June 5, 2026
Our bird-data expert is back, and she has travel plans…
Remember, she takes her wardrobe inspiration from this handsome guy:
At the end of May, our heroine had a pretty lovely 24-piece wardrobe:
And her accessories were pretty nifty too! I have to share with you that I’ve started loving these narrow silk scarves; enough time has passed since we HAD TO WEAR THEM in the office, with our white shirts, dark suits and sensible pumps…
Later in June, our heroine will be leaving for six weeks on a college campus in VERY rural New England. The campus is going to be completely cleared of anybody except essential support staff (cafeteria workers are ESSENTIAL…) and a band of avian researchers.
Rumor has it that some relatively rare birds can be found in the area, after students have left. Rumor will be investigated and either confirmed or put to rest! Science is grand…
And our heroine? She will be in an office, trying to determine what level of “sightings” is necessary to confirm that the birds are indeed what they’re believe to be, and then to estimate the population thereof. Just having a bunch of people saying “yeah, I saw it too!” doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t science.
So she picked up a handful of new clothes to give her wardrobe a relaxed, summery feel:
Brown linen shirt – Banana Republic; “good hands” necklace – Missoma; red print top – Banana Republic Factory; white linen skirt – Eileen Fisher; bag – Mint Velvet; striped tee – J.Crew; sandals – Beek
Her travel capsule wardrobe isn’t set. She knows she will take a couple of warm sweaters, but not ALL of her sweaters. All the tee shirts? Heck yes! Maybe a second dress is in her future, or even a pair of shorts.
But for now, she’s going to start with all of this and prune it down to what will fit in her two suitcases. Probably almost everything, she suspects! If you’re going to live in a dorm for six weeks, bring things to make you feel at home…
She will bring her Longchamp bag for sure – that’s how she hauls her laptop! But she almost certainly won’t pack either pair of boots – maybe a pair of rubber boots instead? And she can bring both jewelry and scarves, because she doesn’t have to sit in total silence for hours and hours…
Her 28-piece template looks quite a bit like clothes that could get most of us through most of our lives.
How did we become accustomed to owning SO MUCH CLOTHING? I know that when I was in high school, college and grad school, I had about this much clothing.
When – and how – did this all change?
And how can be move back in this direction?
And what’s always most interesting for me – how is our heroine going to wear her new purchases???
I’m often tempted to set aside two dozen garments, and see how long I can manage just getting dressed from that assortment. I suspect that it’s longer than I believe…
love,
Janice
If you want to track back to all of the past posts about this wardrobe, you can find them here: Christmas Eve Preview, January, February, March, April, May
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I’m just about to go out to meet friends for coffee and lunch. Here in the UK I need a warm 2nd layer today. You’ve inspired me to toss it insouciantly around my shoulders. It’s that kind of day and I’m in that kind of mood.
I’m also in England, UK, but have only just got up (9.30am) having spent a mammoth 13 hours in Accident and Emergency yesterday accompanying a relative. Not because they required lengthy treatment but because the gaps in between each stage – triage, tests, treatment and discharge – were several hours long!
So today is my day and I’m going to visit my hairdresser, maybe have afternoon tea with a friend, and the theatre this evening. It’s only a local amateur group but a friend has a starring role. I haven’t been outside to test the temperature but I will probably need another layer and an umbrella.
Although the colours are not mine, I’m curiously in tune with this wardrobe which I call casual luxe. The style of the clothes are casual but the materials and accessories add a touch of glitz and glam. I have no qualms about wearing sparkly jewellery in the daytime. My new purchase this summer is a pair of silver trainer type shoes. They have quite thick soles and are very comfortable.
Even with a wardrobe of black, brown and red, I imagine that our heroine stands out amongst the birders who are all wearing dull green, brown and camouflage gear. I would certainly give her a red dress and a red top to wear next month.
It is possible to wear a handful of clothes and not worry about repeats. Who’s counting? In fact, whenever I get compliments, it makes me want to wear an item or outfit even more because it is validation that I’ve “got it right”. When I think back to my childhood, I had my school uniform, various mismatched hand-me-downs and “playing out clothes”, a party dress and a Sunday best outfit. My mother had an extensive wardrobe (over several wardrobes) of colour coordinated outfits. I thought that was what I should aspire to as an adult. Laura Ashley, C&A, Etam and Chelsea Girl were my favourite shops as a teenager. As a student, I wore pretty dresses and skirts. The casual luxe began to creep in as I wore a floral satin blouse with jeans but I only wore trousers for hiking. Even though I now wear more trousers than skirts/dresses, I realise that fewer well chosen garments that make lovely outfits is all I need. I don’t mind repeating an outfit that I feel good in. My friends love me looking well.
“How did we become accustomed to owning SO MUCH CLOTHING? I know that when I was in high school, college and grad school, I had about this much clothing.
When – and how – did this all change?
And how can be move back in this direction?”
I don’t know the answer to these questions. I come to this website specifically because these questions plague me. I know for a fact I had a pittance of clothes compared to what I own today. I often wonder how my wardrobe exploded so much, when, and how to start decreasing it. I look to the wisdom of Janice for insight and support.
I couldn’t agree more. I am a self-proclaimed clothes horse. I love fashion. I love classic style. I love the “idea” of having a small wardrobe. But, I love clothes…I love shopping. I love putting outfits together. I love window shopping. I love looking at fashion magazines (I’m that old fashioned) and websites. My mom is still this way (at 90). My older sister (who has since passed away) was this way. It was a pastime for us. We’d go shopping and then have a ‘fashion show’ for my dad, who would clap enthusiastically. It was just fun!
