navy Archives - Page 26 of 46

Building an All-Neutral Wardrobe, based on a Scarf: Navy, Grey, Camel and White

March 3, 2017

People often ask me where I get ideas for blog posts - they should see my inbox! I get the most wonderful emails, with the most interesting questions... (if it takes me days and DAYS to respond, please don't be offended or insulted - I love to hear from you!)

Many of us start to feel like we need to migrate away from black, and toward grey or navy. One among you found a lovely scarf - vintage! - to help focus this wardrobe shift, and asked me for a few ideas. What fun!

First off - buying "luxury" scarves second-hand is just plain smart. You can find them on Ebay (which can be dicey, because they don't do anything to police against fakes), Tradesy, 1st Dibs, Etsy, The RealReal, Malleries, and ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe Around a Statement Tote Bag

February 20, 2017

Someone sent me a link to this beauty... What excellent colors!

This bag includes a bunch of the classic neutral colors - beige, white, shades of rust into dark brown, maybe some black? I'm deliberately NOT including any sort of style guidelines here because I think that this is a case in which a wide variety of personal styles could accommodate this bag.

I'm going to focus pretty much on warm-weather attire here, but imagine for cooler weather - a navy winter coat with camel trousers... a navy wool skirt with an ivory sweater and brown riding boots.... mmm....

This is sort of a styling free for all - I just let my imagination wander toward whatever outfits I would like to wear, or that would be fun for ... View the Post

How to Assemble a Warm-Weather Capsule Wardrobe – The Burgundy Floral Cardigan

February 2, 2017

Groundhog Day! (in the US - does anybody else depend upon rodents for long-term weather forecasts?)

And you might feel like Groundhog Day, The Movie, because this idea looks really familiar. Remember the Dandelion Cardigan capsule wardrobe you just saw on Tuesday? Well, someone went wandering on the Lands' End website, and discovered this:

Bright Burgundy Floral Cardigan – Lands’ End

She was particularly interested in seeing how this worked with navy, so I thought another trip or two through this concept might be helpful...

First up, her preferred navy (which is indeed present in small doses in the cardigan) and ivory are the core neutrals, and then the vivid red (which I wouldn't have ... View the Post

Build a Whatever’s Clean 13 Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dragonfly by Miro

January 18, 2017

Such an interesting email....

Say you live outside the United States. You're retired. The weather's always reasonably warm and nice. You only shop every year or two, when you visit in the US...

And THIS is your inspiration:

I'm really liking these colors, and this WHOLE scenario!

In the interests of establishing a solid basis upon which we can build, I'm going to assume that our heroine either owns or already plans to purchase these pieces:

Tee– L.L.Bean; cardigan – Lands’ End; capris– L.L.Bean; pants – L.L.Bean

At this point, we've got a solid starting point, and a lot of fun things to find!

I'm ALWAYS going to recommend that you buy the sweater or tee shirt or top that goes with ... View the Post

How to Choose Business Accessories, One at a Time – With a Navy Suit

January 11, 2017

Monday, we pulled together a wonderful business capsule wardrobe with a navy suit for the reader with a new job, but let's get her some accessories too!

Obviously, she had shoes on when she interviewed, but let's add a beautiful pair of black pumps, with comfortably low heels, to her wardrobe first:

And I always want earrings, sooner than later. I know women who never wear them and who look just fine, but I always feel more... complete? finished? when I get my earrings on...

While it's entirely possible to carry everything you need in your pockets when you're just banging around town, for work, a nice bag is essential. I didn't try to get navy leather goods for this ... View the Post

How to Build a Business Wardrobe One Piece at a Time: Navy, with Emerald and Amethyst

January 9, 2017

I got this email just before Christmas - one of my readers got a new job, and needs to build a new wardrobe to wear. This is a pretty special workplace - very elegant, with occasional clothing allowance cash awards given, and all laundry and dry-cleaning reimbursed! Pretty dreamy, at least from a wardrobe point of view...

I think the target color scheme is based on my reader's very russet hair, fair skin and freckles, which look GREAT with these accents...

