economy Archives

My 3rd Most Popular Post – This is Why I Blog

February 15, 2018

I'm so happy that this post is so high on this list - I really did start writing The Vivienne Files in order to encourage women to buy less clothing, and to spend a little bit of time listening to their hearts, and less time listening to advertising. Nobody else knows what you want or need, and don't let them tell you otherwise!

The image shown, from 4 years ago, is so easily replicable today; I don't still have the original grey dress, but everything else there is still with me, and still in my regular rotation. That makes me feel like I'm not destroying my budget, nor my planet...

Here's an updated version:

If you choose simple, classic pieces, and use a little bit of imagination, you don't need a ton of ... View the Post

How Much Clothing Do You Need? A New Year’s Thought…

Could you fit your entire wardrobe for the current season in this armoire?

I could fit things in terms of physical volume, but I'd struggle with how to hang my dresses - how DO women who only have armoires hang long garments?

A couple of years ago I wrote a lengthy post with an equation to help calculate an actual number of garments that would be in your ideal wardrobe - you had to answer a few questions, and then do a calculation (or you can buy the Excel document I built that does the math for you!). It's a question that doesn't grow old... Unless you have a terribly limited wardrobe, it's something that merits repeated analysis, so that we don't wander into old patterns of over-consumption. Wasting money is almost as bad as ... View the Post

Does Your Wardrobe Work for You? Some Ideas for Figuring Out What You Need…

December 18, 2017

Friday we looked at the first three of the "12 Months, 12 Outfits" final wardrobes, and found some interesting "holes" in the wardrobes... I'm interested to see how the second 3 wardrobes look, when evaluated through a series of arbitrary, but not worthless, criteria.

This was the 4th wardrobe - a pretty challenging one to assemble, because olive green isn't the most common color in the world, and orange is every bit as difficult to find!

As has been true for all of the wardrobes, this wardrobe has a LOT of bottoms - an issue inherent in building a wardrobe through outfits. The learning here might be that a few more tops, and maybe another 2nd layer, would be useful additions...

This ... View the Post

Evaluating a Wardrobe – How do the “12 Months, 12 Outfits” Wardrobes Do?

December 15, 2017

What makes a wardrobe work? And how can you tell if a wardrobe is going to be functional and versatile? Not the headiest questions in life, but still important, if you like to get dressed and enjoy the process (as well as the results!).

Ultimately, your wardrobe works if you can get dressed every day with ease and pleasure. It doesn't matter what's in there, how tidy or messy it is, or how many different colors and/or styles of things you own. It's the most subjective thing in the world...

That said, if you're struggling, I have a few ideas that you might want to consider!

First up, let's start with the black, white, grey and rust wardrobe that I finished up on December 1st:

Since I built more ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in 6 Capsule Wardrobes: July

July 1, 2016

In the world of "fashion," summer is pretty much over! It's a good time to grab a couple of tee shirts (which you will of course continue to wear well into the colder weather), as well as another pair of shorts for your capsule wardrobes. A pair of sandals purchased now will definitely be a starter pair for NEXT summer, and a pretty pendant will be useful for years to come...Remember, these are our starting points for the 6 capsule wardrobes we're building:

Navy– Hermes Voyage en Etoffes; brown – Hermes Tyger Tyger; beige – Hermes Le Voyage de Pytheas; olive – Hermes Cheval Mirage; grey – Hermes Cheval Surprise Remix; black – Hermes Au Pays des Oiseaux Fleurs

I just NOW noticed that I chose TWO ... View the Post

12 Must-Have Items for your Capsule Wardrobe in 2016? Let’s Consider…

June 18, 2016 I'm sure you see these lists too: "12 Things You NEED in Your Capsule Wardrobe in 2016." They always amuse me, and irritate me, in equal measure. Let me be perfectly clear: there is NOTHING that is required for every woman. Nothing. Every woman does not needs shoes. Every woman does not need to wear a bra. Really, so long as we're all covered enough to be decent in public, I think it should be much more of a free-for-all than it currently is. Conformity kills creativity... So let's look at this particular list, and see what we can learn that might be of use! 1. Ankle Boots If there were even an item that I would encourage you to consider, it would be this. If you live in a climate ... View the Post

How Are Designers and Consumers Alike? or How SHOULD They be Alike?

