The Vivienne Files

The Last of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 10, 2025

This painting to me just cries out to inspire a wardrobe for someone who lives near water, and probably has a pretty long "warm" season and just a short winter. Anybody else feel that?

There's enough navy here to dress her for cold weather, and plenty of shades of sand, lovely sea blues and sea green for warmer weather. I could be so tempted...

At the end of January, our heroine had a wardrobe that was pretty great for weather that might be all over the place! She was really trying to find shades of blue and green, so she veered into that very summery tee shirt; sometimes you grab what's available if it's perfect for you, even if it's not "in season." The seasons will change, what's available in stores ... View the Post

The Fifth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 7, 2025

I think of this wardrobe as that of someone who once wore black, white, and red, and has now softened and gentled her colors into grey, white and shades of burgundy...

You know, one could easily make a case that some of the background colors look like navy... I'm not going to do that unless I find that I hit a wall building this wardrobe, but it could be done!

As blessed February dawned, our heroine had this very simple eight-piece wardrobe. Nothing amazing, but extremely versatile:

This seems a good time to fill in more basics for this heroine, so I grabbed her my favorite white shirt, and a pair of black jeans. She already has grey jeans...

The sweater vest is one of my favorite garments, and ... View the Post

The Fourth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 6, 2025

I love this painting...

And I think that this wardrobe is going to be fascinating; we start with the world's most simple neutrals of black and ivory, and then add FOUR accent colors - one for each season. Yes, the idea of white as an accent color when we've already got ivory in the wardrobe is a little bit of a stretch. I'm interested to see what happens with this, since so many of us don't wear mixed shades of white and off-whites as often as we could.

When we happily ran screaming from the end of January, our heroine had a wildly versatile, if not super-exciting, eight-piece wardrobe:

It seems obvious to me that the coral/peach accent color makes a lot of sense for spring. Our heroine was ... View the Post

The Third of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 5, 2025

I often ponder what I would do with my wardrobe if I had to start from scratch. I mean ABSOLUTELY from scratch - I got out of my apartment in my moose-print pajamas and nothing else!

Well, THAT'S a nightmare, but I have to admit that I would be very tempted to go this direction:

These colors are timeless, and so appealing. And I think it's one of Delaunay's very best paintings...

As we very happily left January, our heroine had this eight-piece capsule wardrobe. It's small, but you could get dressed for quite a bit of the cold weather with just these:

Our heroine could certainly use a brown cardigan, but I didn't see one that really suited. But at least we've put her in a really good position for ... View the Post

The Second of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 4, 2025

This will warm us up!

Our heroine is committed to building a wardrobe in these colors; her patience might be tried, finding clothes! Beautiful as these colors are, they're not ubiquitous...

At the end of January, this was our heroine's eight-piece wardrobe. It all goes together nicely, and includes a deeply beautiful scarf!

This month there wasn't any grouping of clothes, or complete outfit, that appealed to our heroine, so she instead found four garments that are perfect in her wardrobe, and pretty doggone lovely, too!

The scarf she found is relatively small - it's described as a bandana. In the warm weather, tied in her hair, or to the handle of her tote bag, or around her wrist, it will be a ... View the Post

The First of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 3, 2025

I've already reached the point at which I really want to look at these painting one at a time! It's possible to focus better on just one painting at a time - at least for my limited capacity...

This month, the top of the heap is this beauty!

When I look at this painting on different screens, the dark neutral color varies between camel and a dark olive green. I'm sticking with camel, although it's lovely to have a second option...

Our heroine comes into February with this compact but pretty excellent capsule wardrobe:

This month, our heroine decided to lean into the chambray blue in her wardrobe, as well as grab a good pair of loafers and a handbag:

With these additions, the overall feeling ... View the Post

Pink, Orange and White for Summer? Start With a Swimsuit – Floral Strawberry Watercolor Suit by L.L.Bean x Summersalt

January 31, 2025

I don't believe I've ever before been SO happy to see January end...

