navy Archives

February 2019 -12 Months, 12 Outfits – based on 6 Hermes Scarves

First things first: after much consideration, I'm going to continue to use the Appaloosa des Steppes scarf, even though the design elements in the scarf are indeed from Kyrgyz rugs. I contacted the Kyrgyzstan embassy to ask if they were concerned or offended by this, and never received a response. After I read the Hermes website description of the design, I felt that they were using the images respectfully. I can't swear to this, but unless I get better information, I'm going to carry on. (to catch up on this conversation, check the comments on last month's installment of this series)

But don't ever hesitate to contact me about things like this; I will always take your concerns very seriously, and try to respond ... View the Post

Traveling with a Group – Keeping Your Luggage Small when Your Gang is Large!

I heard from her last week - she and TWELVE of her friends are traveling to England and Scotland in September! Twelve... oh my...

They share an interest - somewhat of a hobby, a little bit of an obsession. It doesn't matter if it's growing a particular flower, or baking a specific delicacy, or delving into the history of a certain historic figure. They've all decided that they want to travel together! I admire and respect this in so many ways...

But everybody is going to have to come to an agreement about not packing stacks of luggage. It's a sure way to slow things down appallingly, run the risk of losing things, and over-crowding hotel rooms.

Thus, there has to be an understanding among these women, which (in my mind) includes ... View the Post

How to Dress and Pack when Traveling from Cold Weather to Warm Weather

Someone asks me this question almost every week in the Northern Hemisphere winter - how do I dress when I know it's going to be warm when I get off the plane?

I do this often - I spend quite a bit of time in Florida! My system is to layer 3 tops (what I call the Triple Top Secret...), and then peel off layers when I'm on the ground in my warm destination.

My other trick is to leave room in my carry-on bag for my shoes and socks, and I carry my sandals with me - that's a change I make right away! I also make certain that I can fit my cardigan and long-sleeved shirt in my carry-on, so that I can just wear a tee shirt, pants and sandals for the rest of my travel day. So far, this is working well...

I thought that I would build a ... View the Post

Winter Travel: Madame Leon Clapisson by Renoir

Oh my... She sings in the opera. Not one of the stars, but she works all the time, and enjoys it immensely!

Even though she's not the primary singer, she's still a bit of a diva; she identifies quite a bit with the woman in the painting:

So when she purchases her clothes, she uses this color scheme - enough neutral colors that she can find what she needs, but with lovely soft accent colors that appeal to her feminine side:

Her opera company is travelling to give a few performances in another city. She will be spending most of her time rehearsing or performing, but she will have a bit of time to sight-see, shop, and dine.

She's quite dressy...

She realizes that packing only dresses and cardigans will work quite ... View the Post

Wear a Uniform and Simplify your Summer Wardrobe – Using Navy as Your Neutral

I wanted to share one final experiment into uniforms for warm weather. You don't necessarily have to dress like this every day (although you're sort of losing the whole "ease of a uniform" idea if you don't wear it... uniformly...). Still, if you have these pieces in your closet, you're never going to really be stuck finding something to wear... Unless you're going to something really outside of your normal activities, your "uniform" capsule should be perfectly chosen to help you get dressed in a flash for the activities that take up most of your time.

So let's visit some navy! What's nicer than a bit of navy for warm weather?

(a note about matching navy garments... when I was in Ireland last month, I saw LOTS of men wearing navy ... 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

I Want to Pack ALL of my Clothes!

All of my clothes are lovely - why can't I take EVERYTHING with me on vacation?

Well... of course this isn't going to work, but it's a legitimate question that I think about every time I'm going out of town - if I take everything that I own that I really love, I'm just going to end up moving away. (don't tempt me - I LOVE to move...)

But let's be adults about this for a few minutes; choices are hard, but must be made. Let's walk through an example to see 1 way to make these decisions rational, if not any easier!

Start with the spring into summer wardrobe:

The first thing you want to do is get EVERYTHING out in front of you, or at least on a list. Visibility is really key to see where redundancies lie...

Then start sorting things out ... View the Post

Lovet Green! A Great French 5-Piece Wardrobe, with navy and white

I haven't a clue what a lovet is... any ideas? But when I saw this color I knew that we had to look at it a bit - it really calls out to me...

So if you're starting out with this lovely, and very versatile, classic wardrobe for spring... (which we saw last Friday...)

Without adding any accents at all, you're already pretty well-equipped for most of the occasions that you might encounter during the spring (or on a lovely spring break vacation!).

But adding on the green accents gives you some lovely possibilities.... And this is the kind of accent color that would be equally beautiful and useful in the autumn - always a benefit!

This is another wee collection that would make a great travel capsule wardrobe - someplace ... View the Post

A French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Ultra Violet

I can't explain it, but I'm really fascinated by (bordering on obsessed with) navy and ultra violet together... I don't own a STITCH of navy clothing - I haven't since the late 80s - and I'm not about to start buying it now! But I just find it beautiful and... gratifying... in a way that I can't explain.

How about another 90% Eileen Fisher dream wardrobe, this time in navy? I could NOT find a good photo of a skirt in her navy - which she calls midnight - so I grabbed one from Lands' End. Remember that different fabrics don't have to be "dye-lot" matched to be worn together. They should look like they're from the same family, but not necessarily like they're identical twins!

As should always be the case with a well-chosen core of 10 ... View the Post

Revisiting the Red Tulip Scarf, and some Unpredictable Navy

You might remember a travel capsule wardrobe for a brave (some might say daring) heroine a couple of months ago...

This was her inspirational scarf, her style guidelines, and her color palette:

A Conference, Alone....

After the lecture that she attended before the holidays, she joined a group that did a lot of research in the subject that she found so fascinating. So now, they're getting together for a weekend conference to discuss their finding and their next steps. She's VERY excited...

It's just a couple of days, so she won't need a lot of things. Mostly they'll be sitting around a conference table talking, taking notes and sharing ideas... There's 1 nice dinner planned, and as usual she's going to take advantage of breakfast ... View the Post

The Most Popular Post on The Vivienne Files (so far!)

I am surprised that this was this most visited post - I suspect that Google's statistics aren't always reflective of the real world!

But this is still a really interesting post, based on information from an old (and very popular) fashion book called Hot Tips...

I was heartened to see that all of the outfits I suggested would still be perfectly appropriate and undated... that's my goal!

For what it's worth, I am just now starting to mend from the flu, so I can't guarantee that there will be posts every day on The Vivienne Files. I'll do my best, but I can assure you that flu + fibromyalgia = a long recovery...

love, Janice ... 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