February 2, 2024
I’m always so excited to look at these wardrobes again!
This month, I’m going to clearly establish what has been my method so far – four garments and three accessories. With adding 4 garments each month, coupled with the 4 garments that each heroine started with, we’re going to finish the year with 52 garments – sort of like the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe!
It’s interesting how these numbers recur…
I understand that a lot of us aren’t going to want a 52-piece wardrobe; for many of us, that seems too few, and for some it’s going to be too many! But it’s nice to have a target in mind, if situations change and we have to reconfigure everything.
Let’s go!
In January, our heroine found herself with eight garments, of course. This is a tidy little travel capsule wardrobe, but I could quickly see lots of things that might be useful!
Inventories aren’t really massive right now – if you’ve ever worked in retail, you understand all about having to do inventory at the end of January, and how you just buy the minimum necessary for your store until the counting is done! So I’ve started with some readily available classics – centered around black cropped pants.
These pants will be lovely with sandals later, or with ballet flats in the spring, or with boots in cold weather…
black tee shirt – L.L.Bean; earrings – Toolally; striped tee shirt – J.Crew; pink top – Boden; orange belt – Liu Jo; cropped pants – L.L.Bean; sandals – SARTO by Franco Sarto
It might be really early for her to buy sandals, but they match her spiffy orange belt, so we thought that waiting wasn’t wise…
And now she has THIS:
Lots of new ways to wear her tiny wardrobe, but I’m going to share just a few…
Let’s now take a look at one of our favorite paintings? Watercolor? Did we ever determine what this is?
After January’s additions, this heroine has a cozy warm wardrobe with lots of allspice brown!
It might feel boring or predictable, but so long as Lands’ End has allspice brown clothes available, our heroine should at least take a look at them! Stocking up on your favorite neutral is ALWAYS smart!
And her new pants looks an awful lot like her OTHER ecru pants – but her first pants were corduroy, and these are not…
Allspice dress – Lands’ End; allspice shirt – Lands’ End; sea green sweater – L.L.Bean; smoky quartz necklace – Latelita; earrings – LaFonn; ecru pants – Alex Mill; sneakers – Nisolo
Her green sweater is cotton, which means that she can wear it every month of the year – assuming she lives somewhere with the occasional cool summer day…
Here’s her new wardrobe – imagine a long spring vacation trip with this in your suitcase!
Here are just a few ideas for her new purchases:
Now let’s pause for a second in the depth of the Glen, by Elizabeth Magill…
So far, this heroine has been disciplined in making certain that she has her neutral navy… Still, you could live for quite a while with this in your closet!
It could be tempting to just thrown any old shade of blue into this wardrobe, but she’s trying to be measured and thoughtful – at a minimum, she wants to try to stay within the colors in her print scarf, and of course in her inspiration painting!
She decides that she should grab a pair of white jeans before spring is truly upon us, and they are picked over! With those in hand, a range of tops – all classics – finish up her February shopping.
Her bracelet and earrings aren’t necessarily intended to be worn with anything she’s buying right now; she understand that sometimes you grab things that have whappage (my word, for lingering impact) and find them a home later. These are inexpensive, but lovely:
Earrings – Napier; gingham shirt – L.L.Bean; bracelet – Napier; striped tee – Club Monaco; blue sweater – Marks & Spencer; white jeans – Lands’ End; sneakers – Toms
Given a chance to spend 10 days in Paris in April, one could do worse than pack this!
Any bright woman can find a ton of ways to wear these pieces, but I suggest four, just to keep us in practice!
Monday, if all goes as planned, I will share with you the adventure of our other 3 wardrobe heroines!
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, I had all kinds of random things to discuss…
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Mmmmm, that navy and blue wardrobe – so pretty. I have no real relationship with blue, but I’m thinking about using this wardrobe to inspire a palest pink – bright red – burgundy capsule to complement the wardrobe I’m building based on what you’re showing with the O’Keeffe painting. You do such a wonderful job, Janice, of finding just the right pieces!
I just love this concept! I’m curious as to why there are no links to the items except for the second set in each segment. The pink scarf with the tigers is just gorgeous.
We are getting ready for a trip to Ireland in April and I’m trying to pull together a travel wardrobe based on scarves. It is difficult especially when buying on line as I’ve order a few and sent back about half. I don’t think I can afford an Echo brand, but I’d love to know the source for that pink/orange print one!
The links are only given for the newest items. You’ll probably find the link to the scarf in the January posting.
You can find the January posts here:
https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2024/01/january-2024-six-paintings-twelve-months-part-2.html/
https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2024/01/january-2024-six-paintings-twelve-months-part-1.html/
Abigail, I love you. You’re a good friend to me, even though we’ve never met…
hugs,
Janice
Dear Margo,
I put the links in for items that are making their first appearance in the wardrobes – in order to find the earlier pieces, you have to go back to earlier posts! But of course, my kind readers have already shared those links with you; don’t the nicest people read The Vivienne Files?
