The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

The Vivienne Files - Page 253 of 269 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

Shopping: The Search for Simplicity

All of my family has not yet come to grips with the fact that I'm not buying clothes for another 9 months.  Thus, I found myself, after the winter holidays, as the owner of a very generous gift card to a lovely retailer, with both online and bricks and mortar presence.

Now, when I set out my personal rules for my year-long fast from shopping, I did hold out the exception that I would be permitted to replace any garment(s) that were completely destroyed in the course of normal life.  Having spent the last couple of months in the heavy-lifting crew of a retailer, I have destroyed (rendered rag-like) a couple of long-sleeved tee shirts.  So I thought that this would be a reasonable opportunity to replace them...

This ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Bright Pants

Coral pants - Maxmara    

Pearl & gold earrings – Lord & Taylor, brass & pearl bracelet – Alcozer & J, coral earrings – Roberta Chiarella, ring – Del Gatto, tee shirt – T by Alexander Wang, sleeveless tee shirt – Topshop, white sleeveless shirt – Joseph, flats – Modcloth, woven sandals – Monsoon, spectator flats – Circa by Joan & David    

Aquamarine earrings – Lord & Taylor, tourmaline earrings – Amrita Singh, hot pink earrings – Asos, orange resin earrings – Amrita Singh, Blue bracelet – Alexis Bittar, green & gold bracelet – Rodarte, hot pink bracelet – Kate Spade, Blue tank – Splendid, green tee – Bruuns Bazaar, pink tee – Topshop, floral bag – Kelly & Katie, striped ... View the Post

Wardrobe: Navy, Gray, BRIGHTS!!! and lots of outfits

Probably the final iteration of this wardrobe, unless I get another suggestion - leave a comment if you've got another variation you'd like to see!

Cardigan – Patagonia, tee shirt – Velvet, gray sweater – Isabel Marant, shirt- Joseph Peter, pants – Patagonia, wool pants – Michael Kors, gray jeans – Levi’s Made & Crafted, suede skirt – Vanessa Bruno  

Blazer – Joseph, cardigan – L.K. Bennett, blouse – The Row, v-neck sweater – Closed, tee shirt – Michael Stars, pants, skirt and dress – Joseph  

Cardigan  – Marni,  flowered blouse – John Lewis, shirt – Hugo, sweater – Very Eickhoff, seersucker pants – Stella McCartney, blue tee - Oasis,  green sweater - Chloe, purple blouse – True ... View the Post

Shopping: The Logical Flaws of the “10 Must-Have Items” lists

If you search on the internet for "2012 must-have items", you get more than three hundred MILLION hits.  Even if you assume that most of these won't, in fact, tell you to buy something, that's still a tremendous number of people bossing you around about how to spend your hard-earned money!

And these lists are full of logical flaws:

If these are truly must-have items, why don't all of the lists agree?  Or at least have a significant degree of overlap?  After looking at the first handful of "top-ten for spring" lists, I saw at least 50 different items I absolutely have to buy if I'm going to be able to show my face in public. Why do all of these lists assume that you can't look around a store and make your own choices? ... View the Post

Wardrobe: navy, gray, pastels, and lots of outfits!

Someone commented that when they looked at the camel and navy wardrobe here, they just imagined that the camel garments were gray... From your lips to my ears: here's the same wardrobe, generally, but more casual, and substituting gray for camel.  I think my next adventure might be to switch out the accent colors, eh?

Cardigan – Patagonia, tee shirt – Velvet, gray sweater – Isabel Marant, shirt- Joseph Peter, pants – Patagonia, wool pants – Michael Kors, gray jeans – Levi’s Made & Crafted, suede skirt – Vanessa Bruno  

Blazer – Joseph, cardigan – L.K. Bennett, blouse – The Row, v-neck sweater – Closed, tee shirt – Michael Stars, pants, skirt and dress – Joseph  

Cardigan  – ... View the Post

A Cool, Cool, Style-Defining Tool!

January 16, 2012

Above is a "word cloud" of my core wardrobe.  I absolutely love this, because it sort of puts into a graphic image the key aspects of how I dress most of the time.

Doing this requires that you keep a list of everything that you wear for at least a few weeks...  Or, you could just type out a list of everything you own - it depends on what you're trying to visualize.

Then get thee to wordle.net, and follow the instructions under the heading of "create".  You can choose fonts, color schemes, orientation of the text etc.  I found that my cloud really started to come into focus for me once I had a classic font, and a black and gray color scheme.

