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Wardrobe: gray, plum and sea green

Blazer – DKNY, Cardigan – Etro, Silk blouse – Paul & Joe, Silver short-sleeed top – Jason Wu, Pin-striped pants – Moschinol Skirt – Lanvin, Jeans – J. Brand. Scarf - Hermès A very appreciated reader in the UK asked for "My colouring is "Summer"; style "Full Classic"; bodyline "Straight". A little more info on colour - My 100% Neutral is Dark Blue Grey; 100% Basics - Deep Sea Green, and Plum, and I suit the deep and smokey colours of my palette." This is what I chose for her...

Blouse – Dolce & Gabbana , Trench Coat – Alberta Feretti, Charcoal coat – Jaeger. Dress – Rick Owens,

Pants – Etro, , Skirt – Max Mara Studio, Sweater ... View the Post

A Travel Capsule Wardrobe with two suits

Gray blazer – Chloé, Striped cardigan – Aubin & Wills, Pink sweater – Ralph Lauren, Henley top – Dolce & Gabbana, Black sleeveless dress – The Row, Gray crewneck – The Row, Black & gray tweedy crewneck – The Row, Cream long-sleeved tee – The Row, Tweedy skirt – Markus Lupfer, Gray flannel skirt – Vionnet, Gray pants – Donna Karan, Black lace-trimmed tee shirt – Jason Wu, Black blazer – The Row, Black pants - Gucci

Square scarves - Hermes, Sequined muffler – John Lewis, Bracelet – Blu Bijoux, Black and silver balls necklace – Kenneth Jay Lane, Silver hammered disc earrings – Dorothy ... View the Post

Wardrobes mantra: Carefully Curated and Deliberately Distilled

So far, all of the wardrobes I've built have been posted under the heading French Chic, and I'm frankly becoming a bit uncomfortable with that. We've wandered quite a distance from what the original guidelines of Susan Sommers' iconic book, and I'm not sure that I should continue to exploit the title which is so indelibly hers.

Thus, I'm just going to call them wardrobes. And with that decision, I thought I should share with you the mantra I use for the building of these little gems.

First: Carefully Curated. Each garment has to make the cut. I've heard some fairly harsh criticism recently that "good enough" is really okay for one's wardrobe, and I have to disagree. Yes, in some circumstances we do have ... View the Post

A capsule wardrobe of blue & grey, based on abalone shell jewelry

Someone brilliantly requested that I build them a wardrobe based on the colors of the abalone shell. With the inspiration I got from looking at abaloneshelljewelry.com, I built the following:

Blazer – Chloe (similar here), Cardigan – Miu Miu (similar here), Blouse – L. K. Bennett (similar here), Tee Shirt – J. Crew, Pants – Chloe (similar here), Skirt – Anglomania by Vivienne Westwood, (similar color here)

Jeans – Rag and Bone, (similar here) Scarf - Hermès

blouse – L’Agence (similar here), Trench coat – Z Spoke by Zac Posen, Winter coat – Calvin Klein

Collection, Dress – Chloe, Pants– Current/Elliott, Skirt ... View the Post

Accessories for the French Chic wardrobe

One of my dear friends asked how I would accessorize the French Chic wardrobe. While this is far from definitive, I think it's an interesting start.

I learn more and more every day as I build these vignettes for our shared pleasure: you should be ABSOLUTELY FANATICALLY DEMANDING when you purchase anything. There is a world of merchandise out there, and the perfect item exists, if you have the patience and the focus to find it. Settle for NOTHING LESS THAN PERFECTION. You deserve it. And if you fully intend to own many of your accessories for the rest of your life, you can easily justify buying the very best item being made today - support geniuses and craftspersons, and beautify the ... View the Post

French Chic: Expanding on the core wardrobe

So as lovely as the garments above are, this is certainly not going to be enough clothing to even get you through a week. Most of us would want at least five separate tops and bottoms (or a dress) to get through the week. Even if you wear black pants repeated each week, it's nice to have more than one pair.

Thus, I decided to take it upon myself to determine what additional garments Vivienne would want in order to consider this a complete wardrobe. Realistically, I think most of us would do this exercise twice - once for cooler weather, and once for the sweltering misery that passes for summer on much of our planet. But for starters, let's just round out this core wardrobe with a few of the ... View the Post

French Chic: The core of the French Chic wardrobe

One of the things about the book French Chic (Susan Sommers) which intrigued me was the list of garments which included "The seven essentials no well-dressed Frenchwoman would be without". That list included:

A black straight skirt a V-neck or cardigan sweater a suit a pair of jeans a silk shirt a couple of white tee-shirts an Hermes scarf

The idea of a list of essential clothing fascinates me; in a world that tries to compel me to over-consume, that finite-ness of a list like this, in which I could have some discipline and some structure, seems heaven-sent. Knowing that I was going to buy a fixed number of garments would give me the freedom to determine how much I wanted to spend, in what areas I ... View the Post

One French woman’s Small, Simple wardrobe: Back to the roots of the Vivienne Files

This is from a posting on a discussion group in which I listed the entirety of Vivienne's work wardrobe. She tells me that it has changed very little in the intervening years... Note that I've assigned "days of the week" to these little vignettes, but I don't think that necessarily corresponds to how and when Vivienne actually wears these.

Here's the inventory... (1) Charcoal gray flannel pants, gray and black striped sweater (1b) red and gray twinset

(2) Black short knit skirt, black merino twinset (2b) black and white striped turtleneck longer (tunic length?) sweater

(3) Black pants and blazer, black and white paisley blouse (3b) ... View the Post

Back to the roots of the Vivienne Files – part 4

the following is a direct quote from the original Je Ne Sais Quoi discussion group postings I made regarding my friend Vivienne:

Someone asked me what Vivienne thinks of my wardrobe - to put it mildly she thinks I'm crazy! Admittedly, she has never actually been in my apartment and seen the beautiful arrangement (by color) of my bounty, and I HAVE seen her apartment (but not her closet) but she assures me that she has about 4 linear feet of hanging space. (Well okay, slightly more than a meter) But she thinks that I'm a genius packer - the last 2 trips I've made to Paris on business, she has come over to my hotel with me and hung out while I unpacked, pressed and otherwise got my act together. She ... View the Post