The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Capsule Wardrobe Project 333, Planning, Packing, Paris, and the Unexpected

September 17, 2014  

I leave later today for Paris... and Yes, I'm excited!  It never gets old, and I never get tired of doing the same things, going the same places. This trip will be very different from most of my recent ones, because I'm going with someone who's never been there.  This will definitely add some new perspectives to how I see the city. My carefully schemed packing is going to be changed slightly, because the weather in Paris is quite a bit warmer than it is here in Chicago.  This makes me think AGAIN that it's only reasonable to be prepared for weather changes when you travel.

Last week, in Chicago, the weather went from air conditioning overnight to weather cold enough to wear gloves. ... View the Post

Start With Art: The Magpie by Claude Monet

September 4, 2014   In our mythical leisure, Belovedest and I watch art courses from The Great Courses. Our current course is The World's Greatest Paintings, in which we studied at some length the beauties of this:

 

 

Talk about mixing warm and cool colors to great effect!  I was irresistibly drawn to use this as a Start With Art subject. Note one really interesting innovation that I'm trying: rather than attempt to nail down two specific browns and greys, or one color to represent the damp and frozen branches, slats on the gate, and branches in the fence, I'm working with a spectrum of brown to darkest grey. Doing this frees you up to build a wardrobe around any color that might be found in the ... View the Post

How to Pack for Paris, again!

August 29, 2014  

Yes, there are lots more Four by Four Wardrobes on the way, but I like to mix things up a bit!

I don't leave for Paris and Amsterdam for 20 days, but I'm already starting to think this one through. This is a particularly interesting packing adventure, because I'm currently living in hot summer weather (well, hot, cool, stormy, and just plain strange...), but I know that it's going to be more comfortable in Europe. Unless it's not. Sigh...

As usual, I'm planning to dress in layers, so worst case cold weather means more layers, and worst case warm weather means just a shirt rather than a shirt and sweater. If it gets too extreme, I go shopping, or I stay in the hotel. One can't pack for every eventuality, ... View the Post

Starting From Scratch Summer Office Wardrobe in Navy and White

August 12, 2014   Yes, it still exists: the office with the strict dress code.  Pants only on Fridays.  No visible knees, nor underarms.  Absolutely  no HINT of cleavage...   This is even more challenging in the summer, when it can be sweltering outdoors, but the office will invariable be quite cool.  The rules are made, and the thermostats are set, by men in wool suits, long-sleeved shirts, and an undershirt.  (why, if they dress like this in the heat of summer, do we let them run the world?)   But you can still have a great, fun, spiffy capsule wardrobe!  

Remember this color scheme?  A few weeks ago, I showed a very casual summer wardrobe using these colors. ... View the Post

Pretty Much The Perfect Pack

August 8, 2014  

Although I had relatively little lead-up time for my trip two weeks ago, I feel like I had the perfect assortment with me.  This was a relatively easy trip for which to pack, because I knew my activities ahead of time, I knew the weather conditions, and I had access to laundry facilities - sort of the packing trifecta!While I almost always travel in pants, this time I just slid leggings under my favorite linen dress in order to stay warm in flight.  This crossbody bag is a fairly new purchase, and I really like it - it's light, lays flat, and holds quite a bit.  I admit that I might have been tempted to get the next size larger, so that my tablet would fit in it...

Please note that these are not ... View the Post

Common Capsule Wardrobe Colors: Teal

July 26, 2014    

Sometime very soon I'm going to HAVE to do a capsule wardrobe based on mallards or some other duck that shows this color in a natural palette.  I'm beginning to believe that I can't go wrong looking at nature for ideas.  In the meantime, this is a great color to transition into the end of summer/hot days of early autumn.  As much as we'd all like to start wearing fall clothing the first day of September, it's sort of insane to really consider it (at least in Chicago) until the last week of the month.  A color like this at least lets you FEEL a little bit autumn-ish!These earrings are silk, and the bracelet is leather - what WILL they think of next?

 

  By now you of ... View the Post

Common Capsule Wardrobe Colors: Coral

July 25, 2014  

Coral comes in a range of tints - there are more "pinkish", less "orangish" versions out there too if those would be more flattering.  But any of them will look completely appropriate and attractive with all of our neutral color usual suspects.  And as we move into August, and what is for many of us the end of summer (my great-nephew goes back to school IN 10 DAYS!!!), this might be a good wardrobe refresher, as well as a low-commitment way to test drive a new accent color for your wardrobe.   Please note - this tunic-length top is going to be "iffy" with some cardigans; I personally can wear a top hanging out below my cardigan without worry, but you might want to bear this conundrum in mind when ... View the Post

Capsule Wardrobe Slot Machines and Packing

July 21, 2014  

Business travel is a conundrum for many of us, so I'm going to try to suggest a few ways, now and then, to approach the packing...Suppose, for example, that at the end of October, you are going to have/get to come to Chicago for a two day sales conference.  Literally only a day and a half of meetings, and then back on the plane.  You're going to have to bring a briefcase with both your laptop and tablet, so you don't really want a lot more to carry.  And being able to NOT check a suit case would be delightful...

Enter this:

So you can choose to wear anything from this little machine for travel - probably a cardigan, tee shirt and jeans, right? And pack the other six garments, as well as ... View the Post

How to Build a Summer Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch in Navy and White

July 19, 2014  

Someone specifically requested a Starting From Scratch capsule wardrobe in these colors, and many of you have expressed concerns about how to implement this plan if you're dealing with scorching hot summer weather.  I really felt like I wanted to go through an entire wardrobe in one post, just to clarify and illustrate one more time how I see this project working.  So here you have it!   Please note - the white garments here really ARE white - they just show up looking sort of beigy/grungy against the background. I generally don't promote the wearing of mungy clothes...  

The first three steps are pretty straightforward: pants and shoes, then a cardigan and tee, then a neutral top and ... View the Post

Excel and LARGE PRINT version of Starting From Scratch Wardrobe Worksheets available!

Just because I can, and because I know some of you love to tinker in Excel, I'm made the Excel file available here:

and because I know that a larger print version will be handy if you want to do a lot of note taking, I made an eight-page, landscape layout version of the original worksheets, available here:

As with all things here at The Vivienne Files, if I can do anything to make your life easier, please let me know.

And thanks for reading my work - I appreciate it more than you can imagine!

hugs all around, Janice ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch Step 18: One last review, considering Whatever’s Clean, and A Common Wardrobe

July 16, 2014  

Many of you have been following the concepts of A Common Wardrobe, or a Whatever's Clean wardrobe, and you've expressed great curiosity about how those ideas work with this much larger capsule wardrobe-building concept.  So let's see if we need to make any last tweaks to our wardrobe to be as inclusive and versatile as possible...First off, remember this bad boy?  This was the original Common Wardrobe - garments that I saw day after day on my co-workers from international advertising agencies. These garments and accent items were combined in all sorts of different ways, and accessorized like mad:

I threw my analytic brain at this, and defined each of these garments functionally, i.e., the first is ... View the Post