The Vivienne Files - Page 73 of 269 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

Start with Art: Pink and Black by Ed Clark

June 19, 2020

It really stuck with her, and so she decided to make it part of her life!

"It Might Not Even Happen...." They're talking about her spouse's annual corporate meeting. Always a weird few days for her, because she travels along just to attend cocktail parties and dinners... It's scheduled for late October this year, but of course that's subject to change or cancellation...

But she's going to go ahead and plan her travel capsule wardrobe because... um... why not? At least this way, she can have a good capsule wardrobe for staying home in the autumn, at a minimum!

She had planned to just pack black, white and grey, because she could NOT find any nice garments in her new favorite shade of pink, from her favorite ... View the Post

I Love IT, But Will I Wear It? A Brown Cashmere Sweater

June 18, 2020

Brown is the most annoying color to try to find in clothing. Well, okay, maybe it's olive green, or a true purple, but for those who would love to build a core wardrobe in brown, it's maddening!

So when I was asked about these sweaters, I jumped on the idea right away:

Brown goes beautifully with just about every neutral...

I love brown and black together - I know that it violates that rule about wearing warm and cool colors together, but I've never believed that to be true! Nature is full of examples of warm and cool colors together...

Grey might be the most difficult of the six neutrals to wear with brown, but it's still not a big struggle. A little bit of silver jewelry and you're ... View the Post

Rescuing Forgotten Accessories: The Navy Blackthorn Scarf

June 17, 2020

Maybe it's not really a forgotten accessory - maybe you just got it. Still, when a new scarf arrives at your home, it can be sort of overwhelming to figure out what to do with it!

For me, in warm weather, with a rectangular scarf, I would first off try to see if I could wear it in my hair! And then I'd play around with how I would tie it to a handbag. Then I would think about actually wearing it around my neck. The more ways you can find to wear a scarf, the more often you'll be able to incorporate it into an outfit....

Let's ponder how you might wear (or be inspired by) this scarf for the next 4 months...

First month, it's smart to make certain that you've got the necessary solid-colored tee shirts and ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Camel and Olive Green Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 16, 2020 She's NOT Happy... Business travel? NOW? Yes, she's got to go. No, her employer won't compromise. She very nearly quits... Especially when she learns that the weather where she's going is decidedly cool...

But they've said that she can fly 1st Class, and eat room service, and have any laundry or other services that she needs for her comfort...

So she starts here:

And then she pulls from her closet a tidy core for her travel wardrobe. A tidy, VERY "prone to need to be laundered frequently" core...

She will probably only need to dress really "up" once, so she's going to need a balance of casual and dressy. She pulls her scarves out of her dresser drawer and spreads them out on the bed, and then starts to ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 46: Neutral lightweight 2nd layer

June 15, 2020

My plans for this were so good, I thought for sure that I could find lovely linen shirts for everybody! Normally, this time of year, stores are FULL of linen, silk or cotton "overshirts," which is exactly what I had in mind for this wardrobe addition...

But NOT this year - things are selling out quickly so I had to do a little bit of scrambling... Thus, we've got ruanas and cardigans and shirts and kurtas...

It was pretty straightforward finding toppers that will work with the growing wardrobes built around these 6 scarves:

The thing that convinces me that this layer is useful? The fact that everybody I know with a car keeps a cardigan in the back seat ALL SUMMER!

Oh how I WISH someone would make ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Teal and Hot Pink Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 12, 2020

It seemed like a good idea - take a couple of the scarves from yesterday, along with the accessories, and see how they would work for a travel capsule wardrobe. So let's go!

There are the 2 scarves that are going to be the starting point for this wardrobe:

First up, I added a tank top to both of these Accessory Families, so that the accent colors would be well-represented in the clothing for this trip...

