The Vivienne Files - Page 80 of 269 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 32: dark neutral lightweight pants

February 7, 2020

They're regular long pants, but they're NOT denim, nor corduroy, nor velvet - they're a lovely seasonless (and often no-iron!) cotton pants. The perfect thing to wear on all but the most steamy, or shivery, days...

It's good to remember how versatile these can be; having more than 1 pair wouldn't be a silly extravagance if you wore them a lot!

I kept some of the accessories from last week, and the cardigan... Imagine if you had last week's and this week's clothes (and probably the week before) in black and white, or any of the evolving "color stories" in this series. Options make getting dressed (and thus life) easier...

Of COURSE you can wear hot pink espadrilles with a flower on them! ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – February

February 7, 2020

THIS is just perfect; what a great way to bring some cheer into your day, and some Mardi Gras spirit to your outfit throughout the year:

I was sorely tempted to dress our heroine in creamy silk with bright accents, but alas, creamy silk is not yet available from anybody I could see...

But there are ALWAYS options, if we think long and hard enough!

She Thought She Was Going to Mardi Gras for her vacation. But just a few days before she was to leave, the head of the Engineering Department told the Sales Manager that SHE should go to their biggest client for the launch of a number of system modifications. After all, she designed all of the carbon-neutral adaptations for the client operations - who better to ... View the Post

February 2020 Six Scarves, Twelve Months, Twelve Outfits

February 5, 2020

A new month!

I'm still quite smitten with this color palette; it's pretty classic, with the navy and camel, but the accent colors keep it from being too predictable:

I'm making a big change this year from the outfits that I included in previous years in February. I used to feel that this was a good time to include a dress - mostly because I'm a total Valentine's Day sap. But I'm going to try to be a LOT more strategic in my choices this year, and to me that means another sweater, another pair of pants, and another shirt. It makes a lot of sense when you see the January and February outfits on the same page.

I could NOT resist this shirt. I feel like it was made for this color palette...

Here's ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 31: Cropped Pants or Capris

February 3, 2020

Oh, this really feels like preparing for warm weather! That said, with boots and tights, these pants could be worn most of the year...

I like these pants because I feel a LOT more modest in them than I do in shorts. I also feel that I'm appropriate for a wider range of places and activities than I might be in something above my knees; you might feel differently! As with all garments, you have to know what you find most comfortable (both physically and mentally/emotionally) and fully honor your preferences.

The example outfits that follow are gradually changed from last week's outfits, which in turn evolved from the outfits of the week before that. My goal is to show how gradually adding carefully-chosen ... View the Post

Paris Part 2: Lots of Art, Lots of Street Art, and More Good Food…

January 30, 2020

I remember where we ate dinner Tuesday night!!!!

(it's the small victories, right?)

We stopped at Breizh (pronounced brezzz) Cafe for crepes in the late afternoon, because... well... we were hungry! And these crepes - if you eat both a savory and a sweet one - will hold you over for at least 1 meal. This café is very trendy - lots of tourists - and you often have to stand on line to get in. We got lucky and wandered in because we were eating between traditional meal times. It's worth considering, since this is a really tasty place. That said, you can find good crepes in about a million places around the city, including the people standing behind a crepe griddle, handing crepes over to eat while ... View the Post

Paris Part 1: The Most Simple Travel Capsule Wardrobe Possible, and Lots of Good Food…

January 29, 2020

I'm back! And it was glorious... Any time I get to spend that much uninterrupted time with Belovedest is going to be great, but this trip was truly special. Today and Friday I'm going to try to share some of it with you. If you're planning to go to Paris any time soon, I've got some suggestions, and if you can't make the trip, travel along in your imagination!

We left mid-day Saturday, with stunningly cheap tickets on Aer Lingus, the Irish airline. This of course meant that we connected through Dublin, which was quite simple. The most difficult part for me was wanting to just stay in Ireland! But Paris beckoned...

What did I wear for this epic 2 day trip? Why, my argyle cardigan of course! (This isn't ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 30: An Accent or Print Short-sleeved Tee

January 27, 2020

I don't know how your winter is going, but I suspect that many of us are ready for a wardrobe accent!

