The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Start With Nature: Autumn Leaves, a Four Pack

October 29, 2014   Over the weekend, we had an absolutely beautiful day on Saturday - bright, clear, and warm enough to walk for miles.  As we neared home, we passed this tree, and Belovedest took a photo of it for me.  

In order to really hone in on the leaves, I've cropped down the photograph to a handful of leaves, and isolated just three colors.  It's easy to get overwhelmed when you see something beautiful - focusing really closely on one small thing can help a lot to clarify which colors captivate you most.  

  This seemed like a wonderful opportunity to find a beautiful winter coat! A core of brown, simple clothes make a good base...  

  For an overnight business trip, ... View the Post

Start With Nature: Panicum Shenendoah, aka switchgrass… a Four Pack

October 28, 2014

  So what do you do if your favorite color scheme includes colors that are just plain difficult to wear together?  This beautiful grass (growing in the Lurie Garden, about a 10 minute walk from chez nous) includes some striking colors, but it isn't at all simple to find ANYTHING, clothes or accessories, that include the two colors...  

  But these are really pretty...  

  So you just have to accept that you might wear them separately most of the time, until and unless you find things that bring the colors together.  As long as you stick with your neutral core, these kinds of "color conundrums" aren't really limiting!  

 

  love, Janice ... View the Post

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe + A Common Capsule Wardrobe: blue, green, and grey

October 14, 2014   The French 5-Piece Wardrobe is a great way to experiment with new color palettes, but it can also be used as a way to build upon The Common Capsule Wardrobe in your chosen neutrals. Adding in a neutral item or two can really expand the versatility of your core garments, while a new color or two keeps the boredom at bay.   Let's see what these five items do for A Common Capsule Wardrobe:  

  Remember, this is A Common Wardrobe, in navy and grey, with which we're working:  

 

First off, the beautiful green sweater actually would give you eight new possibilities (I only show four) - it can be worn with any of your pants, jeans, or skirt, and it can be worn with ... View the Post

Start With Art: Yellow Tree by Linda Jacobson

Seotember 16, 2014   So beautiful, and such inspiring colors! I was completely unfamiliar with this artist; my readers send me the most wonderful things...  

  I chose a muted palette from this painting - I think I'm in a muted mood today. Would you like to see a 2nd post (after my vacation!) based on this painting, with more vivid colors?

 

  I've been asked to clarify the role of the various "fours" in the 4 by 4 Wardrobe, so I'm going to do that while working with this painting. Multitasking...   The First Core of Four is designed to give you two tops and two "bottoms" (I don't know why, but lots of people are completely bothered by the term bottoms...) that can be worn as four outfits. ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Capsule Wardrobe in Lavender, Jade, Denim and Grey

September 13, 2014

 

One more visit to the denim and grey Core of Four - this time, with accent colors of lavender and jade. All of the shades are cool - some are soft and gentle, and others are almost vivid. Lots of options here!

One of the nicest things with the shades of lavender - they can easily be blended so long as you have the same basic tone.

Once you find someone who's selling a color that you love, it makes some sense to stock up!

I looked for moonstone jewelry for this collection. Moonstone has such a lovely iridescent, almost colorless quality that picks up the colors that you wear. I think it's beautiful (and it's one of the three birthstones for those of us born in ... View the Post

Start With Art: The Church at Coggeshall, Essex by John Armstrong

September 11, 2014  

What a cool painting! It shows the World War 2 damage to the church, and the "reveal" of the interior structure of the church is fascinating. So sad that such a lovely piece of art is the result of destruction...

From this, I selected two relatively minor colors in the painting as the neutrals, and then used the gorgeous pastels as the accent colors. The black is clearly visible, but I grabbed the sage green from the shrubbery that's relatively obscured on the left side of the painting.

I think what I'm trying to show here is that, although the painting itself is very light with muted pastels, it's still possible to pull together a wardrobe from these colors without enriching your dry cleaner. Capturing ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Apricot, Celadon, Navy and Brown

August 25, 2014  

Sunday morning, I built a spreadsheet to analyze all of the color combinations that you've requested, and it turns out that navy is the most requested color (followed closely by brown and medium grey). So I'm going to persevere with the various ways to use navy as a capsule wardrobe base - are you more interested in seeing dressy/conservative office attire, business casual (which to me feels like an oxymoron, even though I lived with it for decades), or casual/weekend? Or shall I mix it up? Let me know...

First up today is this excellent color combination:

  The familiar brown core:  

  And the navy Core of Four.  Don't forget that these four items, all on their own, give you ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Mint Green, Grey, Denim and Brown

August 21, 2014  

I've decided to change up the order of the colors in the titles, so that when we scan through a large number of them, the accent colors will be better emphasized.  They are, theoretically, where the fun it! So one of you (you know who you are, you scamp!) fell in love with a deeply INAPPROPRIATE scarf:

  I would do hideously inappropriate things for this scarf in grey and pink, so I understand...

So this lovely scamp had pretty much committed to a color scheme with two neutrals of denim blue (not necessarily denim FABRIC, but that blue), and brown.  Her first accent color was planned to be grey, and she had not settled on a 2nd accent.  I proposed this color scheme to ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Navy, Brown, Green and Beige

August 20, 2014   While these are the same neutral colors that we saw yesterday, these accent colors are much more subdued and much more frequently seen along with the neutrals. Therefore, this capsule wardrobe came together much more quickly and with greater ease.  

  This was my color scheme:  

  And this is our familiar brown Core of Four:  

 

 I've changed up the jeans for a skirt, since I'm going to swing this wardrobe a little bit more toward a work environment.  If you don't need skirts, you could certainly keep the jeans.  

I found ONE more sweater in this color combination - equally blindingly expensive...  And I opted for a more tailored ... View the Post