The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Start with a Bracelet: Legendary Lynx Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

December 19, 2022

It Was - Literally - Decades Ago... It was her debut novel, and it was a blockbuster. She really never needed to write another book...

Of course, she keeps writing. And winning awards. (oh, she wins awards...)

And appearing at book conferences, and signings, and literary conventions and all that sort of thing!

She tries to keep a pretty low profile. She dresses in her usual "writer who lives in a little house on the edge of a little town near a big city" style, in subtle, neutral colors...

She rather likes her chosen style! Comfortable styles in slightly dressy fabrics...

 

But she's not kidding anybody - her fans will find her!

She has to admit, in her deepest heart, ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Leshy by Ilona Tambor

December 14, 2022

There are six different "Leshy" scarves...

It Happens Every Year, at This Time... Everybody who celebrates one of the "Winter Solstice" traditional holidays starts complaining that we should celebrate on the 21st... or that we should only decorate our trees with things that birds can eat...

And every year, at this time, there's a major academic conference somewhere that is centered around all of the forest deities and Druid-like ceremonies that are in season...

She's one of the world's authorities on Leshy, the legendary forest creature. Sometimes cruel, sometimes kind - he's pretty complicated! And he's NOT a brown bear; she's still going to wear the scarf.

For some reason, these conferences ... View the Post

Accessorizing! Adding to a Navy, Green & Yellow Wardrobe

November 28, 2022

It has only been a few days - I'm sure you remember the wardrobe that we looked at last Wednesday!

I left that heroine with almost no accessories...

My favorite approach to adding accessories to a wardrobe is to choose a range of outfits, and then accessorize each outfit with what they need. After the 2nd outfit, I find that I can start re-using shoes, at least!

If you can find a lovely pair of shoes in your accent color, consider grabbing them! Some of us don't feel comfortable with accent shoes, but other people look amazing in them:

A seasonal brooch and a dressy bag will make it possible to wear an otherwise "not really dressy" outfit to all kinds of events:

Accent socks! And a scarf ... View the Post

Building a Cool Weather Wardrobe 1 Garment at a Time

November 23, 2022

This is her favorite outfit, right now. She wants to build a small wardrobe for the upcoming couple of months using this as her starting point:

Normally I would suggest her first garment should be a clean shirt, but that's not going to look much different - her green sweater covers most of her torso so the shirt isn't super visible...

But swapping out sweaters? This will make a big difference in how her outfit looks:

NOW, we find her another top to wear under either sweater. I've chosen a turtleneck because (1) it's wintertime in the Northern Hemisphere and (2) it will show under her green sweater!

Next obvious thing to find is another "bottom." Our heroine assures me that she doesn't want ... View the Post

Start with Art: A Winter’s Tale by K. Neil Swanson

November 11, 2022

Wouldn't this make a wonderful scarf?

And for those of us who love navy, this is a beautiful inspiration!

Do You Know Someone Like This? Her Christmas tree is decorated with birds. She has bird feeders outside her windows. She just loves birds - she doesn't have to explain this to anybody!

And so when she's assembling a wardrobe for cool weather - especially for a trip! - she turns to her favorites animals for inspiration.

She starts with her essentials:

Her chosen inspiration has a wide variety of possible accents, but these are what she's chosen for this particular wardrobe:

She could probably pull together an outfit that clashes a bit, but generally speaking this is a "Whatever's ... View the Post

Part 2 November 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

November 4, 2022

I think this is my favorite...

This imaginary heroine had the exceptional good luck to wander into Banana Republic to do her shopping this month!

One might say she went a bit overboard, but if she's reasonably careful, she should have some of these things for the rest of her life! (I would buy a black suede shirt...)

Everything she's purchased goes beautifully with her existing wardrobe:

And her accessories are gorgeous:

Camel and black look wonderful together, as do camel and ivory. This heroine is going to love her new pieces:

Let's look at our next scarf:

 

 

 

Today's 2nd heroine had the equally good fortune to be in J.Crew when she decided that it ... View the Post

Part 3 October 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

October 7, 2022

I've been thinking... This year's wardrobes are lovely, but I'm finding that a lot of them share the same accent colors - green and various shades of orchid or pink...