You’ve helped me to remember that I need to put links to earlier months at the end of these posts – I don’t know WHY that always slips my (crowded, somewhat poorly-organized, sleep-deprived) mind….
hugs,
Janice
Thank you so much, Janice. I did see those posts, but to be honest I started out the new year with Covid and I’m only now getting past the fog.
I’ll be sure to look!
I love the pink and orange together! So cool and unique.
The Lane is the one I’m especially following and I’m looking forward to seeing the addition of more soft blue and green garments. I completely understand why you’ve front-loaded the allspice items now – making hay while the sun shines.
Navy is my dark neutral and I never tire of it. Still, I’ve learned that a monochromatic wardrobe just doesn’t give me enough variety and I’m grateful for the opportunities TVF gives for seeing a variety of wardrobe schemes. It’s a journey of learning but, also, of self-reflection and understanding.
Is the Rothco heroine living in a warm climate? I could never wear that golden tone near my face but the juxtaposition of it with the pink is so uplifting and fun. I’m enjoying seeing that wardrobe evolve.
Happy weekend, everyone!
I think the Rothko heroine lives somewhere like… Virginia? Missouri? where the weather does occasionally get cold, but is more often than not warm. They’re hard climates for wardrobe planning, because you always need to have some of almost everything in order to be prepared! Chicago is easy – we only have two seasons: Arctic and Tropic…
hugs,
Janice
I really like the additions to the Rothko – the colors wouldn’t suit me, but the items themselves would be perfect. The additions to the Magill would also fit right in my wardrobe – and better colors for me. Fortunately (for me) I have items already in my wardrobe that would fit in those slots! I have so looked forward to this posting!
Ahhh that blue…
It just makes my heart sing. Lol. I adore all the blues so very much. I’m most definitely keeping my eye on this wardrobe as it evolves.
And the allspice, beige, sage and light blue would have been perfect for my younger years, when my hair was still the color of old pennies. Now I’m getting frosted around the front, and I seem to be less and less able to pull off those lovely muted warm tones.
The pink, orange, black and cream is surprising and so cheerful to look at. I could never wear it, as I would look sickly, sallow and faintly greenish all over, but on a warm spring toned woman it would be gorgeous.
As always, I’m looking forward to your next post! Thank you so much for all the inspiration you give us!
The John Nash is watercolour and pen!
Of COURSE it is – once I look closely at it (and you tell me!), it’s obvious! Well, it was obvious to you…
hugs,
Janice
I am loving them all, but especially the blues!! :) I’m getting ready for a 5 day visit to visit my daughter at college and am using this sort of packing scenario. One pair of pants for a couple shirts and a topper. I think two sets should do it for 5 days and give me lots of options. My wool shirts are going for sure!! I love the temperature regulation. Thanks for all you’ve taught us!!
These are all fabulous. Janice you are a genius!
As more pieces are added to the Rothko wardrobe, I like it less – not because there is anything objectively wrong with it, it’s just definitely not my style. I still love the big cat scarf and the luscious sherbet two-tone scarf but not the overall wardrobe. Part of that is I’m not a fan of the very summery pieces. But it reminds me of how hard it is to put together bright crisp optic pieces with softer more muted blended ones. My large closet naturally has both, but in a small capsule, it’s more difficult to create harmonious mix-and-match outfits from such disparate pieces, I think. And even with my large wardrobe, I sometimes think two things will work well together based on the colors but then the optic vs. blended elements clash so that the outfit doesn’t mesh together. I’m not sure we’ve talked a lot about this thing that I’m calling “optic vs. blended” on this blog, but it’s something that can trip us up in creating a capsule or an outfit even when we’ve got other elements like color, silhouette, length/proportion, fabrication/texture, etc. right.
I would personally prefer a wardrobe that went more in the softer direction established by the sherbet scarf rather than in the more optic direction of the colorblocked optic black, white, and brights. (I feel like the big cat scarf sits about in the middle of that spectrum and could go either way.) The painting itself has a blended appearance to me, which is why I like it. But I do also think that the more optic wardrobe fits a need for a capsule in this series that dark haired high contrast women would relate well to. I’m just not sure how much use those heroines would get from the sherbet scarf. I wonder if that’s a piece she couldn’t resist because it has both of her accent colors in it, but then doesn’t wear much and realizes it wasn’t the best choice.
The all-spice pieces are terrific in the Nash wardrobe, so I don’t blame our heroine for grabbing those while she can and waiting to add more green and blue later on. This particular shade of taupe is a bit darker and browner than my ideal version, but I would definitely wear it. And it looks wonderful with the other pieces.
The blue Magill wardrobe is still my favorite, though I would use it more as a core than as a full capsule because I gotta have my color variety. Our heroine is right to be thoughtful about what shades of blue to include (and of course I also am thinking about optic vs. blended here, though I find that white + navy can feel much less stark than white + black). I would also be thinking about my choices of dark blue/navy here. Just looking at the differences between the check shirt and the striped T gives a sense of how much the navy color family can vary. (Of course, in hand, they may both look entirely different from on screen, so who knows!) Again, in a small wardrobe, it makes sense to think through which pieces you want/need to coordinate well and which can vary because you won’t wear them together.
