Build a Capsule Wardrobe Archives - Page 43 of 88

W.H.A.T. to Pack for New York?

May 5, 2017

When you read this, I will be in New York for a long weekend with La Photographe. She's got a chance to photograph at Ellis Island on Sunday, and so we decided to make a long weekend of it! Why not?

But of course, one must pack.... How do you make these choices? I have thoughts - oh do I have thoughts!

(my brain generates acronyms like normal people make conversation...)

W - here are you going? This is pretty critical, because the difference between the city and the beach, or between the mountains and the downtown office, are massive. The joy of going to New York is that I could pack a tutu, a Buddhist monk robe, and a leather jumpsuit, and still be fine... it's pretty difficult to be inappropriate there!

H - ... View the Post

How to Add an Accent Color for Warm Weather; Start with Art: View of New York by Charles Sheeler

May 4, 2017

This painting couldn't be allowed to fade into the history of The Vivienne Files without another look, right?

Our bird watching, star gazing heroine is going on a much longer trip, but has decided that she doesn't need to make any changes to her travel outfit:

You might remember what she packed for her shorter trip to visit her friends with the veranda - all of these things were perfect, so she'll definitely include them:

These are what she's adding to her suitcase for her longer trip; she's gone a wee bit overboard on her accent color, but summer clothes don't last as long as winter, so she felt a bit like indulging. And no, it's not the exactly precise color that ... View the Post

How to Pack Light for a Long Weekend? Start with Art: View of New York by Charles Sheeler

April, 26, 2017

Do you remember one of my very favorite all-time posts, where a woman went to visit friends to look at the stars? Her wardrobe colors were inspired by the colors of the common shelduck - brown, black, and white...Well, she's found a painting that she really likes, so this year, when she's going back to visit her friends again, she's in the same color scheme. The weather is warmer, but you might recognize a few of her accessories from last winter's trip...

Her color scheme expands to include cream and grey (earlier, she was pretty strictly black and white with brown leather accessories), and some day she's going to try something in sky blue. Some day...

She knows that it's going to be warmer in April ... View the Post

How to Build a Warm Weather Travel Four by Four Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Palimpsest 46 by Kamrooz Aram

April 25, 2017

Let's revisit yesterday's painting - I don't feel like we've nearly exhausted the possibilities of these colors! My hypothesis is that yesterday's heroine has been invited to... a wedding, let's say, out of town far enough that she's going to stay for a week or so. Except for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself, she won't have to get madly dressed up, but she can reasonably expect at least another dinner or two out with relatives and old friends.

So we start here:

And we remind ourselves of what our color scheme is going to be for this travel capsule wardrobe:

Our heroine was really happy with her travel outfit when she took her long lazy weekend break, so she's not changing a thing ... View the Post

Build An Overnight Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Before the Parachute Opens, Version 2

April 21, 2017

After I looked at this painting again, on a different computer, I realized that I just HAD to consider the possibility that the "jumper" here really is more olive than brown...

Today's heroine is drawn to this painting by the angularity of it - she's the woman who really admires a good right angle, straight lines, clean structural joints and elegantly well-executed welds. She does have a bit of a hidden soft spot though...

Her tote bag is solidly squared off, and easily holds her gear for an overnight trip - maybe she's an architect going to visit a site and then dine with some of the people working there?

I'm no miser when it comes to buying pajamas, but these are pretty extravagant!

And I have to ... View the Post

Build an Overnight Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Before the Parachute Opens by Tullio Crali

April 20, 2017

Such an amazing painting - from such an unusual and compelling point of view!And I've noticed that the central color of the jumper is dark brown on my main computer, but that she is more olive green on my laptop! No wonder we have so much trouble talking about colors - we're not even necessarily seeing the same things...

But since I've found a few nice brown pieces, I thought that I'd stick with my initial impression that she's mostly brown. Maybe I'll re-visit this painting and use olive instead - what do you think?

