Cardigan Empire

Salt Lake City Fashion Stylist

Back to School for Girls in 13 Items

The theoretical school bell is chiming and the spice of pencil shavings is in the air.   Before you empty your wallet to fill your juvenile’s closet, consider the cluster.  A cluster is a collection of clothing where everything goes with everything else.  A cluster ensures each item gets maximum wear, while it still fits.  And you can trust your buttercup to put their own outfits together, without fear of fashion debacle.

Below a shopping list and a hypothetical sampling:

A – Cotton Long-Sleeve Wide Stripe Tee (Brooks Brothers $25), B – Sparkling Suspenders Tee (Forever 21 $11), C – Trompe L’oeil Tee (J.Crew $25), D – Big Bloom Appliqué T-Shirt (Boden $28),  E – Scalloped Placket Cardigan Sweater (Land’s End $30), F – Café Capri in Apple Bobbing (J.Crew $40),  G – Wash Effect Jeans (Zara $40), H – Tulle Flounce Skirt (Gap $25), I – Cherokee Short Sleeve Ruffle Dress (Target $15), J – Van’s Palisades Sneakers (Nordstrom $38), K – Classic Cameron Captoe Ballet Shoes (Land’s End $30), L – Mini Boden Tights 2-Pack (Nordstrom $24), M – Herschel Supply Co. ‘Parker’ Backpack (Nordstrom $58)

> Greater than two weeks of outfits with nary a repeat.  

A feat of mathematical combination.

To create your own clothing cluster,

First, select a color palette
Draw inspiration from a print or a select solids that flock together. Either way, the same principles apply.  Simply select colors with a similar heritage and blend harmoniously (ie jewel tones, pastels, etc).

Second, select your items of clothing.
You want roughly double the number of tops as bottoms, and each item needs to be worn at least two different ways.  Putting your wardrobe on such a strict diet may tempt you to avoid layers, don’t. Layering is the key to flexible fashion.

Third,  when selecting footwear.
Choose shoes with unique purposes: one set of dress, one couplet of sneakers, one pair of boots, etc.  

Fourth, add accessories
Accessories are the grammar in ensembles.  They separate pieces while adding emphasis and meaning to phrases.  While this cluster is bare bones (including only socks and backpack), belts, glasses, and pencil cases among other options could have been included.

Fashion your own dick or jane for their studies without having to do all the research yourself.  Book a cluster-based virtual shopping session.

Want more?

Fitting Room Friday: How to Dress a Tweenager

Today’s Fitting Room Candidate is clever, outdoor oriented, an animal advocate, and ten years old.


Meet Marli
Her doting parents adopted her at 18 months, and suddenly she’s a stunning, sweet tweenager, with a sharply independent sense of style.

Her eyes narrow at the sight of skirts, dresses, leggings, and tights.  Stripes, dots, and even buttons irritate her fancies.  In short she’s a juvenile minimalist.  An ensemble has been prepared precisely per her predilection.  

But first a petite canon of tween trousseau trusims.

Peace of Cake, Western Chief, Boden, Gap

Don’t baby their fashion.
As their squishies begin to straighten, they’re graphics should follow suit.  Instead of ridiculously round, chubby conceptions, opt for something leaning a few more inches toward realistic.  Don’t throw whimsy out the window, but perhaps favor graphic over fussy.  Cute isn’t off the menu, just apply it in small doses, like vanilla extract.  Rather than a whole dress of sparkly hearts, perhaps just an headband. Color is also important.  Also, soft, cuddley pastels need to fade in favor of a brighter, more saturated self-sufficiency.


And this is pure, unsubstantiated Reachel Bagley doctrine, but allow them to design their princess/rock star/future fabulista ensemble rather than shrouding them in a mass-marketed screen print.  Let them be the star of the outfit rather than the billboard.



Don’t Pimp a Prostitot*
They may have turned their shy lashes on a few lucky boys, but they’re still just little girls.  Let them enjoy sweet rather sexy for a few more simple years of youth.  And I’d say more, but this guy already said it better. (*I admittedly pinched this headline from him.)

Erego Miss Marli, this outfit is dedicated to you.  It includes no stripes or overly bright colors.  It admits only a tiny touch of animal whimsy and a discrete pattern on the socks. You are beautiful, wonderful, and special, and I hope I have a tween just like you someday.

Hello Kitty, Gymboree, Converse, Old Navy


In the meantime, book a Virtual shopping session for you, for your progeny, for your next family frolic.  I was born to fashion childhood and the supporters of it.

Feed me fashionably fresh