Build a Capsule Wardrobe Archives - Page 57 of 87

Vacation: TODAY!!!

October 3, 2015

To say that we're excited would be a bit of an understatement! Two weeks (which is SO un-American, the country that has NO law requiring any vacation, at all, for any person, ever) in Wales and England, including attending a Rugby World Cup match! And dinner reservations at some amazing places, and a few days in London, and a visit to my English relatives, AND a bunch of driving around amazing places etc. etc.This is gonna be good...

If you don't follow me on Instagram, you might want to start. You'll be able to see what I wear every morning (I lay out my outfits and photograph them), and we'll take some pictures of beautiful or amazing places. I'm not one of those people that buries you in photographs, but ... View the Post

OLIVE: With 8 Bright Accents

October 1, 2015 Olive today! Some of these were difficult...

I'm including these Yves Saint Laurent pants, even though they're the ONLY pair available, to remind you that a garment with a range of shades of green could work really beautifully with your olive neutrals.

This is a case in which the scarf really plays a key role. And this scarf is a stylized map - it's a really good thing it's not my colors.And I have to point out the earrings from Louise et Cie; this is a company that has made shoes for a few years, and just now ventured into jewelry (at least in the US). Some of their jewelry is really cool, and not at all expensive. I'm making a note of this company for when my shopping ... View the Post

BROWN: With 8 Bright Accents

September 30, 2015 I don't know why we don't see more brown with bright colors; the colors share the same degree of saturation, and some of these combinations are pretty nice! As always, let's start with some hard-working basics:

These colors play together nicely - just a touch of sparkle from a brooch is all I would add here!

Yes, all of these are described as shocking pink, but this one doesn't seem shocking at all to me. I'd describe it as rosy and very flattering.

As in so many instances, the right scarf makes so much ... View the Post

GREY: With 8 Color Accents

September 29, 2015 So many of us own this kind of small neutral core - I love taking these pieces and adding accent colors, to see what happens. Today, it's grey, or gray, depending on.... I have no idea!

These dresses might be one of the easiest ways to wear this bright, strong color. You wouldn't necessarily pull the cardigan on, but tossed over one's shoulders with an insouciant flair (think Italian actress), it will be perfect.

These jackets were surprisingly difficult to find, but well worth it. If you're looking for leather, this color is a great option rather than the much more ubiquitous black. Just make sure your jacket looks like gorgeous leather, and not some horrible plastic ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art – Festival in Montmartre – Version 2

September 28, 2015 So when we last visited our heroine, former family caregiver become corporate Public Relations executive, she was thriving in her new position. And it didn't go unnoticed by her employer's competition!

Headhunters began to emerge from the shrubbery...

And one day, she was called into the Director's office.

10 minutes later, she's holding a VERY large retention bonus in her hand, in exchange for her signature on a two-year contract.

VERY LARGE retention bonus.

She went back to her office. She closed the door, burst out laughing. With a bit of silly, breathless squeaking mixed in.

And she cried, just for a second.

Then she called her husband. And then the travel agent...

She ... View the Post

NAVY: with Eight Color Accent ideas

September 26, 2015

Last week, I did a post (see it here) in which I took eight very brightly colored garments and incorporated them into outfits, using black as the neutral to offset the color.So I was thinking (I'm ALWAYS thinking) that the range of garments was a pretty interesting list - it included pretty much all of the major garment "categories", with one exception. So I took the original list of items (taken from my favorite French fashion book: Ma To-Do List: Dressing, by Laure Gontier and Jeanne-Aurore Colleuille) and made one change:

I stuck pretty faithfully to their colors, except for the pine green, which is more neutral to me. I substituted purple, because.... well.... PURPLE!

I ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Cvetaeva, Version 2

September 24, 2015

And, as promised, another look at this scarf, with a completely different color scheme!

Doesn't this look completely different when folded and worn this way?

I'm eschewing all accents this time, and going strictly for some interesting neutrals:

She Doesn't Mean to be Difficult... But the prototypes were entirely wrong. Wrong color. Wrong sizes. Wrong details. You have to wonder if the had the specifications upside down...

So she's off to Milan, to have a serious chat with the knitting mill management!

It's not that she doesn't like Milan - she loves it - but this isn't a good time to have to make this trip. She won't have time for more than one really amazing ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Cvetaeva by wrq.e.d.

September 16, 2015

Another beautiful scarf...This one, entitled Cvetaeva, is from the amazingly talented and creative team at wrq.e.d. The images include collages, ball point pen illustrations, florals, and a poem, by Marina Cvetaeva. It's written around the border: the dear art of oblivion the soul has mastered all the way. some overwhelmingly big feeling melted within my soul today. This is the wondrous object:

The first time I looked at the scarf, these were the colors that I saw. I was always envisioning this with burnished brown accessories, to reflect the beauty of the border of the scarf:

She's a Poet Yes, she earns her daily bread as an office manager for a real estate company. But if you ... View the Post

Mixing Black and Brights

September 9, 2015

One last look at how these 9 black garments can be used to serve as a base for your personal wardrobe passion - this time, BRIGHT colors!

You might be able to put together outfits with just these 9 pieces, but people would certainly see you from a long way away! If you're comfortable doing that, I think you should do whatever delights you - that's really the most important factor when getting dressed! But for those of us who love these colors in smaller doses, I have some ideas...

As always, I'm going to build around a solid, well-chosen core of neutrals. I've used black for these examples the last 2 days, but any neutral can do the trick, with a little bit of thought and ... View the Post

Mixing Black and Florals

September 8, 2015 If you're not mad for monochromatic wardrobes, yesterday might not have been your dream. But this idea has all kinds of potential; what if you're all about floral prints?

Oh my... While each of these garments is quite beautiful on their own, when you pile them all together like this, they could give even the most staunchly pro-botanical among us hay fever...But if you also own at least these 9 solid garments, you're really in pretty good shape, wardrobe-wise. The solids temper the impact of the print, and give them center stage, and make garments that might seem busy or "too much" into pieces that are just perfect.

The addition of the floral pieces to your core black ... View the Post

Mixing Solids and Patterns, or 18 = 108 (or more…)

September 7, 2015

Ever since I started trying to identify my signature wardrobe items, and have worked with A Common Wardrobe, I've pondered the various ways in which printed or patterned garments can be incorporated into your wardrobe. I think for most of us, either non-solid pieces, or accent colors, are pretty important to give a sense of change and variety...

So in my thinking, I started with a wonderful 9-Piece Slot Machine Wardrobe in solid black. These pieces run the gamut from a tank top for warm weather to a cashmere turtleneck for (in my life) about 6 months of winter. Just doing the math, these give you 27 3-piece outfits (3 x 3 x 3), plus 12 more 2-piece outfits. Some of the combinations might be a little ... View the Post

How to Create Your Capsule Wardrobe – a Vivienne Files Bookshelf Excerpt

September 5, 2015 Taken from one of my very favorite reference books for The Vivienne Files: Ma To-Do List by Jeanne-Aurore Colleuille and Laure Gontier. I'm going to quote directly from their book...

The 3 Secrets for Creating your “Capsule Wardrobe”

“My style is the result of distillation. I have accepted my grey hair. I only wear black and white. Each year, I buy three or four dresses which I wear in rotation. I own a pair of jeans.” – Jamie Lee Curtis

"This barbaric Anglo-Saxon concept, adored by fashion magazines and women of style across the Atlantic, doesn’t have a real French equivalent. The word that they use to describe this concept is barbarisme... is doesn't translate with quite the ... View the Post