Of course, I answered her email right away, and she's already purchased a bunch of things for her new position, but I thought that this was so pretty, so luxurious, and such a dream shopping adventure, that I wanted to share it with you all!

First thing - ... View the Post

How Much Can Accessories Affect Your Capsule Wardrobe?

November 30, 2016

Someone sent me this painting a few days ago, and the first thing that I noticed (after just generally admiring the lovely art) was the touches of teal and cool brown accent:

And I have to let you know that this painting set a record last week for the highest auction price EVER for a Canadian painting. Well worth it, in my opinion...

I was intrigued with the idea of a very conservative, mostly navy and grey wardrobe, accented with those two surprising accent colors. So I started with a few pieces, including a navy pantsuit. If you're looking for suit separates, I highly recommend Talbots - they have a variety of colors and fabrics.

Let's start with these basics - this is literally a Wardrobe Slot ... View the Post

Timeless: Some of My Favorite Posts from the Past, Based on Abstract Art

November 25, 2016 First, I've got to admit that I don't think that "abstract" is the perfect term to use here, but what I mean to say is that these paintings share a complete lack of identifiable objects in them. To me, that just makes the colors more important. If you're more knowledgeable about art terms, please set me straight here, and I'll make the correction when I'm back from vacation.Belovedest is a big fan of Rothko, and he's converted me. These colors are much more complex in person than you can ever imagine; it's worth seeking out one of his works and spending some time in front of it. There's more here than you would suspect...

I like to imagine that the name of this painting has something to do with the way that ... View the Post

Timeless: Some of My Favorite Posts from the Past, Using Navy

I never wear navy, but I am always drawn to it for The Vivienne Files. Navy might be the most versatile neutral color available for planning a wardrobe...

It would be easy to say that this color scheme works because orange and blue are opposite to each other on the color wheel, and thus compatible. I think there's more to it than that, though! The white in this wardrobe turned out to be key...

One of you sent me the link to the painting, and I'm SO glad that you did! The best part of writing The Vivienne Files - no question - is getting to know you all, and to share your ideas, knowledge and excellent taste. What's not to love about these whimsical nuns? In "real" life, I'm sure that they're wearing black, but this image looks very ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Red, Blue and White

October 28, 2016 It's always interesting to work with red, blue, and white in a capsule wardrobe - the challenge is to do justice to three colors that look great together, without ending up looking like someone's flag... The grey here, the 2 shades of red, and the 2 shades of blue, give us lots of options to avoid a very "bleu, blanc, rouge" kind of look. (unless that's what you want - I'm not going to tell you no!)

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; wrap – Nordstrom

For this very abbreviated little ensemble, I focused on just four colors. Introducing a spectrum of grey could give you a million options...

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; wrap – Nordstrom He Falls Asleep.... At ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Navy, Hot Pink and White

October 19, 2016 Classic colors, timeless design:

Scarf – Hermes Flânerie à Versailles; cashmere & silk wrap - Nordstrom

The clever color scheme of this scarf opens the door to a capsule wardrobe with accent colors of red, bright pink, or cobalt blue... maybe even grey? Sisters From Different Mothers They've done it once a month for YEARS...

Scarf – Hermes Flânerie à Versailles; cashmere & silk wrap - Nordstrom

Knit blazer – J. Crew; earrings – GFG Jewellery; scarf – Hermes Flânerie à Versailles; silk tee – Aquascutum London; watch – Skagen; jeans – L.L.Bean; boots – Sam Edelman; bag – Longchamp

They get a hotel room downtown, ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Starting From Scratch – Finishing Up

October 14, 2016

Frankly, at this point in proceedings, you could easily stop building your capsule wardrobe, and be just fine!

But it's always reasonable to stop and evaluate where you are with your wardrobe - are there things that you still need? Items that might make OTHER items more versatile and get them used more frequently? Are you sure you're ready for whatever events might come up in the future?

The answers to these questions will be different for each of us, but they are worth asking...

The biggest lack of balance that I can see is that I'm "navy-heavy" here. This often happens - it's normal that either you simply like one of your neutrals more than the other, or that it's much more readily available, or that you want ... View the Post