for Travel Archives - Page 32 of 54

Packing Light – a Six-Pack Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Navy, Hot Pink and Ivory

August 4, 2020 A reader has fallen in love with the scarf below, on the left, and was wondering how it could be used as the basis for a travel capsule wardrobe. I love these colors:

Square scarf – Irene Paris; wrap – Nordstrom In a World of Chaos...

Square scarf – Irene Paris; wrap – Nordstrom She likes straight lines. Corners. She's actually unnaturally fond of squares. Which is fine, since she's an architect...

Square scarf – Irene Paris; tee – Lands’ End; earrings – Marc Jacobs; cardigan – Yumi; jeans – Armani Jeans; watch – Bulova; tote – London Fog; loafers – Vionic; suitcase – Lojel For the longest time, she thought that the only way to indulge ... View the Post

Packing Light – a Six-Pack Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Grey, Peach and Light Blue

August 3, 2016 "Dress Yourself" She's been hearing this her entire life - she remember it as a small child. She interpreted it as wearing clothes that look like her! So her grey hair, blue eyes, and blushed cheeks are her color scheme:

(yes, she flies in sweatpants; she irons them, and conceals the drawstring, and nobody seems to be the wiser...)

She always gets sent on the "48 hours in some remote country" kinds of trips, because she seems to always be able to get things working better than they had been...

And nobody can figure out how she does it, because she's such a gentle, sweet-looking woman!

Clearly, they have NEVER heard of the iron fist in the velvet glove, ... View the Post

A Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Red and White

July 29, 2016

After yesterday's fun with packing capsule wardrobes, I couldn't resist changing the accent color, just to see how it would look! So let's revisit the first outfit, and change the shirt color from blue to red (as well as swapping out a different scarf and socks).

I've changed the earrings for something more round, so that we can look at softer or rounded shapes for prints and accent items. This, of course, will change our color scheme, too:

The 2nd outfit only sees a change of shirt and earrings - as much as I was considering a softer print for the shirt, the idea of a flannel shirt in Ireland and England just makes TOO much sense to abandon!

The 3rd outfit - our indoor ... View the Post

A Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Blue and White

July 28, 2016

Someone out there's going to Northern Ireland, and then over to England. Envy.... sigh....I know a couple of garments that are on the packing list, so I'm going to do some imagining around those few things.

For starters, let's say that this is the travel outfit in question, and thus our color scheme is set:

In addition to having a chosen color scheme, I've decided to focus on the tile-like pattern of the scarf, as well as the woven detail of the tweed jacket as our focal motif - a woven handbag, square earrings, etc. You'll see this detail in more pieces of jewelry, as well as the nice squared plaid of the flannel shirt, too!

Knowing that it can be cold, wet, windy and changeable in both locations, a ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Avenue in the Park by Gustav Klimt

July 26, 2016

Don't you want to walk down this avenue? I'm hoping that there's a lovely person with some iced coffee down there in that intriguing yellow building...

While green is the dominant color in this painting, there's no way to build even the smallest of capsule wardrobes around that shade of green, unless you make the garments yourself. So I've chosen the lovely grey of the tree trunks and branches as our neutral.

Life List She's taking just a short break, but with a very specific purpose in mind...

She's packing just enough for a few days of walking outdoors, followed by casual dinners and long nights of restful sleep:

When her friends hear her mention her life list, they always assume that ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Great Nebula in Carina by Damian Peach

July 20, 2016 Insomnia, Part 2 (see part 1 here) So she's walking around Paris late one afternoon, and sees this:

Oh. My. Her favorite night sky, with one point two million different shades of pink and rose... sigh....

Let's remember, when she took off on this "night walker" vacation, this is what she packed:

But the image sticks in her head, and when she's walking through Gucci, she sees a scarf that speaks to her. Not the moon and stars, but FLOWERS. Something from daytime, and sunlight!

That evening, at dinner, her very attractive waiter mentions to her how very flattering the pink flowers are to the roses in her cheeks. She blushes even more....