When I go to Paris, I always try to find a new book or two that discusses some aspect of personal style, fashion, clothing history - just anything that interests me, and that might in turn interest you!

Right now, I'm reading this:

The second of the 101 "little secrets" tells us that "designers create collections, not simply isolated garments..."

Isolated garments - that's a pretty thought-provoking phrase! But I think that's the results from how a lot of us shop - we see something fabulous, we buy it, and we don't necessarily stop to think about the degree to which said gorgeous object will work with the rest of our wardrobe.

That's why I'm always hammering home the idea of having a plan; if you shop with a color scheme and an ... View the Post

Cleaning Out My Scarf Drawer, in my Own Odd Way…

I have too many scarves. It's just that simple - when I'm looking for a specific one, I struggle to find it, and I wander past a LOT of beautiful scarves that aren't getting the love and attention they deserve.

So I decided to clean up!

For no really good reason I can think of, I decided to choose 10 scarves to send out into the world. And from there, my methodology was bizarre, but effective...

First off, I got to thinking about how there are really only two kinds of clothes - good ones and bad ones. You can define these two terms however you like, but for me, good means good fabric, well constructed, by people who are paid a decent wage and work in decent surroundings, and which are sold by people who are also treated with ... View the Post

In Which I Try to Spend my Nordstrom Gift Card

July 15, 2015

After I was pondering if I should write about the Nordstrom Pre-Season sale, I remembered - I just had a birthday, and one of my gifts was a gift card to Nordstrom! So I can maybe indulge some pondering about what I should buy...

First off, I have to say that if I needed lingerie, I would hot-foot it to the Nordstrom site to see if they have my favorites on sale; their sale includes LOTS of lingerie.

Similarly, if I were interested in buying new bedding at this change of season, I'd also look at Nordstrom; it's also a category in which there seem to be lots of markdowns.

But I need neither of those things - I'm not buying undergarments of any ilk until I'm quite through losing weight and getting more ... View the Post

How Many Pieces of Clothing do You Need?

The question I'm asked the most often: How many pieces of clothing do I need to have in my wardrobe?

Nothing like a simple question to keep me thinking!

But I've figured out, finally, that if you can answer four questions (two easy, two more difficult), I can tell you EXACTLY how many pieces should be hanging in your gorgeous vintage armoire.

1. What is the time period for which we are planning?

For planning out your completely wardrobe (not including gym clothes or leisure attire), you'd start with the number 365 - we're planning a wardrobe for a year. But the nice thing about the formula I figured out is that you could also answer 180, if you wanted to know how many pieces of cold-weather clothing you should have, or you ... View the Post

Small Changes, Big Improvements

June 20, 2015

Sometimes, you have items of clothing that are perfectly fine, but lacking a certain... something...

Example, the following. I have FIVE of these white shirts (from Lands' End - highly recommended), from when I worked at the bakery. They're really wonderful shirts, but 5 is a bit over the top. And this black velvet tunic is lovely, but it falls into this difficult gap of being not really dressy enough to be dressy, but still seeming a bit over the top with jeans.

Easy, fast, relatively inexpensive update? Buttons!

These are Murano glass - it's virtually impossible to get a good photograph, but you have to trust me that they're pretty gorgeous...

And these are very simple plastic - black with white ... View the Post

An Orange Handbag: Integrating a New Accent Color

May 2, 2015 I know I've mentioned it before, but I really can't recommend a Longchamp Pliage bag highly enough; tossed into another tote bag, or into luggage, it can come in handy more often that you would imagine. Just for groceries, it's been used hundreds of times. And on vacation, it makes a great stash for dirty laundry during your trip, and then a handy way to get gifts back without crushing them in your regular (very small) luggage...

So today, let's envision the potential of a bright orange bag:

The same old, same old, simple navy group of garments. Who could imagine that we could do so much with such simple pieces of clothing?

Orange shoes weren't at all difficult to find - ... View the Post