The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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A Clothing Diary Week 2

February 17, 2015   Week #2 is an ongoing effort to dress when the weather is brutally cold. I find that I'm liking wearing dresses more and more, for the speed and the uncomplicated sleekness they bring.   Someone asked me about tights... Tights should be as easy and as comfortable as leggings or yoga pants. (Yoga pants especially are considered the most comfortable garments ever made!) Keep trying different brands and sizes of tights until you find some that don't dig into any part of your body, but rather hug you warmly and softly. You will then be able to pop on a dress in a heart-beat and be read to roll!   Some of you were interested in where my goodies were purchased, so I'm including a caption that shows brands. ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: St. John Collection scarf

February 16, 2015

Sometimes retailers can be so maddening! This is NOT an inexpensive scarf, but there's really no way to get a truly excellent photograph of it. For this much money, I would think that they could scare up two more photographs to show the entire scarf, as well as a 2nd close-up of the print. But nobody asked me...

That said, this is a beautiful scarf, and one of you has chosen to indulge in it, and wondered how I would put it together with clothes and other accessories...

Red - so easy, and so striking! In addition to working with the colors of the scarf, I enjoyed finding "flower-ish" accessories to tie it all together. Nobody may notice but you...

Something became clearer to me as I worked on ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Leopard Flats

February 13, 2015

You clamored for leopard shoes - I hasten to respond! If these shoes were mine, I'd be seriously looking at one of these bags - there are LOTS of options...

As I so often find, these items look particularly nice when aggregated. Toss in a white shirt and maybe a black dress (as well as another pair of shoes!) and you'd be well outfitted for travel!

love, Janice

PS - For more in the Maximize Your ROI series, check out the following articles:

Maximize Your ROI: Orange Boots Maximize Your ROI: Black and White Houndstooth Check Flats Maximize Your ROI: Leopard Flats Maximize Your ROI: Estellon Striped Handbag Maximize Your ROI: St. John Collection scarf ... View the Post

Start With Art: Version 2 The Apparition by Gustave Moreau

February 12, 2015   From the very first moment I launched the original post about this painting, I KNEW that I was going to have to look at this again, and pay full attention to the beautiful blue and green at the top of the canvas.    

I decided to make this really simple, and concentrate on the opulent feel of the painting as much as the luscious colors.

    I pictured this as someone who has to travel overnight for a quite formal event, and then make their way home the morning after. This whole capsule is all about velvet, brocade, cabled cashmere, and ornate jewelry. Sigh...    

 

    It wasn't at all easy to find these colors and textures, but I'm ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Black and White Houndstooth Check Flats

February 11, 2015

As I mentioned before, I've received a couple of questions about what to wear with a special pair of shoes. When I saw these, I KNEW I was going to have fun, given my abiding love of all things black and white:

A little fearless mixing of stripes is the perfect foil for these simple flats. And a classic black dress with just a hint of white would be madly useful through the summer.

Putting dots with the houndstooth of the shoes seemed like a fun idea, and the pleated shorts are a lot more forgiving than the super-short shorts that seem to be everywhere! The red dress is easy with the black and white shoes - and a bag in a MUCH larger houndstooth pattern keeps things amusing.

Any bright color works ... View the Post

A Clothing Diary

February 10, 2015  

Sometimes, I struggle to figure out what I want to wear. I know that's NOT something I probably should admit, but it's true nonetheless. So I've started keeping track of outfits that I like, that are comfortable, appropriate, and that make me happy... And since I love to make pretty pictures, and I love to share them with you, I've started keeping a visual journal of these outfits, which I'm going to update every Monday. This means that you'll be seeing them on Tuesdays for a while.

Normal people probably wear at least seven outfits in a week, but recently I've found that I either repeat an outfit during the week, or spend an entire day in gym clothes. (my workout schedule - especially my work with my ... View the Post

Start With Art: Winter at the Convent by Margaret Loxton

February 3, 2015

I love this painting... if this doesn't make you smile, I can't help you.

While I strongly suspect that these nuns are wearing black habits, the habits look very navy on my computer, and so my imagination was strongly drawn to working with navy, white and cool pastels.

 

  I've talked before about the usefulness of having six garments that are the same color, that give you a basis for getting dressed on Monday morning without opening your eyes. That idea has really stuck in my head, so I've decided that I want to build on it a few times. Let's start here:  

Even if you get dressed out of here every Monday, you still have LOTS of clothes unworn, so let's toss in a few extra goodies ... View the Post

Start With Art: The Apparition by Gustave Moreau

July 27, 2015  

 

The reader who requested this was particularly interested in the black, olive and camel parts of the painting, so I've taken the liberty of cropping the top third in order to focus on the colors in question. I'm sure Moreau will forgive me, since I'm such a big fan!

 

  Any Moreau painting cries out for an exotic and Byzantine wardrobe, but I wanted to keep things in the realms of the wearable, so I've opted for velvet, silk and cashmere in order to express the more exotic and sensuous aspects of the painting.  

Accessories are where you can really express the ornate impulses that seem to spring from this painting (and what that character in the painting is wearing!) - ... View the Post

A Black Wardrobe with Amethyst

January 8, 2015   She was born in February, so amethyst is her birthstone. And purple has always been her favorite color; could any style choice be easier?  

 

 

Any other suggestions/ideas for how to accessorize this wardrobe? I'm working on blue, and on brights, but I was also thinking of brown/gold... Anything else your beautiful hearts desire?   love,

Janice ... View the Post