An interesting use of this for me might be (1) ... View the Post

Wardrobe: Camel, Navy, Pastel and a LOT of pictures…

This post is going to cover a lot of bases:  I've received emails asking for a navy and camel wardrobe using pastels (specifically light blue and pink), I've had lots of questions about how many outfits can you REALLY get out of 24 items of clothing (over 100, easily), and I've had requests for showing how accessories can be worn with a variety of different ensembles.Something to note here - once I got past the core of the two "eights" in the neutrals, I added some things that... well... not everybody would like!  Partly, I really love the plaid pants, but moreover, I wanted to show what kind of options are possible when building on a solid core.  And yes, I would wear those saddle shoes in a heartbeat!

Secondly, the ... View the Post

I’ve been ALL wrong…

I've been thinking and thinking (and occasionally writing) about a closet purge.  Now let's be frank, the word PURGE is pretty repelling - I can't come up with one good association to the term...

And it's just dawned on me - I don't want to PURGE my closet, I want to build and choose my wardrobe.  Construction, not destruction!

So the new plan is:

Try to determine a target number of garments (starting on the large size, and then whittling down as possible) Build a wardrobe based on "eights".  I don't know why, but the number eight seems to be a nice number of garments for a... not a capsule, but more of a "capsulette".  Capsulina?  Capsulechen? Sell or donate garments that don't survive the audition ... View the Post

Wardrobe: black, brown, with accents of berry

Someone mentioned yesterday that black and brown might be made to work with shades of red - so I made a few alterations to yesterday's wardrobe;  the versatility of core neutral garments is truly amazing... All clothes – 3.1 Phillip Lim  

Jacket – Vince, Cardigan – Closed, Blouse – Marc by Marc Jacobs, Tee shirt – Michael Stars, dress – Michael by Michael Kors, sweater – Closed, pants – Michael Kors, Skirt – Alberta Ferretti   

Tweed coat – Lanvin, striped tee – Vince, black and brown tweed skirt - Carven, cranberry tee – Splendid, cardigan & sweater – Malene Birger, long sleeved tee – Dorothy Perkins, sweater – Miu Miu  

1. Pumps – L.K. Bennett, necklace – Heather Moore, bag - ... View the Post

Wardrobe: a base of black and brown

All clothes – 3.1 Phillip Lim  

Jacket – Vince, Cardigan – Closed, Blouse – Marc by Marc Jacobs, Tee shirt – Michael Stars, dress – Michael by Michael Kors, sweater – Closed, pants – Michael Kors, Skirt – Alberta Ferretti   

Tweed coat – Lanvin, striped tee – Vince, black and brown tweed skirt - Carven, blue sweater – Alexander Wang, blue cardigan – Vero Moda,  blue tee – John Lewis, white tee – Debenhams, white shirt – Helmut Lang  

1. Pumps – Bandolino, bracelet – Monica Vinaeder, bag - Fendi  

2. Umps - Ferragamo, necklace – Alexis Bittar, earrings – Sahani Azibo  

3. Oxford - Anniel, scarf – Hermès, pearl earrings - Majorica  

4. Flats – Debenhams, ring & ... View the Post

Shopping: Get Thee Behind Me, Catalogs!

If you don't need groceries, you don't go to the grocery store to browse.

And if you're not in the market for a new dishwasher, you don't go to the appliance store and check out all of the available models.

But every day, millions of people who do not need a stitch of new clothing browse through mail-order catalogs (or look at emails from on-line retailers, or devour magazines that are full of advertising, and editorial content that is thinly-veiled advertising).

This, of course, wastes time (you could be in the gym...), kills lots of trees, and worst of all throws all sorts of temptation in your path.

Five minutes ago, you never even KNEW that those lime green leggings existed.  Now, in your mind, you're figuring out what ... View the Post

Not so crazy eights: young and casual in gray

Someone requested a younger and more casual approach to crazy eights - this was one of my ideas!

Cardigan – Patagonia, tee shirt – Velvet, gray sweater – Isabel Marant, shirt- Joseph Peter, pants – Patagonia, wool pants – Michael Kors, gray jeans – Levi’s Made & Crafted, suede skirt – Vanessa Bruno  

1. Glitter slip-ons – Toms, backpack – Kipling U.S.A., earrings – shopacrimony.com  

2. Shoes – Converse Chuck Taylor, crossbody bag – Kipling U.S.A., ring - Mizuki  

3. Oxfords – Palazzo Bruciato Giorgia, scarf – Burberry, dog tag pendant – Waxing Poetic  

4. Boots – Mammoth Mountain, bangle bracelet – Philippe Audibert, pashmina – Pashmina Art  

5. Loafers – Charles ... View the Post