The Vivienne Files - Page 3 of 270 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

May 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2 – Of by Elizabeth Magill

April 23, 2025

I often wonder about having a wardrobe that is essentially just two colors; for literally decades, I wore only black and white. That might be a bit stark now, but shades of grey, and shades of burgundy/pink? Hmm...

This heroine's 20-piece wardrobe from the last installment is the kind of thing that I would pack and run with for months... Sigh...

When our heroine saw that Eileen Fisher was offering graphite linen pieces, she was sold! Although the vest and pants are linen, there's really NO reason (except warmth) that they can't be worn all year. The vest has a lot of potential over shirts, tee shirts, on its own...

And who could resist the French lilac top and the floral scarf?

Her wardrobe doesn't ... View the Post

May 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1 – The Swan No. 24 by Hilma Af Klint

April 21, 2025

Well this feels weird, doesn't it? We just finished these paintings a few days ago, and now we're back with them.

Realistically (we can do realism once in a while, can't we?), this might be more the way a normal person would pull together a capsule wardrobe after cleaning out closets, or changing their life dramatically. It would be interesting to have just four garments for a month, then eight, then twelve garments in the third month, but most of us couldn't function very long that way!

So let's visit this heroine with her most enigmatic, yet alluring, painting inspiration:

When we just saw this heroine with her April wardrobe additions, she had a 20-piece wardrobe that looks as if it could get you through ... View the Post

Five Final Colors from Autumn/Winter 2025/26

April 18, 2025

The last five colors, until the next batch of colors appears!

I'm thinking of assembling all of the Pantone images that I've ever done - well, all the ones that I can find - and putting them into a big file that you could download. My ideas it that being able to see a LOT of these colors all together would give us all a broad base for figuring out favorites...

Let's (very carefully!) jump in:

Who doesn't look good in teal? I remember that it was always one of the four accent colors that were suggested when you needed a color that was at least neutral on most people. (the other three were coral, true royal purple, and a clear pink)

I'm becoming a big fan of Chili Oil - I could break down and buy ALL of ... View the Post

Just Some Art, Today…

April 16, 2025

I've got flu. No kidding. I thought it was just a cold, but HECK NO...

So I'm sharing some paintings - I have hundreds of works of art saved on my computer and on my phone. I may as well share them with you, right?

I have a favorite; it changes every ten minutes...

love,

Janice

... View the Post

Five More Colors from Pantone – Some of Them Are Repeats…

April 14, 2025

Big confession here - I've lost ALL TRACK of what colors came from New York Fashion Week (capitalized, of course!), and which came from London Fashion Week.

I'm not sure that it matters to us, frankly. I got to the point where I had so many files and tabs open that I despaired of my limited sanity, so I've just decided to carry on as if I know what I'm doing!

And yes, some colors appear on both lists. It's interesting going BACK to a color after I thought I was quite finished with it...

But these are interesting, and all are lovely, depending on your taste. There's someone for every color, I'm convinced!

I rather love this green; I see it with brown all year. The brown buttons on the cardigan help that thought. ... View the Post

Another Five New Pantone Colors (Red and Brown!), and Five “French Five-Piece” Wardrobes”

April 11, 2025

Why yes, all five of these are some sort of red or brown. I don't know what Pantone's got in mind here, but I think anybody with some red or brown in their wardrobe is going to be very "on trend." As if we ever cared about trends - those are for people who don't know their own style!

Some of these colors are lovely; I'm eager to know which of these you like:

I'm quite smitten with brown these days - is this just finally embracing having brown eyes?

Chili Oil seems to be like a color that will look good any time of year...

And I clearly see this color more suiting autumn rather than summer, but what do you think?

This color is wonderful....

What's your favorite, if any? I think I'm ... View the Post

Five New Pantone Colors, and Five “French Five-Piece” Wardrobes”

April 9, 2025

Pantone has graciously shared with us their color choices for the upcoming Autumn and Winter, taken from what they saw at the London Fashion Week. There are also colors from the New York week - I will look at them all...

There are a couple of reasons that I always like to visit these colors:

We all want to at least consider new accent colors from time to time, and this gives us a good opportunity to visualize what a new color might look like in a range of items - shoes, bag, earrings etc. For all of us who know our accent colors, there's often a color in these lists that very close to what we've already chosen. These posts give us a chance to see some new items in our favorite colors!

So I'm showing you five ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #6 – Street Lights by Stefan Johansson

April 8, 2025 It's snowing in Chicago. It might just be "lake-effect" snow - I live within sight of Lake Michigan - but it's still startling, in April. But this heroine, big fan of the warmest, most intense colors, is ready for Spring! As has been true for all of our heroines, her 16-piece wardrobe from the end of March would be a great wardrobe for travel that included a range of temperatures: This heroine feels that her colors are hard to find, and she therefore grabs things that she sees in her colors as soon as they're available. I'm not actually certain that these colors are all that rare; I suspect we might find that we need to really stock up on olive and off-white at some stage. But she's right - who could resist this ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #5 – Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

April 7, 2025

I think I say the same thing with every painting - if I were starting from scratch, THIS color palette would really tempt me...

One of the things that always attracts me are the 16-piece wardrobes. This is a level at which you're looking at an appropriate number of garments for travel - wear 3, pack 13. This wardrobe would cover you - literally - from cold weather (a down jacket stuffed into the outside pocket of your suitcase?) to quite warm days - a tee shirt and shorts, with sandals.

I'm just itching to travel... Which is good, since we're leaving for Ireland (Fingers crossed!) at the end of the month!!!

Our heroine's current wardrobe has three teal sweaters, which is a lot! But this happens sometimes ... View the Post

A New Goodie for You!

April 6, 2025 We've talked a lot about how useful the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe template is for planning - unless you live in a place that doesn't have a 4-season climate! So I went into the template and created EVERY possible combination of seasons that I think exist. (if you find more, please let me know!) You need a template with two Summer seasons and two Winter seasons? (I see you, snowbird!) It's there... Live somewhere that never gets terrible hot or cold? Now you can plan with two Springs and two Winters! I hope this is helpful for you. It's 70 pages (35 combinations, with both a clearly legible table of text and a "greyed out" table, so that you can write over it!), so it takes a minute or two to download. Thus, it's priced at ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4 – Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 4, 2025

This is such a great painting to look at when it's still SO COLD here in Chicago; it feels like water, and growing green things, and sand, and sun...

I always picture this wardrobe as something for someone who lives all year at a place that's a big summer vacation destination. She is always in touch with sand, sky and water, but wearing some warmer fabrics! This was her wardrobe at the end of March:

She was quite smitten with the navy dress post here from the end of March, so a navy shirt and pants seems like an easy way for a "non-dress" person to replicate that idea. As I said before - a navy column is a navy column!

Are the striped shoes too much? She was smitten, and sometimes you're going to buy ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3 – Of by Elizabeth Magill

April 3, 2025

I really love this painting - so simple, such lovely colors, such texture...

This heroine's 16-piece "end of March" wardrobe in lovely, and would get one through quite a lot of travel:

This heroine was leaning toward warm weather clothes anyway - when she saw the foxglove dress, she knew for certain that she was on the right track! Neutral shorts and a matching tee shirt, and a pretty merino polo finish off her April shopping:

With her wardrobe augmented for warmer weather, this 20-piece capsule wardrobe could be used for round-the-world travel! (give me a suitcase and a ticket...)

Our heroine is all over the place with her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe plan, which kind of makes sense when ... View the Post