Winter/Holiday Capsule Dressing with Jigsaw London

The holidays are fun and merry but they can also be stressful finding the time to balance regular life commitments with celebrations. It's no secret that at Canvas we are huge fans of capsule dressing. It's practical, easy and allows you to be creative with the pieces you own. So clearly we jumped at the idea to create a holiday capsule showcasing how to take pieces from day to night to have you party ready in moments.

Winter Capsule: (Left to right) Paris Slim Fit Tapered Trouser, Dipped Scarf in Blue & Magenta, Cara Ankle Bootie in Black, Jersey Black White Dress (in store only), Space Dye Belted Dress, White Twill Stretch Straight Leg Jeans, Raspberry Double Scoop Tee, Washed Silk Satin Wrap Top, Made Bone Drop Necklace, Wide Brim Fedora, Sparkle Half Sleeve Sweater (in store only), Black Knit Skirt (in store only), Blank Space mini clutch, Rib Tunic with Belt, Cara Ankle Bootie in Mink, Oatmeal Cardigan (similar).

The other week we collaborated with Jigsaw London and their wonderful team on Fillmore Street on another capsule collection. This time we created our mini wardrobe out of their beautiful winter collection (see our Fall Jigsaw capsule here). We were immediately inspired by Jigsaw London's "winter white" pieces and built a capsule centered around this color palette with pops of holiday cranberry and plenty of sparkle.

Each look is worn by our gorgeous friend-turned-model Teryn and the beautiful photos were taken by the uber-talented Jeanette Moncada. Oh... and we may have snuck Megan's dog Lola into a few shots.

Enjoy our "winter white" inspired story and a big THANK YOU to our team who made it so beautiful!

Stay Stylish,

K&M

Calling All Moms-To-Be: How to Dress in Fall's Hottest Trends

We love working with new moms and moms-to-be. And one of the questions we often get asked is how to dress throughout the different stages of pregnancy and still feel stylish. Fear not - we are going to show you how to incorporate Fall's must-haves into your maternity wardrobe.

1. Denim - A good pair of maternity denim is key. One of the best things about maternity denim is that it comes in range of styles from boyfriend to skinny. Try adding a denim dress or jacket to the mix. 

Gap 1969 Skinny Maternity Jeans, $69.95

2. Tweed - This fabric is just about everywhere this Fall. Our recommendation is to skip the tweed pants and opt for a nice jacket that you can get tailored post-pregnancy.

Rebecca Taylor Tweed Maternity Jacket, $240

3. Prints - Women often think that they should stay away from certain prints during pregnancy, but the truth is stripes, florals and intricate patterns are all still fair game. If you liked it pre-pregnancy, than give it try during.

Splendid Convertible Sleeve Maternity Shirt, $158

Looking for more? Check out this great article on TheBump.com for tips on how to get the maternity wardrobe you want without breaking the bank.

Stay Stylish,
K&M

What is all this talk about Capsules?

For the month of July we devoted our wardrobes to capsule dressing. A capsule simply put is a small wardrobe that contains minimal pieces that easily mix and match together to create different looks.  Think of it as a module for efficient outfitting. 

Only able to wear 31 pre-selected items, we weren't sure what we were getting into. Would we miss having a larger variety of clothing to choose from? Would we get tired of the same pieces? Would we just wear the same outfit everyday?

It turns out having a capsule wardrobe makes getting ready in the morning a lot easier. What makes a capsule collection great is the efficiency in outfitting. With less to pick from, we were able to select items quickly and go. Plus it had us feeling more creative and inspired to find new ways to wear pieces and gave us room to play around with accessories.   

Here are a few of our favorite outfits from July. Visit our Pinterest Page for a round-up of all of our looks.

Capsules can be used for travel wardrobes or seasonal wardrobes that fold into a later wardrobe of all items in your closet. So what is all the rage and how do I build one? 

Here are our learnings and tips on how to build your own. 

1. Pick Your Favorites- A good seasonal capsule wardrobe has between 31-40 pieces (some say 37 is the magic number). If there are items you love to wear, make sure they are included.
2. Throw Fear Out The Window- Remember that you are only wearing these items for few months. Don't stress about whether you should have included a certain piece. You will always have time to wear it down the road.
3. Embrace Accessories- The easiest way to change up an outfit is by playing with accessories. Add a statement necklace, grab a scarf or put on those earrings that are collecting dust in your jewelry box.
4. Make Your Own Rules- Experiment with new ways to wear items.  Put a sweater over your dress to turn it into a skirt or add a shell to your romper. It's all about having fun!
5. Don't Just Stick to Basics- We both played it safe by including a lot of neutrals in our capsule collection. What we noticed was that we missed having fun prints and colorful items to play with. Rather than 3 white shirts, you can get by with just 1 -- it just means doing more laundry each week.

Want to learn more about capsule dressing? Watch our video on what we learned from capsule dressing, check out this great segment from The Today Show and read this how-to guide by WhoWhatWear.

Challenge Complete - Our 31 Day Minimalist Mission

Our Grand Finale! Here's a quick recap on the outcome of our 31 Day Challenge. THANK YOU to all who supported us along the journey. Check out our blog this week with tips for maximizing your wardrobe with less.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Real Talk on the 31 Days of Style Challenge

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. We are halfway through the week and halfway through our 31 Days of Style Challenge! Here's our recap on how we are REALLY doing...