So the next day, she decides that it ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Moon with Jupiter and 4 Moons by Christian Fattinnazi

July 15, 2016 So simple, and so striking:

This is a color palette that doesn't need any embellishing. It might be too austere for some, in the long run, but for a short-term travel adventure, this is nearly foolproof!

Insomnia She's been awake at night for WEEKS... looking at the night sky much more than she would normally like. So she's decided to take her sleep-deprived self to Paris. It's far enough away that she won't know if she has insomnia or jet-lag!

Because she doesn't trust herself to make finely nuanced style decisions when she's traveling, she decided to pack the most mistake-proof wardrobe possible. This is literally a "Whatever's Clean" ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Marguerites by Conrad Kiesel

July 14, 2016

I'm in a real navy and olive mode these days; I started this a couple of days ago, before yesterday's navy and green outfits. One of my all-time favorite posts on The Vivienne Files is still this one - navy and gorgeous accent colors.How's this for a glorious painting?

There are of course a variety of ways that colors could be extracted from this, but these are what I've chosen for today:

In honor of all of you who are traveling to colder climes this autumn, I'm thinking about packing that includes a warm coat and waterproof boots. Especially for those of you going to Ireland in the fall, you'll want both sunglasses AND gloves!

Sunglasses – Tory Burch; scarf – Brooks Brothers; boots – ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Branch of the Seine by Claude Monet

July 12, 2016 It's hard not to love something this beautiful:

The Last Laugh She's been saying for ages that the photographs of the structure don't look right, and that there are integrity issues. But did they listen to her? (you know the answer to this, right?)

So she's flying in to do an in-person inspection, and recommend what needs to be done in order to make the entire rig safe for workers.

They won't be thrilled to see her, but she will only need to be there a couple of hours...

There are some amazing restaurants on the mainland, and she's flying a really LONG way. So she plans to stay for at least 3 days. Nobody's going to ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Owl on Ginko Branch by Ohara Koson

July 9, 2016

Just wonderful:

While the vast majority of this painting is in shadings of beige and black, there are a couple of glorious accents of russet and olive...

She Works Nights Someone has to monitor those data servers - they run HOT, and they have to be watched 24/7. She loves the night sky, so she took the job...

So she works for 5 minutes, and then looks out the window for 5. It keeps her moving around, and she's learned a lot about the night sky.

Now that her company has grown, she's called on to work with people in other offices. Still at night, when the regular staff is at home, and just the emergency teams are in place.

Everyone marvels at how well she does during ... View the Post

Vacation Report, and a Few Extra Thoughts and Goodies

July 6, 2016

I'm back! Both back from my vacation, and back from Florida... both were quite lovely. I must admit that I missed blogging A LOT, which didn't surprise me; this is one of the great jobs of all time...Just as a reminder, this is what I packed for my 8 days in Central Florida. At the last minute, my black shirtdress was supplanted by a red linen dress. For the 4th of July weekend, a red dress is never a bad idea!

I was very happy with what I packed. Unlike what you might see in more "beachy" locations, central Florida is a place where you'll see quite a few people wearing black - head to toe, even! So I didn't stick out too much like a sore thumb.... And my silk shorts are perfect - absolutely perfect. ... View the Post

A Capsule Wardrobe Dilemma, and What I’m Packing for Florida

June 24, 2016 So I realized a couple of weeks ago that I wasn't wearing these 2 cardigans NEARLY as often as I felt that I should...

Every time I would pull out one of these sweaters, I just couldn't get an outfit together that really felt right.In a bit of a funk, I went back to my own best advice, and realized that a lot of my basic summer clothes in black were either too big, or too...faded/droopy/saggy/limp/icky for public consumption.

So I picked up these - the Original Core of Four:

After those arrived and were well-integrated into my wardrobe, I got wild and bought these 4 tops:

It turned out that I was wise to stock up on summer basics, because... well... the ... View the Post