48 Hours in Paris... Remember our heroine the translator? She won a translation award back in January, and then in the Spring was interviewing with HIM to translate his autobiography...

She's very quiet, and tries to keep her appearance somewhat muted so it doesn't distract from what she's translating. This painting, and these colors, are her wardrobe inspiration:

To nobody's surprise, she got the job translating the AMAZING French guy's autobiography. And for reasons nobody can quite explain, she has to go to Paris to meet the publishers and sign some release documents... Oh dear...

So she hops on the train!

The only 2 things she has on her agenda are dinner with the author, and then meetings the next day with the ... View the Post

Who Knew? She's the school teacher who loves to take her students on field trips - even really complicated-to-organize, spending-the-night-in-hotels field trips... She took 20 6th-graders to New York after Christmas, and she's also done quite a bit of traveling on her own...

So when she found the job posting for a field-trip coordinator at the STATE Board of Education, she applied so quickly that she's still amazed that she didn't mess up something in the application process...

Now she's going to the Capital to be interviewed! Happily, as a woman ideally qualified for this kind of position, she has no trouble getting packed. She bases her wardrobe choices on her favorite painting and color palette:

The weather down there is ... View the Post

I was in Pittsburgh for the weekend... it was lovely! Of course I was thinking about you, and The Vivienne Files, while I was there... As I was waiting for my cab to the airport, a woman walked past me wearing a royal blue and white striped tee shirt, with a royal and white paisley print skirt - it was amazing! And it got me to thinking about how this might work for all of us...

If you have a color palette chosen for your wardrobe, it's entirely possible that you already have these kinds of pieces in your closet! Pick a neutral from your wardrobe - or even an accent color - and look for pieces that have prints in "scales" that are compatible. By that, I mean that a teeny floral print skirt might need a smaller, narrower striped tee ... View the Post

Our friend the soil conservation engineer! She went to a conference of engineers back in January, and then she got to be a guest speaker at a University, in April... Although she works with dirt (soil, PLEASE!!!), she's inspired by this painting and colors for her personal style:

The Phone Woke Her Up... So she knew it had to be important!

"Can you be here by lunchtime? The hillside's eroding away because of the rain, and we've found strata that we've never been able to reach before!!!"

Only another soil engineer would be this excited...

"You can stay with me - we're going to work until dark, and then have dinner... Today is probably the only day we'll be able to get to this level. It could be pre-colonial!"

Who is we? ... View the Post

Oh, the lucky lady with the inheritance from her great-aunt! She first found out about this back in January, and by April she was traveling to Mexico to look into maybe buying a home there...

Even though she has more than enough money now, she still sticks closely to her favorite photograph of the moon as her style guideline:

It turns out that, in addition to leaving our heroine a tidy nest egg, her great-aunt also left her quite a few letters! Many of the letters are full of advice, and suggestions about how to spend her windfall. So how she's off to look at the possibility of living in Paris for a year or two!

She's going to stay in a couple of different short-term rental apartments, so she can get a feel for ... View the Post

Our friend the meeting moderator has been traveling for work a LOT - back in January she was thrown into a really difficult negotiating session, but she was able to take a break to go to the beach in the spring...

Now she's been told that they FINALLY got those dinner reservations that they've been queued up for since about a gazillion years ago! They're only going away for the night, but it's a really special occasion - a once in a lifetime meal at a landmark restaurant...

Happily, it's really easy for her to pack, because she has clear wardrobe guidelines:

They're going to drive - it only takes about 2 hours. She wants to be relaxed and pretty, as well as warm enough! (some people absolutely adore the car air ... View the Post

Ah, our friend the iconoclast! She's got the wardrobe with the willfully unusual color palette, based on this painting:

She's retired, so she gets to travel as much as she can manage! She took a trip back in January, and then again in April, and now she's getting ready to go to a family wedding...

It's not a long trip, but she always tries to look nice when she travels. Everything just seems to go better when she's well-dressed...

She knows that there's a really nice rehearsal dinner to which she's invited, and also that the wedding is in the evening and thus will be sort of dressy. So she packs her 2 favorite dresses, a top to wear on the trip back to her home, and some comfy pajamas for the few moments she'll get to ... View the Post

Remember our quiet heroine, with the very distinctive olive, grey, gold and coral wardrobe? We first met her in January, and then again in April...

She's going into the city for a couple of days! Nobody seems to understand, but she wants to go to a couple of baseball games...

This is her inspiration, and her signature color palette:

She's going to take the train into the city on Friday evening, and probably eat some room service... It's a very short vacation, but a vacation nonetheless!

She doesn't need to pack much; she will need clothes for the ballgames, and something nice to wear to dinner on Saturday night:

When she gets to her hotel, she unpacks and hangs things up, and takes just a moment to admire her ... View the Post

In case you've been asleep for the last month, or somewhere without Internet access, we're barrelling headlong into the big "pre-season" sale time of year.

Now, I've got nothing against saving money, nor against buying myself something new and pretty... But these sales? They can overwhelm you, and before you know what you've done, you've spent a ton of money on things you didn't really need, just because they looked lovely and appealing...

So? How to avoid being a victim? Have a plan! That's my answer to almost everything...

First, think seriously and honestly - are you shopping for need or want? And might you spend the money somewhere more gratifying? For example, I'm not buying anything this fall, because I've got 2 big trips ... View the Post

Remember our inadvertently very visible college professor? In January she was all over campus sporting a gold cardigan - or a hot pink one, and then in April she was off to a symposium in a gorgeous gold suede jacket...

Well, she's visiting another university to speak to a graduate school class... She seems to have made it onto everybody's list of "favorite visiting professor!"

Her wardrobe inspiration is unusual, but seems to work well for her:

She knows that the morning she drives downstate to the campus, she's going directly into her presentation, so she wants to dress for business, as well as for icy air conditioning!

(her handbag is on sale...)

She's not quite sure what else in on her agenda. They've asked her to ... View the Post

Remember this beauty, from January and April?

WHEN is the Signing?

She's leaving on vacation - literally leaving tomorrow - when the call comes...

"Can you go to the signing, and then to the banquet?"

Sure, heck, why not...

"It's the day you get back from vacation... We will pay for you to take an extra suitcase, and for your flight change to fly directly there..."

Well, THAT'S sweet of them...

So she plans to fly back in an outfit that will be acceptable no matter WHO she runs into in the airport, or the hotel:

No exposed knees, nor toes...

Her suitcase contains serious clothes for the contract signings, a frivolous top to wear with a skirt to the dinner later that day, and an extra pair of pants and top ... View the Post

Some of us felt pretty uncomfortable with the grey Common Wardrobe paired with warm citrus-hued accent colors. That's okay - everybody is NOT going to like every color combination in the world!

So I thought that I would try to bring the colors closer together visually by choosing accessories with that goal in mind...

This is the color scheme with which we are working, based on this really cool painting:

While the first wardrobe from this painting - with brown and beige neutrals - looked great with gold jewelry, now that we've changed our core neutrals to cool grey, I'm thinking that silver jewelry is the direction to take...

It's always reasonable and smart to have a plan when you're pulling together accessories. For ... View the Post