Today, it’s supposed to get up to 70 degrees in New Orleans, LA. Orange sandals are totally appropriate for today.
Janice,
The John Nash“ Lane” is me all the way, love it !
Here I go again trying to find a prior article that I thought that I had saved on Pinterest or bookmarked, but now cannot find ! Didn’t you fairly recently do a post on packing by starting with two complete and compatible outfits, and then building from there ? I have searched through your commentary on recent posts and have come up empty. If so, would you please
provide the date of that post or a link ? I must be losing my brain for sure , although life has been rather “ lifey “ recently and I have been distracted, as a result ! Thanks !
Never mind , found it! January 23, 2019, —must have seen it during a search . It was about traveling with a group. Thanks anyway ! I soooo appreciate all that you provide ! Big long cyber hugs !
Janice,
The packing concept here is very similar to the Packing for Ireland post that I inquired about a few days ago with the 3 different textures of pants that are all in the same color. Apparently I am drawn toward that concept !
I’m starting to feel like four compatible outfits (with extra tops for each outfit?) is the way to pack. Sort of a 4 by 4 done outfit by outfit…
Not that I’m going anywhere, but when I daydream about packing, this seems to be where I end up!
hugs,
J
Oooh, I like this idea ! I look forward to its development and posting ! Can’t wait !
I need to get back into the discipline of capsules simply based on what fits, shopping my wardrobe and not buying anything new. I’m deliberately not going clothes shopping. However, I do have to venture into town occasionally. I cut through Mark’s & Spencer the other day and half the clothes seemed to be blue! However, I will always be on the look out for lilac and purple. I just have to work out what I need…
Janice, you are a genius! I’m loving all of this!
BTW, the blue scarf above is sold out. However, the silk version, which is double sided with the 2nd side being green is still available.
That blue wardrobe! Reading this post and the comments make my coffee taste better! I think that the Spanish saying of “for tastes, the colors” suits well since I don’t agree with high contrast needing a special kind of skin/hair tone. It seems here is more usual to see women with their grays and I see all kinds of color combos and to my eye is more about how confident you feel in them. It might be my personal bias as well (I have my natural “highlights” as well). I’ve also experienced getting tired of some colors, so I guess other experience this as well. Thanks Janice, it’s kind of therapeutic for me to dive in this type of analysis!
I have already put together the Nash with clothes from my wardrobe, with shades of green in light and dark.
For the first one i think the black is too contrasting and would wear gray with it.
What lovely three capsules. I’m looking forward to what’s coming on Monday and the rest of the year.
Have you done posts on the many ways to wear a scarf? Or do you have links or suggestions of where to look for that? I only have a couple scarfs that I’ve worn very occasionally but I’m tempted by some that you show – I just have no idea what to do with them! I like the view of the scarf all rolled up that you use to illustrate the colors you’re picking from the scarf, but how do you arrange a scarf like that? Thanks for any help you can give me!
I’ve never posted on how to wear a scarf because so many other people do those kinds of things so well! I particularly like Mai Tai’s Picture Book (https://www.maitaispicturebook.com/2022/12/); she actually has done an app to show ways to tie scarves. I’m going to try to talk Echo scarves into posting some scarf tying suggestions too… (fingers crossed)
Check YouTube too – there are hundreds of thousands of scarf tying videos there. You can spend the rest of your life watching them if you’re not careful!
I actually don’t arrange the scarves that are shown here – I get the images from the websites that sell the scarves! Echo does a particularly nice job of coiling scarves or arranging them so that you get a sense of what they will look like when worn. It’s hard to picture a scarf around your neck when you only see a model wearing it, and maybe a flat image of the scarf…
hugs,
Janice
This link is Wendy’s 25 ways to wear a scarf; the video is so well done & entertaining!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LYAEz777AU&ab_channel=Wendy%27sLookbook
Thank you Janice, and also Vicki! I tend to forget about YouTube since I can get lost there easier than on Pinterest – but to look for something specific, yes I can do that!
I absolutely love the blue so far. It is rare that I find a post that is not only the blues I like to wear, but also my style. Except the white pants (I just don’t like wearing white pants, but will wear white shorts) I am working toward this wardrobe. Fortunately, I have almost everything and am seeing new ways to wear them. Thank you, Janice. So well done!
I love the Nash painting and in theory, the capsule from it…but when I look at my wardrobe…have lots of ivory and not much of the gray green, blue or the very dark brown. I realized this morning the colours aren’t warm enough for my taste. For a silvery blonde or lady who likes gray it would be perfect. My intent to not buy in January hit a bump when I found some perfect bright blue and green and citron silk scarves. I knew they were exactly what I wanted for spring since I am also waiting for a final formal job offer which should be here in a month.
I love the blue and white one, I could actually wear that very happily!