The Vivienne Files - Page 3 of 284 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

April 8, 2026

It's a very good thing that our heroine loves all things medieval... Her favorite painting is this beauty:

Her color palette is thus:

At the end of March, our heroine has this 16-piece wardrobe. Versatile, elegant and a touch on the dressy side of life. Maybe still a touch dark...

Early in April, our heroine sat through some VERY long meetings with a group of people dedicated to the renovation of a very famous historic church near Paris. Included in the amusingly eclectic group of attendees was one woman dressed as a medieval nun, and another woman wearing a wimple...

As soon as she got out of there, she was determined to do some very 21st century shopping!

yes, there are people who dress in ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

April 6, 2026

I saw one of these in England! I think - it was at a distance, and I might have been dreaming... does it count if one sees something in a dream?

I'm quite sure that our heroine has seen one of these. Although she's not the person actually sitting out in a blind somewhere counting birds, she IS the person who takes all of those essential numbers and compiles and analyzes them. She must get out once in a while to actually LOOK at birds. I hope!

For whatever reason, she has chosen this bird as her style model, and is building her wardrobe around these simple but striking colors:

At the end of March, our heroine had 16 garments in her wardrobe. That's not a lot - all of this would fit in a medium-sized ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

April 3, 2026

Peace - so important these days!

For someone who listens to other people for a living, projecting a feeling of peace is pretty important! So our heroine has decided that she will base her entire wardrobe on the colors in this painting. It will give her a consistent, easy to get dressed wardrobe, and for her clients, it will give them a feeling that she is a consistent and reliable person.

Her 16-piece wardrobe at the end of March was warmly-colored, and quite versatile:

Our heroine was more than ready to start buying spring clothes, but when she saw this suede blazer, she re-thought everything!

This jacket is the kind of thing that might make it worth changing plans - it's an investment without being ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

April 1, 2026

No April Fools here... Just a heroine who has her eyes on a bigger office, more responsibility, and a better paycheck!

She's chosen this vivid work of art as her inspiration and source of her disciplined color palette:

Her palette is here; she's decided that she's going to include white in this. White makes a ton of sense for almost every wardrobe, but it's particularly appropriate for an office environment:

At the end of March, our heroine had a 16 piece wardrobe for work. Sixteen garments is barely enough for a week of work, but she's been making it work, so far!

Our heroine looked (and LOOKED!!!) for her petrol blue accent color, and wasn't able to find anything she loved. So she decided that it ... View the Post

Expanding a Small Summer Wardrobe – Start With Art: Florentine Villas by Paul Klee

March 30, 2026

I'm sure you remember back to Friday, when we met our heroine who was going to try to have a more organized "weekend and vacation" wardrobe for the upcoming warm weather.

Her favorite painting, and her wardrobe color palette, are this:

She never wears blue. Nor purple, but I still like her!

When she arrived for her first weekend this year at the summer house, she has the following wardrobe:

The weather was cool back home, so our heroine decided to wear this outfit to drive home, and then she just wore the same thing on Friday evening to come back up to the gathering family and friends at the house:

Our heroine has a pretty clear vision of how she wants to ... View the Post

Starting A Spring and Summer Wardrobe – Start With Art: Florentine Villas by Paul Klee

March 26, 2026

She likes these colors, and the angular, graphic qualities throughout this painting:

She discovered at the end of last summer that she just doesn't wear blue - not denim, not chambray, not a tee shirt...

This summer, her wardrobe is going to be these colors:

Last summer, on the last weekend they were at the summer house, she carried out enough clothes to outfit her entire extended family, plus a few neighbors! She didn't have a plan, she didn't have a clear color palette, and she forgot what was already AT the house. Not this year!

The weather is changeable, so she's starting with a mix of legitimately summery clothes, and adding in a couple of sweaters, and a pair of long-sleeved shirts...

A ... View the Post

Report From England, March 2026

March 25, 2026

The jet leg always gets you on the second day...

