Start a Capsule Wardrobe With Archives - Page 129 of 153

Two Questions….

I'm trying to put together pages of links to the various series of posts from here on The Vivienne Files, and it's pretty time-consuming.

That said, I'm planning to do pages for The Common Wardrobe, Four by Four Wardrobes, Whatever's Clean (I am starting to really love that one!), and Start With Art. Any other series for which you'd like to have ALL of the links collected onto 1 page? Let me know...

And these are recent pictures I've taken - would any/all of these make good wardrobes? As usual, let me know!

Love, Janice

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From the Agnes B. Winter 2014 catalog…

I love these little snippets of wisdom that one finds without trying...

These are two facing pages in their little Winter 2014 booklet. Not only does she make great clothes, but she also understands our drive to personal expression, uniqueness, and an image that's all our own. ... View the Post

How to Be a Parisian (or not…)

October 11, 2014

I grabbed this book when I was in the middle of a mad shopping spree at Athaeneum bookstore in Amsterdam. If you read Dutch, French or English, this is a wonderful place to wile away the time and the Euros. Of course, I'm a little weird about bookstores now that Chicago has very few in the entire city... Frankly, either this book is terrible, or it is so tongue-in-cheek that the authors must have disfigured themselves writing it. It makes Parisian women (and yes, it's ONLY about women) into a caricature of reckless sexual conduct, adolescent romantic sensibilities, and an overall casual disregard for their work, significant others, and family members. That said, there were, as always, some ... View the Post

A Truism for So Many Things…

love, Janice ... View the Post

Start With Art: Yellow Tree by Linda Jacobson

Seotember 16, 2014 So beautiful, and such inspiring colors! I was completely unfamiliar with this artist; my readers send me the most wonderful things...

I chose a muted palette from this painting - I think I'm in a muted mood today. Would you like to see a 2nd post (after my vacation!) based on this painting, with more vivid colors?

I've been asked to clarify the role of the various "fours" in the 4 by 4 Wardrobe, so I'm going to do that while working with this painting. Multitasking... The First Core of Four is designed to give you two tops and two "bottoms" (I don't know why, but lots of people are completely bothered by the term bottoms...) that can be worn as four outfits. ... View the Post

A Trend to (Maybe) Try: An Upgraded Sweatshirt

September 15, 2014 One of the joys of having all of our core basics covered in our wardrobes is that, if a trend happens along that holds some interest and appeal, we can give it a try! This year, sweatshirts with some sort of enhancement seem to be everywhere. I've seen jeweled, beaded, embroidered, textured, and printed ones - some of them very beautiful. These can be worn with nice trousers and good-quality leather shoes on casual Friday in most offices. However, be careful, because some of these sweatshirts, while very lovely, are BLINDINGLY expensive. Happily, there are also very similar products available at more reasonable prices. Just check to be sure that your new purchase is put ... View the Post

Start With Art: The Church at Coggeshall, Essex by John Armstrong

September 11, 2014

What a cool painting! It shows the World War 2 damage to the church, and the "reveal" of the interior structure of the church is fascinating. So sad that such a lovely piece of art is the result of destruction...

From this, I selected two relatively minor colors in the painting as the neutrals, and then used the gorgeous pastels as the accent colors. The black is clearly visible, but I grabbed the sage green from the shrubbery that's relatively obscured on the left side of the painting.

I think what I'm trying to show here is that, although the painting itself is very light with muted pastels, it's still possible to pull together a wardrobe from these colors without enriching your dry cleaner. Capturing ... View the Post

So MANY things I don’t understand…

I'm having a "tired day" today, so I'm going to share with you all sorts of stray questions that wander through my head from day to day. Maybe you see something that I'm missing in some of these situations....

First thing - have you noticed a huge trend of tee shirts with random French phrases on them? I really wish I could have found an image of one of my favorites, which had a misspelling, and which thus made absolutely no sense...

So does one wear this in order to appear French? Or conversely, to appear vehemently non-French? Or is it just another random trend of things to put on tee shirts to that people continue to buy them?

And why do grown adults wear tee shirts with writing on them?

What might be ... 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

Skincare, Sunscreen, Science, and Silliness

According to a few reports I've recently seen, somewhere between 10% and 30% of adults apply sunscreen when exposed to the sun...

We don't listen to really good science when it's provided to us; the link between sun exposure and skin cancer is pretty well documented.

But we DO listen to all kinds of nutty science claims that tell us that our skin will be revolutionized because of some new and amazing ingredient - preferably something natural.

Our capacity to objectively judge claims seems to completely vanish when confronted with the promise of looking younger. My favorite claim HAS to be anti-gravity.

I like the precision of 212% improvement, or 42% increased firmness. How is firmness measured?

sigh...

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Post #1,000!!!

I have absolutely nothing to say here today except Thank You.

Thank You for reading The Vivienne Files.

Thank You for commenting.

Thank You for sending me email suggestions, ideas, and criticisms.

Thank You for getting in touch with me when you're going to be in Chicago, so we can get together.

The Vivienne Files is my full-time work. It's a labor of love, feminism, environmentalism, and the joy of color, beauty, and feeling confident every day.

All this work would be wasted without you. And I know it.

Love, really, from my heart,

Janice

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Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Pigeons

July 23, 2014

I have to confess, I think pigeons are beautiful. Annoying little sky rats, yes, but beautiful; their shades of grey, with iridescent green and purple...

So when I was asked to build a wardrobe based on a photograph of a pigeon, I was happy to do so. But there's no way I'm addressing those red eyes!

I think this makes a lovely wardrobe...

love, Janice

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