Brown Archives - Page 18 of 42

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

A Color Palette for All Seasons? Start with an Earthenware Plaque by John Bennett

September 21, 2018

I saw this at the Art Institute of Chicago last weekend, and was instantly smitten...

Our heroine saw it too, and noted immediately that, even though the colors here are all beautiful together, they also offer a range of possibilities for choosing garments for every season! First, she identified her "overall" color palette:

She then started thinking about what she would choose for autumn, from these colors. All of these colors, in their darker and richer incarnations, are perfect for the approaching cool weather...

She pulled together a perfect outfit without a lot of work... An entire wardrobe capsule in colors from this art wouldn't be tough at all!

With this success fresh in mind, she ... View the Post

Experimenting with Project 333 – 20 garments and 13 accessories?

September 7, 2018

Wednesday I experimented with a different approach to Project 333 - in which I built a template for 4 5-piece "clusters" of clothing:

Partly to showcase 2 of Eileen Fisher's "new" fall colors (Midnight and Nutmeg), I pulled together this wardrobe:

If we're going to be really strict with Project 333, this would only leave us 13 accessories for this wardrobe! But let's bear in mind the LAST thing the creator of Project 333 wants is for us to feel limited or constrained by this process - she just wants us to be thoughtful...

That said, I'm going to see what I can accomplish with only 13 accessories, just as an exercise in planning and in limits! If nothing else, it's educational to see what you really want ... View the Post

Do You Want More than 16 Pieces of Clothing for Project 333? I have a thought…

I've heard you - many of you are concerned that 16 pieces of clothing won't be enough for a Project 333 Wardrobe for the upcoming autumn... (even if you're not participating in Project 333, the exercise of editing and focusing your wardrobe can never be a bad idea, eh?)

How about we bump up the number of garments to 20, chosen in "clusters" of 5 garments each? For me, I think this might be just about right! This is what I'm thinking:

For reference purposes, I pulled together a wardrobe following these guidelines, using "new" Eileen Fisher colors of Midnight and Nutmeg. (the other colors that she included are Dark Red Lory (huh?), Raisonette (a lovely wine), and Monterey (a dusty dark rose). These all look wonderful ... 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

Asters! The Birth Flower for September

August 29, 2018

Asters... It means stars, which, when you look at the flowers, makes sense!

However, from my perspective, this was really tricky. (Yes, I considered using all "star" accessories - of course I did!);

First up, there are no items with asters on them, except for a very expensive dress, and the really nice cuff bracelets that are available for each month.

To pile on, asters come in about a million shades, from darkest red to a lot of various purples...

What to do? I found six excellent neutral dresses to serve as our background, and then I experimented with a range of colors as accents. (it would be fascinating to mix each of the dresses with each of the various accessory families!)

How do things look? Black is ... 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

Dame au Chapeau by Natalia S. Gontcharova Revisited for Summer 2018

July 9, 2018

Remember our inadvertently very visible college professor? In January she was all over campus sporting a gold cardigan - or a hot pink one, and then in April she was off to a symposium in a gorgeous gold suede jacket...

Well, she's visiting another university to speak to a graduate school class... She seems to have made it onto everybody's list of "favorite visiting professor!"

Her wardrobe inspiration is unusual, but seems to work well for her:

She knows that the morning she drives downstate to the campus, she's going directly into her presentation, so she wants to dress for business, as well as for icy air conditioning!

She's not quite sure what else in on her agenda. They've asked her to stay for 2 ... View the Post

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

July 2, 2018

It's hard to believe that these wardrobes are more than halfway completely - where does the time go?

For July, I'm going to assume that summer is in full swing, and that our heroine could use a couple of easy outfits to wear in the heat. Of course, if you don't wear shorts, a skirt, capris or a pair of lightweight pants could easily be here instead!

And I love simple tee shirts. It's fine to get something with writing, or with lots of bells and whistles and geegaws and thingamahoochies, but that kind of top isn't going to be as versatile as a plain round or v-neck tee shirt. I particularly liked finding these 2 unusual accent colors, which are clearly present in our scarf inspiration:

This is her wardrobe, so ... 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

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