navy Archives

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4: Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

July 4, 2025

Okay, THIS might be one of my favorite paintings ever. Although I can't imagine how one would EVER get a view of the Eiffel Tower like this, these days...

Today's heroine is stocking up on summer clothes; she's one of the really lucky people for whom summer things are still available!

She's particularly happy to find a trove of her aqua accent:

It's a good thing that our heroine was able to find warm-weather clothes; her wardrobe still seems to have quite a gap! Next month, she may have to focus on her navy neutral and beige accent to find things...

Her wardrobe doesn't look terribly focused on cold weather wear, though. There are few "4-season" places where this wardrobe wouldn't serve someone pretty ... View the Post

July 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1: Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

July 1, 2025

July??? I'm sort of amazed. You would think that I would adjust to the passage of time, after a few years...

Remember - there will be posts every weekday this week, and on both Monday and Tuesday next week. Because these posts for the paintings aren't very big, I give you lots of them all in a row!

Let's jump into this perfectly perfect summer painting:

So many of us have been living with ridiculously hot weather for a while, so it was easy to get into the mood to get this heroine some true summer clothes!

I cheated just a bit on the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe; I'm calling the striped tee shirt "sleeveless" when of course it isn't! But our heroine already has all of her tee shirts, and I felt ... View the Post

Love Primary Colors? Start With 2 Scarves – Lazyjack Press and Elizabetta

June 25, 2025

Sometimes, when you're packing, it's just easier to go back to the very most basic options. That's certainly true with colors; if you're packing core is navy, red and yellow seem like perfect accents!

So let's start with these two scarves:

Our heroine has made a few changes to her navy wardrobe core. This part of your packing can be as conservative or as relaxed as you need, of course!

To go with our red floral scarf, our heroine has chosen a timeless linen camp shirt, and a striped tee! She might wear the scarf with the striped tee shirt, if she's feeling in that mood.

Her yellow clothes make a sort of twinset, with the matching tee shirt and cardigan. And yes, she's got two completely ... View the Post

Want to Mix Your Neutrals? Start With Art – Green, Gold & Blue Painting by Susan Krause

June 20, 2025

Hold your loved ones close, and TELL THEM YOU LOVE THEM. One of our friends here in The Vivienne Files readership has lost their partner, and in this time of her grief, we should all remember how fortunate we are to have each day - each moment - with those we love. JR

Many of us fall into the easiest pattern imaginable - every few months, we buy a new outfit (which of course all goes together beautifully!) in one of our favorite neutrals. Today's heroine is inspired by this painting, which gives her a lovely range of possibilities:

She's spent some time admiring this work, and has determined that these are the colors that she sees there. These colors are pretty obvious, but what's maybe more important is that she ... View the Post

Love Pink and Green? Start With Two Scarves: Elizabetta and Jessie Zhao New York

June 18, 2025

Say your trip with your navy wardrobe core went well, including what you packed! But you'd like to try some different accent colors...

How about using these two scarves as your inspiration? Of course you NEVER have to wear scarves if you don't like them, but you can always use the images of them, and the colors included, to help you focus your travel capsule wardrobe:

To keep our comparison consistent, and to actually reflect how normal women wear their clothes over and over (as the planet asks us to do!), I'm using the same navy core that we used on Friday:

Our heroine found the perfect shade of pink at Lands' End, so she grabbed two different but very compatible garments. And her necklace is ... View the Post

Want a Touch of Brown with Your Chambray? Tullynally Castle Corridor & Window by Hector McDonnell

June 16, 2025

She goes away a LOT of weekends in the summer. Many of her friends have places on lakes or the seashore, or in a forest near a lake... And she must be an excellent guest, because she's always invited somewhere!

This is one of her favorite paintings:

She always feels like the window at the end of the hall is crooked!

Her colors that she's isolated from the painting are shown here; she doesn't include the tiny touches of red, but she does wear a good red lipstick sometimes...

She usually leaves for her friend's home straight from work - she's close to the train station when she's in her office! She dresses simply, but with a cardigan to battle the office air-conditioning.

