midweSTYLE: Desert tones

Lately, I've been into this website called, "The Color Collective." I've been reading this blog for a little over a year. It's a huge source of inspiration in my presentation. Essentially, it's a simple blog with various runway images, fashion photography, illustrations and landscapes all neatly complemented with highlighted colors from the image.

I usually like what I wear to reflect a mood, a theme, a story, a tone. The Color Collective picks those ideas out and translates them to workable color stories. Give it a try. I did with this post. Granted, most of the images are of women, but let's get over that and source their inspiration, shall we?

From behind, it's a field jacket, grey jeans and desert boots. From the front, it's a scoop-neck, slub-knit tee and a draping open cardigan. A neat contrast from different angles. This is another one of my go-to outfits for this fall. It's relaxed but not boring.

My thrifted, dirty canvas and leather backpack has come a long way from undergrad, especially for being such a great three dollar find my sophomore year in Kansas City. It's a very understated, cool backpack: nothing fancy, minimal padding, no laptop sleeve. It's like a broken in baseball glove after a couple of seasons. Trusty and well-loved.

Also, swap out your laces on your desert boots. It's refreshing.

Second also, can we talk about grey denim? It's the best.

Finally pulled the trigger on this puppy, the Giles & Brother brass railroad spike bracelet. I hate the word "man jewelry," so I'm just going to pretend that we're all secure enough in our own genders that we don't need to put an extra adjective in front to assert that, cool? Haha. It's "men's jewelry" if anything, not man jewelry. I'll step off my soap box, now. HAPPY MONDAY!

On Jeff: Cotton hunting jacket by Levi's; unixex silk/rayon blend scoop-neck tee by T by Alexander Wang; slate-colored cardigan; grey straight-leg "Kane" 5-pocket pant courtesy J Brand; brown desert boots by Clark's; grey interchangeable boot laces from J.Crew; brass railroad spike bracelet by Giles & Brother.

Photos by Seth Putnam.