dresses Archives

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

Study in Verticals (The Cathedral) by Frantisek Kupka – Start with Art for a Tote Bag Business Travel Capsule

She Never Knows...

They send her out for as the mediator for meetings - sometimes between really big, powerful clients - and she never knows what the experience will be...

She tries, when she arrives, to be a forceful but feminine presence, striking a balance between pushing toward a decision and encouraging compromise. It's a narrow line to walk...

So, even though she's going to be there for only 2 or 3 days, she tries to be prepared for any sort of "personality" that she needs to bring to the table...

She tries to travel light, but offer herself a lot of options!

Happily, she finds these adjustments pretty easy, because she's a woman of many facets...

love, Janice ... View the Post

Can I Use Monet’s Water Lilies as an Inspiration for my Evening Wardrobe?

Shall we do some fantasy shopping?

She wanted to feel like this when she went out in the evenings:

Right after Thanksgiving, she received a couple of invitations, and so she assembled a simple capsule wardrobe to wear to those evenings. She gave herself options from relatively casual to kind of frilly and dressy:

Well... One morning she woke up to an In-Box FULL of invitations... So she looked back to her inspiration, and added four more pieces to her little "evening" wardrobe:

Somehow, she had completely forgotten that she was ALSO going to have to make at least a couple of appearances as the "better half" of her household... She could have been reminded by someone, but NOOOO.....

With 4 pairs of pants in hand, a few tops will ... View the Post

How to Wear the September Birthstone: Sapphires… ooh…

Sapphires are so beautiful, but they are really expensive... Feel free to find fakes, or stones in a similar dark blue, and wear without apology; you owe no explanation to anybody for what you can and can't afford to buy! Or where in your budget you choose to be extravagant or frugal...

With budgets in mind, I've chosen to show a lot of second-hand jewelry in this post (as well as a couple of handbags that are still absurdly expensive...). I think that we all are going to need to become much more open-minded about purchasing things that aren't brand spanking new, if only for the benefit of the environment... (and isn't "brand spanking" just about the weirdest phrase ever?)

For this first dress, that collar needs a brooch! And for what ... View the Post

What Should I Wear to a Black Tie Function?

On Wednesday's post about how to UNPACK your suitcase, a reader commented that she needed advice about what to wear to an upcoming formal event being held in Orlando, in October. Another reader posted a really intelligent, thoughtful response, but I thought that it was an interesting question, worth tossing out to the general Vivienne Files population. (the smartest women around, no questions!)

I haven't attended a black-tie event since the overly posh '80s, when I was in my 20's and when everything was completely out of control - I could have just glued diamonds all over my body and it wouldn't have raised many eyebrows. (except when the bill came!) I know what I would wear, but that doesn't necessarily translate into what would be best ... View the Post

Easing a Neutral Dress into Cooler Weather with Accessories

If you've got a dress that you dearly love, but you're wondering if you're going to be able to wear it when the weather cools down (in the Northern Hemisphere), let me suggest that you look at an earlier post of mine, where I show a navy dress with a whole BUNCH of very muted, autumn-ish accessories....

This is a pretty good time of year to find a great navy dress - Neiman Marcus currently has (on sale!) an Eileen Fisher dress with a matching cardigan... that wouldn't be the silliest investment you ever made.

The power of a simple dress is easy to under-estimate, until you get one in your closet and really put it to work!

love, Janice ... View the Post

Have You Considered a New Dress?

This time of year it's easy to begin to be tired of our current wardrobe, and this weariness is just compounded by the fact that stores are beginning to be filled with clothes for the upcoming season. What's an intelligent woman to do?

I'm suggesting, for those of us who wear dresses, that we get a new dress. Something timeless and simple, in a color that we don't always wear. Think about your existing "Accessory Families" and choose a dress that can be worn with things that you already love...

I've done a LOT of posts in the past about dresses - today I'm specifically thinking about this post about a navy dress with pastel accessories. A navy dress - or any dark neutral colored dress - can be worn to pieces during the hot weather, and ... View the Post

August Birthstone: Peridot!

THIS is a tough color - it's really difficult to find any sort of accessories in this lime-y shade of green. But I think that it's a unique accent color that's well worth considering. If you're not comfortable wearing it close to your face, don't discount the beauty and the impact of a ring and/or bracelet...

As the weather remains really warm here in Chicago, I continued to build these little vignettes around dresses, although a couple of the dresses are decidedly more autumnal in feel - some for now, some for later!

I mentioned on Friday that I feel like the best balance for a wardrobe to lean much toward accessories, in a ratio to garments. On Friday when I got dressed to go out, I put on ONE dress (more than one would be ... View the Post

Pack For a Special Occasion by Starting with Art: Vernal Yellow by Lee Krasner

Most of the time, clothing (and thus The Vivienne Files) is about covering ourselves with efficiency, good value, and a coherent personal image. But it's worth remembering just every now and then that clothing can also be the object of extravagant fantasies...

Someone's happy, excited, full of energy, and just plain bursting with joy - that's what this painting felt like to me:

So They're Just Going to Elope...

No date worked for everyone. No location was good for most people. It just got more and more difficult...

So when the offer was made "why don't we just take the train to Paris and elope?" she was ALL over it...(yes, she has another suitcase somewhere...)

They'll arrive a bit late in the day, but still have time to freshen ... View the Post

How to Wear Emeralds – the May Birthstone

Emeralds were TOUGH to work with here on The Vivienne Files - they're very rare, I suppose, because they're quite expensive and not available in the mad range of designs that you can find with most other precious stones. Nevertheless, we're more than able to find a lot of lovely ideas...

Given their price, you might not be wearing "authentic" emeralds (that's fine...) and you might just use emeralds as an accent with a larger, less-expensive semi-precious stone. It's your birthstone - wear it the way you want! Finding a beautiful scarf with a bit of bright green in it will draw attention to your beautiful jewelry, and make it all look wonderfully intentional and well-planned.

Don't forget that you can wear green accents any way that you ... View the Post

How to Wear Diamonds – the April Birthstone; Some New Ideas!

Everyone already knows how to wear diamonds - there's a big business consortium that's been telling us exactly what to buy, and how to wear it, for decades...

So I'm looking at something a little bit different - unpolished diamonds, or diamonds as an accent with other stones, or diamonds in unusual colors. So if your birthday's in April (or the birthday of a special someone...) and you don't want to go full-on solid diamonds, I have some suggestions:

(yes, you've seen some of these dresses before! A nice dress can stand up to a lot of scrutiny, and works well with a variety of accessories...)

And this black pleated dress? I'm just saying - it's a REALLY good thing that I'm not shopping for a dress (or anything else!) this year - this ... View the Post

How to Wear Amethyst – the February Birthstone? I Have Some Ideas…

It's a question that comes up surprisingly often - I'm an adult woman, and I sometimes feel like I'm too old to wear my birthstone...

Well, if you don't tell anybody that you were born in February, or that amethysts are your birthstone, they won't know the difference; they'll just think that you like amethysts, or the color purple.

And if they do know that it's your birthstone, and for some reason they think that it's odd that you wear them... ignore them. Well, ignore this particular judgment, for a judgment is what it is. And not a kind one...

I was born in June. I wear pearls a LOT. Clearly, I don't care if someone thinks I'm channeling my inner 3rd grader!

But frankly, it's nobody's business but yours, and you should feel free to ... View the Post