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

But what if we base next year's 6 wardrobes on SIX PAINTINGS that we've visited before. JUST the paintings and the color palettes - not the original story lines...

That way, before we start getting too far into the wardrobes, we will know what our best accent colors are going to be! I will propose six that I particularly like in the next few days, so we can get an idea of how this might work.

But for now - let's look at the Chrysanthemum scarf!

At this point, the orchid color in this wardrobe has ... View the Post

Five Accent Colors with Navy

September 21, 2022

As we have come to expect, Pantone "discovered" 10 "new" fashion colors from the London Spring/Summer 2022/23 Fashion Week.

Bizarrely enough, they seem to have arranged them almost like a (weird) rainbow! So to look at these colors as suggestions for wardrobe accents, I'm going to take the first 5 colors and pair them all with a tiny number of navy pieces...

I chose navy because it looks good with all 5 colors - which makes sense. Navy is opposite to orange on the color wheel, and these colors are all on that side of the wheel!

It sounds strange, but it seems to work...

First up - how often are you looking for something in a true, "not blue, not yellowish" red color, and everything you see is really on ... View the Post

I Love It, But Will I Wear It? Boden Paisley Velvet Skirt

September 16, 2022

I knew, when I linked to the blue velvet skirt on Wednesday, that someone would see this one:

 

Questions started showing up immediately in my mail box - "do you THINK that I could wear this skirt enough to justify buying it?"

Well, yes, I do!

Let's look at some possibilities, ranging from just a blouse in warmer weather, to bundling up in the dead of winter:

If you assemble everything together that I've shown here, it's a pretty neat, bright wardrobe!

But no matter how much you love that skirt, you probably can't wear it every day! So I might add just a few things:

For many of us, this wardrobe would get us through the winter with no trouble!

If ... View the Post

Adding Clothes and Accessories: Start with Nature – The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula

September 14, 2022

Remember our heroine, the photographer who was going to go hang out at the observatory for a few weeks?

This is what she is using as her inspiration for her travel wardrobe:

When we left this heroine, she had decided to pack this:

She discussed her plans with a number of other science photographers, and realized that she was probably going to be at the observatory longer than she had initially planned! For one thing, a pretty well-known astronomer is going to be visiting for a few days at the end of September, and she would be insane to miss the chance to meet him.

And there are a couple more astronomic events expected, so she just decided to stay two weeks longer. There's going to be a (sort of) ... View the Post

September 2022 Start with a Bracelet: The Radiant Lynx Bracelets

September 12, 2022 Solar Energy When the Days Are Short...

 

It's all about the batteries! Electricity can be stored - it's a game-changer!

So she's on her way to visit all 3 Scandinavian countries to meet with the designers of solar farms. She's going to advise them on the best way to array the high-capacity, long-term storage batteries that she invented...

She will have appropriate outerwear and serious lug-bottomed boots, just in case someone wants to go outdoors and actually LOOK at the installations.

She doesn't consider that necessary. Unless they've put them on top of a melting chunk of tundra...

She doesn't give a lot of thought to getting dressed when she's on the road. If she's decent, warm, ... View the Post

Start with Nature: The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula

August 29, 2022 Staying at the Observatory Until the Autumnal Equinox

There are all kinds of interesting things to observe and photograph near the equinox; she's going to stay until then, to have everything ready!

She will be alone most of the time, and it will get quite cool before she comes home... 

So she starts her small travel wardrobe with some warm things, in the navy of the night sky:

There's laundry in the housing facility at the base of the tower, so she doesn't need much at all for clothing; these 9 pieces will go a long way!

But she realizes that if she takes a few more shirts and sweaters, she won't have to do laundry as often! So she turns to one of her favorite recent astronomy ... View the Post