green Archives - Page 13 of 28

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe Starts with Art: Little Harbor in Normandy by Georges Braque (Version 1)

November 18, 2016

I've never really accepted the idea that women can, uniformly, only wear warm colors or cool colors. I know that for many of us, it's a great guideline for wardrobe discipline, and helps coordinate things beautifully, but I still wonder why someone who loves black and white as much as I do would have gold and orange highlights in their eyes... Oh well, it's a great subject for conversation...

But I think of these things when I look at this painting, which skews two very different directions, color-wise:

I seriously considered sawing the painting in half (metaphorically, of course) and using the bottom half for today, and the top half on Monday for a study that includes grey... But I think we can all manage to ... View the Post

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe Start with Art: Poppies and Butterflies by Vincent Van Gogh

November 16, 2016 As the days get shorter, and we spend a LOT more time in the dark (in the Northern Hemisphere, of course!), a painting like this is a cheering thing to study:

For those who worry that a "warm" wardrobe - one that's ideal for those with Autumn or Spring coloring - might be too dark in the cool weather, I offer some ideas!

I love these pieces - you could literally get dressed in the dark with no worries about not matching! A couple of pair of warm brown/tan shoes, some lovely gold jewelry, and you'd be well set for the day.

Cream tee – L.L.Bean; sable sweater – L.L.Bean; shirt – Lands’ End; Sand tee – Lands’ End; cardigan – J.Crew; silk blouse – J. Crew; Camel cords - L.L.Bean; ... View the Post

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe – Start with Art: Sure Violet by Helen Frankethaler

November 14, 2016

Of course, we all know that the French don't really just buy 5 pieces of clothes a year - that's sort of silly. But there is some truth to the idea that they buy five major accent pieces twice a year. So let's think about taking a really simple, basic capsule wardrobe and seeing what we can do with adding 5 new pieces (and some accessories, of course!)

First up, let's start with a really lovely work of art:

Today we're just looking at accent colors, and this painting is perfect for that! If we wanted to build a summer wardrobe around this, could you imagine using off-white silk and linen as the neutral, and then these four colors? Mmmm....

This is the core wardrobe that I'm suggesting - I ... View the Post

Expanding a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: The Bathers by Paul Cezanne

November 2, 2016

I've been assured by my experts that, as much as WE all understand that "Start with Art" means "building beautiful capsule and travel wardrobes using the colors and styles found in fine art," nobody else in the Google universe knows what we're doing... and that keeps new readers from finding The Vivienne Files. That, my friends, is bad... So I'm trying to name my posts in a more "search-friendly" way. We shall see how this works!But the beauty is here, no matter what. After seeing so much art in Italy, I just HAVE to do a couple of small art-based wardrobes...

This just screams of nature, warmth, and organic fabrics in lovely faded dyes:

The colors here were very straightforward:

As has been my ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Camel, Green and Burgundy

OCtober 27, 2016 I'm back from Italy - we saw nothing of the earthquakes yesterday. Thanks so much for all of your emails and texts checking up on us! hugs, Janice I love camel.... I never wear it, because I look like death on a hot day when I try, but it always looks so rich and elegant in a capsule wardrobe... Scarf – Hermes Flânerie à Versailles; knit scarf – BP. There's at least 1 shade of blue lurking in this scarf, as well as a variety of green hues... and the solid scarf, on the website, is described as "olive." That seems... strange. But it's proof that you have to really search high and low, and in all sorts of odd places, to find things.

I hope you'll notice, through this ensemble, the ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Teal and Jade

October 20, 2016 Subtle and dark, but NOT boring:

Window Shopping As soon as the weather is VERY cold, and the holiday decorations are everywhere downtown, she goes into the city...

She leaves her bag with the hotel staff, and then she walks, and walks, and WALKS... All alone, for hours...

Can anyone explain WHY this duffel bag is for men? Then she goes back to the hotel, takes a long hot shower... Room service and a good book are her only companions...

