capsule wardrobe Archives - Page 2 of 19

A French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Tomato Red

When the weather gets warm, many of us get the urge to shop! And so let's think about limiting our purchases to whatever essential, core items we need, and then a French 5-Piece Wardrobe to freshen and update our classics...

First, every change of season has me dreaming of tossing out all of my clothes and buying an entirely new wardrobe from Eileen Fisher. (NOT going to happen, but a woman can fantasize, and then use that fantasy to create a better reality, right?)

This is what I'd be buying, if I was going to do such a madcap thing:

Of course, when you look at this wardrobe for a few minutes, you realize that you don't need to buy ALL 10 pieces to get the desired effect - maybe just 2 or 3 of the real signature pieces (that marled ... View the Post

Adding Just Enough Accessories

Yesterday she managed to wrestle her wardrobe into shape, so today she want to be certain that she has enough accessories. She's not mad about having tons of stuff, but it is pretty important to have at least some appropriate shoes!

Her color palette looked like this when she was finished:

She thought for a bit, and chose gold as the metal color for her jewelry (maybe just for this season - who knows?)

And she's going to rely a bit on navy as a "cooling" influence on her wardrobe, as she moves away from those warm olive-ish greens that made her feel drab. So she drafted a 2nd color palette, like this:

Now that her colors are all settled, she things for a minute about what she's going to look for in her closet, and then buy ... View the Post

My 5th Most Popular Post – Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch: Choosing Colors

It doesn't surprise me that this post was high up on the list of all-time favorites - it's a perennial topic for The Vivienne Files!

Remember 3 and a half years ago, when I built SIX separate wardrobes, from scratch? This was the first post of that series...

While these aren't the most creative or unexpected color palettes imaginable, they are certainly timelessly classic, which is a pretty good thing!

I have to admit, after all this time, and after looking at all of the colors with which we've worked, I still love black and white with just a touch of red or bright blue... I'm old-school!

love, Janice ... View the Post

Paris Packing – A Parka, and Lots of Stripes

You might remember that I was supposed to go to Paris back in December, when a sudden fibromyalgia "interlude" caused me to cancel; I was literally IN THE BAGGAGE CLAIM AREA OF THE AIRPORT when I realized that I wasn't strong enough to make it up the escalator to check in, let alone fly all the way to Paris...

But this is better because (a) Belovedest is going with me! and (b) we'll be there for Valentine's Day! Sweet, eh?

As much as it's fun to be in Paris for a romantic holiday, we have to bear in mind that the weather will be cold, and quite wet - and as much as I'd love to travel without a big heavy coat, it might be plain stupid to try to get by without it - nothing is more miserable than being cold every day. So this wardrobe is ... View the Post

What If I Don’t Really DO Accessories?

Some people just don't wear a lot of jewelry; they don't want to collect handbags, nor shoes, and they find one scarf suits them quite well...

(okay, they're nuts...)

Actually, that's their right. Of course it is! But it does suggest that they're going to want to plan a bit to make certain that they have what they want and need when they get dressed.

Let's start where we were yesterday, with this nicely tidied leisure wardrobe:

When we finished this wardrobe yesterday, we had a lovely color palette for our heroine's clothing. Working from that, we can easily devise a corresponding palette for her accessories - add a choice of metal (if you're not going to have a lot of jewelry, what you do have can easily be either all-gold or ... View the Post

My Casual Wardrobe is a Disaster….

She got really sick of the struggle - it wasn't like climbing Mount Everest, or building your own home by hand, but it was still a bother...

She has some things that she really likes, but just can't seem to get dressed for evenings or weekends...

This is approximately what she has right now:

What to do? Is the problem that she doesn't have enough of a particular "category" of clothes - not enough tee shirts? or sweaters?

Nope - her ratios are pretty good, and there are no glaring omissions. Is it a question of color?

Immediately, when we see that mass of warm green with some "outliers" of cool green that just don't blend in, we can start to see the issue...

