Excitement! - new favourite outfit and accessory!

I thought Mimmy made a really good point in her post comment about the 'odd man out' - "I think I was actually trying to pair it with things that worked against it." This really spoke to me and she had mentioned she decided to pair her piece with neutrals and let the piece speak for itself. 

Here is that same sweater again - 

(Rosie Neira)

And taking into account Mimmy's words, yesterday, I decided to wear it as the showcase piece and made this outfit with it - 

(Banana Republic, GAP, Rosie Neira, Cole Haan, Coach, Pearson & Brown)

I wish I had taken a photo with the outfit on because the colors look way better together, but this is a new favourite outfit I discovered; it uses my color capsule and a 'odd man out' piece to form a decent outfit, but then is taken to a non-boring level by my shoes and scarf. 

(The more I look at it, this cardigan seems to be a shade of gray with some green undertone ... ya, I still have no idea about its color, sigh...)

Now, let me talk about this scarf - I received it from my mom's latest trip to Asia and it's actually landscape. I don't know if you can tell from the photo but it's mountains and a body of water. I don't know too much about it other than it's silk and by Pearson & Brown - if any one has more info on this brand, I'd love to hear about it! It's beautiful and oh sooooooo soft. It's fast becoming one of my favourite items. 

(Pearson & Brown silk scarf; sorry for the poor photo quality, I used my phone camera to do the pano)

The yellow played off of my shoes and the green picked up the undertones of my cardigan. And since I left everything else neutral, both the scarf and cardigan got to stand out. So, thanks Mimmy, for giving me the idea to let the 'odd man out' shine, and also to the girls on TpF for all the talk about scarves lately that gave me the idea to pull this out. 

Grouping that odd man out

Do you own an item that looks great but somehow seems difficult to wear? I have a cardigan that looks great but the color isn't something that I personally find easy to match. I think it's taupe? or perhaps olive? I'm not even entirely sure ... (note to self: learn colors). 

None the less, the other day I was heading out the door when I decided to grab a cardigan for the sudden drop in temperature. Without thinking, I grabbed the closest thing to me - this: 

(Rosie Neira)

Looks great right? I love the detailing, it's non-scratchy comfort, its length - just love it, and since I adopted a neutral color palette, figured it would be fine. Then I finally got a look in the mirror and I don' t know if it was the color, the great detailing, it's length, but for whatever the reason, it did not look fine with my dress, which was this:

(Rosie Neira, Banana Republic)

Even though I have a much better idea of my style, and have recently chosen a color capsule, minimizing the daily struggle of getting dressed, there are still items in my closet that don't really have a place to go. I love them and do wear them but they usually look like an after-thought. I started envisioning my closet and realized that this color would actually look pretty great against purple; especially, against a certain purple dress I own - this:

 (Rosie Neira, Banana Republic)

Note: I know I said I'm poor at colors, but I swear, this dress is a rich purple and I have no idea why it's photographing blue (I even double checked with my husband, who agrees with me). 

Currently, my closet is organized by like-colors, but to make better outfits, I have decided to hang my 'odd man', hard-to-coordinate pieces with the item it would go best with. That way, if it comes down to the wire and I still can't figure out a nice outfit, I will always have a go-to option.