The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Start with Art: Revisiting Understanding by Parscha Mirghawameddin

 

November 24, 2021

Remember this heroine? Nobody seemed to think that she was beautiful, except her! And possibly someone that she met while traveling....

"Did You HEAR What She Told Her Great-Nieces?!?!"

"You mean the part about moving to the city?"

"NO!!!! The part where that silly frog ring is her engagement ring!"

silly is in the eyes of the beholder - this ring is legitimately very fine jewelry...

"Well, I knew that she met someone while she was there, but I assumed that it was just a platonic thing; what's someone her age doing getting involved romantically?"

What's someone her age doing? Feeling beautiful, feeling loved, having buckets of fun, and treating herself to all sorts of frog ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Mumbai Paisley silk scarf – Echo

November 17, 2021

Yes - ANOTHER SCARF GIVE-AWAY!

This lovely object is 36 inches square, and SO lovely... Leave a comment and it might be yours! Creativity Requires Discipline At least that's what she believes. Years ago, when she committed to designing jewelry, she made the very startling choice to limit her work to silver, gold, black onyx and pearls. Well, she will use mother-of-pearl if it is truly ivory...

Over time, her wardrobe came to reflect the same colors that she cherished in her work...

When it's time to go to the annual One of a Kind show in Chicago, she knows exactly how she will pack!

She deliberately packs a column of charcoal grey, as well as wears her black column. These small choices can make ... View the Post

October 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Fierce Clarity Bracelets

October 22, 2021 She Knows Why She's Going...

She hasn't traveled in forever. Well, almost 2 years. And her friends are surprised that her first choice destination is a "retreat spa..."

There's meditation. There's massage. There's long walks in an undeveloped woodland area. There's excellent food...

There's NO getting up at dawn for 5 hour meditation sessions.

There's NO limit on how much you may speak, or to whom.

There's NO requirement that you spend an hour a day every day in the kitchen peeling turnips, or other such things...

Yes, she's spent a lot of time alone, but she hasn't really taken time to pay attention to herself. NOW, that's her plan...

She's not at all sure what to pack - she's heard that ... View the Post

Start with Art: Construction by Max Weber

October 13, 2021 Difficult...

Very early in her career, she became instantly famous (at least in architecture circles!) for her innovations in combining unexpected construction materials. She discovered new synergies of strength and flexibility that changed the industry...

Since then, she has deliberately cultivated a reputation for being a difficult partner in projects. She's actually a lovely, kind woman, but she finds that she is treated with more respect if everyone approaches her with a certain... trepidation?

Her wardrobe reflects her interest in combining things in unexpected ways; she might show up for a project summit dressed in a soft, approachable way:

But she knows that she's going to want to surprise ... View the Post

September 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Cozy Lynx Bracelets

September 24, 2021

Finally.... She's going to go up to the cabin, and she's NOT LEAVING until the fireplace works properly...

She's saved money through the pandemic for just such a project, and it occurred to her (in the middle of the night, as such things will) that this would be the best investment she could make.

Winter in the cabin. Without frostbite. Without frozen water in the mornings.... sigh....

She knows that she will need warm clothes for this trip - there won't be any heat at first, and the people working on the fireplace will be in and out. 

Her first thought is to pack her usual denim and shades of grey; then she looks at her favorite bracelets, and tweaks her palette just a bit!

She picks out her ... View the Post

Can You Pack Nothing but Your Personal Uniform?

August 4, 2021

Yes, I am going to do the "6 Scarves, 12 Months" post on Friday! I've sort of lost track of what month it is; maybe the delay will make it a little bit easier to find things for that "back to school" feeling I always have in August!

But first, let's think about this interesting question that I received...

The gist? Our heroine knows what she likes to wear, but she feels like she should "mix it up" a bit when she travels.

To which my reply is HECK NO - stick with what makes you feel best, and what feels most like you when you get dressed. We all, collectively, need to move away from this idea that we must have a widely varied wardrobe!

She dresses like this in cooler weather:

I'm hypothesizing that our ... View the Post

Packing for a Long Trip – with only Skirts!

