Start a Capsule Wardrobe With Archives - Page 70 of 133

Cleaning Out a Closet Full of Impulse Purchases

June 25, 2018

Our heroine is pretty loyal to her favorite store... Every time she goes in, she just feels happy; she loves the outdoor equipment, and the feeling of love and pleasure in nature that the company really encourages. And it seems that most times she stops in, she walks out with something!

So her warm-weather closet looks like this:

She doesn't really struggle to get dressed, but she feels vaguely... uneasy... when she looks at her closet. She would like more focus, and maybe a clearer sense of personal style than she currently has.

Where to begin? The fastest, easiest starting place is to sort everything by color and see if she can learn something:

Oh. Dear. An equal number of navy and black garments ... View the Post

What if I Get Bored Without Lots of Colors in my Wardrobe? The Wasp & The Pear by Gerald Murphy

June 20, 2018

Do you NEED color to be happy? A wide variety of colors? Lots of choices?

If this is you, then you can still travel with a capsule travel wardrobe - you just need to include a range of accents that all work with a neutral core. The neutrals give you all sorts of easy outfit possibilities into which you can insert a punch of color when you're in the mood. And when you want to be more subdued, you'll have that option too!

Let's start with an artist of whom I knew nothing until just a few days ago (I get the BEST mail from you all...):

While this painting clearly displays a strong affinity to great summer neutrals like khaki and ivory, it also includes some amazing accent colors. For this color palette, I skipped ... View the Post

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

Revisiting Van Gogh, and Using Cool Sky Blue to Accent Navy and White

July 11, 2018

Someone wanted another visit to this painting, someone wanted some navy and sky blue together, and someone wanted to see another French 5-Piece wardrobe. Here, I present ALL of that, and more. First, let's enjoy this painting, and the idea of the shore...

Warmth, salty breezes messing up your hair, reapplying sunscreen... The stuff of a million dreams!

And although this painting seems pretty monochromatic at first glance, when you look carefully at it for a while you find a whole BUNCH of different shades of blue and green, as well as dark brown, and warm orangish-tan. (I'm ignoring the red signature, except for lips and nails!)

I start a LOT of my blog posts with a core wardrobe of classic, neutral, timeless ... View the Post

Can You Dress the Way You Decorate? A Tote Bag Travel Wardrobe based on William Morris fabric

June 8, 2018

It's a good question... Maybe you're not inspired by a painting, or a scarf, but you're really happy with the way that you've decorated your home. Could that be the basis upon which you build your wardrobe?

Heck yes! It's particularly easy if you have your key colors chosen, and if you have a few keywords that you use to describe your "home style."

For example: maybe this is the wallpaper in your bedroom? Or curtains in your dining area?

For many of us, summer is for traveling to graduations, and weddings, and anniversary parties etc. etc. Usually these trips are only for a long weekend, so there's no need to pack everything you own; you should be able to manage with just a tote bag...

You can ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – June 2018

June 1, 2018

Always one of the great days of the month!

This month, in honor of heat (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the easing-up of many schedules, let's add a casual dress to these wardrobes!

Additionally, I'm going to find a tote bag for each of these heroines, some footwear to wear with their new dress, and a couple of pieces of jewelry. This wouldn't be a horrid shopping trip; once you find the dress, the accessory shopping should be fun...

Dresses can be an opportunity to really exploit your color scheme; because you don't have to coordinate a lot of different garments to wear with a dress, you can find a classic, summery linen shirtdress in a bright color and add it to your wardrobe without worrying that you don't have ... View the Post

Roses! The Birth Flower for June

May 28, 2018

Roses! What's not to love? (I'm a little biased, because I'm born in June...)

There are roses everywhere - if you want home fragrances, or perfume, you're in luck.

And if you want to add some accessories to your wardrobe, maybe pick 2 or 3 pieces that look happy to be together? Sort of an instant update to your neutral outfits... I would cheerfully buy all 5 of these items, just to wear with black...

Or if you wanted a more striking color palette:

Maybe pink roses are your favorites? If you wear black, you can certainly live in that first scarf, and the 2nd scarf would be perfect with denim...

Yes, you might not want to wear a floral watch every day, but if you wanted to find one that you ... View the Post

Start with Art: Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Revisiting Jack Pine by Tom Thomson

May 16, 2018

Someone asked me to revisit this most striking of paintings... Years ago I showed some outfits that were based on this work, but it's well worth returning to works of art from time to time. If you choose a work of art or other lovely image/object to be your style inspiration, you'll be coming back to it often, so why shouldn't we do the same here on The Vivienne Files?

As much as brown plays a really big role in the painting, I've chosen to not include brown in this wardrobe because it's terribly difficult to find for spring and summer! If you've got a good source of beautiful brown garments for warm weather, take advantage! That's the only way these colors will move back into the marketplace...

I'm imagining that ... View the Post

Start with an Owl – Adding Accessories to a Capsule Wardrobe

May 9, 2018

As much as it might be delightful to have a carefully curated capsule wardrobe, if you don't have shoes, a bag, and an earring or two, you're going to struggle...

Just as a reminder, this is the inspiration with which we're working:

And this is our heroine's wardrobe, chosen over the last 5 days in a deliberate, step-by-step manner:

Starting From Scratch wardrobes always include some accessories - it only makes sense - so let's see where we stand:

Many of us could function indefinitely with these accessories, but let's add a few more pieces, if only to be able to think through a logical and deliberate process for these purchases. I'm a big fan of relying on a good "coup de coeur" (literally a kick in ... View the Post

Final Phase of Building a Wardrobe, based on an Owl Photograph

May 8, 2018

Our heroine's living with a pretty versatile 25-piece capsule wardrobe for spring and summer:

But she wants to be absolutely certain that she's not missing anything important; it's better to think these things over before you have an upcoming event for which you're ill-prepared...

So let's look at her wardrobe, arranged by color. This might give us a hint or two...

Something that I noticed when I was putting outfits together yesterday - a pair of white (or silver?) shoes or sandals would go a LONG way toward making those white pants more wearable...

And she has all solid-colored garments; well, that 1 tee shirt has a bit of a print on it, but with a core wardrobe that's so complete, a bit of whimsy might ... View the Post

Fourth Phase of Building a Wardrobe, based on an Owl Photograph

May 7, 2018

Our heroine is making great progress with her owl-inspired wardrobe! It's important to remember that if you're doing this process at home, you don't have to accomplish all of this within any specific time frame; don't feel pressured to do a whole bunch of shopping at 1 time. That's a certain way to end up making mistakes and regretting some of your choices...

We left our heroine with this very tidy wardrobe:

As I scan over this wardrobe, and mentally divide it into categories, I see that our heroine has 3 "second layers," but that they're all black and white. It's time to find her an accent cardigan or jacket! And even though white pants are always a way to tempt fate, for warm weather there's just nothing more ... View the Post

Third Phase of Building a Wardrobe, based on an Owl Photograph

May 4, 2018

When we left our heroine yesterday, she had assembled a tidy 9-piece capsule wardrobe, ideal for travel, or for those days when you just don't know what to wear:

In order to give our heroine a bit more variety in her wardrobe, I'm going to add a somewhat dressy blouse (which can worn with any of the pants) and a simple black linen top - perfect with black pants and any of the cardigans. A beautiful, classic pendant in her accent color can be worn with anything from a tee shirt to the loveliest dress...

Our heroine still has only pants in her wardrobe. For many people, that would be just fine, but I'm going to assume that we want to add a skirt, a simple but pretty top, and a pair of sandals... Warm weather ... View the Post