I love me a good floral print, and I'm not a particularly "girly" kind of woman. But I think that flowers are always pretty, and always a welcome sight. For a woman with a wardrobe with a grey core, who's looking for warm accent colors, this first tee shirt is spot on!

This hardest, but most important, thing to remember when looking at print tee shirts is to hold fast to your core wardrobe colors. So many tee shirts are pretty and appealing, but won't go with anything you own. Unless you plan to frame your new tee shirt and hang it on the wall, avoid incompatible colors...

This first outfit is pretty ... View the Post

I Love IT, but Will I Wear IT? Ivory Cardigan

January 24, 2020

I was despairing of what I was going to post, when I got an email asking about a cardigan of a different color! I'm so grateful for you all...

My heroine didn't tell me what her favorite neutral is, so yet again I'm going to experiment with this sweater worn with a handful of neutral colors. There's pretty much no color that this wouldn't go with; I might hesitate about wearing it with pure white, but then again...

I love the way ivory looks with chambray - it makes it feel sort of dressed up. Definitely not the way denim colors usually look!

I like ivory and grey together - they're both softly muted... The scarf actually looks a lot better tied than it does laying out flat, but I couldn't find a ... View the Post

Start with Art: Flowers and Flames by Kay Nielsen

January 22, 2020

You'll notice that this heroine is packing many of the same garments as the heroine from last Wednesday! It's amazing how much difference changing up some accent colors - and the accessories that bring everything together - can make a wardrobe look completely different... It Calls to Her...

She's been working for years on a species of eucalyptus that won't catch fire quite as easily as the existing plants. It's suddenly a timely subject... And she's been invited to a conference about post-wildfire reclamation, at which her new plants will be a subject of conversation.

Since she's only going for a couple of days, she's packing according to the Perfect 10 Packing template:

Normally, this heroine is pretty ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 29: A Light Neutral Tee shirt

January 20, 2020

If black tee shirts are the backbone of my winter wardrobe, then white ones are the warm-weather backbone!

Seriously, for those days when you just need clarity, simplicity, and a feeling of freshness, nothing's better than starting with a white shirt of your desired style, coupled with your dark neutral pants or jeans, and a snazzy cardigan to brighten up the world...

These tee shirts can be real life-savers when you travel; after I'm through packing, I will often tuck another tee or 2 into my bag...

There's frankly not a lot of variety in the world of light neutrals - grey, white, ivory, and pale pink are the colors that come to my mind. Maybe camel, if your lightest neutral isn't exactly ... View the Post

I Love IT, but Will I Wear IT? Camel Cardigan

January 17, 2020

Oooh, this is SUCH a good garment for this kind of thinking. Camel is so lovely - rich and warm, and pretty difficult to find in a lot of garments. So you might find yourself really stuck for ideas about how to wear something cozy and nice like this:

I'm not going to offer up a single color palette for this cardigan, because I frankly don't know what the favorite colors are of the heroine who received this over the holidays. Rather, I'm going to share SIX possible "neutral partners" for camel...

When in doubt, you always know that denim goes with... everything? Is there a color that you wouldn't wear with denim and chambray? I can't think of one...

I like the possibility of wearing ivory corduroy pants ... View the Post

Start with Art: The Black Duck by Marsden Hartley

January 15, 2020

As I start sorting out my brain to pack for Paris, I'm looking a lot at the Perfect 10 Packing Template... Bird Watching

Nothing rigorous - no cameras, no sitting in a blind somewhere waiting for hours for the sighting of the rare crested whompalicious swamp duck... Just lounging by the lake, on the deck, sipping a warm beverage and watching the birds come and go...

Her plan is to keep it simple:

She loves the unexpectedness of using brown with black. Why don't more people wear them together? Lots of birds pair the 2 colors in the plumage...

She will be going out at night with friends, so she plans for a couple of slightly dressy evenings...

She reviews her template carefully...

And ... View the Post