cool weather Archives

Craving Casual, with Soft Colors? Start With Art – Arrival of the Normandy Train by Claude Monet

October 26, 2026

I'm going to do two Domesticated Valise posts with grey - this one, with soft accents, and another with brights...

Does anybody remember this painting from here on The Vivienne Files? I used it SO LONG AGO that the images were all "landscape" rather than the "portrait" that the internet forces us to use...

The original use of this painting started with a heroine who took a long train trip, returned to her office to find chaos, and took over some management responsibilities...

And in 2023, this was one of the paintings that we visited every month for a year!

What beauty:

And what a timeless, practical but lovely palette:

For those of you who can't conceive of wearing a shirt a second time, one ... View the Post

Loving Brown, but Needing Pink? Start With a Scarf – Bookworm by Echo

October 19, 2026

So, in essence, this is the same post as I did on Friday. No clashing accent colors, but still starting with a scarf and wearing lots of brown. Many of the same garments and accessories. My goal here is to make it really clear that a handful of basic garments, and a handful of excellent accessories, can look distinctive, even if the clothes don't change a lot.

And I know it must feel like I show brown every other day, but this is the first winter in just about FOREVER that brown has been so widely available. When you start at the "home page" of Nordstrom, there's a whole happy family with their holiday gifts, and THEY'RE wearing brown! It's a thing.

I understand that this is a reflection of the poor economic ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

October 14, 2026

Our last heroine, but NEVER the least! In my next life, I'm going to major in French, and make my living translating arcane French documents buried in the Bibliotheque Nationale...

And I will use this painting as my inspiration, just as our current historical architecture expert does:

When she left for her autumn term teaching in Paris, she had this wardrobe. I suspect that she packed everything - 40 garments isn't insane for 4 months if you're in one place, and can unpack, hang things, and do laundry:

And I'm QUITE certain that she took all of her accessories with her - they're the fun part!

This month, the first thing our heroine wanted was another black dress. As much as her sleeveless dress is ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

October 12, 2026

She's a statistics expert, and she works with BIRD data - what a great combination of technology and nature! Her inspiration for her personal style is this dapper creature:

Going into full-tilt autumn, our heroine felt that she was relatively well prepared for most of what life had to offer:

I have to share this with you: in the year of my birth, 1960, the average woman's wardrobe (in the US) was 42 garments. That would be the wardrobe above plus two.

And when I really try to remember what I wore through high school and college (when I was not interested in clothes much at all!), I may have had this many pieces. But I don't think so...

Now, the average wardrobe is OVER 150 things. What has changed so ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

October 9, 2026

Our heroine, the professional listener, is overwhelmed by how many clients she has right now... Calmness is in short supply!

So let's draw our own personal relaxed mindset from the muted colors and soft focus of this beautiful painting:

At the end of September, our heroine's 40-piece was this:

And this was her accessory collection. There's something particularly wonderful about brown shoes - I can't come up with the right word!

Our heroine didn't have a clear idea about what she wanted to buy this month. Well, she had been pondering the idea of a flannel shirt, if she could find one that would fit in and be worn a lot. And another skirt - wearing a skirt to work seems to make her feel ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

October 7, 2026

Our aspiring bank employee is our heroine today! I particularly love this woman; she's doing things MUCH more cleverly than many of us did 40 years ago when we were trying to take over the world...

Her inspiration is this lovely painting:

At the end of September, our heroine had a 40-piece wardrobe. She's never had any sense that anybody at her office every notices that she wears a lot of navy, a few accents colors, and nothing else. Clothing isn't nearly the most important thing at work!

This is her current collection of accessories. She knows that her co-workers have noticed these - especially her scarves! There are occasional questions about where she found something, and also occasional ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

October 5, 2026

Let's drop in our landscape designer, and on her favorite Georgia O'Keeffe painting:

At the end of September, as the weather began to turn grey and misty, our heroine had this 40-piece wardrobe:

and these accessories:

Our heroine has decided that she needs to go visit a couple of ongoing work sites; heretofore, she's only met with clients in the company offices. But she's been asked, and she will go!