My only style thoughts were of a strong respect for the sky, space, flying, and birds! But this color scheme could really work for a long time, although it would take a long time to find ... View the Post

How to Choose Accessories for Travel: a Navy and Grey Travel Capsule Wardrobe

April 19, 2017

While I continue to wrestle with a brown Neutral Building Blocks capsule wardrobe, I'm still playing around with the navy and grey wardrobe from earlier this week. I realized that (a) we should take a look at some accessories, and (b) these neutral pieces translate into a WONDERFUL travel wardrobe!Imagine this outfit for almost any kind of travel - in a car, on a train, or flying. Sleeves that can be rolled, a cardigan than can be cuddled, a watch for punctuality, sunglasses for the coolness factor, and a small touch of jewelry to bring focus to your face. Some comfortable shoes and a good tote bag, and you're all set!

The first outfits that I was going to address for accessories were those that used the ... View the Post

How to Choose Navy and Grey Neutral Building Blocks for a Capsule Wardrobe

April 17, 2017

This all comes together so well - navy and grey is a really seasonless, timeless color combination! I love a good classic capsule wardrobe...

Let's start with a reminder of where we're headed, more or less. Last week we covered choosing neutral building blocks using this template:

First up is building from the "bottoms" up! This might feel counter-intuitive, but I still think that it's the most logical approach; these are the pieces that for many are hardest to find/fit, and they're the pieces that get worn most often. These really need to be great!

And I'm going to put it on record again - if you find something (pants, tee shirts, whatever) that you really love and know that you will wear a lot, buy ... View the Post

How to Choose Neutral Building Blocks for a Capsule Wardrobe

April 14, 2017

So I've been using Neutral Building Blocks for a few weeks as a basis upon which I've built all kinds of interesting capsule wardrobes, but I've neglected to truly address HOW you get those Building Blocks in place. Today, I'll try to fill in this omission!

First up, I settled on the idea of 9 pieces just on instinct, because it seemed like a good number - more than half of a 4 by 4 Wardrobe, enough bottoms that you could include shorts, a skirt AND a pair of pants, four different tops so you could go from sleeveless to short-sleeved, to 3/4 sleeve to long, and then toss in a couple of 2nd layers - a jacket and a sweater.

The more I played around with the 9 pieces, the more I was pretty happy with it, but there's ... View the Post

Nine MUST HAVE Items for Spring and Summer 2017!!!

April 6, 2017

She didn't just write that, did she?

Of course not - there is NO SUCH THING as a must-have item. I know for a fact that there are women in the world who never wear shoes. You could wear nothing but linen dresses all summer. You could wear shorts and tee shirts every day (how ARE things in Georgia?). You could mix it up between capris, skirts, and shorts...

Nobody can tell you that you MUST buy something. As soon as they try to start that kind of talk, you know that they don't have your best interests at heart, and you can take what they say with the appropriate bajillion grains of salt...

But there are useful ways to approach getting dressed for warm weather, and I think one worth considering is to make ... View the Post

How to Gradually Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Start with a Scarf – Ted Baker Enchantment

March 23, 2017

A normal blogger would wait until this was finished to share it with you, but nobody's ever accused me of being normal!

I freely admit that I think Ted Baker London makes some of the most beautiful scarves, and that they are an excellent starting point for a well-chosen capsule wardrobe. This just screams spring to me... and if you're a pansy person (or you love someone who is) this would be a beautiful "no reason at all" gift:

This beautiful floral is available in such wide-ranging lovelies as ballet flats, bags, 2 swimsuits, a cover-up, cropped trousers and a matching sleeveless top, a blouse, a tee shirt, a couple of skirts, a couple of dresses and of course other shapes and sizes of scarves. I have to admit ... View the Post

How to Use the Functional Method to Purge a Cluttered Wardrobe

This is the same wardrobe with which we worked yesterday; today we're going to take a different approach to getting rid of the excess and whittling down to the good stuff!

Today, we're arranging everything by function. This is a really helpful way to "self-diagnose" a common shopping pitfall - always buying the same kind of garment. I personally have a mad fondness for dresses, and for sweaters. Dresses aren't a terrible problem, because (so long as you have the appropriate shoes and other accessories) a dress is a pretty much free-standing ensemble. But too many black sweaters? BIG BIG BIG waste of money... even if the sweaters are (each and every one of them!) very beautiful...This heroine has a ratio of tops to bottoms that is at ... View the Post