The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Archives for January 2012

January 2012

Considering colors: a site to savor

Many people struggle with the idea of building a wardrobe in a limited color palette, so I've been nosing about, finding some interesting websites which help train one's eye, and evaluate gut reactions, where colors are concerned.

One of my favorites can be found here; it's a site on which you can upload a favorite photograph, and then build a color palette based on the colors detected in that photograph.  For example, I have always admired Canada geese - they wear the same monochromatic palette every day, but are always the most elegant birds in the city.  Coupled with the stunning photograph above, I knew that I might learn something interesting about my personal color preferences by using the Image to Palette tool.

So ... View the Post

A Travel Capsule Wardrobe – Packing in camel, blue & rose, between seasons

earrings – Swarovski, cardigan – J. Crew,  chambray shirt – A. P. C., trench – Burberry, pants - Maxmara, bags – Filson, desert boots – Opening Ceremony, necklace – Elizabeth  Showers, scarf - Hermes    

Striped cardigan – FTC, Pink sweater – Acne, Pink tank – Christopher Kane, Blue tee shirt – Aubin &  Wills, light blue cardigan & long sleeved tee shirt – J. Crew, cotton turtleneck – Splendid, tank & skirt – Donna Karan, silk pants – Marc by Marc Jacobs, flaired jeans – J Brand, blue jeans – 7 for All Mankind    

Pearl earrings – Ice.com, Crossbody bag – Dorothy Perkins, sunglasses – prism, Paisley scarves – Etro,  gold hoop earrings – Argento Vivo, gold chain necklace ... View the Post

A Travel Capsule Wardrobe – Packing for uncertain weather in navy, grey & purple

Stud earrings – Vince Camuto, cardigan – Ralph Lauren, striped tee shirt – Old Navy, trench – Burberry, pants – Calvin Klein, bags – Tumi, penny loafers - Naturalizer, bracelet – Miss Selfridge, scarf - Hermes  

Plaid shirt – Closed, purple turtleneck – John Lewis, grey tee - Devoted, purple tee – Mtwtfss, navy cardigan – Eastex,  grey silk sweater – Barneys CO-OP, cotton turtleneck – Vanessa Bruno, paneled cardigan – Paul Smith, gray pants – Carolina Herrara, tweed skirt – J. Crew, grey jeans – Helmut Lang,  dress - Oasis  

Amethyst hoop earrings – Swarovski, Beret – Hat Attack, Amethyst necklace – Debenhams, handbag – Gucci, amethyst drop earrings – Debenhams, silver chain necklace – Aurora Lopez ... View the Post

A Travel Capsule Wardrobe – Packing in ORANGE and brown, for uncertain weather

Today, I tried to cover at least a few trends - orange, stripes, and plaid shirts.  More variations to come...  

 

Hoop earrings – Charles Garnier, cardigan – J. Crew, striped tee shirt – Kain, trench – Burberry, pants - Oasis, bags – Tumi, loafers – Tod’s, necklace – Kenneth Jay Lane, scarf - Hermes   

 

 

Plaid shirt – Ralph Lauren, Orange cashmere v-neck – Ralph Lauren, metallic scoopneck tee – Rag & Bone, orange tee – Dorothy Perkins, patterned cardigan – Ralph Lauren, open knit sweater – A.L.C., cotton turtleneck – Splendid, orange shirt – Ralph Lauren, orange pants – Stella McCartney, narrow jeans – Cimarron, twill pants – 3.1 Phillip Lim,  flaired jeans ... View the Post

A Travel Capsule Wardrobe – Packing for Uncertain weather, in black & grey

Pearl earrings – Majorica, Gray blazer – Stella McCartney, striped tee shirt – A.L.C., grey trench – Burberry, black cotton pants – Michael Kors, bags – Tumi, shoes – Thierry Rabotin, pearls – Kenneth Jay Lane, scarf - Hermes  

Often, I receive questions about what to pack if one is uncertain of the weather at the destination. This is a question I wrestle with often, because my favorite time of year to travel is in those "iffy" months when a lot of families can't travel, because school is in session, and when the weather isn't warm enough to sunbathe, nor cold enough to ski.

Grey cotton cardigan – American Vintage, Striped cardigan – Day Birger et Mikkelsen, black knit skirt – T by Alexander Wang, Fair Isle silk sweater – ... View the Post

Shopping: The Search for Simplicity

All of my family has not yet come to grips with the fact that I'm not buying clothes for another 9 months.  Thus, I found myself, after the winter holidays, as the owner of a very generous gift card to a lovely retailer, with both online and bricks and mortar presence.

