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Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Composition by Natalia S. Gontcharova

May 26, 2016 Okay, I'm more than a little bit smitten with Ms. Gontcharova's work...

For someone who wanted to base their entire wardrobe around this work, there's also a bit of green in here:

When I Am An Old Woman... (blah, blah, blah) Yes, we know, you'll wear purple. But she's been wearing purple FOREVER...

earrings – Matta; watch – Fendi; pants – L.L.Bean; tee – Uniqlo; cardigan – Viyella; scarf – Halston; flats – SoftWalk; cross body bag – Longchamp; suitcase – Victorinox

She wears every shade of it. She buys her entire wardrobe with an eye to how well it will work with "her" color...

Henley – Majestic Filatures; skirt – Uniqlo; sandals – ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe with Accessories 1 at a Time: Blues, Grey and Black

May 19, 2016 Casual, but really nice...Remember, we started with a simple black column of clothing, with a great blue cardigan; of course, we need shoes:

And I usually have earrings added pretty early in the process. For this wardrobe, I tried to stick with a feeling of linearity, to echo the subtle stripes in the cardigan:

Scarves! I love scarves...

For those who do not want to wear sandals, a simple low-heel or flat casual shoe will be just as suitable:

I love wearing an inexpensive watch sometimes - the look on someone's face when they admire your watch, and you tell them it's a Timex, is priceless. And it's an important reminder that good design can be ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe 1 Piece at a Time: Black, Blue and Grey, for Leisure

May 18, 2016 This is in response to a specific request to incorporate more leisure wear into a capsule wardrobe (without breaking the bank), based on the same simple black column I've used before, but including a great cardigan:

Tee – Lands’ End; pants – L.L.Bean; cardigan – Hallhuber

The request also wanted to incorporate some grey into their leisure wardrobe, so this was the color scheme that I developed:

Tee – Lands’ End; pants – L.L.Bean; cardigan – Hallhuber

I need to mention also that this person isn't in a really hot climate, so a lot of super-lightweight clothing wasn't going to be necessary...First, we need to break up that black column and introduce a ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: May

May 2, 2016

Warm weather's coming! (I type, as I'm sitting in fleece running tights and a sweatshirt...)When I was pondering what we needed to add to these capsule wardrobes for May, I kept coming back to the idea that we need to be prepared ahead of time for the first warm days. Even if it's no more of an event than going to watch your neighbor's kids play soccer, you don't want to be caught off guard and unprepared. That's how badly conceived impulse purchases make their way into your closet!

First up, a reminder of the 6 scarves that we're using as our unifying themes for the capsule wardrobes, through the 12 months:

Navy– Hermes Voyage en Etoffes; camel – Hermes Tyger Tyger; beige –Hermes Le Voyage de Pytheas; ... View the Post

How to Combine 2 Capsule Wardrobes

April 23, 2016

Many of your mentioned that you felt that the capsule wardrobe based on the Sophie Taeuber-Arp painting (see it here) would work beautifully combined with the wardrobe inspired by the composite photograph of a lunar eclipse (see that one here). You're a bright crowd (but I knew that!); this is lovely!

First, the business capsule wardrobe with the soft mustard accent:

And then the more relaxed black and grey capsule wardrobe, spared with shades of terra cotta:

All of the clothes, in 1 place! There's really only 1 small tweak I would make to this - I would make sure that there weren't any "droopy" sleeves or armholes on the tops. Here, I would probably get a grey top that fit a bit ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Composition a Cercles a Bras et Rectangles by Sophie Taeuber-Arp

April 19, 2016 Another painting that I saw last week in Paris. That vacation seems so long ago now...

At first this seemed like a pretty straightforward color scheme, but there are a LOT of possibilities here:

She Does Modeling...

Square scarf – Isabel Marant; shoulder bag – Allsaints; cardigan – Simply Be; yellow diamond hoops – JCPenney; watch – Isabel Marant; tee shirt – J. Crew; pants – J. Crew; suitcase – Longchamp; loafers – Patricia Green Financial modeling, that is. The hardest work in the office, in many opinions.

