The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Building a CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 10, 2015

It's a question that comes up from time to time, and I'm long overdue to respond: "does the color scheme dictate the level of dressiness?" I don't think so, although I can easily see how it might seem logical. Often, by the time I've incorporated the aesthetics of a piece of art into a particular wardrobe, it can seem like there was no other POSSIBLE way that it could have gone. But in fact, I think that there's a lot of versatility possible in most color schemes.

Let's start with this simple, but gorgeous, little work, submitted for our consideration by Belovedest!

 

This gives us the possibilities of every sort of cream, ivory, off-white etc. shading through to any depth of warm grey we want. The ... View the Post

Turquoise and Purple! With a Warm Transitional Common Capsule Wardrobe

August 19, 2015

You all were so eager to see turquoise and purple - I felt terrible that I didn't come through! So when someone suggested that I could start gradually migrating yesterday's Seashell Accents Common Capsule Wardrobe into cooler weather, I was suddenly filled with inspiration and good ideas!

In order to make this a bit more compatible with the choices above, I took out the shorts, changed up the shoes, and replaced the two linen wrap pieces (which are sold out!) with a silk blouse and a classic straight skirt.

The shoes are more closed, and a hair darker than the earlier versions of this wardrobe. The slightly darker flats were more at home with the brown skirt, and the more covered-up tops...

You still, ... View the Post

A Summer Common Capsule Wardrobe, In Warm Tones

August 11, 2015

What fun this was - the same general idea as my personal mostly black Common Capsule Wardrobe for warm weather, but in warm tones!

There aren't quite as many accessories here as there were in my wardrobe - but for anyone who is going to wear this wardrobe, you certainly already own LOTS of pieces that will work beautifully here.

So very many different ways to put this together:

And just for reference, the template for Your Common Wardrobe.

What accent colors would you put with this? Peach is the first and most obvious, to me. What else? I'd like to revisit these pieces with some accent colors, if you're interested.

love, Janice ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Hermes Cavaliers du Caucase

  August 3, 2015   She never thought she'd be a mom of teenagers in her sixties. But life intervened in the form of two precious and adoptable kids. She has a more casual lifestyle now, but she still loves beautiful clothes. Call her style casual luxe. Her life is all about her children, but she does allow herself a few treasured indulgences...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every plan she ever had for her life has fallen completely apart.

She's never been happier....

This, by the way, is a true story; the first 4 sentences are a direct quote from the wonderful woman herself!

love, Janice

  ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting With Art: The Boating Party, by Mary Cassatt

August 1, 2015   "Mom wants us all to come down for the Regatta... I know we said that after the kids quit sailing we wouldn't go, but I think it would really mean a lot to my mother."   Well, that's a loaded invitation, isn't it? But that's okay, you know she misses her only child, and that she cherishes her memories of Regattas from years past...   "Of course we can go. I'm assuming that we'll be there for the entire week?"

  yes, you're a saint...

   

    While navy isn't the color that covers the most area of this painting, it's definitely the "anchor" ***cough, cough*** color here.    

Same thing with white - especially when you're thinking nautical, ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Mulberry Tree by Vincent Van Gogh (revisiting Navy and Cognac)

July 25, 2015     I thought this would be pretty easy - take yesterday's navy, cognac and light green wardrobe, and just substitute yellow as the accent color. But I wanted to use some sort of art or craft as a focal point - to keep us honest, and to help focus the color palette. I didn't really think through the project of looking for a painting that included navy and cognac, as well as a pronounced accent color!   Happily, I found this glorious work!      

    The color scheme is very straightforward - substitute a range of shades of yellow for the green from yesterday.  

    I got really lucky with tee shirts - my friends at L.L.Bean make beautiful butter ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: The White and Green Hat by Georgette Agutte

July 17, 2015  

How did I make it so far into my life without knowing about Georgette Agutte?  She was French, and she painted some really wonderful paintings; I encourage you to look her up. You're going to be seeing more of her on The Vivienne Files, I can promise!   Someone suggested this lovely painting - she seems like she would be a kind and gentle friend, doesn't she?    

  As with most paintings, there are a variety of ways to approach the colors, but I've gone this direction:  

  "Doesn't she look like Grandma?"   Your sister said, and just like that, the whole idea got started...   So now, you and your older sister are going on a road trip, starting with ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Version 2, Bright Women in Front of the Hat Shop by August Macke

July 10, 2015   I was going to wait a few weeks to do this for autumn, but I found myself thinking about these colors so much last night that I thought I'd best just go ahead and jump into it!   For cooler weather, I swapped out the pink for that strong green, and I darkened all of the colors a bit; I particularly wanted to make sure that the navy on the left of the painting was included, since that's a pivotal neutral for me here.  

The last weekend at the lake, for this year As soon as you can escape from work, you're headed to the cabin. There's always work to be done to make sure things are ready for winter, and this may be the last non-snowy weekend you can all get there. So even though you had to wear a suit ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Self-Portrait in a Green Bugatti by Tamara de Lempicka

July 8, 2015   Yesterday, after I worked on Camposanto, I was thinking about the inherent utility of a wardrobe that had a khaki and white core, and how virtually any accent color would work well with those 2 neutrals. And of course, I'm thinking about tossing black into the mix...   So in the comments, someone mentions this MOST elegant and compelling painting!  

  White would also work beautifully here:

  In the interest of showing how versatile a simple, solid core of clothing can be, I kept yesterday's Core in camel, or tan, or whatever you wish to name this color.  

When looking for the black Core, I tried to find pieces that had some swish to them. Tamara has always looked like ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Carnation Lily Lily Rose by John Singer Sargent

June 30, 2015   Wow! When I asked for paintings, you all came through with some beautiful suggestions...   This John Singer Sargent is so lovely...  

  In the deepest shadows, I saw navy, although on another day, it could be deepest gray, or maybe something else - really good paintings are wonderful in the way they can have so many different aspects over time.  

  I'm embarking on a 4 by 4 that's particularly challenging: a casual wardrobe in soft and fluid navy and white. So VERY often, navy and white are crisp, and starched, and nicely pressed and snappy - which is pretty great. And I'm sure that at some point earlier in the fictional day, these lovely white dresses were immaculate and pristine, ... View the Post

Start with Art: White Ship by John Singer Sargent

April 23, 2015   That time of year is fast approaching when the lucky ones among us get all kinds of great invitations for weekends. If you have friends with a lake house, you know what I mean - lots of time in the water  - in a canoe, a kayak, or an inner tube! Chilly evenings, cooking out, laughing 'til your sides hurt... The last thing you want to worry about is what to pack!

Sargent's painting put me very much in the right mood for this scenario:

 

Maybe you're driving to the lake, taking the train and being met, or taking the Jitney, but under any circumstances, you want to look nice - casual, but still pretty, with attention to detail.

  Two swimsuits might seem like overdoing it, ... View the Post

A Four by Four Whatever’s Clean Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Beige, Marsala and Natural

April 18, 2015   As soon as I launched the newest Pantone Spring and Summer 2015 color scheme file, someone asked me to do some work with the color of the year - Marsala. She had honed in on the black and khaki, and after a bit of discussion we agreed that the best 2nd accent color would be an unbleached linen/natural color.  This is the palette we finally chose for a capsule wardrobe.  

  I started with black, of course! Sleeveless and short-sleeved, cropped pants and "normal" pants, and all from 3.1 Phillip Lim, just for ease of matchy-matchedness.  You can, of course, find your four pieces from a different, less pricey, company, or mix them from a few different places.  

In fact, in order to ... View the Post