And she really wants to get into the mood of the season - grey mist and fog with bright sunshine breaking through.

And she's seen a scarf that really calls her name. At a distance, the scarf seems mostly soft greenish-blue, but up close, there are lots of sunshiny details. The heart will ... View the Post

I Love It But How Will I Wear It? Seasalt Cornwall Fair Isle Cardigan

September 25, 2026

Some of you have been over the Seasalt Cornwall website with a fine-tooth comb! There have been questions about how to incorporate Fair Isle sweaters into a wardrobe, so I'm going to address one of the (at least) three Fair Isle sweaters I see there.

This sweater is lovely, and the colors are unusual:

Our friend who wants to buy this sweater is interested in using it as the fulcrum around which she will assemble a small autumn wardrobe. She only needs clothes for weekends, and an occasional week night, so she feels like the Slot Machine will work for her...

Just as a reminder, this is our plan:

Pants are pretty straightforward - taupe, olive, and my favorite ivory cords!

I grabbed my favorite ... View the Post

I Love It But How Will I Wear It? Brown Striped Sweater from Seasalt Cornwall

September 18, 2026

I finally remember why Seasalt Cornwall ISN'T a strange brand to me - there's one on the main shopping street where my uncle lives in England! I'm occasionally crazy, but I'm not completely gone. Yet...

So one of you - at least - has a longing for this sweater, and isn't at all certain if it will work for her. My first instinct: if you have brown in your closet already, this sweater is going to fit in like it was born there!

THE LINK IS WORKING! AND YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THE FIVE COLORS IN WHICH THIS SWEATER IS OFFERED...

Maybe our heroine is headed to Garrett County Maryland, for the Autumn Glory Festival?

At any rate, she's got a long weekend of "leaf peeping" ahead, and wants to build a tiny ... View the Post

September 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

September 14, 2026

Almost halfway through September, and in Chicago, we're still wearing linen...

But our most elegant heroine, the architectural historian, is preparing to spend the autumn semester in Paris, teaching!

She shops VERY carefully, and bases her personal style on this most gorgeous painting of two saints:

She currently has this 36-piece wardrobe, which she could just toss into a (really big) suitcase and be just fine!

She will need another bag for her accessories, but they're what really makes this wardrobe sing:

She would like another skirt, and a couple more sweaters. When she saw this classic black jacket, she knew what her plan would be for the month:

Her wardrobe tucks neatly into the ... View the Post

September 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

September 7, 2026

Our bank employee has stumbled into a perfect bunch of things for her wardrobe... It's nice that colors come and go, so all of us get a chance to buy what we most love!

Our heroine's favorite painting is this beauty:

She had assembled a 36-piece capsule wardrobe for work by the end of August. She's so busy studying everything she can find about banking and finance that she's not interested in spending a lot of time worrying about what to wear!

She's delighted that she's taken the time to find excellent accessories! Having these things in her wardrobe make her morning much simpler:

Shopping was stressful for our banker this month, because she found SO MUCH that fits her wardrobe really well! ... View the Post

Is a Navy Suit REALLY Useful?

August 24, 2026

Ah, some of you still need to dress conservatively... And there's a lot of struggle around the wisdom of owning a good navy suit.

If you don't like wearing navy, DON'T DO IT! But if you like wearing navy, and you're comfortable in a blazer, and you can envision needing a classic suit, you could do worse than this:

What can you do with such classic beauty? Well, let's start with a very conservative color palette and see what's possible!

I'm going to approach this the same way I looked at the striped suit on Friday - a half-dozen outfits, a few additions, and then another half-dozen "remixed" outfits from the 16 garments in our capsule wardrobe.

Let's start casual:

The wine shade that I'm ... View the Post