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Love Soft Accents? The Impressionist Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

March 24, 2025

Beautiful bracelets! Always such a treat, and such an inspiration to the imagination...

There are four accent colors here, but I'm passing on the dark green and vivid gold for today - in the autumn, our heroine could certainly assemble an entirely different wardrobe in navy with those accents! How fun is that?

But for today, for Spring, we're going with pretty pastels:

Let's get our heroine started with some grey basics; any time you've got silver in jewelry, you can easily translate that to grey clothes. I suspect our heroine might have some grey hair? And blue/green eyes?

The weather's not all that warm where our heroine is, but her heart is set on pretty colors! She manages to find four tops that ... View the Post

The Fourth of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 6, 2025

Let's check up on our heroine who is working with the most limited color palette this year. Short of wearing just ONE color, this is maybe as small a palette as you can get. Well, maybe not, but after the multiple accent colors of our other wardrobes, this one seems quite streamlined!

At the end of February our heroine had a nice twelve-piece wardrobe - it would make a great travel capsule wardrobe... I'm thinking a lot about travel right now!

Our heroine has decided to shift her focus to warmer weather - especially in order to grab the sandals that she's wanted for a while! Yes, she won't be able to wear them for weeks, but at least she's not walking out of the store empty-handed when the weather finally ... View the Post

I Love It, But Will I Wear It? Grey Cashmere Sweatshirt

January 13, 2025

It's something we all need to do - wear what we already own much more frequently, and make certain that anything we buy will be worn a lot, for years and years...

In pursuit of making good decisions, I hear from you. A current dilemma seems to surround the idea of a cashmere sweatshirt - is it a sweatshirt, or a cashmere sweater? Do I wear with casually, or do I dress it up?

To which I respond? YES. Yes to all. Swing every which way with a beautiful sweatshirt, and wear it so often that it's a comfortable "top of mind" starter for any outfit, for most occasions.

I have ideas starting with casual and ranging up to somewhat dressy. I'm going to share these without comment, so I can clearly hear your ... View the Post

Six Paintings – Twelve Months January 2025 Part 2

January 3, 2025

Here are ALL of the "cool" toned wardrobes - in the randomness of life, the warms and the cools got split down the middle. No wonder Wednesday's post left some of you out in the cold... or rather I guess I should say the warm!

I have to warn you before next month - I suspect that we're going to start moving right into spring clothes. It's absurdly difficult to find winter clothes right now that don't cost the moon, are decent looking, in the colors we like, that are available in the full range of sizes. I will NOT include something for which there are only 7 size XXXS available...

Let's start with a warm/cool wardrobe, and a wonderful favorite painting:

Such lovely, classic colors...

Back on Christmas ... View the Post

Merry Christmas! Six New Painting for Us to Enjoy in 2025

December 25, 2024

Happy Christmas to all who observe today, and a happy and joyful day to everybody!

So after wrangling, pondering, occasional hair-pulling, and a lot of general angst, I chose the six paintings for next year. This is - no question - the hardest thing I EVER do for The Vivienne Files, so if your favorite painting wasn't chosen, don't doubt that it was considered, and re-considered, and finally eliminated with great pain.

If there's anything you particularly miss, let me know and I will do a post about it! That's the least I can do, eh?

With no further ado - let's go!

This is the second year in a row that I've included Elizabeth Magill - I think she's got magical talent...

This heroine is going to ... View the Post

Want Something Pretty? Start With a Scarf – The Artiquel Scarf by Artifact.

December 18, 2024

Sometimes, you see something that just makes you happy. If you keep thinking about that thing... six hours later?... you might want to listen to your heart!

That's my feeling about this scarf; the minute I saw this, I knew I wanted to share it with you all here:

What an interesting image - dill? Some sparse hydrangeas? And artichokes? What do you think?

Of course, these colors are difficult to find...

Our heroine knows that she's going to struggle to find the soft accent colors - the green and purple are QUITE elusive. But she also knows that she can wear this scarf with her neutral grey, or she could look for a different green like soft olive. Or use beige as her neutral. There are always ... View the Post

Need a Warm Break? Start with Bracelets – Winter Sky Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

December 13, 2024

They spend Boxing Day cleaning up. And on the 27th, they're in the car early in the morning, heading SOUTH!

