copy+paste 014

a sorceress among us

copy+paste is a series of attempts to either digitally or physically recreate an outfit I saw and admired IRL. (You can find all installments here.) I love seeing street style photos, but ethically, I feel uncomfortable including my iPhone creep shots in a public newsletter unless I’ve explicitly asked someone for permission to share. So the actual photo will remain on my phone, but you will still be able to share in the essence and hopefully appreciate the outfit as much as I did!

There had been snow on the ground for weeks, and it would remain there for weeks to come, but the higher temperature that day was a brief respite¹ from what felt like a permanent deep freeze. Most people had defaulted to their puffer jackets out of habit, but not this woman. She was coatless, but appeared perfectly warm in an oversized navy sweater with two pale yellow stripes on the upper arm. Layered underneath that was a longer shirt in true fuchsia. The bottom half of her outfit was more tame—plain slacks in a deep burgundy brown (merlot, perhaps) and black leather boots with an almond-shaped toe. Up top, though, she’d doubled down on color, with a dusky turquoise leather backpack and a chunky teal beanie.

It sounds baffling. Chaotic, in a bad way. Crazy, even. But I’ve been thinking about her for over a month now! Forget the Tibi color wheel—this woman was color mixing in the fourth dimension. The sorcery she used to pull off this improbably successful combination would have classified her as a witch in another place and time. But it worked. And it’s been inspiring me to branch out from my usual primary color combos. (Maybe I’ll get back into teal and fuchsia? Or return to jewel tones?! Life is long and full of surprises!)

Knowing your colors (not your ‘season’, just the colors you love) makes getting dressed easier, and it certainly helps with packing. But sometimes it’s fun to break out of your self-imposed mold and see how far you can take it.

Some secondhand options for each element below:

Top row: Maeve cuffed beanie, $25; Aritzia beanie, $35. Bottom row: Outdoor Research beanie, $23; Madewell dark teal beanie, $39.

From left to right: Fargo wool sweater (XL), $30; Casual Corner ramie/cotton sweater (L), $23; Tommy Hilfiger cotton sweater (L), $30; Tommy Hilfiger v-neck cotton sweater (M), $49.

Top row: LL Bean t-shirt (LP), $25; Eddie Bauer t-shirt (XS), $14. Bottom row: Eileen Fisher t-shirt (XXS), $85; J. Jill t-shirt (XS), $10.

Left to right: Coach backpack in mint, $180; green Coach daypack, $300; green Coach bucket bag, $240; bottle green Coach backpack, $450.

Left to right: Madewell Harlow pants (10), $78; Comptoir des Cotonniers cropped wool trousers (XXS), $35; COS silk pants (S), $85; vintage Express pants (26), $34.

Top row: Stuart Weitzman boots (7), $65; Saint Laurent boots (IT 36.5), $165. Bottom row: Stuart Weitzman boots (8.5), $125; Prada boots (IT 40.5), $195.

For my own re-creation, I started with pants in a similar color as hers and a sweater with a similar vibe as the one she was wearing. I didn’t have any turquoise garments, but I did have turquoise socks, so I put those on (which I love with the burgundy loafers!) then tried on two beanies in different shades of green/greenish yellow. I added a blue scarf next, to see if I could get away with it, decided yes, then concluded that I preferred the yellowy green beanie to the darker one. The turquoise sock felt a bit harsh, so I swapped it for a periwinkle. Not perfect, but it captured the essence, and all of that experimenting took less than ten minutes! I would never have paired this sweater and those pants together, but I’m definitely going to in the future.

If you missed the previous installments of copy+paste, you can find them here!

1. I was thriving because I am a freak for winter, but I recognize that literally everyone around me was at their wit’s end!