The Vivienne Files - Page 70 of 269 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

If I Were Shopping: The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale

August 12, 2020

It's the biggest event of the year, for bloggers. Nordstrom having a sale is kind of big news in the retail/style industries, but for bloggers it's more than just a big sale. Nordstrom is probably the most generous retailer to bloggers - their commissions are substantial...

And that's why you're going to see lots of people talking about this sale in the next couple of weeks!

I always have mixed feelings about all of this; I don't suspect that you all believe that I'm writing The Vivienne Files just for the karmic bonuses that I earn from trying to be entertaining and helpful!

But I don't like to recommend things to you just because I make money, or just because things are on sale. Often, sale merchandise is stuff ... View the Post

A Navy and Camel Winter Weekly Timeless Wardrobe – Adding Accessories

August 11, 2020

Ah, winter... My favorite season, with my favorite clothes!

Let's look back - our mythical heroine has chosen this Weekly Timeless Wardrobe as her starting point:

And she's very smitten with camel, right now. So she's going to supplement her 13-piece wardrobe with these additional seven pieces - they give her a refreshed color palette, and a lot of new options:

Our heroine is thus starting her winter with these 20 garments (and, of course all of the other garments from the 3 other seasons!):

So let's assemble, for our heroine, a half-dozen representative outfits from this wardrobe, and add some accessories to each outfit!

First up - WARMTH! I can vouch for the waterproof, comfortable warmth of ... View the Post

Accessories for an Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe + Burgundy Accents!

August 10, 2020

Ah, Autumn clothes! Is there a more fun season for beautiful clothes?

Let's do some building around this Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe core:

Just for the sheer fun of it, I found some burgundy (ish?) garments to add to this 7-piece Accents and Extras!

Now, our Autumn 20-piece wardrobe is together - it looks VERY fall-ish, doesn't it?

Let's start enjoying accessories!

When you're wearing burgundy, garnets seems like the most obvious stone to look for in jewelry. Garnets don't have to be insanely expensive (although there are some eye-wateringly dear pieces out there, of course!).

And a couple of timeless navy leather accessories...

This cotton scarf is small - a neckerchief, I believe ... View the Post

A Navy-Based Summer Weekly Timeless Wardrobe – Adding Accessories

August 7, 2020

Let's look at summer accessories! I love this stuff...

First up, let's start with the core "Weekly Timeless Wardrobe" for summer that we've been studying for a while:

To this handy, tidy little wardrobe, let's add the bright blue accents we saw before:

So our Summer heroine is going to start choosing accessories by assembling outfits from this 20-piece capsule wardrobe:

First, why NOT wear floral canvas shoes?

This heroine got her sunglasses back in the Spring Accessories assortment, but she certainly could still use a good hat! (the crown collapses on this hat, so it can be packed - such smart people...)

And of course we all need masks... sigh...

A pretty dress deserves some nice ... View the Post

Adding Accessories to a Navy-Based Spring Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 6, 2020

Accessories! My favorite things in any wardrobe... except maybe a glorious sweater, or something velvet...

I'm going to use just the Spring Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, and 1 Cluster of accents, for this; I've got a reason, trust me!

Remember this amazingly useful bunch of stuff?

If we add these seven Accent and Extra garments, we will have a nice tidy 20-piece wardrobe. In my world, that feels a lot like 4 5-piece clusters! (or, of course, 5 4-piece clusters! you could find a few other combinations, I'm sure...)

These are the 20 Spring garments to which we will be adding accessories:

As has been my habit lately, I'm going to assemble six outfits from this fun little wardrobe, and then add ... View the Post

Adding Accents to a Cool Weather Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 5, 2020

I tried, SO HARD, to find enough burgundy pieces to use burgundy as an accent color; J. Crew has a perfect crewneck sweater in burgundy, (it comes in FOURTEEN colors!) but that was about as far as I could get!

So.... camel and teal! Not too bad a compromise, eh?

Let's get back to our starting Autumn and Winter Weekly Timeless Wardrobes:

I can't believe how many times I kept looking at navy dotted shirts, and dotted skirts... I'm obsessed, I fear....

When we break this wardrobe down by garment, we're pretty well balanced, but could certainly use some more colors!

Let's attack that camel idea that I had...

