my wardrobe Archives - Page 5 of 9

Mixing Solids and Patterns, or 18 = 108 (or more…)

Ever since I started trying to identify my signature wardrobe items, and have worked with A Common Wardrobe, I've pondered the various ways in which printed or patterned garments can be incorporated into your wardrobe. I think for most of us, either non-solid pieces, or accent colors, are pretty important to give a sense of change and variety...

So I started with a wonderful 9-Piece Slot Machine Wardrobe in solid black. These pieces run the gamut from a tank top for warm weather to a cashmere turtleneck for (in my life) about 6 months of winter. Just doing the math, these give you 27 3-piece outfits (3 x 3 x 3), plus 12 more 2-piece outfits. Some of the combinations might be a little unlikely - like a linen tank top with waxed cotton ... View the Post

How to Create Your Capsule Wardrobe – a Vivienne Files Bookshelf Excerpt

Taken from one of my very favorite reference books for The Vivienne Files: Ma To-Do List by Jeanne-Aurore Colleuille and Laure Gontier. I'm going to quote directly from their book in grey type, and my comments will be in this color...

The 3 Secrets for Creating your “Capsule Wardrobe”

“My style is the result of distillation. I have accepted my grey hair. I only wear black and white. Each year, I buy three or four dresses which I wear in rotation. I own a pair of jeans.” – Jamie Lee Curtis

This barbaric Anglo-Saxon concept, adored by fashion magazines and women of style across the Atlantic, doesn’t have a real French equivalent.

The word that they use to describe this concept is barbarisme... is doesn't translate with quite ... View the Post

Our Move, and Cleaning out Closets

Finally! We are settled in our new apartment... It was, realistically, a pretty small move - just down the hall, from a west-facing studio apartment to an east and south-facing 1 bedroom apartment.

We wouldn't have moved - we were massively happy in our studio, but we received SUCH an incredibly kind offer to rent the 1-bedroom unit that it was pretty much impossible to pass up. Now, we have enough space to have either of our mothers visit, and give them a bedroom and master bathroom to themselves. They will have a modicum of space and privacy, which is always useful when family members are in close quarters.

This is our view, seen over my extraordinary chaise longue. Why yes, it IS wide enough for Belovedest and I to sit in ... View the Post

A Summer Common Capsule Wardrobe

It was a great question, and one that I'm sorry I didn't think of sooner - what about A Common Capsule Wardrobe for warmer weather? It's not like the concept doesn't work when the weather's above 20 degrees...

For me, of course the neutral is black. You can't imagine how I DON'T want to wear bright clothes are a day of wrestling with the nuances of color for The Vivienne Files! Also, I go in and out of stores, offices and restaurants that have absolutely frigid air-conditioning, so I include both a cardigan and a jacket. If you spend your time in less wasteful environments, you might not need these...

So I start with my cardigan - sheer, and very light. A jacket in silk... Three sleeveless tops, which can be in silk, cotton, or linen (or ... View the Post

My French 5-Piece Capsule Wardrobe for Autumn and Winter 2015. I think…

So now that THAT is settled, let's move on to the really fun stuff - adding to and dressing up (or down) A Common Wardrobe.

Just for reference, or if you still haven't printed it, this is the template from which I worked for my 12-piece Common Wardrobe.

And these are the core garments with which I'm working:

These aren't all of my accessories, but they give us a good starting point:

Going into this autumn, my foremost wardrobe goal, such as it is, is to get more use out of two of my most treasured scarves. The top one is from Etro, and I bought it for our honeymoon. It was, in fact, the leitmotif from which my pink, white and black color scheme was drawn.

And then 2nd scarf is an Hermes that Belovedest gave me ... View the Post

My Wardrobe: Revisiting The Common Wardrobe

Among the most popular, and among the most misunderstood, posts that I've ever written for The Vivienne Files have to be the ones about A Common Wardrobe.

I used to work in advertising. I used to travel a lot, and I used to be privileged to meet some of the most intelligent, creative, eccentric and downright weird people you could imagine. But one thing that I noticed, time and time again, was that no matter how unusual their appearance might have seemed, their clothes would invariably include at least one or two elements that were pretty normal. In fact, when I looked over large rooms full of these people, you could see a common theme of a lot of jeans, khakis, and black trousers, a lot of white shirts, a lot of black tee shirts etc. Note ... View the Post

A New Scarf from Ananda Design! or How to Wear One Item All Year

As you well know, I'm not the blogger who gets buried in gifts from designers, so when I do receive something, it's a special day chez nous! And not many days get more special than this for me - can you imagine a scarf better suited to the woman who lives in black, and who's favorite accent color is red???

This scarf, from Ananda Design; is cotton, which is unusual for me, and it has tassels on the corners, which is REALLY not something I have in my closet. But I've had it wrapped around me and played with it a lot, and it's pretty wonderful. The cotton is of course a great fabric for a scarf that you use in warm weather to ward off over-enthusiastic air conditioning, and the tassels give just a little bit of heft to the ... View the Post

In Which I Try to Spend my Nordstrom Gift Card

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 lean. And a dear neighbor just gave ... View the Post

What’s Going On in My Wardrobe

For those of you who have been wondering how I'm dressing these days, I offer up the following snapshots, taken from my Instagram account:

I will get back to posting my Wardrobe Diaries, when I don't have so many other beautiful things to discuss!

But if you want to follow me on Instagram, I post about 3 or 4 times a week about what I'm wearing, or other nifty and beautiful things I see.

You can follow me hereby clicking on the little tiny navy and grey camera up in the top right corner, above my photograph, and the Google search bar. I'd love to see you there!

love, Janice

... View the Post

A Winner!!! And my new plan…

Remember that delectable scarf from Kathkath that they offered to us last week?

Well, Lorrie, send me your contact information so that I can forward it to Kathkath - because IT'S YOURS!

Congratulations to Lorrie, and thanks, as always, to all of you who hang around here with me and share my day...

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but Belovedest and I are moving, at the end of June. Just down the hall, but we've been given an irresistible offer on a REALLY irresistible apartment with a spectacular lake view, and so we're going to accept...

The new apartment is a 1 bedroom, which is a big step up for those of us who have always lived in studio apartments! But so far we've been very lucky - someone gave us an absolutely ... View the Post

A Clothing Diary: Week 11

Last week's weather was enough to cause wardrobe whiplash - one day, bare legs and sandals, LITERALLY the next day, coats, scarves and gloves. We who live in the Midwest (or anywhere else in the world!) must remember that we don't control the weather, and remain madly flexible!

AND!!!! my awesome feather print scarf is available to order from Crimson Paris... you're welcome!

Yes, the Vionic sandals are all that everybody told me they would be! I have silver, and red, and it's a good thing I can't justify having more pair, or I would. Very comfortable, and casual but not junky looking. You know what I mean - those flip flops that look like they're three weeks too late for the dumpster?

My Eileen Fisher dress! Just as perfect as I ... View the Post

A Clothing Diary Week 10

Why yes, it IS April, but we aren't seeing any weather that feels warm! I wore gloves, without exception, every time I was out - most of our highest temperatures were just around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. While I love cold weather more than most people, I have to admit to being ready to move into something just a tad warmer...

My week was filled with preparations for moving (down the hall, but it involved two different landlords for each of the apartments, a renovation about to start in the new apartment, and plans for renovations the second we're out of our current digs), visits to my doctor, and accompanying a friend to her appointments too! If there's ever a market for guided tours of Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, I will be the first ... View the Post