The Vivienne Files

An Inexpensive Way to Try an Accent Color

January 23, 2026

One last - for now - sampling of colors!

Many of us aren't comfortable plunking down a lot of money on a piece of clothing that may not work out. So I thought that inexpensive tee shirts might be the best way to approach this...

Normally, I'm NOT going to suggest that you buy a garment that's essentially "fast fashion," but in this case it might be excusable. If you buy one of these tee shirts right now, and wear it every week or ten days until the end of the summer, you very well might wear it out! And that would be fine - you would either get the color out of your system, or have discovered a new accent that you want to wear long term.

If you're not sure about choosing a color, let me suggest that you look at ... View the Post

Maybe It’s Time for an Accent Color That Will Last Into Spring…

January 21, 2026

This post started with a BUNCH of emails in which I tried to encourage some of you to at least try a button-front shirt from Lands' End. For literally decades, I avoided button-fronts like the plague, because I'm short, short-armed, short waisted, and generous endowed...

You know how this works out - buttons that gape, sleeves that hang down to your knees. That feeling that your body is not built for this world!

These shirts might work. They do for me. I wear Petite Large, and everything is just right...

Seecond, the temperature is punishingly cold right now. A bright color or two might be nice, eh?

Finally, I realized that the clothes that stay in my closet all 12 months are my button-front shirts, which I ... View the Post

Ready for a Fresh Accent Color?

January 19, 2026

Please note, some things are selling really quickly! I do my best, but you might miss things here if you hesitate at all...

Now that we're all hunkered down with our wardrobes for the rest of this season (winter for us in the north, summer in the southern hemisphere), some of us will soon be ready for just a bit of something fresh and different...

The easiest way to do this is to find a versatile piece of clothing in a color that appeals, and then add one or two accessories (or maybe a layering piece for your new addition) to bring some brightness to your days.

For some reason I don't understand, these kinds of quarter-zip tops are a BIG THING right now. I know that a lot of the hype has been around sweaters in ... View the Post

I’m Using a 28-piece Wardrobe Template to Refine My Wardrobe…

January 16, 2026

My wardrobe feels pretty stable, but I'm always looking for things in it that I'm no longer wearing on a regular basis. We don't have mountains of room (although compared to my sisters in Europe, I'm wallowing in space!), and I don't like to keep things that might be of use to someone else...

So I initially thought I would use a 30-piece, six cluster template to organize myself:

But then I made a critical aesthetic adjustment to the 28-piece, seven cluster template (yes, they do indeed get confusing!):

Having the bottoms longer than the tops just makes good sense, doesn't it?

I'm hopeful that you can "right click" on these and copy them, or print them. They're useful if you're just writing on them, or ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

January 14, 2026

Ten years ago, her friends invited her for the weekend. A bit of bird-watching, sitting on the veranda... Just a relaxing time in a warm climate with people she loves...

After spending so much time admiring these birds, she decided to take her wardrobe very much in this direction - with the addition of the snappy red accent!

Well, her relationship with birds has taken on a whole new meaning! First thing - when she left her morally bankrupt corporate job, she almost immediately found a position helping coordinate worldwide bird censuses.

It requires both a knowledge of data base administration, and bird species! Who ever knew that SQL and birds could co-exist?

She does get to travel from time to ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

January 12, 2026

She's a professional listener...

She doesn't want to be invisible - that would be creepy! But she does want to appear warm, unobtrusive and comfortable. Her clients will speak more freely if she doesn't look as if she's going to rip off their head...

So she chose this most calm and reflective of paintings, and an assortment of colors from brown to bone, with accents of rust and a pretty greenish-blue that matches her eyes:

She started building her new work wardrobe with the most classic of ivory and brown, but in soft textures of cabled cashmere and corduroy:

She knows that finding her favorite green is going to be difficult, so she has to jump on anything she finds that suits. And although the ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

January 9, 2026

She doesn't have to wear a uniform anymore! She didn't really mind - it's a good job - but it does get tiring to wear Oxford grey, pale pink and pale yellow ALL THE TIME.

Not to mention that everyone on the street knows where she works...

But she's been promoted to back-office support and auditing, and she can wear pretty much whatever she wants! And this is where she's going to focus:

She really wants to have navy as her wardrobe core; she's noticed that ALL of the top executives wear navy a lot. Since she's pretty ambitious, she figures that she may as well accustom herself to owning and loving classic navy.

But she's going to give herself the choice of four accent colors! One for each season - more or ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

January 7, 2026

A surprise painting that I snuck in on everyone - almost including myself!

But I always want to include the wardrobe visions of those among us who have a desire for their wardrobe to remain in the background - subtle, nuanced, and quiet...

Her color palette might change in proportion - she's feeling like she may want more grey, and ease back on the gold/yellow. These things are a work in progress, NOT a rule!

She's know what career she wanted ever since she was a small child, and watched people digging up her favorite flowers from her front yard - what's wrong with dandelions?

And she's been fully focused on her desire to redeem the reputation of native plants for pretty much her entire life; her ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

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 ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

January 2, 2026

Happy Happy Happy New Year to all of us! We deserve it, I'd say!

Let's wallow in the beauty of our first painting, and get to know our first heroine:

This heroine worked on the restoration of Notre Dame, in Paris. She specializes in the symbolism of the small decorative carvings found at the tops of pillars, in the wee niches in arches - all sorts of places in Gothic architecture were ornamented, because it was considered a form of worship.

And while she was well-known in her specialty area, working on such a high-profile project made her "small famous." Enough so that she travels a lot now, giving lectures at colleges and universities EVERYWHERE.

These are her colors:

Her favorite personal ... View the Post

Let’s Evaluate the Last 4 2025 Wardrobes

December 31, 2025

This seems a fitting way to finish up our year here together, doesn't it?

I love this painting; I always fear that I'm going to be absolutely sick of the six paintings by the end of the year, but it's never happened. Yet. Good art has legs...

One thing I noticed as I was sorting out the contents of these four wardrobes: If you start with a plan, and proceed in a pretty orderly manner (like we did this year, when we added four garments and three accessories each month, and each group of 4 garments included a "bottom"), you're probably going to end up with a great wardrobe.

There were very few glaring omissions in these - did you miss something that you thought should be included?

One of the real ... View the Post

I’ve Figured Out French Style! My Report from Paris…

December 29, 2025

Finally. I understand why women in Paris have distinctive personal style. It's a question of having an abundance of options.

Let me clarify. In the United States, if you go to any major shopping area, you know that you're going to see at LEAST 80% retailers with whom you are already familiar. The clothing in all these stores looks very much the same, until you get up into the really expensive brands. And if you're shopping for "fashion" jewelry - what we used to call costume jewelry? You see the same half-dozen brands over and over...

So when we shop, there's a certain element of "this will do fine" in our choices. We know that we aren't going to wait for a month and a half until we find that perfect brooch with a ... View the Post