You asked for another swimsuit, and I hasten to satisfy. This was a specific request, and I can see why!

Honestly, isn't "Summersalt" the best brand name for swimwear?

My first instinct - I think it would be so for a lot of us - was bright colors. But then when I really spent some time with the image of the swimsuit, I found myself more and more drawn to the soft pink, and the lighter shades of orange..

But let's start with white - always right for hot weather and being near the water:

Next I knew we had to find some soft pink. While the cardigan might seem sort of dressy, I thought that (1) it was worth showing to you, because ... View the Post

Looking for Summer Accessories? Start With a 4×4 Summer Wardrobe

January 29, 2025

Of course you remember our swimming heroine from Monday - a new swimsuit spawned a full 4x4 summer wardrobe plan!

This is her new suit:

And this is the 16-piece capsule wardrobe she chose to go with her swimsuit - you have to start somewhere!

So that our heroine can be sure to get all of the accessories that she needs, she's going to take a handful of normal outfits from her wardrobe, and accessorize each of them. The most important thing might be to include all of your "bottoms" when you do this, so that you don't show up somewhere with a lovely outfit and the wrong shoes. Worse things happen every day, but if you can avoid this...

Let's start with the essentials - a hat and sunglasses!

For ... View the Post

Need a Summer Overhaul? Start with Swimwear – Ditsy Lilies by Lands’ End

January 27, 2025

She swims EVERY DAY. Everybody who lives in her very large building has seen her in the elevators, in her swimsuit and robe. She's long past the point of feeling self-conscious!

But she's realizing that she needs new swimwear. And new summer clothes. The whole exercising, eating right, avoiding junk food project seems to have worked!

In the summer, she swims every day, outdoors. Hours by the pool. Swim wear is what she's wearing most often, so she realizes that she might want to start there to re-build a summer wardrobe:

She's pretty methodical about this - her first choice is a dress that will certainly be considered a "cover-up" in her life! A navy tank and shorts seem logical, with a striped shirt to wear ... View the Post

I Love It, But Will I Wear It? A Printed Full Skirt

January 24, 2025

After I posted the "sister skirt" in purple on The Vivienne Files, there was quite a bit of interest, excitement, and chat. I love that!

Frock Tales - the brand of the skirts - has quite a lot of alluring things available. Gorgeous skirts, a purple dress that I DO NOT NEED, and some really pretty tops. One of the skirts that attracted a lot of attention was beautiful shades of green and blue, accented with golden yellow. If it were still available in the full range of sizes, I would be writing about it!

But instead, today we're going to think about this skirt a bit...

I'm not going to try to come up with a color wheel for this... But I'm already thinking that I'm NOT going to try to put a pink top with this, ... View the Post

Love Black and White with Pink and Purple? Lucinda by Sofia Bonati

January 22, 2025

She's a specialist in flowers. As they appear in medieval manuscripts, as decorations for big fancy capital letters, or inserted as a border, or a section break. Many people don't realize that the choice of flower in each location is important, and has meaning!

She's a rare person...

She's recently written a guide to flowers found in documents from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. It's not really a technical book - more of a guide for the layman who finds these sorts of things fascinating! Her publisher has invited her to New York for a couple of days for some final proofing of the cover design and the "blurbs" that will be on the back cover. Dinner will be an event, every night she's ... View the Post

Do You Love Deep, Rich Jewel Tones? The Baroque Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

January 21, 2025

Do you love the rich, classic colors of precious gems? A little ruby, a few emeralds, maybe a sapphire or two?

This bracelet is ALL about those beautiful colors!

A pretty classic outfit takes on a new feeling with some velvet loafers, a brooch stolen from the angels, and your new bracelet:

Burgundy and navy are classic cool-weather colors - add some pretty earrings, a lovely scarf and timeless loafers:

This late in the winter (well, in the winter clothing season!), it's hard to find forest green, but it's always worth searching!

Maybe your life suggests that you should have a dress! Or another piece of green clothing? And some amazing jewelry is never a bad ... View the Post