Fall is my favorite season to replenish and refresh my wardrobe, and that includes accessories. As with clothing, I think it’s important to consider how an accessory will fit in, and how you will wear it with existing pieces. I find the concept of accessory groupings, or “bundles” to be very helpful not only for planning outfits, but when I’m thinking of adding something new.
Fall Accessory Bundles
To give you some ideas, I’ve created a few accessory groupings above. You could wear almost any combination of the shoes, bags, and accessory bundles I’ve shown.
Shoes: flats | boots
Bags: top | middle | bottom
Bundle 1: necklace | earrings | ring
Bundle 2: scarf | earrings | watch
Bundle 3: scarf | earrings | bracelet
Bundle 4: earrings | bracelet | bracelet
The bundle concept is also great for packing or when you need to plan outfits in advance. I’ve been asked about my process for creating a look with accessories, and while I don’t have a single formula, here are some guidelines that I tend to follow:
- While it’s fine to mix your metals, I usually prefer to keep finishes similar. Shiny with shiny, muted with muted. And I tend to keep levels of refinement similar within a single look.
- I try to avoid any jewelry groupings that look too much like a matched set. (If you do have some of those matched jewelry sets, break them up and wear the pieces separately, in combination with non-related jewelry.)
- Patterned scarves can be a great way to pull together multiple colors within an outfit.
- Metal chains or prominent hardware on bags can “read” as jewelry, so when I’m wearing a bag with a chain strap, I’ll cut back a little bit on other pieces, especially necklaces.
- Don’t forget to factor in your eyewear, and hair accessories, if any. I don’t wear belts, but if you do, think of belt buckles as part of your jewelry grouping.
- Keep your bundles together, or take photos for reference so that you can re-create them easily.
Do you use groupings or bundles to accessorize? Or do you prefer to create a new mix each time?
