jewelry Archives

A Couple of Enthusiastic Recommendations, and a Question

First Cool Thing You may have figured out by now that my most beloved mother lives in Florida... which suggests warm weather, pools...

POOLS? You're not gettin' me in some skimpy little string-bottomed, fat-revealing piece of Lycra!

That was me, for quite a long time. But having children in the family changes all rules, so I took a chance, and I AM THRILLED.

I LOOK GOOD IN THIS!

Trust me. Take your measurements, be patient, and TRY THESE. I was so happy... There's a pool in my building! And a HOT TUB! And I can USE THEM BOTH!!!!!

excuse me, I'm shouting because I'm happy; it's a great reason to shout....

Yes, wrestling your upper torso into the top is a project, because of the built-in bra. But it's worth the ... View the Post

Spring Updates? Or Maybe Mother’s Day?

I'm not good with dates - I forget birthdays (except my own, and Belovedest's), if we hadn't got married on the 1st day of Spring I would struggle with our anniversary, and let's not even get started on the holidays that changes dates every year!

But Mother's Day in the US is coming up soon... If you're still lucky enough to buy gifts for this occasion, it's time to give it some thought!

And yes, your mother would want you to have something pretty too...

If your wardrobe could use a bit of freshening up, a new accent color for warm weather is a fun option to consider; for this post, I just found cardigans that I liked, and then built around them. A pretty cardigan over a neutral outfit ALWAYS makes things feel new and fresh, and ... View the Post

10 Ways to Wear a Blue Dress

So the yellow dress was, in many of our opinions, hard to wear... I suspect that's why our heroine wrote to me in the first place! But the overall idea of figuring out at least a few ways to wear a dress is still a pretty smart way to get your money's worth from a purchase... Someone asked that I address the same dress, but in blue; that seems like a good idea.

But - the dress color is hard to assess - the dress on the model looks VERY different from the full-length photograph of the dress on its own. AND... the dress is supposed to be dry cleaned; if there was ever something that was going to keep it hanging in your closet (and not on your back!) is that knowledge in the back of your mind that you have to have it cleaned...

How about ... View the Post

Start with a Bracelet – The March monthly bracelet from Fierce Lynx Designs!

This is really exciting - one of my genius technical helpers here on The Vivienne Files ALSO makes jewelry. (don't you just hate these creative types?)

And she's going to make a special bracelet, each month, for US, here at The Vivienne Files!

Here's the first one:

How gorgeous is that?

So I'm thinking about warm weather, and lakes, and beaches, and summer homes...

My color scheme is this:

And I'm planning a wardrobe that you can pull together and then leave at the beach house until at least May or June. My plan is to wear super-light colored clothing, so that it feels summery. But I'll also make certain that our heroine has a few warm garments - spring evenings aren't always warm!

First up, some basic pieces in ... View the Post

An Accessory Packing Miscalculation…

Remember this mostly neutral wardrobe? I'm going to revisit this with different accent colors on Friday, but today this wardrobe still needs to be accessorized! This is the scarf upon which I based this wardrobe:

And these were the garments:

So, to experiment a little bit, and to change up our normal system, let's just choose a bunch of great accessories, and see how it all works out...

(I'm going to fill in a 6 by 4 Accessory Grid, just for the heck of it...)

First up, earrings! Some neutrals, and a couple of pair that pick up 2 of our accent colors:

A watch and some bracelets, with the same balance of neutral and accent colors:

Necklaces, and (why the heck not?) a brooch! Brooches on denim jackets look ... View the Post

Choosing Accessories to go with a Blue and Grey Travel Wardrobe (for Ireland!)

It's all well and good to have your clothes sorted for a trip, but you really MUST pack accessories. Not necessarily all that much stuff, but some shoes are critical, as well as a few more odds and ends...

As a reminder, this is the photograph that was inspiring us, and the color scheme that we were using:

You've got to have shoes - there aren't terribly many places you can go and NOT need shoes... Even though the dress shoes aren't as important as hiking shoes, let's start here anyway!

If you're not going to do hard-core hiking, you might adjust your choice of hiking shoes to be something a little bit less rugged, but it always makes sense to have something very comfortable for lots of walking...