England was a delightful spring-like wonderland compared to the cold that greeted us when we got back to Chicago!

There were flowers everywhere:

We weren't in London for all that long; we bracketed our rural driving adventures with time in London, but not nearly ENOUGH time. I think London is like Paris (or New York, or Chicago...) in that you can spend a lifetime getting to know the city, and you'll still fall short!

Everything I'm sharing today is kind of random stream of sleepiness, as opposed to stream of consciousness; I'm not completely awake, so my stream of consciousness might just drop off...zzz...

First up, I did very little shopping, and bought ... View the Post

Ready for Spring? Start With Art – Costal Image by Theo van Rysselberghe

March 20, 2026

I had hoped to see this painting at The National Gallery in London, but I understand that it's not currently on display. I'm sure I'll find something else that appeals...

With warmer weather approaching (although we had HAIL last night...) I thought that this felt just right:

Yes, we started with this heroine six years ago, at the beginning of pandemic work from home... I did NOT look back at her original wardrobe when I started this; it's interesting that yet again, I chose to work with wardrobe clusters!

Our heroine is still working from home most of the time. They're expected to be in their office four days a month - generally everybody shows up on Thursday because they bring lunch in for everyone. If you ... View the Post

How Fast Can You Pack?

March 20, 2026

If you've never had to pack in a hurry because of an emergency, count yourself among the lucky. It could be a family illness in another place, a weather thing, or a man-made disaster of unimaginable awfulness...

But since we are clever heroines, we have thought about this ahead of time, and when we have to address this challenge, we have a pretty good idea of how to proceed!

First and maybe foremost, have you taken a look at your toiletry kit recently? It should be ready to go all the time. Take a few minutes in the next few days and check if you need a new bit of toothpaste, or if your face wash bottle is nearly empty. Is anything that might have an expiration date still current?

When it comes to clothing, I can ... View the Post

Three Ideas for Two Dresses

March 18, 2026

I'm sitting here right now in a dress and a velvet jacket, with black "sneakerinas." For no good reason - I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not going to see anybody outside of my building. (which is not to say that my doormen aren't tremendously important to me!)

So I'm in a rebelliously "wear whatever you blinkin' well please" mood. And I think that almost every woman should have a fun dress..

How about something like this?

(I know, it's sleeveless. Your arms aren't perfect. YOU HAVE LIVED YOUR LIFE, AND YOUR ARMS REFLECT THIS. IT'S OKAY!)

I'm really on a rant...

First, it's easy to wear this dress with a classic cardigan and the normal accessories. This is the kind of outfit you ... View the Post

The Simplest Packing I Can Devise! England March 2026

March 16, 2026

Cross your fingers that I'm in London while you're reading this! We're flying into London, hanging around for a couple of days, then driving around Suffolk for a few days, then returning to London for a last night, and coming home. It's going to be pretty whirlwind - four hotels in 8 days. So I'm not going to be seeing people over and over again, not that this really matters!

One of the towns we're visiting:

Changing subjects: what was your closest friend wearing the last time you saw them? Do you remember? What will you think if they're wearing the same thing the next time you see them?

See? Repeating outfits isn't going to make you a pariah. If you know people for whom this is a "thing," don't cater to their ... View the Post

March 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

March 13, 2026

If all goes as planned, and I don't take a tumble and break myself, Belovedest and I are on our way to London, and then a couple of small English towns. Cross your fingers that my coordination holds up!

And now, let's visit our sixth painting - modern, angular, unusual colors, and just plain stuck in my mind:

Our heroine - the graphic artist who specialized in mixing fonts - has chosen these colors around which to build her wardrobe:

Let me share a bit about this heroine: she wants to become a reformed impulse shopper, and thus is trying HARD to stay within her chosen palette. She's come to realize that it's time to buy less, buy better, buy things that have a consistent feel and look. She would really ... View the Post