The Vivienne Files - Page 140 of 269 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe 1 Piece at a Time: Brown, Khaki and Pink

July 22, 2016 No More "Dress For Success" Every day, every year, the same....

Navy suit, white shirt. Grey suit, white shirt. Navy grey white navy grey white....

It served her well - she was very successful. She worked 7 days a week; she really didn't have a leisure life - her idea of being dressed down was to wear an old work shirt with old pants from a pantsuit. Jeans? Not in her vocabulary. A cardigan? Would get you a visit from the chairman of the firm...

But now that she was leaving the office world, her heart cried out for brown. The color of dirt. The color of chocolate. And khaki - sand, and stones, and natural things....

And PINK. Because she would never have dared to wear pink in her old, very conservative, work ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Tarantula Nebula by Gendler and Colombari

July 21, 2016 Insomnia Part 2 - Version 2 see first installment here, and Part 2 Version 1 here)

Our sleepless protagonist is browsing in a bookstore - immediately drawn to photo books of space phenomena - when she sees this:

She admires it, registers it somewhere in her brain, and goes on about her day/night.Later that morning, she's wandering in a department store, and sees the Image Consultant area. The staff seems to be at loose ends, so she plucks up her tired courage and asks if she can meet with the consultant...

An hour later, her universe has been rocked. While she's told that her neutral navy is perfect for her, she's encouraged to add warmer accent colors to her wardrobe! Part of her recommended palette looks sort ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Great Nebula in Carina by Damian Peach

July 20, 2016 Insomnia, Part 2 (see part 1 here) So she's walking around Paris late one afternoon, and sees this:

Oh. My. Her favorite night sky, with one point two million different shades of pink and rose... sigh....

Let's remember, when she took off on this "night walker" vacation, this is what she packed:

Moon & star earrings – Marc Jacobs; striped top – L.L.Bean; bracelet – Les Interchangeables; cardigan – J. Crew; small square scarf – Treasure&Bond; shirt – Uniqlo; flats – SoftWalk; skirt – J. Crew; henley – L.L.Bean; loafers – Coach; pants – Uniqlo; socks – Topshop; clutch – Rebecca Minkoff; astrology scarf - Antagoniste

But the image sticks in her head, and when she's ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories 1 at a Time: Black and Beige

July 19, 2016

Ah, let's add some accessories to yesterday's black and beige travel capsule wardrobe, shall we?Remember, we started with this outfit, to which we MUST add shoes. There aren't a lot of wardrobe essentials in the world, but shoes, when traveling, might qualify:

And I always like earrings for travel - they can be out of your way, but still add a nice touch of ornamentation to your outfit, and draw some attention to your smiling face.

Oh yes, and a scarf can be very handy if you're going to be on an airplane or train which might be freezing cold!

Some people never wear watches, and many of us wear some sort of step-measurement device. But I think watches look ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Black and Beige: 1 Piece at a Time

July 18, 2016

It seems that there are some among us who are struggling to pull together what they want to pack. This isn't particularly surprising - travel is stressful enough, and the unknown factors of weather and activities can throw almost anyone into a small panic. So I'm going to approach the "1 Piece at a Time" idea with the thought that we're packing a suitcase, rather than assembling a capsule wardrobe.

Let's assume that you know what you want to wear for traveling - you've got a gloriously beautiful cardigan that MUST go with you:

Based on this outfit, it will be really easy to work with a core of black neutrals, and then add in some beige, too. There's enough white in the cardigan to make white ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Moon with Jupiter and 4 Moons by Christian Fattinnazi

July 15, 2016 So simple, and so striking:

This is a color palette that doesn't need any embellishing. It might be too austere for some, in the long run, but for a short-term travel adventure, this is nearly foolproof!

Insomnia She's been awake at night for WEEKS... looking at the night sky much more than she would normally like. So she's decided to take her sleep-deprived self to Paris. It's far enough away that she won't know if she has insomnia or jet-lag!