My late husband honestly new what he was getting into when he married me. He came from a very different background and, after retiring from the Army, wasn’t sure how to dress. Voila! He was married to his own personal shopper. He loved it.
Interestingly, my son loves style and despite his own military career, has impeccable taste when he’s not in uniform. My daughter loves fashion, but she’s much more European in her taste….she has a fraction of what I do, but everything is of the best quality and she has a limited color palette.
So…for me? It’s a hobby and one I enjoy.
Of all the wardrobes you’ve been developing this year, this one has been my favorite. There’s something to the black, tan, white and red that just feels upscale, professional and easy. Each month I feel like chanting for dear old Shellduck!
That being said, this is still reading as autumnal or wintery to me…even with the white skirt and gorgeous sleeveless red top. But that’s my own personal preference. I do have two completely different palettes for Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter…but I realize that not everyone does this. My daughter lives quite happily year ’round in these exact colors. They live in the fancy Boston suburbs and everyone looks quite professional all of the time. Even these couples’ workout kit looks elegant. However, given that they bought a historic home, as pretty as it is, storage space is not what it is in the newer construction they both grew up in. So…both of them pared down their wardrobes to fit into their space and landed on color themes. They never look out of place, even wearing black at a BBQ. So, I know this is just me. But, I digress….
Thank you for Shellduck, Janice. I don’t know why I love him so, but I just do.
Wait. Maybe I do have an idea when my wardrobe exploded in size.
When I started work in an office, after graduating from college, I started to build my “work wardrobe.” I was clueless as to how to build a work wardrobe. Literally, my only resources were (1) a book on how to “dress for success,” and (2) the belief that I could not be seen twice in the same outfit. I recognize that not being seen in the same outfit is ridiculous, but I honestly believed it.
So I invested accordingly in my work wardrobe (on a pittance of a salary), but I thought I was building my future career. People were going to judge me.
I think you can all imagine what happened. My wardrobe did explode in size, but there was no plan. Chaos reigned supreme. It was a nightmare so I doubled down and tried even harder. I didn’t think this should be as hard as it evidently was for me.
Finding The Vivienne Files was a relief. But by then, I had grown accustomed to continual shopping and maintaining a large wardrobe to avoid the horror of being seen in the same outfit twice. I am so embarrassed to admit this.
I am using the templates / lessons provided on The Vivienne Files to regroup and downsize my wardrobe. This is also harder than it should be.
Bravo on being honest – my version of this is that buying new clothes makes me feel powerful.
I grew up on a steady diet of hand-me-downs of mixed quality. Never my colours or taste. Everything was so worn out that for a primary school end of year show that required a bright t-shirt the teacher rejected my options and made me borrow from another girl in the class!!
I went on to university picking a profession that would guarantee a job and pay well – Engineering. And I have spent considerable sums on clothes over the years… Engineers are not remotely fashiony so I’m wearing expensive beautiful clothes that nobody appreciates. It actually makes me sad and depressed when I can’t buy something, it’s the loss of personal power. Now that I’ve noticed this I’m working to unlock my personal power from my ability to buy clothes!! This is the first time I’ve written this down and it’s causing me to realise just how mental this connection is.
Wardrobe size is an interesting topic and we each have different approaches to it. I’ve never had a large collection of clothes – it was positively sparse in my junior and high school years but it expanded nicely in the mid-Eighties when I had disposable income and time to shop and sew.
Once I married and became a mother, I was back to having about as many clothes as are in Janice’s template in these posts. Mind you, things didn’t really click together very well but things have slowly improved on that front since I began following TVF in 2019. I now have a colour pallet and really try to stick to it on the very few occasions – once or twice a year – when I shop for clothes.
It gives me quiet delight to open my closet and see things hanging by category and colour and that everything fits and is in good condition, ready to go. Choosing outfits is no longer an exercise in frustration.
Thank you, Janice, for teaching us SO much!
I think our wardrobes have expanded because clothes have generally gotten cheaper and (at least for my generation), we’re more aware of our wardrobes due to the ubiquity of smart phones and everyone always taking pictures and posting them. It’s also much easier to shop online than to have to go to the stores.
I have what I consider a reasonably-sized wardrobe – about 120 pieces across all seasons, half of which were purchased secondhand. It is certainly not the biggest wardrobe I’ve ever had in my life which was in my 20s. My life is much calmer now, I work from home most of the time and don’t go out in the evening as often, so I need a lot less.
In high school, many of us were still growing or had just finished doing so, and the range of activities for which we needed clothing was limited (especially for those who wore uniforms). Work, changes of job, other aspects of grown-up life mean we need different clothes, and for anyone who managed to stay a similar size for years, or who had clothes that could be let out, let down, or otherwise altered, clothes could stay in the closet for decades, even as new things got added. I have plenty of clothes bought in the last century, in part because I wore a lot of oversized things then. I also have clothes made in the last century but acquired more recently, as I look for good quality traditional items. Now, though my weight hasn’t changed much for 20 years, nothing seems to be where I left it, and I do need to try everything on and see what still works. Anyone have suggestions for styling’90s oversized silk shirts?
Oh, oversized silk shirts sound like so much fun! I would wear them with wide leg jeans and open over a more fitted tee/tank, perhaps tied instead of open. Or even buttoned up with a front tuck. Just ideas. But I think the casual + formal look of things is always fun and very current.
Also I love this wardrobe (not my colors) but the styles are my vibe because they are a little more casual.