The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Choosing an Accent Color for Camel

December 2, 2015   Camel - sometimes, nothing looking more elegant.  

There are a lot of neutrals that work here - I could easily have used black and grey, olive and brown etc etc.

 

Camel is also very versatile with bright colors; I chose these mostly because they're rather uncommon, and I like to give you ideas that you might not have otherwise considered!

 

Muted colors are also pretty easy with camel, because it has an inherently soft quality. And I'm still showing how very useful that white vest can be for most of us!

 

As with muted colors, pastels are also well-suited to wear with camel. I still haven't found a pair of mint green shoes that I consider ... View the Post

Choosing an Accent Color for Grey

December 1, 2015  

I love grey, and it's rather easy to shop for, but you do want to be aware of the varying shades of grey (some very yellowish, and other quite blue). They don't always blend as well as one might prefer! The answer is generally to carry a key piece with you when shopping, to avoid any sort of "mis-remembering" of the color...

Yes, I've included this really great turtleneck AGAIN. I'm smitten with it, I tell you, but I absolutely CAN'T justify buying another sweater. I will probably survive the lack, I suspect!

It is incredibly easy to pair the grey core outfit with black or navy, so I thought I would wander further afield, into some warmer neutrals. This might be an excellent way to easy yourself into ... View the Post

Choosing an Accent Color for Olive Green

November 30, 2015   Oooh, olive is a difficult color to find, and when something turns up that's called olive, it could be anything from a nasty yellowish green pond-scum color, to this lovely deep and dusty green:  

  You will, I'm sure, note that these colors don't match absolutely exactly perfectly. I don't have too much trouble with that, so long as they're lighter and darker versions of the same shade of green. It's a difficult color to find and to match, but well worth the effort. By virtue of being so uncommon, you will never blend into a crowd when you wear it! And it can be madly flattering...

First up, what neutrals look good with olive? I'm quickly learning that marsala/wine/burgundy goes with ... View the Post

Choosing an Accent Color for Navy

November 28, 2015   Navy is always so elegant... These four pieces have so much potential!  

The olive accent keeps re-appearing! I really like using it as a secondary neutral with navy - it warms it up and gives it a rich glow. And of course, grey and navy were born to go together...

And I must share something sort of inexplicable that I keep running into: there are MEN'S scarves, and WOMEN'S scarves. Why, in all the worlds, would this be? But please be advised - if you're looking for a scarf in a plaid, paisley, or timeless menswear pattern, look in the men's department. They are usually less expensive too, which REALLY hacks me off.... sigh...

You knew there would, eventually, be a red vest in here ... View the Post

Choosing an Accent Color for Black

November 26, 2015

Something that I struggle with a lot, personally, is my accent color, or colors. I'm always thinking that something other than red should be my "color", but who am I kidding? I keep coming back, over and over, to red...

So I was playing around with a variety of accent colors, using simple black garments as a core, and building around quilted vests, just for the heck of it...

When you're looking for these vests, make sure you look for "quilted," rather than "down," unless you specifically want down. Some of the vests with synthetic insulation are just as warm, and quite lovely; you'll miss them if you don't include everything quilted. The synthetic insulated vests are less puffy, too!

And yes, these would make ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dantis Amor by Rossetti – Step 3

October 30, 2015  

Now the fun starts! The clothes from yesterday are certainly very nice, if not mind-bending, but in order to give things just a touch of zest, and a sense of finish, some well-chosen accessories are imperative! (well, shoes are imperative, even if you never wear a scarf or a piece of jewelry; when pressed to offer up what piece of clothing every woman, without exception, should own, the only thing I can honestly think of is shoes...)Reminders of our basic style source, and the clothes with which we're working:

 

 

As I said, shoes first! I always look for something comfortable - that's completely NOT negotiable. When men start wearing uncomfortable shoes, I will too. In the meantime, my ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dantis Amor by Dante Gabriel Rosetti – Step 1

You've been asking for years - HOW to I look at a work of art and devise a color-scheme from it?Today is my attempt to explain a little bit of what I do...