Yellow silk shirt – Theory; leather bracelet - Bottega Veneta; silver square earrings – Gurhan; blazer – Nina Ricci; ivory top – ... View the Post

What Women were Wearing in Paris, April 2016

April 13, 2016

Well okay, not what everyone was wearing, but what caught my eye...

Belovedest OF COURSE knows what I'm doing when I'm looking at people in Paris, and he's turned out to be an invaluable partner in spying patterns and noticing the garments that seem to be worn by 10% of the people we see.

First up - grey jeans! We couldn't tell if these were black jeans that were well faded, or if they were jeans that were grey by design. At any rate, we saw them often, and generally they weren't skin-tight. We saw virtually nothing cropped, but quite a few jeans were rolled neatly at the ankles, exposing jazzy socks...

Toothpick - J. Crew; blue/grey – MM6 Maison Margiela; tapered – H&M; classic – ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Lunar Eclipse Montage by Dr. Robert Vanderbei

April 2, 2016

Yes, I'm currently in Paris. (!!!!!!!) But there are posts here, queued up in advance, for 6 days a week while I'm on vacation. Just because I go away doesn't mean that you don't need your almost-daily dose of The Vivienne Files!

Now, back to the beauty:

Sometimes, scientific documentation of natural phenomena is executed so perfectly that it becomes art:

Two colors, but WHAT colors:

Connected She spends almost all of her time in her studio, alone. Her work is such that she wears only the most disposable of casual clothing, usually purchased from thrift stores. The materials with which she works, and the abandon with which she uses them, precludes neatness; an apron will NOT be ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: April

April 1, 2016

What fun! I was really eager to get to these outfits, and see how the assembled capsule wardrobes continue to grow. For April, I was thinking of an outfit that provides a transition between seasons, and gives us a couple of solid basic garments (and some fun jewelry!).Capri or cropped pants are the kind of garment that can be worn twice a week for the next six months, so it's important to get these into your wardrobe early. I chose really basic neutrals for all six wardrobes, so there's lots of different ways for them to work for you.

A sweater might seem sort of counter-intuitive going into warm weather, but these sweaters are all either linen or cotton, so they can be tossed over your shoulders as necessary, without ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Autumn Trees – The Maples by Georgia O’Keeffe

March 28, 2016 You have sent me SO MANY beautiful art ideas - I'm going to dedicate a few days to addressing some of them. Fear not, the "1 at a Time" wardrobes will be back....

A travel wardrobe not for the faint of heart - but what beautiful, subtle colors:

She Has 24 Hours Well, she could take longer, but her plan is to spend her entire 1st day in town walking around, looking, listening, feeling her responses. By the time she goes to bed the first night, she's going to decide - yes or no - if she's moving there.

If she decides that she won't move there, she has the rest of the long weekend to enjoy her time off. But if she decides yes, she has the rest of the long ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Asiatic God by Paul Klee

March 19, 2016 This looks a little bit clown-like on my screen, but in person it's much more compelling, with a lot of texture. Almost mysterious, dark, and captivating, with amazing color highlights.

Asiatic God – Paul Klee

The frame is maroon and grey, and there are tiny accents of teal... the pink on the face is, in fact, the color PUCE! (I was searching around for the precise RGB combination to show the color on the color wheel, and learned this...)

This cried out for denim, to serve as a base for texture and a variety of accent colors...

Yes, the image of this skirt is TERRIBLE, but I really wanted you to see this skirt. It's a departure from a lot of denim skirts, in that it seems to have more ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories: Grey, Blue, Lilac and Black, 1 at a Time

March 18, 2016

The more I look at these colors, the more I like them; for a wardrobe with only 16 pieces, there are wide-ranging options from somber black to gentle pastels. This shows the possibilities of just a few pieces of carefully-chosen clothing.Here's the original wardrobe, and this was out starting point:

I thought it would be nice to show the possibility of some metallic accessories!

And small, simple, classic silver earrings...

But you are always going to want a pair of neutral shoes. (well, I'm sure someone out there would be happy wearing silver shoes every day. If that's you, then do it!)

The Ted Baker floral scarf was perfect with our first outfit, ... View the Post