The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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A Colorful Moon by Alain Paillou – Revisiting for Spring 2018

April 11, 2018   She's always loved the moon... And found this unexpectedly colorful photograph to be the perfect inspiration for her wardrobe:  

 

She was bowled over when she was told she needed to travel to the capital because of an issue with Probate Court! But when she received the expense check to cover her travel (and a bit of shopping), she was prepared to make some smart choices. This is what she packed for that most life-changing adventure:

She's still getting used to the idea of being able to retire... She just worked the last day of her 4 week notice to her employers, and she's heading away for a couple of days, to a city in Mexico of which she has heard a great deal...

She's not meeting a ... View the Post

Paysage de Niege by Renoir – Revisiting for Spring 2018

April 4, 2018

She went away for a weekend, to a snowy, very quiet resort. Her friends and family thought that she was crazy...This peace and quiet is what inspired her:

She found the tranquility of the soft colors relaxing, yet somehow elegant, even though her plans were very casual!

When she traveled back in January, she has the smallest of travel wardrobes:

Now, she's going back! She found... much... there to enjoy. It was warm when she left, but she knew that temperatures could be all over the map - warm days and cool nights... She loves that!

 

She was pretty excited about this trip, so she had a little bit of trouble focusing on her packing... Especially with the uncertain weather! So she went very ... View the Post

What If I Don’t Really DO Accessories?

February 8, 2018  

Some people just don't wear a lot of jewelry; they don't want to collect handbags, nor shoes, and they find one scarf suits them quite well...(okay, they're nuts...)

Actually, that's their right. Of course it is! But it does suggest that they're going to want to plan a bit to make certain that they have what they want and need when they get dressed.

Let's start where we were yesterday, with this nicely tidied leisure wardrobe:

When we finished this wardrobe yesterday, we had a lovely color palette for our heroine's clothing. Working from that, we can easily devise a corresponding palette for her accessories - add a choice of metal (if you're not going to have a lot of jewelry, what you do have can ... View the Post

My Casual Wardrobe is a Disaster….

She got really sick of the struggle - it wasn't like climbing Mount Everest, or building your own home by hand, but it was still a bother...

She has some things that she really likes, but just can't seem to get dressed for evenings or weekends...

This is approximately what she has right now:

What to do? Is the problem that she doesn't have enough of a particular "category" of clothes - not enough tee shirts? or sweaters?

Nope - her ratios are pretty good, and there are no glaring omissions. Is it a question of color?

Immediately, when we see that mass of warm green with some "outliers" of cool green that just don't blend in, we can start to see the issue...

And here's the gut-check moment - does she really ... View the Post

How to Focus and Refine a Pretty Good Wardrobe

I am asked this question more frequently than I might have expected - it goes kind of like this: "I really like my wardrobe, for the most part, but I feel like I don't really have a good focus or defined style...."That's tough to address, but I'm going to give it a try!

Let's start with this wardrobe; frankly, it looks pretty nice just like this!

My first thought is to sort all of the clothes by function, to see if maybe our heroine doesn't have enough pants, or needs a couple of tee shirts - that sort of solution would be pretty straightforward! But this wardrobe seems pretty well-balanced for functionality...

My next thought is to see if we can gain some insights into our heroine's preferences by sorting her wardrobe by ... View the Post

Paysage de Neige by Renoir – Start with Art to Assemble a Weekend Capsule Wardrobe

January 3, 2018  

It isn't  what you think of when you think of Renoir - which is good! Expanding your horizons is never wrong...

Quiet... She was smitten with the painting from the first time she saw it. Others looked at it and saw cold, or sunshine, or the homes in the distance. She saw peace, quiet, silence... And that's what she craves!

"You know that there won't be anybody there... You'll probably have to eat all of your meals by yourself!"

Oh, she knows....

"I guess you probably got an amazingly good deal on your room - they'll be so grateful that there's anybody there that they'll give you the best room in the hotel dirt cheap..."Why are her friends so obsessed with "anybody?" And is it wrong to ... View the Post

Traveling from Cold to Warm?

She has no explanation, nor does she feel that she needs one. She loves her denim culottes, and she wants to wear them as much as possible...

Thus, she is wearing this when she leaves, from her snowy home:

But she realized that she didn't want to pack very much - she's really only going to be there for 5 days! But how to take her travel outfit and translate it into a travel wardrobe?

How about breaking out the colors, and working around that? She's not really sure about how the final wardrobe proportions will be, so she just assigns each of the 3 colors an equal share of the palette...

First up, what does she do when she lands, and the temperature is in the 70s rather than the 20s? Duck into the restroom, peel off ... 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

Evaluating a Wardrobe – How do the “12 Months, 12 Outfits” Wardrobes Do?

December 15, 2017

 

What makes a wardrobe work? And how can you tell if a wardrobe is going to be functional and versatile? Not the headiest questions in life, but still important, if you like to get dressed and enjoy the process (as well as the results!).

Ultimately, your wardrobe works if you can get dressed every day with ease and pleasure. It doesn't matter what's in there, how tidy or messy it is, or how many different colors and/or styles of things you own. It's the most subjective thing in the world...

That said, if you're struggling, I have a few ideas that you might want to consider!

First up, let's start with the black, white, grey and rust wardrobe that I finished up on December 1st:

Since I built more ... View the Post

Start with Art: A “French 5-Piece Wardrobe” Based on Nature Morte sur une Chaise by Juan Gris

October 24, 2017

She is feeling a little bit... subdued. She was strangely drawn to this painting:

She decided to embrace her feelings of reserve and quiet, and thus decided that this was how she was going to plan her upcoming wardrobe purchases for autumn and winter.

It wasn't that she really needs new clothes - she's got a good base of her favorite neutrals. But she felt that it was time for a good snuggle, and a scarf of two to hold her tight... She could give lots of reasons for feeling the way she does right now - the weather? the change of seasons? At any rate, she's going to do a bit of shopping...

After much watching, and some almost ENDLESS searching for scarves, these are here choices. She's (quietly) very ... View the Post

How to Accessorize a Navy-Based Fall Capsule Wardrobe – Start with Nature Central Cygnus Cloudscape

September 8, 2017

When we left our heroine on Wednesday, she had a tidy 16-piece wardrobe, but no accessories!

Of course, she probably still had lots of accessories that can work really well with her new clothes; let's go piece by piece, step by step, to choose some essential additions for her...

Shoes seems really important, I'd say!

And I'm going to be really practical and get her a bag pronto!

Now a bit of fun - some stars!

Scarves! Always remember that you might find the perfect scarf in an unexpected place - someplace you don't usually visit...

Don't discount the impact of a great watch... (yes, that last watch doesn't go with everything in this wardrobe, but if you were the kind of woman who didn't ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Central Cygnus Skyscape by Robert Gendler

September 6, 2017

If you don't know about the Astronomy Picture of the Day site, you're in for a treat. Some of these are amazing, and many are also amazingly beautiful...

Our heroine today was very inspired by this particular image...

Finally Released... After 6 weeks in the hospital, and then in rehab, she's finally free! But her clothes are positively hanging off of her - never let it be said that hospital food isn't good for something. And with her surgery and weight loss came a new phenomenon - she often feels cold. She missed a large chunk of the summer, and now fall is staring her in the face, and the only pants that she can wear have drawstrings, and look more like pleated skirts than anything else!

Shopping is ... View the Post