomy enough, but not too big or bulky. ABLE bags are very unique in that they are made from distressed leather. It’s not smooth and polished like most leather bags. This handbag is a little rough around the edges, in the best way possible. This is the second ABLE bag I’ve owned, and I treated it like the first, applying leather conditioner right away, to help seal up the bag and add moisture to the leather. The leather is very thick and sturdy, and I expect it to look better with age.
The color of this bag is perfect for this time of year, when I’m often donning black coats and shoes to keep warm and dry. The burgundy is a nice shade to add to my look instead of yet another black item!
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FashionABLE >>> ABLE: You may have noticed that FashionABLE has evolved their name to ABLE. The exciting change was made to reflect where they are headed as a company. The root of their mission has always been ensuring that women are able to overcome. The brand is focused on ending generational poverty by working with women who have often overcome exceptional circumstances, manufacturing directly in the communities they intend to impact. As the company has grown, their goals have deepened to include a new chapter called accountABLE, a radically transparent reporting process that discloses the social impact of their employment and manufacturing processes, particularly among women. You can read more about the amazing four-part goal of accountABLE here. To sum it up, the new name merges the brand’s past with the brand’s future: ABLE.
How do you use olive and burgundy in your wardrobe? Do you pair them together or use them as accents?
This post is sponsored by ABLE. All thoughts, ideas, content and writing are by me. Photography by Kiara Rose.
You are showing some of my favorite styling tricks here! One of my biggest problems in developing a cohesive wardrobe is that I love color! When I first started to limit my wardrobe and try for more cohesion I had no idea how to do it since my inspiration blogs preached all neutral wardrobes. But I slowly discovered that a good base of neutrals actually helped me be able to wear my favorite colors more. A little color goes a long way in an outfit, so rather than trying to figure out which intense color pant I could wear with which intense color shirt, I’ve built a solid base of neutral with a few colorful items. And some of my very favorite ways to add color is with shoes, bags, and jackets! If I wear my black pants and grey tshirt with my flowered slip ones, it feels like I’m wearing a colorful outfit, while still being very easy to mix up.
YES! I feel exactly the same way. I totally agree. I love adding a pop of color from shoes, bags and jackets, but I am always a little chicken to buy items like those in non-neutral colors, but when I do, I’m usually happy I did!
Love these looks, especially the first one. I actually love olive and consider it a neutral. I find that it “goes” with almost everything. You look fantastic, and I love ABLE. Their vintage jeans are really comfortable and very cute. Highly recommend – even though I probably should get them taken in about an inch in the waist. I also love their mission :)
Yeah, I love to hear that you love their jeans! They look really cute to me. I almost tried some, but I need some longer inseam jeans, crops tend to be really cropped on me. I love their mission too. :) Good stuff!
Love their brand! I have a pair of their jeans! My next bag purchase will be from them or Cuyana. Great styling Andrea!
Thank you Jodie! Which jeans do you have by ABLE?
Our color palettes are exactly the same, haha. Although, I’ve been adding burgundy & olive for a while, to the point where I’ve had to force myself to put a pause on buying colors – I was out of neutrals to pair them with! I love both outfits you put together, but especially the first. I love ABLE but so far have only ordered a ring from them, haha. I really want to give their denim a try soon!
I am curious to try their denim too! And I have a cuff by them, that I wear every day, even to bed and in the shower, and i love that I never have to take it off!
Olive is absolutely a neutral. Black,
navy, pink and red are all wonderful colors to wear with it.
I would have never thought to pair it with red, but I could totally see how that would be fun!
Gray is also great with olive as well as, of course, burgundy. Can you tell I’m a fan of olive?!
Love these outfits and the concept of “new neutrals”! I’m slowly discovering that if I love a color and make sure I have the right… tone? (Aka warm or cool) so that it’s cohesive with the rest of my wardrobe it is just as good as my other staple colors! And I feel like that’s what I’m really going for when I look for “neutrals” – I’m really just yearning for staple colors that I can count on. Does that make sense? Anyway, I loved hearing about your journey with color and wardrobe because I feel like mine has been so similar – including having a lifestyle change, feeling like none of my clothes fit/worked, finding Caroline and then building up from there! Twins! :) And again, loved these colors on you!
Gosh, you can totally relate, it sounds like! And I totally know what you mean about staple colors. I am not sure what mine are. Right now I love warmer-toned shades, like burgundy and pumpkin, but I am not sure if that’s the influence of the current weather season. I love olive, but I can only wear it on my bottom half, because it doesn’t work well with my skin tone.
How, I looove these looks! And I agree, olive and burgundy are great neutral for fall!!! I am so into warm colors right now, even though I usually only wear black. It’s actually typical to wear all black outfits where I come from (Berlin, Germany) and that’s why I love to get inspired by blogposts like these to add a little bit of color, but in a “neutral” way, haha :)
Have a great day!
That’s so interesting. I find that in big cities, it is common to wear all black! I tend to wear all black on the days it’s rainiest, easier to stay clean, haha! But my favvvvv is to wear black with a pop of a warm shade.
Love this! It didn’t occur to me until now that you were missing these colors. I wear olive & burgundy year round. Also I’m in Hawaii so we don’t really have “fall”. I love a good army parka, shirt or pants/short and have burgundy bags in all sizes. Burgundy looks so lovely with grey. Oxblood also works, looks luxurious.
I think both are great colors to wear year round. I have an army green jacket that I’ve worn for years, the faded olive color is just so versatile. I love the idea of mixing burgundy and gray, I don’t think I would have thought of that! At least in leathers… I bet it looks really good!
I have no burgundy left either after downsizing (waaaah! Maybe a tad too harsh in the early days) but I love my olive pants and I’m on the hunt for another army coat that fits me better. Such great Fall colors
GIRL, I may have been a tad too harsh as well. But it did send me on a pretty good trajectory. Somebody once told me, in photography, when you’re first learning, you isolate your subject, and often shoot really simple compositions, a subject on a plain background. Once you master that you start to bring more into the frame, shooting people in more complicated environments. This is exactly how I feel about my personal style.