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Home » Archives for January 2012

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

01.31.12 14 Comments

Tags: color palettes

Scarf tying: the Infinity Knot

January 29, 2012

I've been tying scarves like this for decades, and I don't know that I've ever seen anybody else do this!  So I'm sharing with the world...

love, Janice ... View the Post

01.29.12 24 Comments

Tags: accessories, Hermes scarf

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

... View the Post

01.28.12 6 Comments

Tags: blue, business travel, camel, leisure travel, packing, pink, rose

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

... View the Post

01.26.12 25 Comments

Tags: business travel, grey, leisure travel, navy, packing, purple

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... ... View the Post

01.25.12 14 Comments

Tags: beige, brown, cool weather, leisure travel, orange, warm weather

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

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.

 So my approach is this:

Obviously - layers.  A lightweight turtleneck that can easily go under a cardigan or crew neck sweater, but will pack down to nothing.  A couple of silk or cotton modal tee shirts that are great for warm weather, but can slide under a cardigan or jacket. Season-less fabrics: cotton knit, cotton twill, a flat wool gabardine. Lots of accessories - ... View the Post

01.24.12 19 Comments

Tags: black, business travel, cool weather, grey, leisure travel, warm weather

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

01.23.12 22 Comments

Tags: shopping

Maximize Your ROI: Bright Pants

... View the Post

01.21.12 13 Comments

Tags: brights, casual, coral, maximize your ROI, orange, white

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! ... View the Post

01.20.12 22 Comments

Tags: brights, grey, navy, not so crazy eights

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

01.19.12 22 Comments

Tags: shopping

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? ... View the Post

01.18.12 9 Comments

Tags: grey, navy, not so crazy eights, pastels

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

01.16.12 6 Comments

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The Vivienne Files is a unique personal style blog with carefully-selected capsule wardrobes based on color palettes drawn from works of art, nature, and more. It helps women buy less clothing, and to love what they buy. Read more...
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