She doesn't ... View the Post

Want to Pack In Two Moods? Start With Two Scarves: Frances Valentine and Kurt Geiger

June 13, 2025

Happy Friday the 13th to all of us intelligent people who are NOT superstitious!

Today's question is a pretty normal one: our heroine wants to pack a wardrobe that's mostly navy, but wants a couple of different options for accents. She'd love a pretty pastel, but she's also thinking that a bright-colored option might be nice too.

Okay! let's grab a couple of scarves that appealed to me, and that will work as a perfect springboard for our heroine:

Our heroine's only going to be gone for 4 nights, and she's not going anyplace horrendously dressy. She will have to attend a meeting or two, but for at least one day she will be able to wear shorts! This is a normal trip for her, and so she's assembled a navy travel ... View the Post

June 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #5 – Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

June 6, 2025

Such a favorite scene, and a wonderful painting!

Our heroine woke up one morning in early June to realize that Summer WILL come this year, albeit quite late. And she doesn't have a ton of warm-weather clothes, yet.

She's got 2 pairs of sandals, so she needn't worry too much about that. So she goes ahead to grab three sleeveless tops, early in the season while there are still sizes available. And of course her shorts are going to be the same neutral that she uses for so many linen-ish and cotton-y garments for warm weather!

She's still missing quite a few items for hot weather, but she's made a very good start!

Now, her 28-piece wardrobe looks as if it would serve her for most seasons of the year. ... View the Post

June 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2 – Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

June 3, 2025

Every month, I look at this painting and think that this would be how I would dress if I was starting from scratch (well, the wardrobe based on this painting or on the Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay!)

Navy appeals more and more, beige is timeless, and blue/green accents call my name. But at this point in life, I'm NOT re-doing my wardrobe! Sometimes you just have to admire the painting and the clothes, and stick with what's worked for you for the past 40 years...

So let's admire the lovely colors and fluid, relaxed lines of this masterpiece:

This heroine is also going to try to stick to her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe for a while, when shopping. At the end of May, her garments fitted into the template like ... View the Post

Building a Wardrobe Gradually? Start With Art – Abstraction Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

May 30, 2025

We've visited this painting twice before, with our heroine who has the lucky habit of dashing into the city for a last-minute date! Opera, or maybe ballet or orchestra - the opera season doesn't last all year, sadly...

First, she was headed to a ballet matinee on January, and then in March they were able to snag some opera tickets!

In all cases, she packs her tote bag full of beautiful things based on this color palette:

Back in January, she used a navy cardigan/skirt/pants trio as her core, upon which she added four tops:

When our heroine considered what she might add to her bag if they decided to stay in the city for a few more days:

In March, when they went to the opera, this is what ... View the Post

May 2025 Start With a Bracelet – Art Deco Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

May 21, 2025

Today's heroine has such a lovely inspiration:

She's particularly excited because she's about to break out of her navy and white routine. Her travel capsule wardrobes usually look like this or this.

So she's making just a little bit of a change; if you're one of us who've dressed in a monochromatic wardrobe for YEARS, you understand what a big change this is!

Our heroine's core wardrobe is based on her navy suit. When you buy a suit, you should assume that it's going to be worn a lot, in a variety of ways. (Suits are expensive!)

For short trips, during which our heroine might only have one "serious" meeting, this is typical of her travel wardrobe:

It's going to take our heroine all summer to ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4 – Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 4, 2025

This is such a great painting to look at when it's still SO COLD here in Chicago; it feels like water, and growing green things, and sand, and sun...

I always picture this wardrobe as something for someone who lives all year at a place that's a big summer vacation destination. She is always in touch with sand, sky and water, but wearing some warmer fabrics! This was her wardrobe at the end of March:

She was quite smitten with the navy dress post here from the end of March, so a navy shirt and pants seems like an easy way for a "non-dress" person to replicate that idea. As I said before - a navy column is a navy column!

Are the striped shoes too much? She was smitten, and sometimes you're going to buy ... View the Post