travel capsule wardrobe Archives - Page 6 of 6

Three Travel Capsule Wardrobes in Denim and Black

September 16, 2024

You certainly remember that on Friday, I grouped a bunch of wardrobe clusters into a wardrobe that offered lots of possibilities for travel or for visibility in a small closet:

But we need accessories! While this wardrobe is fine without them, it's not much of a reflection of how women actually get dressed, eh?

Starting with denim! If you find denim shoes that you like, and you can picture wearing them, grab them. Denim shoes aren't growing on trees, and a lot of them are tricked out with lots of sparkles, embroidery and other unnecessary stuff that will just fall off if they get wet or you brush against something...

Today, I'm going to focus on wardrobe that use just two of the neutrals available to ... View the Post

A Small, Basic Travel Capsule Wardrobe? Start with Art – Portrait of Woman in Green Hat by Picasso

August 16, 2024

She remembered the post - right here on The Vivienne Files - and was thinking of something a little bit different with the same painting!

I think every reader of The Vivienne Files thinks up their own versions of these wardrobes; that's kind of the point! Put your own preferences in place of mine, or those of our heroine...

Her wardrobe is black and white. She's just now starting to add a bit of taupe/brown to things. But she could see the merit of a blue shirt, or a green sweater, along with a scarf or two...

So for a trip - a fairly long trip - she decides to pack VERY light, but to give herself the feeling of a "bigger than it really is" travel capsule wardrobe. Three accent colors might do ... View the Post

MUST. HAVE. DENIM? Start With a Scarf – The Alexandra Kleeman silk scarf by Echo

August 14, 2024

Our heroine loved Monday's wardrobe, except she just can't imagine traveling to her kinds of destinations without denim. Lots of denim... So Echo releases another Echo 100 scarf, in perfect colors for her!

(true story, what are the chances?)

This is the color palette that she really wants!

She loves to travel wearing her denim jacket. She can't explain it, and she doesn't have to!

I agree with our heroine on this - there are very few people who can't find a good use for a denim shirt:

JEANS!!!! Along with a favorite tee, a nifty hat, warm sweater, and water-resistant sneakers...

She's going to pack her denim dress, because it generally happens that they find something to do in which ... View the Post

Love a Little Black Dress? Start With a Scarf – The Bryan Yambao scarf by Echo

August 9, 2024

One of our heroines fell instantly in love with a scarf, and had a business week travel vision...

She has a closet full of black dresses, but she's never dared to pack JUST black dresses for a business trip!

Why not? She's going to meet different groups each day she's away, and she doesn't care if she's known as the woman who wears lots of black...

Here's her color palette:

Her first dress is a mid-calf shirtdress... perfect with her suede belt, a red cardigan, and some other bits that pull everything together:

Her second dress is shorter, and has a small "moc" neckline. As much as she loves her golden yellow cardigan, she MUST have a brooch, so that she can conceal that annoying ... View the Post

When Wardrobe Plans Go Awry; Start With a Scarf – the Emily Henry scarf by Echo

July 7, 2024

Oh yes, she knew IMMEDIATELY that this was going to be hers!

She could see her color palette a mile away:

She goes to visit friends at the beach every weekend. Literally. If she visited the SAME friends, she could leave some clothing at their summer home, but she moves about and visits a variety of people...

If you're not reading Ninth Street Women, you should. One of the things that's really material to all five of their lives is the time they spend in the Hamptons. In case you think I exaggerate about everybody leaving the city to go to the shore every weekend...

Her first outfit just sort of fell into her lap...

And then - NOTHING. Any turquoise item she found either cost $500, or didn't come in ... View the Post

Love the Primary Colors? Start with a Scarf – the Rufai Zakari Silk Scarf by Echo

June 24, 2024

Okay, I think this is spectacular:

And I know the woman who wears this scarf - she embraces the primary colors, with black and white, and lives with a wardrobe that's truly foolproof. This is her palette:

Packing is simple for her, as is getting dressed every day - reach into closet (in dark, with eyes closed - why not?) and get dressed...

But she does want to be sure that she doesn't pack four dresses (well, maybe...) or four pairs of shorts! So she start with complete outfits. More and more I'm thinking that packing outfits that are part of the same family is a great way to assemble a travel capsule wardrobe - do you agree?

An outfit that can span moderate to warm temps is sensible:

Something ... View the Post

Want a Wider Range of Colors in a Travel Capsule Wardrobe? Revisiting Start with Art – Mirage by Max Ernst

June 21, 2024

Remember this from last week?

Well, our (quite real!) heroine was pretty pleased with the blue and white wardrobe, and was wondering what might happen if she added some brown and pink...

Just for clarity (and to help those of us with a less than stellar memory!), this was her original travel capsule wardrobe:

Our heroine's first instinct was to add another 10 pieces of clothing, to try to keep everything even and balanced. But she realized that this might be pretty ambitious, as well as making the wardrobe rather large. (if she was just planning for a summer wardrobe, it might make sense to do this; since she specifically asked me about travel, I'm trying to keep the wardrobe reasonably small)

So after a ... View the Post

Want to Embrace the Pantone Color of the Year? Start with Art – Untitled Watercolor 1946 by Mark Rothko

June 12, 2024

For those who don't pay attention to such things, the Pantone 2024 "Color of the Year" is Peach Fuzz. Very pretty, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we can find clothing in this color!

Our heroine is smitten with this painting, and she just knew that someone, somewhere, would eventually introduce clothing that would be perfect...

She knows full well that taupe is a miserably difficult color to find in clothing, so she's prepared to wear white with her new accent color, if necessary. And she's also willing to be persistent, and patient, in the hunt for taupe!

These are the colors she wants for her new wardrobe accent:

She's not entirely sure how much of this new color she will purchase - she's going ... View the Post

June 2024 “Six Paintings, Twelve Months” – Part 2

June 5, 2024

Today's three heroines went three very interesting, different directions in their wardrobes - all of them valid!

Let's start with Rothko, who is fast becoming one of my very favorite artists:

Our first heroine has a wardrobe that feels like it has a lot of accent color in it, although it's not a huge percentage of the whole (37.5% to be exact) ...

And she has gloriously pretty accessories:

But for June, she felt like settling into some neutrals - especially a workhorse pair of black linen pants. (these should be worn at least weekly until the first frost...)

She also decided to go ahead and buy a cashmere hooded sweatshirt - yes, she might have grabbed a cotton one instead, but this feels more like ... View the Post