Beige Archives - Page 20 of 57

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

December 3, 2018

Our heroines are getting holiday outfits! It might not be what they most need, but it's almost December, and in many of our lives, that means parties are coming thick and fast...

When I looked at this first wardrobe, I realized that our heroine didn't have a black cashmere cardigan! (I know, billions of people make it through life without one, but a wardrobe heroine certainly can make a case for one...)

And yes, I'm going to show you velvet jeans a lot - I am currently wearing a pair, and I'm smitten. They come in eight colors, including emerald green, a stunning bright pink, amethyst, sapphire, and lovely gold. I sized generously but not insanely large, and they fit wonderfully...

This outfit is dressy by ... View the Post

Evaluating a Wardrobe – A Year with Trojan Gates by Helen Frankenthaler

November 9, 2018

Over the course of the year, I've assembled 4 travel capsule wardrobes based on this most wonderful painting:

To guide my choices, I isolated four colors upon which I focused, and I chose a couple of adjectives to help keep the styles that I chose consistent:

In January, when our translator first won an award, she packed this:

Then in April, she was offered a really exciting work possibility:

You can't feel terribly sorry for this heroine - she had to go to Paris in July to meet with the author of the book she was translating:

The translations are going very well... in October, the author invited her back to Paris for a long weekend which didn't seem to be focused entirely on the ... View the Post

Start with Art Accessory Families

November 7, 2018

This is the time of year when my email begins to fill up with requests to write "gift guides" on The Vivienne Files... As if I know what kinds of things your friends and family will want for gifts! All I can do is show you pretty things that I see; you still have to make the difficult gifting choices yourself!

So I seldom do these, but The Met Store is exceptional. Anything inspired by art, and that helps support a wonderful museum, is alright by me...

My plan is to start with beautiful art, choose a simple garment that might be something that this particular heroine might love, and then add some accessories. Let's see how this works... Of course one would probably not wear ALL of the accessories - but I like ... View the Post

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

November 2, 2018

The purchase of a serious cold-weather coat is not something to be taken lightly! First up, a ton of people will see your coat - far more (at least in a city) than will ever see anything else you wear. And of course, coats can be expensive, so you don't want to flounder around through 2 or 3 of them to get what you really like...

To clarify what's going on here, for newer readers: I started back in January by choosing six Hermes scarves, and then assembled six similar, but different, outfits - one each to "go with" each of the scarves. Each month, on or around the 1st of the month, I add another outfit, and we continue to evaluate how each wardrobe progresses.

The little square up in the top left corner ... View the Post

A Colorful Moon by Alain Paillou, Revisited for Autumn 2018

OCtober 24, 2018

Our oh so lucky heiress! She found out about her inheritance back in the late winter, and began searching around for a 2nd home. She visited Mexico, and loved it, and then she visited Paris, and really loved it! But she's still undecided...

Friends suggest that she stop by Ireland for a few days... THIS is a great idea...

So she studies her signature painting, while she thinks about packing for a few cool, damp days:

She knows that she should plan for cool, rainy, sunny, breezy - basically anything's possible!

She's just setting the stage to go back for a longer visit, so she doesn't need to pack much... But when you're going to Ireland, it's always wise to have warm pajamas, a hat and gloves or ... View the Post

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

October 1, 2018

It's the most fun day of the month, here at The Vivienne Files! Because I'm working on a smaller-than-normal computer monitor, I decided that I was going to make some deliberate wardrobe choices for our heroines, this month. I took a critical look at the various wardrobes, to date, and made some selections for October that fill in some (to me) pretty critical gaps! Let's see how it worked out:

This heroine didn't have a white shirt! To me, that's an easy choice to fill. A simple black cashmere sweater, and tan pants that pick up the color of the border of her scarf make a classic outfit that's perfect as a background for her scarf.