Being outdoors a ... View the Post

Packing Accessories for a Cruise, in a Navy, Blush, Grey and White Travel Capsule Wardrobe

Monday we chose some clothes for our heroine to pack on a springtime cruise to Italy and the islands near there; we used this lovely painting as our inspiration:

We left her with these clothes:

So let's start with shoes! They're always the most difficult thing to pack - they take up a ton of space, and they make a great deal of difference in the appearance of an outfit. Dress shoes especially...

The dresses she is packing - and the navy skirt - can be worn with any of the 2nd layers. The lace jacket is quite dressy, and of course the denim jacket is quite casual. What shoes will work?

(of course, lots of tops can be worn with the navy skirt - I'm just using the navy top for illustrative purposes...)

Similarly, our ... View the Post

Daisies! The Birth Flower for April

If there was ever going to be a birth flower that we could all steal, it would be daisies! A few designers seem to have really embraced the entire daisy motif: Olivia Burton made all kinds of jewelry and watches with daisies, and Marc Jacobs went a bit nuts for them, too...

I think that daisies are popular for lots of reasons - in real life, they're a great cut flower to buy because they're generally very inexpensive, last a REALLY long time, and the buds will actually open after you buy them...

For ornamental purposes, they're simple in design, familiar to almost all of us, and for many people have associations that make us smile...

So if you want to add a daisy or five to your wardrobe, you have options:

If you don't want the ... View the Post

How to Pack Just Enough Accessories

So, while Friday's travel capsule wardrobe looked pretty good, it's really not complete! Without at least shoes (and maybe a bag) you're not probably going very far... (and yes, some people don't ever wear shoes; there are ALWAYS exceptions...)

Let's do some planning, before we add accessories to that wardrobe - first, by remembering and building on our color palette.

It's worth considering if these colors will give you sufficient guidance for your choice of accessories. I like to - at a minimum - add a metal color, so that I don't just willy nilly toss all of my jewelry into my bag! You might want to also be certain that you've got a dark neutral that's going to work for things like shoes and bags. With navy, many of us might want to ... View the Post

Adding Just Enough Accessories

Yesterday she managed to wrestle her wardrobe into shape, so today she want to be certain that she has enough accessories. She's not mad about having tons of stuff, but it is pretty important to have at least some appropriate shoes!

Her color palette looked like this when she was finished:

She thought for a bit, and chose gold as the metal color for her jewelry (maybe just for this season - who knows?)

And she's going to rely a bit on navy as a "cooling" influence on her wardrobe, as she moves away from those warm olive-ish greens that made her feel drab. So she drafted a 2nd color palette, like this:

Now that her colors are all settled, she things for a minute about what she's going to look for in her closet, and then buy ... View the Post

What If I Don’t Really DO Accessories?

Some people just don't wear a lot of jewelry; they don't want to collect handbags, nor shoes, and they find one scarf suits them quite well...

(okay, they're nuts...)

Actually, that's their right. Of course it is! But it does suggest that they're going to want to plan a bit to make certain that they have what they want and need when they get dressed.

Let's start where we were yesterday, with this nicely tidied leisure wardrobe:

When we finished this wardrobe yesterday, we had a lovely color palette for our heroine's clothing. Working from that, we can easily devise a corresponding palette for her accessories - add a choice of metal (if you're not going to have a lot of jewelry, what you do have can easily be either all-gold or ... View the Post

How do I Know That I Have Enough Accessories?

Our heroine ended yesterday's adventure with a color scheme that felt right, and a spring capsule wardrobe that she found really comfortable; it gave her great pleasure, every time she opened her closet door...

But she still needs to wear shoes! And carry a bag. And maybe wear some earrings, or a bracelet, from time to time. How to plan THAT?

Well, I pondered this for a while, and I think that she should think about what outfits she's going to wear, from her wardrobe, and then make certain that she has the accessories that are right for each of those outfits. What else would she want, if she knew that she had a dozen outfits ready to go?

To keep choices balanced, I'm going to see if I can fill in this template with her accessories... ... View the Post