She's dreaming of the Winter Sky, but the sunny winter sky where they go every year for a while - just to avoid the worst of the cold and snow...

This year, she's inspired by these:

She has some clothes down there already - no reason to bring them back north! But she has new colors in mind to expand her existing wardrobe of navy, beige, white and bright green:

It's not bitterly cold where they are right now, so she doesn't have to bundle up all that much the first morning... But she loves feeling cozy for the first day of the drive...

She packs some warm-ish things, and some ... View the Post

December 2024 “Six Paintings, Twelve Months” – First Painting, by Georgia O’Keeffe

December 2, 2024

Our last visit with our six heroines! First, let's take a last look at our heroine who wears a stunning amount of red. Her art inspiration is from Georgia O'Keeffe; any painting by her has the potential to spark the ideas for a great wardrobe. Her lines are simple, her colors few, but stunning...

Before this powerhouse of PR and communications goes shopping, let's look at her existing wardrobe, in a slightly different way.

She has plenty of outfits already; when you look at your own wardrobe, outfit by outfit, you might find that you already have most of what you need...

A dozen outfits, and still seventeen more garments. For many people, this would be sufficient; for others...

She also takes ... View the Post

November 2024 “Six Paintings, Twelve Months” – Second Painting, by Georgia O’Keeffe

November 4, 2024

I think I'm going to do a post each day this week, and finish the six paintings for the month of November. It seems to me that any kind of distraction might come in handy right now...

Ah, this most exuberant of heroines! Not just anybody could pull off a wardrobe in only three colors, when one of them is RED. But it's possible. There are lots of women, and lots of wardrobes...

This wardrobe feels pretty complete to me - when you remember that you can only wear one outfit at a time (at least in theory!), own this much clothing feels pretty complete...

In all fairness, if this was my wardrobe, I'd need a few more summer dresses! But still, I don't think I'd ever really struggle to get dressed...

I ... View the Post

Want a Fresh Palette? Start With Art – Door of Light by Akada Misao

October 30, 2024 Just For the Night... They tell her that's all she needs to do - just meet with the core workers, take the whole staff to dinner, and then come back the next day.

Unless she gets stuck, because of air traffic, or a strike, or volcanoes...

She's not THRILLED about the trip, so she decides to be inspired by something as unlike work as possible:

She seldom wears yellow. But she's in the mood to shake things up a bit, so this is going to be her color palette. She knows that for a longer trip, she could easily add lots of beige, and bits and pieces of green...

It's not a madly dressy office, so she knows that she doesn't have to dress up. Comfortable pants will make all the difference if she's stuck on a ... View the Post

October 2024 “Six Paintings, Twelve Months” – Part 1

October 2, 2024

Let's check in with what the "Start With Art" heroines have been buying!

This month, we're starting with this heroine and this painting. The more I look at this painting, the more I appreciate it - especially the essential touches of black in a painting that is mostly warm colors. Sometimes, you just want to have some black in your closet...

First up - let's look at her wardrobe as of the end of September. I've divided these into two images, so that we can actually SEE the garments:

Hmm... no dresses, no skirts. That's this heroine's preference, and I can support this! I have a couple of friends who may have legs, but I've never seen them, so I'm only assuming this is true...

And now her accessories - ... View the Post

September 2024 “Six Paintings, Twelve Months” – Part 2

September 6, 2024

Sorry about that unexpected day off on Wednesday; I've discovered that grief and fibromyalgia is a potent, and quite miserable, combination!

Let's get to more fun things - planning wardrobes, especially with fall coming! Here in Chicago, we're supposed to have at least a few cool days this week, which is quite early for us; I generally don't expect to wear fall clothes until October, these days...

How seasonal is this next painting?

When I sorted this wardrobe by color, I separated the charcoal grey from the lighter greys - that gives us the numeric illusion that this wardrobe is dominated by red! In fact, it's still pretty close - there's a LOT of red in this wardrobe. But that's what the heroine intended, ... View the Post