January 5 2026
Our second heroine also has a black base to her wardrobe, along with denim blue and bone (thanks to whomever pointed out that I’d complete SKIPPED the beautiful bluish grey…):
Our heroine is a graphic artist; her specialty is working with designs that incorporate multiple typefaces. She’s the absolute master (mistress?) of mixing serif and sans-serif fonts! And it’s not as easy as one might think; persuading clients that she’s right about things can be difficult. Therefore, she tends to dress in a pretty timeless and neutral fashion, so that clients will concentrate on what she shows to them, and not on her.
But she does plan to include both turquoise and bright Kelly green in her wardrobe, in moderate quantities. It may be that she doesn’t see anything with whappage until the weather warms up!
In the meantime, she’s going to work on a very balanced wardrobe in her three neutrals…
Her favorite personal style themes (or signatures) are
- a neutral column, with another neutral or an accent second layer, or
- a “suit-like pairing of garments” in one of her neutrals, with a top underneath in either one of her neutrals or an accent, and
- occasional bursts of color in turquoise or Kelly green, especially in her accessories.
This should be interesting, eh?
This heroine also learned something about herself when she tried to think of what garments she absolutely needed as a core in her wardrobe. Although she wears three neutral colors, and is equally committed to each, if push comes to shove, she needs her black clothes:
Ivory tee – Lands’ End; black tee – Lands’ End; earrings – Saachi; merino cardigan – L.L.Bean; jeans – J.Crew; tote bag – Rebecca Minkoff; boots – Blondo
Her purchases for the month of January are designed to get her into a more balanced position – light to dark, with a touch of chambray!
Cashmere cardigan – Banana Republic; earrings – Jagged Halo Jewelry; scarf – Mohair&Angora; linen shirt – J.Crew; ecru pants – Alex Mill; chambray shirt – J.Crew; sneakers – Keds
Now, when she looks at her collected eight garments, she appreciates the contrasts:
And when she evaluates her wardrobe against the template that we’re all using right now, she can clearly see that a template modification is needed!
But more interesting to her is that she already has enough outfits possible to see her through a week of work! Knowing that you can pack a small suitcase and still manage to look fresh and appropriate for work is comforting:
This heroine is going to have to keep her eyes open to find just the right accent colored tops (mostly tops, I assume!) and accessories. But if it’s your signature look, you don’t mind investing the time!
love,
Janice
p.s. Ten years ago, we looked at the possibility of imitating a bird! Specifically, we assembled a wardrobe based on the coloring of a black and yellow broadbill…
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Now this I like! I agree that there needs to be an adjustment in the chart, or we will be in a pickle long about next fall. I think it would be just fine to have three tops each month, instead of two. Not everyone is a minimalist, lol. Start adding accent colors, perhaps. Just my little ideas…
This is beautiful. Just beautiful. That scarf is amazing. And I love that you included her style “theme” or signature. Happy Monday!
Love the scarf very much! And the addition/reinstatement of the 5th colour! Only 4 colours in a wardrobe can be quite restraining so more (and in a light colour, to boost) is delightful!
I like where this is going.
I adore that you are envisioning this heroine to be a graphic artist, using the fun type in the background as an intuitive starting point. Great thinking!
While I’m pleased that you’re showing the heroine’s base notes of ivory and black…this is great! But, I feel as if, even at this early stage, she’s just got to have “more cowbell”….in order words, a pop of her accent colors. What do you think of this scarf from Nordstrom?
https://www.nordstrom.com/s/floral-tapestry-large-silk-scarf/8611952?origin=keywordsearch-personalizedsort&breadcrumb=Home%2FAll%20Results&color=001
Fabulous scarf for this wardrobe!
Lovely start to what looks like it will be a very versatile and pleasing wardrobe! I second the cheers for her personal style being stated up-front : I think it goes a long way towards understanding why certain items/colors are picked even within the template. (What comes to mind is this person, with her love of column or suit dressing vs. someone who either dislikes that style or is picky about color matching so insists the “column or suit” have non-matching textures). Looking forward to her future wardrobe and the other paintings!!
