Start a Capsule Wardrobe With Archives - Page 133 of 157

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...

... View the Post

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

... View the Post

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

... View the Post

Before You Shop, Consider Rekindling the Romance with Your Closet

As we get well and truly entrenched in summer, many of us find our minds wandering longingly toward autumn clothing. There's something about that whole image of snuggling in front of the fireplace in a big squishy sweater, cup of tea in hand, Golden Retriever at our feet, book of poetry in our lap... (I'm only missing the fireplace and the dog!)

Retailers know perfectly well how we're feeling - in Chicago, autumn clothing is already beginning to hit the stores thick and fast. It would be terribly easy to wander into a store and pick up a sweater, or a snuggly wool dress, or boots. OOOOOhhhh, boots....

(I'm sorry, Southern Hemisphere, it's not lost on me that all of this is backwards for you!)

Let me toss out ... View the Post

Planning to Shop, and Getting Discounts…

Fall clothes are hitting the stores (amazing, I know, but we should be used to this by now), and the Nordstrom pre-season sale is coming up soon. This means that it might be wise to start planning for the next season, so that we don't get blindsided by beautiful things without having a clue about what we're trying to accomplish. In addition to making your shopping list, you might want to look into some ways to reduce your expenditures without settling for lower-quality goods. Recently, I discovered a company called Raise. You can buy gift cards at a discount. Every last retailer's not there all the time, and some of the discounts are pretty meager, but sometimes you can get excellent deals. I'm ... View the Post

Trying to Fix Bloglovin….

Follow my blog with Bloglovin ... View the Post

The Monday Morning Giveaway #4 – Carry-on Toiletry Bags & Bottles

June 23, 2014 Last week's Le Monde de Hermes was won by Lynne in North Carolina - Lynne, send me your mailing address to theviviennefiles at gmail dot com!You know that I'm in a constant state of trying to reduce how much I carry when I travel; recently I went through another round of cutting back my toiletries. When I went to my favorite store Flight 001 to buy a new "3 1 1" bag, I found that they had a BOGO - buy one, get one free - offer on these bags. So I have a brand new set of two bags and a set of empty bottles!

Same as always - leave me a comment telling me your best light packing tip, and I'll let you know Friday who wins these. I'll ship anywhere in the world, so any reader anywhere is welcome ... View the Post

The Monday Morning Giveaway #3: Le Monde d’Hermes Automne-Hiver 2012

Twice a year, Hermes comes out with the most COOL magazine/advertising vehicle/objet d'art... And for a year or two I've had this idea that I needed to keep them. In all fairness, you can flog these on ebay for a bit of money, but it's not worth accumulating a big stack of them! I'd much rather share this with you. These magazines combine a bit of poetry, some exceptional fashion photography, and a general aesthetic of tranquility and beauty that's hard to match...

Same as before - leave me a comment - I don't care WHERE in the world you are, I'll figure out a way to ship it to you. Thursday night I'll generate a random number and announce the winner.

On ... View the Post

Can Anyone Wear Floral Prints?

June 12, 2014

You really can't swing a dead handbag these days without finding racks and racks and RACKS of floral garments, bags and jewelry. Normally, there are always at least some floral items available at any time of the year, but this summer it seems that it's easily the dominant theme. And many of us are wondering if this is something we should consider; is this a trend that's worth pursuing? Good question...

It's important to remember that there are a wide variety of floral prints, and you might want to evaluate the options before you discard the whole idea of flowers. Consider these various views of the "floral" theme:

For many of us, this is what we consider when we think of floral - big, glorious, ... View the Post