The next morning, she's prepared for anything that the holidays can thrown at her; a little solitude and contemplation is good for the soul.

love, Janice ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Vase with Honesty by Vincent van Gogh

October 4, 2016

I'm going to take a rather different approach to working with art, for this week. One of the biggest concerns that you raise to me is that it's impossible to completely re-do a wardrobe from the very beginning. So I'm going to look at introducing accent colors and art inspirations into an existing wardrobe, and see how that works...First, let's start with our beautiful painting:

These were the colors that I saw within the painting. For the most part, they're nice neutrals, and thus should be easy to combine.

Here's where I want to change things, for now. Imagine that the above painting has become something of a fascination for someone; they've decided that, moving forward, they want it to be their ... View the Post

Capsule Wardrobe Color Palette – A Sprig of Shamrock, with Six Neutrals

September 29, 2016 Why yes, I'm Irish... I've lived in Dublin! I love it there...

For some reason, the images arrived here in the blog post in a different order than usual! Ah, the wonders of computers...Frankly, this color was very difficult to find in scarves, so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to investigate the possibilities of fine jewelry. If you were born in May, maybe an emerald or two could be in your future?

This combination is unexpected, but I think it works...

earrings – John Hardy; cardigan - Kettlewell; grey tee – J. Crew; pants – J. Crew; clutch – Red(V); loafers - Patricia Green; necklace - Effy; grey cardigan – J. Crew; ring – John Hardy; sweater - ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Portrait of Marevna by Diego Rivera

September 23, 2016 A calm, balanced woman, able to see all sides of an issue.... Remember her from the class reunion? This was her visual cue:

When we met her at the reunion, this was what she had with her to wear; she was deftly straddling the divide between warm and cool colors:

Just a few days later, she's headed to Europe for a 10-day... attempt to talk some more extreme individuals down off of a political ledge. It's all pretty quiet - no fanfare...

(yes, she seriously considered packing the matching leopard shell...) She's going to have to talk to a wide variety of people, in a WIDE variety of settings. She will certainly see the inside of a conference room, but also ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

September 22, 2016

Do we remember the veterinarian from the class reunion? She was the woman who used this as her style leitmotif:

And who had packed this eclectic mix for that trip:

Since she's an expert in the study of contagious diseases in free-range ruminants (someone's got to study these things!) she's been invited to an extensive symposium on lifestock health being held at a major university. Thus, she's going to be gone for a while, and is going to need some additional things to wear:

Flannel shirt – Uniqlo; earrings – Aurelie Bidermann; brown turtleneck – Uniqlo; green turtleneck – Jardin des Orangers; cream turtleneck – Lands’ End; tee – Kettlewell; cardigan – Simply Be; scarf ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Portrait of Marevna by Diego Rivera

September 9, 2016

This is another of those works that I often see at the Art Institute of Chicago. She's not exactly pretty, but I think she's rather handsome:

Class Reunion/Homecoming

earrings – Kate Spade; scarf – Nordstrom; dress – Lands’ End; lipstick – Bobbi Brown in Uber Beige; cardigan – Miu Miu; bracelet – Robert Lee Morris; watch – La Mer Collections; nail polish – Chanel Le Vernis in Cavaliere; shoes – Cole Haan; tote – Marni

"After looking at the RSVP list, I certainly hope SHE's coming. We're going to need a calm head in this crowd..."

Sweater – Jil Sander; cashmere tee shirts – J. Crew; ring – L. Erickson; necklace – Natasha; scarf – Klements; jeans – L.L.Bean; skirt – Lands’ ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

September 8, 2016

Thanks for suggesting this painting to me! I love the art ideas I receive from you...

Class Reunion/Homecoming

"She was always so GLAMOROUS - I was afraid to even speak to her..."

Sweater – Jardin des Orangers; necklace – Bauble Bar; ring – Pomellato; ivory tee – Jaeger; metallic tee – MM6 Maison Margiela; scarf – Santorus; belt – Levi’s; clutch – Elliott Lucca; cords – Mother; corduroy skirt – Dorothy Perkins; ballet flats – Bernardo; jeans – Closed; loafers – L’Amour des Pieds

"Well, I know that she got a veterinary degree; she probably takes care of little teacup designer dogs for movie stars..."

"She's about the size ... View the Post