Navy would be a lovely neutral with these 2 accents, but I thought that I'd go full-on summer with beige and white:

This would be such an easy trip - travel wearing the beige cardigan and pants, and the beige espadrilles, with any of the 4 tops. Pack the other 6 garments and the accessories, and ... View the Post

Choosing a Scarf: The PJ Studio Accessories Edition

June 11, 2020

After I looked for a while at the "Choosing a Scarf" post that I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, I was determined that I wanted to try this idea again!

To me, a scarf is the quintessence of your style. It's a distillation of the colors that you like, as well as the overall kind of patterns or prints or images that delight you...

When I was scarf hunting, I bumped into this designer, and this assortment of lovely things:

As I did before, I'm choosing to show a handful of things that could be worn with each scarf in question. I'm not necessarily suggesting that you need to own all of these things, or that you would wear them all together (that might be overdoing things a bit...).

But what I do think ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting L’Ombre by Pablo Picasso

June 10, 2020

You might remember this psychiatrist from the spring of 2017; her casual wardrobe occasioned some discussions about how professionals should dress... She Wasn't Sure If She Would Go...

But they've asked her to sit on the dais 1 night, so she feels like that's a reason to show up...

Many of the meetings will be outdoors - better for social distancing, and more relaxing. The dinner's are rather nice, but most of the conference is quite casual...

She can drive there in just a couple of hours, so there's no worry about being on an airplane. And she'll have a private hotel room, and be outdoors much of the time, so overall the conference sounds both safe and... could it be? almost pleasant!

She's got ... View the Post

Revisiting the Triple Top Secret

June 9, 2020

Watching lots of people wandering about with backpacks, this last weekend, I was wondering what everybody was carrying! I know, water bottles, spare phone batteries etc. but I wondered if they had any clothes with them...

And that got me to thinking about what you want to have handy if you're going to be out for a LONG day. Say you start out with breakfast and sight seeing early in the morning. You're going into areas that are air conditioned, and the weather might turn flat-out cool later in the evening. What to do?

This is something that I've tried to remember to do, when packing, for years - make certain that I've got at least 3 tops with me that can ALL be worn together, or in any various combination of 2, or ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 45: Dark Neutral Lightweight Pants

June 8, 2020

I don't know about where you are, but right now, if I have to pull on a pair of pants, they'd BETTER be linen... (I don't love heat...)

This time of year, if you're going to wear your favorite silk scarf, it might be smart to consider wearing it in your hair, or on your bag, or... (there must be more ideas...)

I can't emphasize enough that we need to be vigilant about reading every word of the descriptions of items that we find online. I searched, SPECIFICALLY, for silk pants, and was returned a ton of satin pants (most of them polyester).

While I'm nagging about careful reading, if you order earrings, be certain that you're getting TWO earrings (unless, of course, you only want to order one earring). ... View the Post

Start with Nature: Revisiting the Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

June 5, 2020

In the dead of winter, four years ago, we visited with this heroine when her friends invited her south for a long weekend to get out of the cold... I'm SO smitten with the color palette; if I were to start over, I admit that brown leather goods would tempt me!

Drive Down! Her friends have invited her back...

"We've on this kick where we have full-blown dinner parties every night. It's been the same gang of us for the last few months; we could use a new guest!"

"Since you've been quarantined for a couple of months, and so have we, can we assume that we're safe for each other?"

"My brother and sister-in-law are staying in the guest house, so you can take the upstairs suite; with the kids ... View the Post

Rescuing a Forgotten Garment: Print Sleeveless Tunic

June 4, 2020

Today's interesting warning - if you're wearing a mask frequently, be ABSOLUTELY sure that you're washing both the mask(s) and your face every 5 minutes or so. I currently have a really painful broken-out face from mask irritation. It's both ugly and sore...

But let's look at helping one of our friends get some good use from a beautiful garment, eh?

This isn't the exact tunic, of course, but it's sleeveless, and includes the colors royal blue, black and white, just like our friend's tunic. So I'm hopeful that any advice I can think of will be useful!

With a little bit of thought, this top could be worn for most of the year - I know it's odd to think of wearing sleeveless things in cooler weather, but stick with ... View the Post