July 23, 2021

I've been asked for wardrobes including only skirts for a while now... So when a question was sent to me about packing for a three month visit to Poland, using only skirts, I figured it was time to address this!

A long trip can be daunting - about 20 years ago, I traveled for work for six weeks, on a trip that included six countries, and temperatures from shirt-sleeve warm to light snow!

This is what I packed:

My clothes were mostly from Eileen Fisher, and by the time I got back to Chicago I was SO SICK of every stitch of them!

But I was traveling alone, with a gigantic laptop, and so this was how I carried all of my clothes:

I was lucky - as soon as I got to a new city, I sent at least 1 outfit of ... View the Post

Start with Art: Green Way by Todd Schulz, and Thinking about a Keynote 10?

July 21, 2021

Oh, I've been thinking... What if the 10 garments you chose - just for thinking purposes - are the 10 things you have that you would keep if you had to start from scratch?

For me, this changes everything - I wouldn't need to keep jeans, nor tee shirts, nor basic neutral sweaters that are always available. No white oxford shirts...

Let's experiment with a heroine who wears an unusual color palette:

She's sorting through her wardrobe, looking for the really HARD to replace pieces that she loves the most...

For me, that would have to start with cardigans!

why yes, she may have skipped paying rent one month to buy that grey cardigan...

And some other sweaters - they may not be amazingly unusual styles, ... View the Post

Start with Art: Locus 87 by Susan Osgood

July 7, 2021 The Call Came... and she's expected to be in the office 2 or 3 days a week, starting in September...

She can't wear her old work clothes - her size has changed in the last while, working at home!

And she's overall not thrilled about the whole "back in the veal feeder pen cubicle" office environment.

So she's going to be as super-professional, organized and mature as she can manage!

Starting with an inspiration that will leverage her navy and grey wardrobe core - almost mandatory in an office that's mostly men, and in a conservative industry.

She loves her colors...

Her office isn't non-stop suits, but she still has to be pretty serious some days, so she starts with the "the Board of Directors is ... View the Post

13-Piece Spring Wardrobes – Rose and Chambray, Grey and shades of Purple

June 16, 2021

Oh, you all are SMART! This turned out well, I think...

Yes, there's only 1 cardigan, because I just never saw a denim-colored one that I liked. But when I saw my mother wearing my denim shirt over her tee shirt, I knew I had the answer!

Even with prints above and below the waist, this wardrobe has lots of possibilities:

Just for reference, here's the garment list. I want to remind us all that this isn't a hard and fast list - it's a guideline, just like everything on The Vivienne Files. Nobody should tell you what to wear...

I discovered something interesting, and sort of weird, when I was putting together this next wardrobe: when I searched for "purple," I got all sorts of shades of pink, and ... View the Post

Stress Dressing Mini-Wardrobes for Changing Spring Weather

March 10, 2021

The weather is impossible right now - in the best way! After literally weeks of single-digit temperatures and mounds of snow, we're now experiencing lovely afternoons, with sun and noticeable warmth!

But what to wear? Especially if you've got your hands full and don't want to think too hard...

I'm sure you will notice that I changed a few things, but left some from our earlier adventures in Stress Dressing for cold weather. There's nothing like the stress of having to find ALL NEW THINGS for your emergency wardrobe, eh?

I gave some thought to what my general guidelines might be for choosing these pieces, although I'm pretty confident that you could sort this for yourself pretty easily:

These wardrobes ... View the Post

Stress Dressing Mini-Wardrobes for Cool Weather

February 12, 2021

 

We've looked back at the original Stress Dressing post, and quite a few of us realized that this might be worth revisiting in our wardrobes for this "dead of winter, middle of pandemic" situation...

I didn't include dresses this time - I think that the probability that one of us is going to need a dress isn't all that high! And since so many of us are still spending so much time at home, I didn't include a bag either...

My goals were warm, comfortable, somewhat versatile, and uncomplicated. Let's look!

Loosely speaking, this is a list of what I might look for when I build this for myself:

Even though we're home most of the time, there's still no guarantee that our wardrobes will be ... View the Post