Great start to the Lonely wardrobe! Already I feel like this might be my favorite. I’d just swap navy for the black. Adding her personal style aesthetic at the beginning is very helpful.
I enjoy column dressing myself so looking forwards to see how this one evolves.
This is a really great group so far. The blue/gray makes all the difference!
Loving this wardrobe, not only for the palette but also that the heroine is a graphic artist. How the featured art matches the profession. In my 30s (the 1980s), I was a freelance graphic artist and calligrapher back when most art was still hand-drawn. So I enjoy geeking out over typefaces and totally understand working with sans, sans serif and script fonts.
The addition of the chambray makes a huge difference for this wardrobe and I think I’m going to love it. At stores and browsing vendors I’m seeing a lot of chambray & denim which means we should have some beautiful pieces for this heroine. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Love this palette. It’s me. :D Although I’d go with blush to rose instead of the green.
I’m loving this template…much easier to see the options for me. Do you think this one needs changing? I don’t think I understand the goal. Fun post. My winter closet/capsule needs a purge; this is helpful.
This is my favorite!! The addition of the chambray and substituting navy for black makes it perfect along with the style you have chosen for her. This is me! Thanks so much😍. I’m excited to see how all the paintings evolve! You have such an amazing talent and have made my wardrobe better and smaller. Thanks for all your hard work 💕. This is going to a fabulous year!!
I am loving the back story in this one. Ny mind’s eye flashed back to the common wardrobe with the striped tops and solid turtlenecks with black and denim. I hope you can find this heroine some stripes in turquoise and Kelly green.
Oh, that will be interesting with the colors. I can’t wait to see the vibrant colors in this wardrobe.
Could you (or someone in the comments) explain more clearly, for us newbie readers who are not familiar with your template, what you meant by: “And when she evaluates her wardrobe against the template that we’re all using right now, she can clearly see that a template modification is needed!” What is this template? Why are there 3 tops per line? Is it supposed to be “travel outfit math” like you should plan 3 tops for every bottom when packing? Or is it the maximum of tops you can comfortably wear together? Clearly I’m confused.
Dear Alice,
It’s not something you should worry about too much – this was a template that was used for either long-term packing (trips of a month or more) or planning a wardrobe. I’m not sure HOW we ever got to three tops with one second layer and one bottom! It’s not going to work out particularly well with the way that we’ve done these “Six Paintings – 12 Months” posts, since four garments a month translates into a really nice cluster for each month. Depending on your habits for dressing, keeping this existing template could make sense. For example, if you live somewhere that’s warm most of the year, you will need more tops than second layers, and having three tops to go with each cardigan, jacket or overshirt would be sensible.
I don’t even know if this makes sense, now that I’ve typed it! But suffice to say that the template is just a way for us to keep what we’ve put in the wardrobe visible in a tidy manner. Templates also remind us when assembling a wardrobe that we can’t keep buying four cardigans every month for half the year! (I would do that in a heartbeat…)
Make sense? More questions? Let us all know, and if you need additional clarity, I’m sure one of my friends here will be able to help!
big welcoming hugs,
Janice
I would recommend looking at the older posts.
Janice presented several capsule collections.
This would also fit in with the 52 planned clothing items!?
https://www.theviviennefiles.com/2017/07/plan-your-entire-wardrobe.html/
Simply swapping black for navy, this will be a good wardrobe for my ‘green’ experiment this year.
“Although she wears three neutral colors, and is equally committed to each, if push comes to shove, she needs her black clothes”…. This is so me. I have blue, black and gray as neutrals but lean the most heavily onto black. I love this color scheme, although if I were to make it do heavy lifting for me I would also need a wee bit of pink/burgundy in the mix. This is going to be a nice collection in the end, I think.