Now, when I set out my personal rules for my year-long fast from shopping, I did hold out the exception that I would be permitted to replace any garment(s) that were completely destroyed in the course of normal life.  Having spent the last couple of months in the heavy-lifting crew of a retailer, I have destroyed (rendered rag-like) a couple of long-sleeved tee shirts.  So I thought that this would be a reasonable opportunity to replace them...

This ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Bright Pants

Coral pants - Maxmara    

Pearl & gold earrings – Lord & Taylor, brass & pearl bracelet – Alcozer & J, coral earrings – Roberta Chiarella, ring – Del Gatto, tee shirt – T by Alexander Wang, sleeveless tee shirt – Topshop, white sleeveless shirt – Joseph, flats – Modcloth, woven sandals – Monsoon, spectator flats – Circa by Joan & David    

Aquamarine earrings – Lord & Taylor, tourmaline earrings – Amrita Singh, hot pink earrings – Asos, orange resin earrings – Amrita Singh, Blue bracelet – Alexis Bittar, green & gold bracelet – Rodarte, hot pink bracelet – Kate Spade, Blue tank – Splendid, green tee – Bruuns Bazaar, pink tee – Topshop, floral bag – Kelly & Katie, striped ... View the Post

Wardrobe: Navy, Gray, BRIGHTS!!! and lots of outfits

Probably the final iteration of this wardrobe, unless I get another suggestion - leave a comment if you've got another variation you'd like to see!

Cardigan – Patagonia, tee shirt – Velvet, gray sweater – Isabel Marant, shirt- Joseph Peter, pants – Patagonia, wool pants – Michael Kors, gray jeans – Levi’s Made & Crafted, suede skirt – Vanessa Bruno  

Blazer – Joseph, cardigan – L.K. Bennett, blouse – The Row, v-neck sweater – Closed, tee shirt – Michael Stars, pants, skirt and dress – Joseph  

Cardigan  – Marni,  flowered blouse – John Lewis, shirt – Hugo, sweater – Very Eickhoff, seersucker pants – Stella McCartney, blue tee - Oasis,  green sweater - Chloe, purple blouse – True ... View the Post

Shopping: The Logical Flaws of the “10 Must-Have Items” lists

If you search on the internet for "2012 must-have items", you get more than three hundred MILLION hits.  Even if you assume that most of these won't, in fact, tell you to buy something, that's still a tremendous number of people bossing you around about how to spend your hard-earned money!

And these lists are full of logical flaws:

If these are truly must-have items, why don't all of the lists agree?  Or at least have a significant degree of overlap?  After looking at the first handful of "top-ten for spring" lists, I saw at least 50 different items I absolutely have to buy if I'm going to be able to show my face in public. Why do all of these lists assume that you can't look around a store and make your own choices? ... View the Post

Wardrobe: navy, gray, pastels, and lots of outfits!

Someone commented that when they looked at the camel and navy wardrobe here, they just imagined that the camel garments were gray... From your lips to my ears: here's the same wardrobe, generally, but more casual, and substituting gray for camel.  I think my next adventure might be to switch out the accent colors, eh?

Cardigan – Patagonia, tee shirt – Velvet, gray sweater – Isabel Marant, shirt- Joseph Peter, pants – Patagonia, wool pants – Michael Kors, gray jeans – Levi’s Made & Crafted, suede skirt – Vanessa Bruno  

Blazer – Joseph, cardigan – L.K. Bennett, blouse – The Row, v-neck sweater – Closed, tee shirt – Michael Stars, pants, skirt and dress – Joseph  

Cardigan  – ... View the Post

A Cool, Cool, Style-Defining Tool!

Above is a "word cloud" of my core wardrobe.  I absolutely love this, because it sort of puts into a graphic image the key aspects of how I dress most of the time.

Doing this requires that you keep a list of everything that you wear for at least a few weeks...  Or, you could just type out a list of everything you own - it depends on what you're trying to visualize.

Then get thee to wordle.net, and follow the instructions under the heading of "create".  You can choose fonts, color schemes, orientation of the text etc.  I found that my cloud really started to come into focus for me once I had a classic font, and a black and gray color scheme.

An interesting use of this for me might be (1) to test my core wardrobe ... View the Post