4X4 Wardrobe Archives - Page 4 of 15

When Your Wardrobe Plan Hits a Snag – The Kiss, by Max Ernst

June 13, 2018

It all starts out so well. You've got your art inspiration in front of you, and quite a few of your garments are clear in your mind...

The brown was hard to find, but you're really happy with the results:

This is a great start...

The turquoise wasn't too tough to find; the maxi skirt is going to be SO nice to have on vacation...

This is where the wardrobe is supposed to get fun - finding tops that work with both core colors, and that pull them together. But you find that the things you were thinking about packing are too big. Too small. Too worn out. Too much in need of laundering. But you really don't have time to do ANYTHING except rethink things...

This isn't a bad wardrobe, so far, ... View the Post

I Want to Pack ALL of my Clothes!

March 23, 2018

All of my clothes are lovely - why can't I take EVERYTHING with me on vacation?Well... of course this isn't going to work, but it's a legitimate question that I think about every time I'm going out of town - if I take everything that I own that I really love, I'm just going to end up moving away. (don't tempt me - I LOVE to move...)But let's be adults about this for a few minutes; choices are hard, but must be made. Let's walk through an example to see 1 way to make these decisions rational, if not any easier!

Start with the spring into summer wardrobe:

The first thing you want to do is get EVERYTHING out in front of you, or at least on a list. Visibility is really key to see where redundancies ... View the Post

A Timeless 4 by 4 Wardrobe

March 19, 2018

While I'm in Ireland, here at The Vivienne Files we're wandering back through some of my most popular posts on Pinterest...Isn't this wardrobe timeless? I wrote this a year and a half ago - long enough for some people to want to get rid of every stitch and start over! - but I don't see a thing here that I wouldn't cheerfully wear today...

I hope you're all well and happy! If you're interested in where I am, and what I'm doing, come follow me on Instagram....

love, Janice

... View the Post

An Oldie, but A Classic…

This image turns up frequently on Pinterest, and that makes me really happy! This might be the concept of which I am the most proud, of all of the work that I've done on The Vivienne Files. The idea of being able to be well-dressed and fully-prepared for most of what life throws at us with only SIXTEEN pieces of clothing... Simplicity, economic responsibility, and care for the environment, as well as a clearly-defined personal style - they're all here!

But this is NOT the only template that I have suggested for planning a wardrobe - the original post from which this came runs through a variety of planning ideas that might be helpful...

love, Janice ... View the Post

What Accessories do I Want for a Trip to Bermuda?

January 26, 2018

Not just a trip to Bermuda, but a trip in March, when the weather is still cool, and the crowds aren't pressing...We're working with this color palette:

And these are the accessories that our heroine has already chosen to pack for her romantic get-away...

And this is her wardrobe that she's planning to have with her - 3 pieces to wear and a lucky 13 to pack:

Here's the accessories that she has included with her two core outfits... With the exception of shoes, she could of course travel with just these pieces and manage just fine. But in the interests of fun, let's expand her options...Please note that I'm not suggesting that this is going to be all of the accessories that one owns - unless ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Wardrobe for a Vacation to Bermuda in March

January 25, 2018

This is similar to the very recent wardrobe about traveling to Italy, but sufficiently different that I thought it was worth a look...First off, I'm going to take a clue from yesterday's thoughts about accent colors and include some muted, pretty colors with the same navy and beige that we've already used... (navy and beige are on purpose - I'm pretty sure that this reader is a navy/beige person; if I'm wrong, I apologize!)

This is the easiest possible way to dress for travel - a "suit" in your dark neutral, with a contrast blouse, shirt or tee shirt, and a pretty scarf to tie everything together! I'm re-using a lot of the accessories from the earlier post to show how versatile they are... I changed the ... View the Post

What Accessories Should One Pack for an Italian Vacation?

On Friday, I pulled together a wardrobe for one of you who has a fun trip planned with adult children:

This was the color scheme with which I was working:

There are already some accessories in her wardrobe...

So let's start with my new template for accessories, and plug in the pieces that we already have:

For me, earrings are VERY important - I'm choosing an accent pair in aqua, and then a really simple pair of gold studs that can be worn for days without thought... Similarly, both an accent striped bracelet and some classic gold bangles are being added to her accessory wardrobe...

I ALWAYS believe in a good brooch! And necklaces don't take up much space, but can really change the feeling of an ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Wardrobe for a vacation to Tuscany, Florence and the Amalfi Coast

January 19, 2018

A true story - requested by, and written by, a reader! How much fun is this?

This was the color palette she requested:

She is finally getting to travel with her ADULT children. She doesn't have to worry about packing for them, or making their plane reservations, or making sure they've taken Dramamine, or keeping them occupied at the airport...

She can concentrate on packing for herself!!!

Her children will magically show up in Italy for a cousin's wedding, and then they will travel together afterwards - Florence and the Amalfi Coast!

She will probably stop in Switzerland en route to see a childhood friend.

She won't have to wake her children up for breakfast every ... View the Post

Brown with Blue – Start with a Scarf! Hermes Electrique

December 29, 2017

Recently, someone asked me to re-visit a post that I did over 5 years ago, in blue and brown...After 5 years, absolutely NOTHING shown in the original post was still available - I know that's not a surprise. So I have recreated the original outfit, and what was packed, as best I could - it's a rough approximation...

The hardest thing was that I could NOT find a trench coat in the same turquoise blue that was used originally, so I've migrated the entire capsule wardrobe into a more "brown and blue" color scheme, starting with a wonderful scarf!

I isolated the colors with which the wardrobe will be built; I didn't really define the style because I'm somewhat duplicating an existing ... View the Post

Brown with Teal & Cream – Expanding a Successful Travel Wardrobe

December 27, 2017

Remember when we visited this gorgeous painting?

Our heroine was sent off to visit a corporate service center because of a major client complaint... and this is (an approximation of) what she packed for that trip:

Global Service Director? Well, of COURSE she'll take the position! She's been doing the work for months, so it's about time she was given the title, the office, and the SALARY...

When they called her into the Executive Suite to give her the news, they cited her ability to get along well with people at all levels of the organization, without being abrasive or seeming to be too much "home office-ish."

She attributes at least a tiny bit of her success to her image - warm and ... View the Post

Can You Build a Casual Wardrobe from a “Dressy” Work of Art? Water Lilies by Monet

As much as the dressy wardrobe based on Monet's Water Lilies was a lot of fun, most of us don't dress quite like that on a regular basis!

So our heroine, who was so overwhelmed with invitations through the holiday season, decided to build an entire 4 by 4 Wardrobe around her favorite art inspiration, to take her through the rest of the winter...

One day when she was racing around shopping for holiday gifts, she realized that the outfit that she was wearing would fit perfectly into her "dream" color scheme; it has the right colors, as well as a floral watch and scarf, and some very "fluid" earrings:

She had been really organized when she built her holiday party wardrobe, so she thought that staying with a plan would make ... View the Post

Adding to a Successful Travel Wardrobe: Appaloosa des Steppes from Hermes

She was really thrilled with what she packed for the Holiday Party in New York; she had planned everything using her pocket square as the defining inspiration:

Her sweetheart told her that another, longer trip to New York would be in their near future - probably mid-February. So she thought that it would be wise to expand her current travel wardrobe...

She was going to try to balance clothes appropriate for those "business dinners" with things suitable for the sightseeing that she intended to do, so she needed to be very organized! If she puts together a 4 by 4 Wardrobe, and wears 3 pieces on the plane, she will have 13 garments to pack - she felt that this was a reasonable goal.First, to "plug in" her existing ... View the Post