Days 2-6: Lessons in Outfitting

Day 6

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

We are six days into our experiment and things have been pretty easy so far.  Although, yesterday I got a glimpse into the future and there may be some odd ensembles coming my way. Right now I am loving the simplicity of my choices.  Getting dressed in the morning is fairly straightforward, my only consideration is leaving enough interesting combinations for the future for what is on my calendar.

At almost a week, here are my top three takeaways:

1-Be creative with what you have and how you wear your jewelry.  Its not just about the statement jewelry everyday, sometimes a fun mash up of layering strands is enough.

2-Embrace what is unnatural, fight your own norms. A good portion of my "core" wardrobe for my 31 days are basics.  It was a natural choice to get the most milage out of these pieces, but pairing them together has left me some what uninspired. While I'm craving a little more print or color what I am learning is to embrace contrast more. Wearing the white jeans with the black tee -- normally unnatural for me personally.  I would normally opt for the inverse to keep the focus toward my face...but paired with wedges and an eye catching necklace it can work.

3-Roll with it.  Weather can change and outfits can evolve. 4th of July was a good lesson for me in the evolution of an outfit. By 5pm the fog had blown into the city and wearing a dress to a rooftop party was not practical.  Instead of defaulting to a complete wardrobe change I threw on my boyfriend jeans under my dress. Voila my dress became a tunic and I really liked the look and will be using it as an outfit in the coming days.

P.S. I've pledged to take more selfies each week.

Stay Stylish,

Kimberly

Days 4-6: Red, White, Blue... and Black

Happy Monday! After a fun-filled holiday weekend it was definitely hard to pull myself out of bed this morning. Short on time to get to the Canvas Monday meeting, it was actually nice to have a small clothing selection to pull from. I went with a long black maxi dress and amped it up with lots of accessories, including my favorite vintage studded belt that used to belong to my Nana, a Goorin Bros fedora, a bright scarf (it's really a sarong) and comfy Calvin Klein flats. 

So it's been almost a full week and here are my top 3 take-aways from the challenge. 

1. Too many neutrals. I thought I was doing myself a favor by picking a lot of black and white pieces, but I am missing color and prints! It's summer and I want to feel fun and airy. Instead all of this black is weighing me down. 

2. You always want what you can't have. Knowing a certain pieces isn't part of my 31 items only makes me want to wear it more. When choosing, I went with things I wear most often that I thought I could mix and match easily. What I didn't take into account were those off-beat pieces that I don't wear often (have you seen my kimono), but have fun with every so often. Guess they will have to wait until August.

3. The selfie struggle is real. One of the hardest parts of this challenge has been capturing the outfits in a photo everyday. There's a reason I like being "behind the scenes" in fashion. I have definitely had to push myself out of my comfort zone with taking my daily pictures.

And now... a recap of my outfits from days 4-6

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Head over to Chanel Files to see how our fav style blogger Chanel is doing with the 31 Days of Style Challenge.

Stay Stylish,
Megan

Days 2 & 3- Mixing and Matching

Ok, I'll admit it. It's only day 3 and I've had to refer to my list to remember what 31 items I am allowed to wear. Suddenly I have a desire to wear that dress that's been in the back of my closet for the past year, but it's not on my list. Gah! Something tells me that this is going to be tougher than I thought... but so far so good!

Day 2: I had a new client meeting and outfitting session, so I went for a high-low look with black rag n bone jeans, white James Perse tee and a sequin French Connection jacket for a little glam. I topped it off with my silver metallic flats (something tells me these will be getting a lot of wear this month!).

Day 3: I am kicking off the holiday weekend early with lunch with friends outside. But first, spending the morning catching up on some desk work. Feeling a little sassy, so I went with a fitted cotton Rachel Roy dress paired with a slouchy open sweater for a pop of color and my favorite statement necklace. 

Can't wait to show you my 4th of July look!

Stay stylish,
Megan

Day 1 - New Day, New Challenge!

It's a new month and a new way of dressing for the next 31 days.  I have been looking forward to today for the last week...it's a little like the first day of school. Who knows what we'll learn, but it will be a fun experiment in stretching ourselves beyond what is comfortable or easy.  First stretch for me is embracing the public selfie (yikes).  Here we go, and...posted!

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The Look: Summer Casual Office Day 

• BCBG Top
• Anthropologie Scarf
• J.Crew Matchstick Jeans
• Jigsaw Wedge Sandals
• Pilcro Denim Jacket

Day 1 - Let the Challenge Begin!

Ok so today is Day 1 of our 31 Days of Style Challenge. Even though I am not seeing clients today, so I can dress more on the casual side, I still felt a bit of pressure when I was choosing my outfit. It can almost be compared to going on vacation and you don't want to wear your best outfit too early or waste on a "whatever" day. 

After some coffee and deliberation, I landed on this:

The Look:
*All Saints t-shirt
*DL cropped jeans
*Metallic silver flats
*Bright pink lipstick for a pop of color

I wonder how Chanel and Kimberly are doing?

xox,
Megan