The Vivienne Files

Pack for a Long Weekend? Start With Art – Hydrangea by C.F.A.Voysey

April 15, 2026

They're going to finally open their archives to the public! She's been waiting for YEARS for this...

She designs fabrics. And sometimes wallpaper, or other decorative things. And floral is her thing!

She's going to visit the archive for a couple of days. She knows that she won't see a fraction of what she wants to study; she's really making this trip to decide if she wants to come back for a lengthy (six weeks?) visit in the summer...

Her current wardrobe inspiration is this:

And her color palette is this:

It's not a long trip by train...

It might be really warm there. It might not. But she's been promised that there is NO mucking through dusty cabinets and files - everything has been ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 13, 2026

Our heroine the expert in indigenous plants, and the uses thereof in landscaping, has chosen this painting as the leitmotif of her wardrobe:

She has, as a result, this color palette for her wardrobe. Her hope is that she can show in a small, personal way, the beauty of subtle, natural colors.

It does help that her personal coloring is soft and subtle!

At the end of March, her wardrobe of 16 pieces was thus:

Before her April shopping, our heroine studied her existing wardrobe, and her color palette, at some length. She needed to decide if she was serious about including grey in her wardrobe. Her heart said yes, and her painting certainly agreed!

Also, she wanted to expand her wardrobe in a way ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

April 10, 2026

Our heroine is pleased with her wardrobe, and MORE pleased with her bank balance! She's trying to give up impulse clothes buying - there are many more important things in the world that she wants - like plane tickets.

Her wardrobe inspiration is this painting - of course it has letters in it! She is an expert in the combination of multiple type faces.

Her color palette includes three neutrals and two lovely, vivid accents:

At the end of March, her very disciplined wardrobe included 16 garments, and dozens of outfit options:

Our heroine gave a lot of thought to her April purchases. She knew that it would be really sensible to add a summer "column" to her wardrobe, thus she immediately chose the ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

April 8, 2026

It's a very good thing that our heroine loves all things medieval... Her favorite painting is this beauty:

Her color palette is thus:

At the end of March, our heroine has this 16-piece wardrobe. Versatile, elegant and a touch on the dressy side of life. Maybe still a touch dark...

Early in April, our heroine sat through some VERY long meetings with a group of people dedicated to the renovation of a very famous historic church near Paris. Included in the amusingly eclectic group of attendees was one woman dressed as a medieval nun, and another woman wearing a wimple...

As soon as she got out of there, she was determined to do some very 21st century shopping!

yes, there are people who dress in ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

April 6, 2026

I saw one of these in England! I think - it was at a distance, and I might have been dreaming... does it count if one sees something in a dream?

I'm quite sure that our heroine has seen one of these. Although she's not the person actually sitting out in a blind somewhere counting birds, she IS the person who takes all of those essential numbers and compiles and analyzes them. She must get out once in a while to actually LOOK at birds. I hope!

For whatever reason, she has chosen this bird as her style model, and is building her wardrobe around these simple but striking colors:

At the end of March, our heroine had 16 garments in her wardrobe. That's not a lot - all of this would fit in a medium-sized ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

April 3, 2026

Peace - so important these days!

For someone who listens to other people for a living, projecting a feeling of peace is pretty important! So our heroine has decided that she will base her entire wardrobe on the colors in this painting. It will give her a consistent, easy to get dressed wardrobe, and for her clients, it will give them a feeling that she is a consistent and reliable person.

Her 16-piece wardrobe at the end of March was warmly-colored, and quite versatile:

Our heroine was more than ready to start buying spring clothes, but when she saw this suede blazer, she re-thought everything!

This jacket is the kind of thing that might make it worth changing plans - it's an investment without being ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

April 1, 2026

No April Fools here... Just a heroine who has her eyes on a bigger office, more responsibility, and a better paycheck!

She's chosen this vivid work of art as her inspiration and source of her disciplined color palette:

Her palette is here; she's decided that she's going to include white in this. White makes a ton of sense for almost every wardrobe, but it's particularly appropriate for an office environment:

At the end of March, our heroine had a 16 piece wardrobe for work. Sixteen garments is barely enough for a week of work, but she's been making it work, so far!

Our heroine looked (and LOOKED!!!) for her petrol blue accent color, and wasn't able to find anything she loved. So she decided that it ... View the Post

Expanding a Small Summer Wardrobe – Start With Art: Florentine Villas by Paul Klee

March 30, 2026

I'm sure you remember back to Friday, when we met our heroine who was going to try to have a more organized "weekend and vacation" wardrobe for the upcoming warm weather.

Her favorite painting, and her wardrobe color palette, are this:

She never wears blue. Nor purple, but I still like her!

When she arrived for her first weekend this year at the summer house, she has the following wardrobe:

The weather was cool back home, so our heroine decided to wear this outfit to drive home, and then she just wore the same thing on Friday evening to come back up to the gathering family and friends at the house:

Our heroine has a pretty clear vision of how she wants to ... View the Post

Starting A Spring and Summer Wardrobe – Start With Art: Florentine Villas by Paul Klee

March 26, 2026

She likes these colors, and the angular, graphic qualities throughout this painting:

She discovered at the end of last summer that she just doesn't wear blue - not denim, not chambray, not a tee shirt...

This summer, her wardrobe is going to be these colors:

Last summer, on the last weekend they were at the summer house, she carried out enough clothes to outfit her entire extended family, plus a few neighbors! She didn't have a plan, she didn't have a clear color palette, and she forgot what was already AT the house. Not this year!

The weather is changeable, so she's starting with a mix of legitimately summery clothes, and adding in a couple of sweaters, and a pair of long-sleeved shirts...

A ... View the Post

Report From England, March 2026

March 25, 2026

The jet leg always gets you on the second day...

England was a delightful spring-like wonderland compared to the cold that greeted us when we got back to Chicago!

There were flowers everywhere:

We weren't in London for all that long; we bracketed our rural driving adventures with time in London, but not nearly ENOUGH time. I think London is like Paris (or New York, or Chicago...) in that you can spend a lifetime getting to know the city, and you'll still fall short!

Everything I'm sharing today is kind of random stream of sleepiness, as opposed to stream of consciousness; I'm not completely awake, so my stream of consciousness might just drop off...zzz...

First up, I did very little shopping, and bought ... View the Post

Ready for Spring? Start With Art – Costal Image by Theo van Rysselberghe

March 20, 2026

I had hoped to see this painting at The National Gallery in London, but I understand that it's not currently on display. I'm sure I'll find something else that appeals...

With warmer weather approaching (although we had HAIL last night...) I thought that this felt just right:

Yes, we started with this heroine six years ago, at the beginning of pandemic work from home... I did NOT look back at her original wardrobe when I started this; it's interesting that yet again, I chose to work with wardrobe clusters!

Our heroine is still working from home most of the time. They're expected to be in their office four days a month - generally everybody shows up on Thursday because they bring lunch in for everyone. If you ... View the Post

How Fast Can You Pack?

March 20, 2026

If you've never had to pack in a hurry because of an emergency, count yourself among the lucky. It could be a family illness in another place, a weather thing, or a man-made disaster of unimaginable awfulness...

But since we are clever heroines, we have thought about this ahead of time, and when we have to address this challenge, we have a pretty good idea of how to proceed!

First and maybe foremost, have you taken a look at your toiletry kit recently? It should be ready to go all the time. Take a few minutes in the next few days and check if you need a new bit of toothpaste, or if your face wash bottle is nearly empty. Is anything that might have an expiration date still current?

When it comes to clothing, I can ... View the Post