My outfit today includes a pair of Cynthia Ashby pants and a Boden cardigan. I got the pants at one of Cynthia’s studio sales, where you can pick up pieces that are one-of-a-kind, or imperfect, or from seasons past, and I often buy stuff on which the dye didn’t come out exactly right. In this case, the color was a tiny bit uneven and faded a little more than I’d expected but I love these pants and I wear them all the time in the summer.

I bought the cardigan because I had another one that I just adored, in a beautiful light greeny yellow that I wore so much I tore a hole in the elbow. The sweater’s cable pattern made it too much trouble to fix and the website didn’t have the color anymore so I couldn’t replace it. Instead, I ordered it in a color called something like “dusty rose”–not a shade I really wanted, but there you go. After wearing it only rarely for a few years, I decided to dye it some shade of green so it would actually replace my beloved one.

Of course, olive dye on a dusty rose fabric doesn’t produce anything that remotely resembles green, so back in the drawer it went, brought out once or twice when I really, really needed a lightweight cotton cardigan. Until one day I saw the light. Or I saw it in the right light. Or something.

Anyway, another Match or Clash lesson: Be prepared for serendipity.