I've had a feeling about this heroine for a few days - I think her life requires a ... View the Post

Adding Accents to a Warm Weather Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 4, 2020

Let's see what kind of fun we can have, now that the Weekly Timeless Wardrobes are finished!

It seems to me that during the Spring and Summer, you might just as well keep both seasonal 13-piece Wardrobes in your closet - 26 garments isn't going to fill any but the tiniest of closets. (I had a closet in Dublin that was pretty full when you got above 30....)

Of course, in the earliest months of Spring, you're probably going to want some Winter clothes still! But let's assume for our purposes that the following plan is for all of the warm weather months, no matter when they fall!

Remember, we had complete, if somewhat monochromatic, Spring and Summer wardrobes from earlier:

Let's put everything from these ... View the Post

August 2020 Six Scarves, Twelve Months, Twelve Outfits

August 3, 2020

Grab your beverage of choice and make yourself comfortable; this is a BIG post! From here on, every "first of the month" post will have 42 images... My computer whimpers at the very sight of this file...

Normally, August has been a month in which we started preparing to get back to work, and savor the beauty of fall clothing. Many years, this has meant a blouse, cardigan and skirt, with appropriate accessories.

But this year, I'm going to be realistic, and address the life that most of us are living, and will be living probably until next Spring. This, to me, means jeans, a sweatshirt, and something to wear under the sweatshirt! And a mask...

If you question your ability to wear a sweatshirt with a scarf, or with ... View the Post

A Spring Wardrobe! A Navy & Beige Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

July 31, 2020

One more season! The difference between the Spring wardrobe and the Winter is so pronounced - I thought that I was doing something wrong, until I stopped for a minute and remembered that... well... Spring IS DIFFERENT from Winter.

And I thank Buddha for that, every lovely April day...

You can clearly see that Spring is where my personal preferences shifted to pink WITH A VENGEANCE!

As always, there are 3 clusters here - these could be arranged in a different way if it works better for you! The whole point is that it should work for you...

This is what the original Spring wardrobe looks like when it's broken into 3 Clusters:

Am I going to be able to make this work in navy and ... View the Post

A Winter Cluster Wardrobe in Navy, Beige, Green and White

July 30, 2020

If you're tasked with finding a winter wardrobe right now, I wish you all KINDS of luck. This is not a year during which all of the retailers have rushed to thrill us with cashmere, velvet, tweed, and lots of boots...

Nevertheless, we persist...

Remember this wardrobe from week 26 of The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe? I love this one...

So what IS a cluster, anyway? To me, a cluster is a group of clothes - 4, 5 or 6 at the most - that all go together, that give you a range of ensembles, and that are built around 1 or 2 "bottoms."

My logic is that if you have a couple of spare tops to wear with a pair of pants,

you aren't stuck when you're traveling and someone spills coffee on your shirt; if the weather ... View the Post

Building an Autumn Weekly Timeless Wardrobe using Clusters!

July 29, 2020

This is the wardrobe that I would be working on right now - although it's still a good time to find nice summer garments, late summer is the best time to find autumn clothes! (well, in a normal year...)

Remember this from 39 weeks ago?

These garments divide pretty neatly into 3 clusters; this isn't the only way the clusters could sort out, so if you have a different preference, go with it!

This is what the 3 clusters would look like - it's easy to see a ton of possible outfits from these:

So, with our color scheme from yesterday of navy and beige as neutrals, forest green as the accent (and white as the "spare" light neutral that keeps our heroine from having to wear beige shirts!), let's ... View the Post

Building Your Weekly Timeless Wardrobe by Clusters!

July 28, 2020

Yes, the series ended yesterday, but my ideas about it could go on for a long time...

The world's easiest flashback - remember these 13 garments from yesterday's post?

It's been pretty evident to me for a while that these 13 garments arranged themselves into 3 clusters pretty neatly. Actually, you could arrange these pieces in at least a few different ways, but for now I'm looking at this:

If you're not inclined to want to analyze your wardrobe on a weekly basis, maybe shift to a monthly basis, and look at clusters rather than individual garments!

Plus, this is a really easy way to pack - if you pack clusters, you know for a fact that you have garments that go together! (you do of course have to be sure ... View the Post