So her overall wardrobe, and accessories, look like this:

One of the ... View the Post

Marigolds! The Birth Flower for October

September 26, 2018

author's note - I'm working from Florida, on my laptop. Any drop in the quality/resolution of images is a result of that - I apologize profusely! It's quite the change from working on the monster monitor that I have in Chicago... If you see anything egregiously in need of repair, please don't hesitate to let me know. Love, Janice

Marigolds! So bright. So cheery. Such a nice step into fall... I'm a little bit stunned that someone would use them in a fragrance, but I'm not a "nose," so I might easily be missing something, eh?

Many of us might find this a tough color to wear, but remember that you don't necessarily have to have a ton of bright orange/gold in your outfit to pay homage to the flower, or ... View the Post

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

September 3, 2018

No holidays at The Vivienne Files! I would never miss the chance to share one of these "6 outfit" posts...

Even though very few of us are seeing cool/cold weather, I firmly believe that it's smart to get your cold-weather clothes ready in advance. Nobody's going to give us 3 days warning that autumn is about to smack us down!

I loved the gold scarf with this otherwise monochromatic outfit...

We are far enough into the year that I now need to have a separate page for clothing and for accessories! Admittedly, a heroine who owned this wardrobe might not have NINE pairs of shoes for 9 months...

While the accent colors here are very unexpected for a "black-focused" wardrobe, I think that this wardrobe is ... View the Post

Want to try Project 333 for Autumn? A Couple of Tee Shirts Could be Your Inspiration…

August 15, 2018

She knew that she wanted to pare down her autumn wardrobe - she just needed to find a clear focus for what she wanted to wear for the next few months...

She was pretty seriously interested in Project 333 - it seemed to work for a lot of other people, and so she thought it might be good for her too!

First up, she knew that she needed 2 new tops, so she decided to start with a pair of shirts that really caught her eye and won her heart:

She's very casual, and loves khaki, beige, and ivory, so the first 4 garments were easy to choose:

And she really doesn't need a ton of variety - she likes sweaters and sweatshirts with hoods, and she's only going to wear pants (unless something AMAZING happens in her ... View the Post

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

August 1, 2018

Oh, THIS caught me off-guard! Somehow, I managed to forget that a new month was coming... But I did manage to get this done in time - taking care of my readers are a really important part of my life! Still, if these links are a complete hash, or if this just doesn't make any sense at all, let me know and I'll work on it some more...

This is the time of year to look for the perfect outfit for the upcoming cooler weather. Maybe it's that "back to school" feeling that I get this time of year, but I like looking for a nice skirt outfit for each of our 6 wardrobes...

While this outfit might feel a little bit "Pittsburgh Pirates" to some, putting the scarf on with these pieces breaks up the black and gold, and brings ... View the Post

Trojan Gates by Frankenthaler, Revisited for Summer 2018

July 30, 2018 48 Hours in Paris... Remember our heroine the translator? She won a translation award back in January, and then in the Spring was interviewing with HIM to translate his autobiography...

She's very quiet, and tries to keep her appearance somewhat muted so it doesn't distract from what she's translating. This painting, and these colors, are her wardrobe inspiration:

To nobody's surprise, she got the job translating the AMAZING French guy's autobiography. And for reasons nobody can quite explain, she has to go to Paris to meet the publishers and sign some release documents... Oh dear...

So she hops on the train!

The only 2 things she has on her agenda are dinner with the author, and then meetings the next ... View the Post

Flowers in a Crystal Vase by Manet, Revisited for Summer 2018

July 23, 2018

Our friend the soil conservation engineer! She went to a conference of engineers back in January, and then she got to be a guest speaker at a University, in April... Although she works with dirt (soil, PLEASE!!!), she's inspired by this painting and colors for her personal style:

The Phone Woke Her Up... So she knew it had to be important!

"Can you be here by lunchtime? The hillside's eroding away because of the rain, and we've found strata that we've never been able to reach before!!!"

Only another soil engineer would be this excited...

"You can stay with me - we're going to work until dark, and then have dinner... Today is probably the only day we'll be able to get to this level. It could be ... View the Post