And here's the gut-check moment - does she really prefer warmer colors? ... View the Post

How do I Know That I Have Enough Accessories?

Our heroine ended yesterday's adventure with a color scheme that felt right, and a spring capsule wardrobe that she found really comfortable; it gave her great pleasure, every time she opened her closet door...

But she still needs to wear shoes! And carry a bag. And maybe wear some earrings, or a bracelet, from time to time. How to plan THAT?

Well, I pondered this for a while, and I think that she should think about what outfits she's going to wear, from her wardrobe, and then make certain that she has the accessories that are right for each of those outfits. What else would she want, if she knew that she had a dozen outfits ready to go?

To keep choices balanced, I'm going to see if I can fill in this template with her accessories... ... View the Post

“Fixing” a Wardrobe that Just Doesn’t Feel Right…

She's worn navy forever, and really, legitimately loves it. She also really feels comfortable with bright colors - she doesn't mind the high contrast. But, for some reason she can't quite put her finger on, she's not quite "right" with her wardrobe...

This is what's she's got for spring:

She really doesn't know what to do to feel more comfortable with these pieces, so she just started getting dressed as normal, but changing 2 small things:

She pulls out and wears what she really "feels" like wearing, rather than trying to carefully rotate everything in her wardrobe. If she focuses on what she most likes, it might help her learn something, and She keeps careful track of what she wears.

After three weeks, she sorts things out based on ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – February 2018

I'm still not sure why I always add a dress in February - a long-standing affection for Valentine's Day? Or just a desire to make sure that I'm well prepared for dressy spring events?

It's not quite expected to accessorize a classic black dress with bright spring green...

I didn't find a beige dress that appealed, so I thought that this delicious cocoa brown would be perfect with this scarf, or with a grouping of blush pink accessories.

The red is probably the most expected accent color with a navy dress, so I ignored that and chose teal instead!

This green isn't as yellow-ish as the greens used last month, but since it's a dress, it doesn't have to be "dye-lot matched" to the other neutral in this wardrobe... And it's such an easy ... View the Post

What Accessories do I Want for a Trip to Bermuda?

Not just a trip to Bermuda, but a trip in March, when the weather is still cool, and the crowds aren't pressing...

We're working with this color palette:

And these are the accessories that our heroine has already chosen to pack for her romantic get-away...

And this is her wardrobe that she's planning to have with her - 3 pieces to wear and a lucky 13 to pack:

Here's the accessories that she has included with her two core outfits... With the exception of shoes, she could of course travel with just these pieces and manage just fine. But in the interests of fun, let's expand her options...

Please note that I'm not suggesting that this is going to be all of the accessories that one owns - unless you really wanted a structured, ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Wardrobe for a Vacation to Bermuda in March

This is similar to the very recent wardrobe about traveling to Italy, but sufficiently different that I thought it was worth a look...

First off, I'm going to take a clue from yesterday's thoughts about accent colors and include some muted, pretty colors with the same navy and beige that we've already used... (navy and beige are on purpose - I'm pretty sure that this reader is a navy/beige person; if I'm wrong, I apologize!)

This is the easiest possible way to dress for travel - a "suit" in your dark neutral, with a contrast blouse, shirt or tee shirt, and a pretty scarf to tie everything together! I'm re-using a lot of the accessories from the earlier post to show how versatile they are... I changed the cardigan, top and scarf here, ... View the Post

How to Focus and Refine a Pretty Good Wardrobe

I am asked this question more frequently than I might have expected - it goes kind of like this: "I really like my wardrobe, for the most part, but I feel like I don't really have a good focus or defined style...."

That's tough to address, but I'm going to give it a try!

Let's start with this wardrobe; frankly, it looks pretty nice just like this!

My first thought is to sort all of the clothes by function, to see if maybe our heroine doesn't have enough pants, or needs a couple of tee shirts - that sort of solution would be pretty straightforward! But this wardrobe seems pretty well-balanced for functionality...

My next thought is to see if we can gain some insights into our heroine's preferences by sorting her wardrobe by color... ... View the Post