First off, let's pick a piece of art that I personally really admire. The admire part is critical - you need to love the colors, the subject, and the style of the art in question, or there's no point in analyzing it in any detail. If you're looking for a piece of art to serve as an inspiration or a leitmotif for your wardrobe, it must be something with real "staying power" in your heart.

This painting would never work for me for my wardrobe - all the wrong colors. But otherwise, I'm a big fan. I can't pinpoint what it is that I love about Pre-Raphaelite painting, but I am always ... View the Post

GREY: With 8 Color Accents

September 29, 2015   So many of us own this kind of small neutral core - I love taking these pieces and adding accent colors, to see what happens. Today, it's grey, or gray, depending on.... I have no idea!  

These dresses might be one of the easiest ways to wear this bright, strong color. You wouldn't necessarily pull the cardigan on, but tossed over one's shoulders with an insouciant flair (think Italian actress), it will be perfect.

 

These jackets were surprisingly difficult to find, but well worth it. If you're looking for leather, this color is a great option rather than the much more ubiquitous black. Just make sure your jacket looks like gorgeous leather, and not some horrible plastic ... View the Post

NAVY: with Eight Color Accent ideas

September 26, 2015  

Last week, I did a post (see it here) in which I took eight very brightly colored garments and incorporated them into outfits, using black as the neutral to offset the color.So I was thinking (I'm ALWAYS thinking) that the range of garments was a pretty interesting list - it included pretty much all of the major garment "categories", with one exception. So I took the original list of items (taken from my favorite French fashion book: Ma To-Do List: Dressing, by Laure Gontier and Jeanne-Aurore Colleuille) and made one change:

 

 

I stuck pretty faithfully to their colors, except for the pine green, which is more neutral to me. I substituted purple, because.... well.... PURPLE!

 

I ... View the Post

Eight Color Ideas, from Ma To-Do List: Dressing by Colleuille and Gontier

September 17, 2015  

Yes, we're visiting my favorite fashion book yet AGAIN... Frankly, until I've blogged about literally every page of this book, I'm not going to tire of it, nor find it boring - it's really just that good. If you can read French, or are willing to throw yourself into a translation frenzy, you can find it here. The next time I'm in Europe, I'm going to look for a few copies for us, since it's becoming more and more difficult to find...

Today's inspiration was found on a page about figuring out how to work with color in a wardrobe; to one side, they tucked in this little list of garments with the heading "We love, we dare..."

I love some of them. I might even dare a few of them. What do you think?

When ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Nature Morte by Georgette Agutte

August 29, 2015

The wealth of colors in this painting lead me in all sorts of directions, so I thought I'd share with you my thought process as I finalized a color scheme for us to work with here.

My very first instinct was drawn to the fabrics in the background of the painting - the vivid blue was the first thing that I envisioned as a lead neutral for a color scheme, with accents of the white fabric, all of the red flowers, and the oranges.

 

But where this would make a great scarf, or piece of jewelry, I realized that there wasn't going to be any easy way to find enough garments in that shade of blue to put together even the smallest capsule wardrobe. (this is a BIG advantage to being able to sew - you could make ... View the Post

A Winner!!! And WHAT a color scheme…

We have a winner in the "choose your color scheme for a bracelet", which was so very generously offered to us by She-Beads. Dearest Anonymous, who choose "persimmon, heliotrope and emerald", please get in touch with me at [email protected], so I can put you directly in touch with my friends who are going to make your bracelet!

Also, please let me know what your preferred wardrobe neutral is, so that I can start working on the wardrobe possibilities. I can easily see these colors looking smashing against navy, black, beige...

I want to share with you an update to my vow to buy only second-hand this year. After doing laundry this weekend, I realized that my white jeans were... execrable... which is a great word, and an apt ... View the Post