Because she doesn't trust herself to make finely nuanced style decisions when she's traveling, she decided to pack the most mistake-proof wardrobe possible. This is literally a "Whatever's Clean" ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Marguerites by Conrad Kiesel

July 14, 2016

I'm in a real navy and olive mode these days; I started this a couple of days ago, before yesterday's navy and green outfits. One of my all-time favorite posts on The Vivienne Files is still this one - navy and gorgeous accent colors.How's this for a glorious painting?

There are of course a variety of ways that colors could be extracted from this, but these are what I've chosen for today:

In honor of all of you who are traveling to colder climes this autumn, I'm thinking about packing that includes a warm coat and waterproof boots. Especially for those of you going to Ireland in the fall, you'll want both sunglasses AND gloves!

Sunglasses – Tory Burch; scarf – Brooks Brothers; boots – ... View the Post

Chic Sightings: Navy Columns with Shades of Green in the Capsule Wardrobe

July 13, 2016

I had a few of these ideas lingering in my head, and I've FINALLY figured out how to present them in a somewhat unified manner. What unites all of these outfits is that they're based on the simplest navy "core," either a dress or a matching tee shirt and pants.The key, to me, for wearing accent colors successfully is to give them a sense of looking intentional, rather than just grabbed at the last minute. While you might not want FOUR pieces in your accent at one time, wearing 2 or 3 green items - shoes, jewelry, bag, or sweater - makes it look like the green was a purposeful choice on your part. Plus, it lends a sense of balance to your ensemble!

Using a hoodie and canvas shoes gives your dress more mileage ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Branch of the Seine by Claude Monet

July 12, 2016 It's hard not to love something this beautiful:

The Last Laugh She's been saying for ages that the photographs of the structure don't look right, and that there are integrity issues. But did they listen to her? (you know the answer to this, right?)

So she's flying in to do an in-person inspection, and recommend what needs to be done in order to make the entire rig safe for workers.

They won't be thrilled to see her, but she will only need to be there a couple of hours...

There are some amazing restaurants on the mainland, and she's flying a really LONG way. So she plans to stay for at least 3 days. Nobody's going to ... View the Post

I REALLY Need Your Opinion…

First, something pretty, just down the street from my home, on Michigan Avenue:

As I return from my sabbatical, I realize that I need to limit my number of blog posts to 5 per week. I've been doing 6, most of the time, and that generally requires me to either work a few long days, or work on weekends. That's becoming unsustainable, both for my physical and mental health.

So, my question is this:

Would you rather have me post on Monday through Friday?

or Tuesday through Saturday?

It's pretty much all the same to me, but I want to do what the majority of you find most enjoyable and compatible with your reading habits.

Even if you've never commented before, you can comment anonymously, and just leave a comments of Monday-Friday, or ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Owl on Ginko Branch by Ohara Koson

July 9, 2016

Just wonderful:

While the vast majority of this painting is in shadings of beige and black, there are a couple of glorious accents of russet and olive...

She Works Nights Someone has to monitor those data servers - they run HOT, and they have to be watched 24/7. She loves the night sky, so she took the job...

So she works for 5 minutes, and then looks out the window for 5. It keeps her moving around, and she's learned a lot about the night sky.

Now that her company has grown, she's called on to work with people in other offices. Still at night, when the regular staff is at home, and just the emergency teams are in place.

Everyone marvels at how well she does during ... View the Post

Chic Sightings: Black and Pink in the Capsule Wardrobe

July 8, 2016

Everybody says that a little black dress (LBD - it even has its own acronym!) is a capsule wardrobe essential... and for me, that's certainly the truth! But of course I'm not going to tell you to wear black, NOR am I going to tell you that you must wear dresses. That said, I've seen a lot of black dresses recently in downtown Chicago, and some of the freshest looks have paired their black with pink!

If you own an amazing handbag, it's well worth building at least one entire outfit around it. And if you're going out after work, a few pink touches make your work-wardrobe black dress more than appropriate for a romantic dinner:

Earrings – Ippolita; short-sleeved dress – Lands’ End; open cardigan – ... View the Post