Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature
June 20, 2017
Of course!
Flash back to one of my favorite posts - based upon a montage of images of a lunar eclipse, and see how just the right shades of orange can look great with black! Do notice the way the accessories echo her affection for the moon - moonstone jewelry, a single round button on a sweater, the round face of her watch (accented with a round gold dot!)...
love, Janice ... View the Post
June 2, 2017
I hope that this was worth the extra day's wait!
First off, all of the scarves are sold out at Hermes. If you're really madly eager to have one of them, let me know and I'll see if I can help you to find it in the secondary market.
In this month's wardrobe building, everybody's shopping for a dress (not necessarily something really "dressy") and the necessary accessories...
First up, I'm mad tempted by this simple black dress! I can see myself wandering around downtown in this... sigh...
And kindly notice the linear quality of the sandals, echoed by the striped tote! My days are made when such discoveries fall into place...
Halfway through the year, this is our heroine's wardrobe:
And just to ... View the Post
May 26, 2017
Doesn't this make you want to just sit somewhere and watch the world go by?
Someone driving up with friends for a spa weekend is using this color scheme to inspire her packing... (well, it inspires her entire wardrobe, not just one weekend!)
Since they're driving, she can be super-casual and relaxed, but she still has her favorite leaf-motif jewelry - the painting strongly suggests that she's a nature lover.
Once they're at the spa, they'll be living in their robes, but she's going to need an outfit to get home in, and maybe something other than a robe in which to dine. Just because they put you in a robe doesn't mean that you're not allowed to get dressed!
It's a tiny ... View the Post
May 24, 2017
If you're in Chicago, you of course must go to the Art Institute of Chicago, our very deservedly famous art museum. But when you're there, make sure not to miss the fabric exhibit. It's small, it's in the basement, it changes every few months, and it NEVER disappoints...
Seen there last weekend, included in a really stunning exhibit of batik fabrics:
This fabric is maybe 9 or 10 feet long, and 4 feet wide. It's really kind of breathtaking...
Seeing these neutral colors working so beautifully together, our mythical heroine was able to solve her packing dilemma...
I've got it all arranged...
We'll just go from city to city by train; I've already purchased the train passes....
Well okay, she ... View the Post
May 19, 2017
Ireland? I used to live there! If you're going there, you're in for a treat... but be warned, much of the year it's a somewhat colder treat than you might be expecting...Let's use a beautiful, simple painting to focus our color choices, and just to treat ourselves, eh?
This is NOT going to be a "Whatever's Clean" wardrobe - it would certainly be possible to do it with this color scheme, but I'm going to recklessly include both pink and red pieces here that will not play nicely together. You don't have to have every last little thing matching, so long as you've got the basic neutrals in place...
You might feel really foolish leaving a fairly warm place and getting onto an airplane while wearing or ... View the Post
May 11, 2017
They were wearing black! Of course they were wearing black.... Or navy blue...So what I really noticed were the accent colors - the bright pops of cheer that stood out in the crowd.
Please note that I did NOT ever go up to someone and ask them what brand of whatever they were wearing; I took careful notes, and have attempted to recreate their overall look as well as I can with the tool at hand. I suspect that if you were to see the same women, in the same outfits, you would recognize them immediately!
This first woman was business lunching; she was able to stride down the street with her male companions without any problems, thanks to her flat shoes. (I'm going to share with you tomorrow my observations about ... View the Post
May 9, 2017
I can always tell when a lot of you are planning travel because I start to see more and more emails with packing questions. Many people want a wardrobe that they don't really have to think about once they've arrived at their destination; that's why I cooked up the idea of a "Whatever's Clean" Wardrobe. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to pull any available garments from these wardrobes and assemble a reasonably presentable outfit. Certainly, some combinations are going to be better than others, and you're going to like some outfits more than others, but overall, you've got mountains of flexibility, after doing a bit of strategic thinking...
First off, let's start with a great color inspiration - ... View the Post
May 4, 2017
This painting couldn't be allowed to fade into the history of The Vivienne Files without another look, right?
Our bird watching, star gazing heroine is going on a much longer trip, but has decided that she doesn't need to make any changes to her travel outfit:
You might remember what she packed for her shorter trip to visit her friends with the veranda - all of these things were perfect, so she'll definitely include them:
These are what she's adding to her suitcase for her longer trip; she's gone a wee bit overboard on her accent color, but summer clothes don't last as long as winter, so she felt a bit like indulging. And no, it's not the exactly precise color that ... View the Post
April, 26, 2017
Do you remember one of my very favorite all-time posts, where a woman went to visit friends to look at the stars? Her wardrobe colors were inspired by the colors of the common shelduck - brown, black, and white...Well, she's found a painting that she really likes, so this year, when she's going back to visit her friends again, she's in the same color scheme. The weather is warmer, but you might recognize a few of her accessories from last winter's trip...
Her color scheme expands to include cream and grey (earlier, she was pretty strictly black and white with brown leather accessories), and some day she's going to try something in sky blue. Some day...
She knows that it's going to be warmer in April ... View the Post
April 25, 2017
Let's revisit yesterday's painting - I don't feel like we've nearly exhausted the possibilities of these colors! My hypothesis is that yesterday's heroine has been invited to... a wedding, let's say, out of town far enough that she's going to stay for a week or so. Except for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself, she won't have to get madly dressed up, but she can reasonably expect at least another dinner or two out with relatives and old friends.
So we start here:
And we remind ourselves of what our color scheme is going to be for this travel capsule wardrobe:
Our heroine was really happy with her travel outfit when she took her long lazy weekend break, so she's not changing a thing ... View the Post
April 24, 2017
I'm smitten with this artist, Kamrooz Aram - you're going to see more from him:
I love these colors - especially those little touches of brightness! I didn't use them in this Six-Pack, but in a larger wardrobe, you would definitely see them... I also don't have any grey garments included here, but for a trip that would last a few more days, a nice grey summer dress, and certainly a tee shirt and shorts, would be such simple things to add.
And while I don't have style notes here, I'm definitely thinking that this is a woman who loves flowers, but who also appreciates the compelling power of large patches of solid colors, arranged in a way understood only by the artist.
My heroine is traveling ... View the Post
April 14, 2017
So I've been using Neutral Building Blocks for a few weeks as a basis upon which I've built all kinds of interesting capsule wardrobes, but I've neglected to truly address HOW you get those Building Blocks in place. Today, I'll try to fill in this omission!
First up, I settled on the idea of 9 pieces just on instinct, because it seemed like a good number - more than half of a 4 by 4 Wardrobe, enough bottoms that you could include shorts, a skirt AND a pair of pants, four different tops so you could go from sleeveless to short-sleeved, to 3/4 sleeve to long, and then toss in a couple of 2nd layers - a jacket and a sweater.
The more I played around with the 9 pieces, the more I was pretty happy with it, but there's ... View the Post
