Brown Archives - Page 20 of 42

Brown with Blue – Start with a Scarf! Hermes Electrique

December 29, 2017

Recently, someone asked me to re-visit a post that I did over 5 years ago, in blue and brown...After 5 years, absolutely NOTHING shown in the original post was still available - I know that's not a surprise. So I have recreated the original outfit, and what was packed, as best I could - it's a rough approximation...

The hardest thing was that I could NOT find a trench coat in the same turquoise blue that was used originally, so I've migrated the entire capsule wardrobe into a more "brown and blue" color scheme, starting with a wonderful scarf!

I isolated the colors with which the wardrobe will be built; I didn't really define the style because I'm somewhat duplicating an existing ... View the Post

Can You Plan Your Accessory Wardrobe? Madame Paul Escudier by John Singer Sargeant

December 28, 2017

Our heroine from yesterday has a tidy and very well-planned wardrobe, after her few additions to what she used for business travel. But she's in pretty serious need of some accessories, I'd say!First off, let's remember what her inspiration is for her wardrobe:

Our heroine finally got her well-deserved (and long overdue!) promotion, and picked up a few more garments to finish up her wardrobe. She's going to be traveling a LOT...

But she didn't buy anything BUT garments - no more shoes, scarves, nor jewelry. That's just not fun!

Although she's made her reputation at work for her empathy and her ability to provide coaching and correction in a warm and constructive manner, she is at heart also a ... View the Post

Brown with Teal & Cream – Expanding a Successful Travel Wardrobe

December 27, 2017

Remember when we visited this gorgeous painting?

Our heroine was sent off to visit a corporate service center because of a major client complaint... and this is (an approximation of) what she packed for that trip:

Global Service Director? Well, of COURSE she'll take the position! She's been doing the work for months, so it's about time she was given the title, the office, and the SALARY...

When they called her into the Executive Suite to give her the news, they cited her ability to get along well with people at all levels of the organization, without being abrasive or seeming to be too much "home office-ish."

She attributes at least a tiny bit of her success to her image - warm and ... View the Post

The Twelve Art Works of Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of those who are celebrating today, and a warm and wonderful day to everyone!

Today I've got 12 works of art for you - 11 paintings and 1 pretty amazing photograph, along with color palettes, and a sense of how the colors might be made to work in a wardrobe.

I've chosen almost all "modern" works of art - for what we do here on The Vivienne Files, I need to have a relatively limited color palette. Paintings that are completely realistic tend to have every color of the rainbow in them, and THAT would make a carefully edited wardrobe almost impossible!

So, if you have time, and if you have an opinion (or 12!), tell me if you'd like to see any of these developed into a wardrobe. If you've a preference for warm ... View the Post

Carnations! The “Birth Flower” for January…

Did you know that each month of the year has a flower associated with it, which is supposed to then be "the flower" for people born in that month?

I didn't know until just a few weeks ago...

So let's look at this! It's not going to be as easy as finding birthstones, but what the heck - let's see what's out there...

If you're patient, there are, in fact, quite a few different items that have a carnation "motif," or that are carnation pink in color... If you look really closely at many brocade fabrics (especially those of antique design) you'll see "gilly flowers" which are either going to be carnations, flat out, or close enough to work... This isn't an exact science!

Were I born in January, I'd be madly tempted to make the ... View the Post

Does Your Wardrobe Work for You? Some Ideas for Figuring Out What You Need…

December 18, 2017

Friday we looked at the first three of the "12 Months, 12 Outfits" final wardrobes, and found some interesting "holes" in the wardrobes... I'm interested to see how the second 3 wardrobes look, when evaluated through a series of arbitrary, but not worthless, criteria.

This was the 4th wardrobe - a pretty challenging one to assemble, because olive green isn't the most common color in the world, and orange is every bit as difficult to find!

As has been true for all of the wardrobes, this wardrobe has a LOT of bottoms - an issue inherent in building a wardrobe through outfits. The learning here might be that a few more tops, and maybe another 2nd layer, would be useful additions...

This ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – December 2017

December 1, 2017

The last month of these wardrobes! Although these outfits might not be exactly what our assorted heroines most need, we're going dressy - just because we can...

There's a world of lovely velvet around this year - take advantage of this chance to stock up! I'm particularly taken with the idea of a black velvet skirt - Lands' End has one that's lovely...

This wardrobe has a unique character - just those few pieces of that rusty color make so much difference!

As always, the new pieces we've added work well with what was already in the closet:

Oh, these pants are SO lovely.... sigh....

This woman has such a distinctive style; is she blonde, you imagine?

The sleeves on this sweater ... View the Post

What do I Need to Wear for the Holidays?

November 10, 2017

A question as old as time - WHAT WILL I WEAR FOR THE HOLIDAYS?

Okay, maybe not that old, but it's still something that many of us wonder about!

It doesn't have to be terribly complicated, if you can isolate a color that you're happy to wear more than once, and you can assemble just 4 pieces of clothing...

My working thesis here is that you can start with just 1 skirt or pair of pants, which are in a fabric that immediately elevates the dressiness quotient of anything from a silk blouse to a sweatshirt. Add in a cardigan with some sort of festive flair, and then a couple of tops. (and yes, you might very well have some of these things already in your closet!)

The cardigan can be pulled on over a ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – November 2017

November 1, 2017

Maybe it's because the temperature plummeted this last week in Chicago... I decided that I'd find some winter coats for all of our heroines! Nary a black coat in the bunch...

Black would have been obvious here, so I went with grey instead! Yes, this might need to be cleaned more often - that's the biggest drawback to a light winter coat. If you get splashed with slush/muck/salty water, your coat could be ruined if it isn't cleaned promptly!

Everything new fits in very well...

Adding a new coat doesn't really add new outfits to your wardrobe, but the scarf does give you some options:

This is a coat that you would NEVER wear walking on city streets, but if your don't have that problem you could wear ... View the Post

Updating a Navy Wardrobe for Autumn – Start with Art: Shattered Tree by Otto Dix

October 31, 2017

I thought that this painting might be good for Halloween - it's sort of dark without being macabre or outright spooky...

I see this painting all of the time - it's in the Art Institute of Chicago - and I swear that I see navy blue in the areas near the horizon! At any rate, I think that these colors make amazing accents... One could easily include some gold, some medium blues and a bit of grey and live with the color-scheme forever.

This is my starting point today. This version of The Common Wardrobe is a hair dressier than usual - no jeans, and a pair of navy wool pants in their place. A pair of high-quality trousers can be worn almost anywhere... The navy ribbed tee shirt is a notch more elegant ... View the Post

Does the “French 5-Piece Wardrobe” Work with Warmer Colors? Start with Art! Composition by Lee Ungno

It's always a question - there are LOTS of good wardrobe ideas that work beautifully with black (and usually with navy and grey), but what if your favorite colors are warmer, and softer?

Let's start here, just for the sake of art. We saw 2 exhibits of this artist when we were in Paris - there was 1 small room in the Centre Pompidou, and then a much larger exhibit in the Musee Cernuschi (which is just outside of the Parc de Monceau, and is well worth the search!).

This just screamed to me across the room - I saw khaki right away, with amazing accents...

So let's think of a starting point that is lovely for a moderate winter - not a place where you get snow, necessarily, but where you see cooler temperatures. You don't worry ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – October 2017

October 2, 2017

For new readers, on the first of the month (or for the first blog post of the month!) I have been working on this series - I start with six Hermes scarves, and then choose the same general outfit six times, based on the colors of the scarves. I keep accumulating the clothing chosen, and gradually build really amazingly interesting capsule wardrobes in six different color schemes.

Even though the weather is still relatively mild in Chicago, I'm ready for some sweaters! And some corduroy pants... Yes. I know that they make that schwooping noise when you walk. And yes, they tend to wear out between the thighs before any place else start to look worn. But nothing takes color (except maybe silk velvet...) with the same ... View the Post