The Vivienne Files

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The Vivienne Files bookshelf: The Lost Art of Dress by Linda Przybyszewski

March 28, 2014  

  It's one of those questions that confounds the observant person - there are more clothes, and often more attractive clothes, in stores than ever before, but you see fewer well-dressed or just generally attractive people about.  Why are all of these appallingly bad clothing choices being made, and why (at least when I was a child) did women seem to be able to avoid making these mistakes and dress themselves flatteringly?

   

Linda Przybyszewski attempts to answer this question in this book - a very well-written and interesting look at the Home Economics teachers, Department of Agriculture Extension employees, and other women who used to help us choose our clothing.  I ... View the Post

The Vivienne Files Bookshelf: Une Annee de Styles by Ioannis Guia

I really wanted to like this book.  Actually, I'm not sure that I've finalized my opinion about it.  Let me share with you what I've found since I bought this, and you can make your own decisions.

CON:

Price - 35 Euros.  A book better be pretty amazing for that much money...

PRO:

The book starts with the basic thesis of starting with twelve garments and building a full year of outfits from there.  While the author plays quite fast and loose with the number twelve, the overall idea is one with which I'm in complete agreement.

CON:

The twelve garments are really sixteen garments, and many of them aren't terribly flattering to many women.  A peacoat, or a classic trench, can be terribly ... View the Post

A New Favorite French Book…

 

        April 4, 2014   When I travel, I always try to find any cool books about style, fashion, wardrobe planning, art etc. etc...  This one looks pretty foolproof, but since it's by the authors of L'Armoire Ideale des Parasseuses, I thought it was well worth grabbing.   For a long time, I've often pondered the difference between  stores that we love, and closets that we detest.  If this were my closet, I would be endlessly happy:  

So how does one get to the point of loving one's closet as much as one's favorite store?  This excellent book has a great mental strategy:  

Your clothing = your boutique collection Think of your closet as the ... View the Post

Paris vs Chicago, and a Great Quote

April 3, 2014   What does Paris have that Chicago doesn't?  

  Bookstores - dozens and dozens of bookstores.  It used to be a joke between Belovedest and me - "Oh look - a bookstore!" when we would walk past one, but it's sort of lost it's humor, because bookstores are so common in Paris, and so very uncommon in Chicago.   You might say that it's because we stayed, this last trip, near the Universities.  But that's a weak explanation - from my apartment window in Chicago, I can see buildings belonging to at least 3 universities - and there are very few bookstores in the entire downtown area... And what's interesting is that the French don't spend THAT much more time reading than American ... View the Post

What’s on The Vivienne Files Bookshelf?

March 12, 2014

  #1.  The Triumph of Individual Style by Carla Mason Mathis and Helen Villa Connor  

 

 

Yes, the book used to be blindingly expensive (it's come down a lot in price in the last 10 years!), but if you've never felt like you are beautiful or that your particular "type" is lovely, this book might change your mind forever. The authors site a wide variety of fine art from throughout history in order to demonstrate that everyone is beautiful. Period.   I'm not completely convinced by every one of the exercises in the book; I've never been sold on the "your best red is the color of the blood drawn from your right kneecap at midnight under a full moon while chanting the ... View the Post

Many Small Thoughts – Collected

I often notice things that I want to remember to tell you all, but much of the time, no single thing is worth a full blog post.  So today, you get a whole bunch of relatively random factoids in one place.  ( can you believe that Spell-check did NOT reject the word factoid?)First up, the weather in Chicago has been uniformly dreadful - bitterly cold.  But my feet has NOT been cold when I was out, and that's because I wear Bogs boots.  I  wear them with nothing but tights on my feet, and my feet don't get cold.  Ever.  It's amazing.

They're not sleek,and they're not elegant, but when you're dressed in 14 layers of clothing and you look like a walking boudin noir, warmth is all you care about, ... View the Post

Avec Style: The 10 Rules of Style

  So I'm off running around the country again, and will be mostly out of internet range for at least a couple of weeks - my return date is VERY uncertain.  But I've queued up a number of posts for you, on a variety of subjects - colors, books, some Chic Sightings...

Cross your fingers that this adventure goes well!

love, Janice

I've had this book for a while, and now that I'm travelling - AGAIN - for my familial obligations, it seems like a good time to share with you the many interesting insights I found here.

First warning: if you read or speak French, note that this book is from Canada.  99% of the writing is spot on to what you read in France, but every now and then a word will trip me up.  I view it as ... View the Post

“You’re So French” – the most recent addition to the Style Shelf

May 2, 2013

 

As soon as I saw this available for sale, I knew it was going to go onto the Style Shelf. Aside from the fact that I'm terribly tired of book covers in hot pink (every "chic lit" novel in Ireland had either a pink or a lavender cover, I swear...), this is an interesting addition to the wee library.So here, in my less than expert translation, is what the authors have to say about cleaning out closets:

ARRANGE YOUR WARDROBE

"We have a tendency to choose the first clothes that are on top of the pile. It's easy, one does not waste time, and takes no risks, and one gets dressed automatically.  What a pity for all of those treasures which have been sleeping for years, and upon which you lavished such care ... View the Post

Considering Colors – 2 more books

February 22, 2013

This first book is chock full of color combinations, with specific references to a variety of adjectives (which you might find appropriate, or laughably odd).  Not everything to my taste (NOTHING should ever be exactly to my taste, unless I wrote it myself), but certainly many good ideas, and lots of thought-starters.

 

 

Turns out that all three books by Kobayashi are fascinating little volumes, and cover a great deal of the same ground...Remember the 180 words, from which we were requested to choose our favorites and least favorites, that I wrote about back on February 5th?  Color Image Scale printed a list of the 30 preferred and disliked words...  Clearly, the ... View the Post

More insights from The Colorist

February 12, 2013   While I don't know that any of us are in a position of completely revamping our wardrobes based on the insights from one book, I do think it's interesting to read and study things like this.  A greater understanding of one's own preferences and tastes can never truly be wasted...The first exercise in The Colorist (Shigenobu Kobyashi) is to choose 10 colors you like, and five colors you don't like:

 

Then you find these favorite colors on a full spectrum array, and determine if your color preferences are more for different shades of one color, or for different colors of a particular depth or intensity.  Yes, this is impossibly difficult to read... but on my computer, I can "right click" on ... View the Post

Colorist by Shigenobu Kobayashi

 Another hard-to-find, but really fascinating book.  The author guides one step by step in a process of identifying favorite color palettes.  The book has a definite Japanese feel, and once in a while you'll run into a word used in a way you wouldn't have expected (I would guess because it's been translated), but overall it's an eye-opening new way to think about colors.  I'll post more from Colorist, because it is out of print and rather expensive to purchase.  But if you really like to be challenged in your ways of looking at the world, I recommend this book highly.

Below is the 2nd exercise in the book.  You could of course get all deconstructionist about this and start debating what he means when he ... View the Post