orange Archives

Chic Sightings: 10 Ways to Wear a Floral Skirt

A language digression: to me, something that is floral is MADE of flowers - a floral arrangement, a floral offering etc. Something printed with flowers is "flowered."

But NOT when you're searching through the world of garments and accessories.... If you want something with flowers, search for "floral."

I must be confused...

The first (and so far one of the only) really lovely early summer days here in Chicago brought out the floral skirts in abundance; I got so many ideas! So I picked a bright, unusual example:

I've been assured that the dark color here is navy; if it's black, nothing really changes here except navy garments and accessories could be swapped for black. I get really irked by the poor information available ... View the Post

April Showers Bring May Flowers…

And sometimes, flowers are what inspire you to update your warm-weather wardrobe...

Many of us have a pretty decent core wardrobe to carry us into the warm weather...

Many people could get through quite a bit of the summer with just these 9 garments - especially if you have to dress for work every day, and this is your leisure wardrobe.

But maybe you want to brighten up your core wardrobe with some pretty colors?

Even just one "French 5-Piece Wardrobe" in an accent color can give you quite a few new outfit options:

Maybe you're in the mood for orange?

Lace is fun for summer - not insanely dressy, just a pretty way to update a tee shirt...

The nice thing about getting a sweater in an ... View the Post

April Travel: Start with Art – Briqueterie a Tortosa by Picasso

Remember our friend who designs installations for solar panels? Happy for her, she's now traveling in warm weather! No more the "leave the snow, get off the plane in sweltering heat!"

So she's packing light - just enough to visit her clients, and the construction sites...

This painting is her inspiration:

She's driving to her next clients, so she's wearing sandals on her trip! Normally, she doesn't fly in sandals...

Many of her clients can be hard to read, at first. Some of them want her to put on a hard-hat and steel-toed boots and climb ladders (she doesn't go quite that far...) and other just want to sit over a cocktail at the country club and review the plans. So she tries to pack with those various potential ... 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

Instruments de Musique by Pablo Picasso – Inspiring an Unusual Business Tote Bag Travel Wardrobe

A Square Peg...

She knows it - she doesn't fit in the way most other staff at her firm does... She works the difference to her advantage.

Many of their clients are as different from her co-workers as chalk is from cheese. She's MUCH more like the clients... and that helps!

Often she can get insights and answers that elude much more senior staff... They marvel at how she does it...

She fits in with her co-workers, superficially, but if someone was paying close attention they would see that she's got her very own approach to things!

One would think that the orange suitcase might be their first hint? Or maybe the concrete necklace...

love, Janice

p.s. Now that I've built wardrobes for all 12 of the "12 Paintings of ... View the Post

Does Your Wardrobe Work for You? Some Ideas for Figuring Out What You Need…

Friday we looked at the first three of the "12 Months, 12 Outfits" final wardrobes, and found some interesting "holes" in the wardrobes... I'm interested to see how the second 3 wardrobes look, when evaluated through a series of arbitrary, but not worthless, criteria.

This was the 4th wardrobe - a pretty challenging one to assemble, because olive green isn't the most common color in the world, and orange is every bit as difficult to find!

As has been true for all of the wardrobes, this wardrobe has a LOT of bottoms - an issue inherent in building a wardrobe through outfits. The learning here might be that a few more tops, and maybe another 2nd layer, would be useful additions...

This ratio looks a bit strange to me - some women ... View the Post

Can You Expand a Successful Travel Wardrobe? Revisiting Start with Art – Vernal Yellow by Lee Krasner

It might be the time of year, but I'm feeling very nostalgic about looking back through old posts here on The Vivienne Files! So when I was asked to revisit my little tale about an eloping couple, I couldn't resist the chance...

Here's where we left our heroine - wandering around Paris with her new spouse, smiling like a crazy lady, and making everyone around her smile...

I'm not telling you that the snakeskin clutch comes in 13 colors...

They've decided that they want to go back to Paris for a long-ish weekend - maybe 5 days? But they want to be MUCH more casual this time! So she goes back to her original inspiration:

First, she looks at what she already has. PLENTY of bags, I'd say, and quite a few pairs of shoes. I have a feeling ... View the Post

Does Navy Have to be Predictable? Start with a Scarf: Red Tulip by KathKath

There are so many traditional, classic accents to wear with navy - red, burgundy, bottle green... but what if you want something brighter, and more "off the beaten path?"

Nobody else wants to go...

But she's going to the lecture. Alone. And she's really excited!

(Her sweater also comes in orange... she's very tempted...)

Everyone claims that the University shuts off the heat on weekends, so she's prepared to dress warmly for the lecture. And her hotel advertises that they provide a full brunch IN YOUR ROOM, so she's certainly going to avail of that opportunity...

Yes, she's going to pin a brooch to her cardigan that she's wearing with a flannel shirt! And yes, she'll carry the necessities for the evening in a wee flowered ... View the Post

Updating a Navy Wardrobe for Autumn – Start with Art: Shattered Tree by Otto Dix

I thought that this painting might be good for Halloween - it's sort of dark without being macabre or outright spooky...

I see this painting all of the time - it's in the Art Institute of Chicago - and I swear that I see navy blue in the areas near the horizon! At any rate, I think that these colors make amazing accents... One could easily include some gold, some medium blues and a bit of grey and live with the color-scheme forever.

This is my starting point today. This version of The Common Wardrobe is a hair dressier than usual - no jeans, and a pair of navy wool pants in their place. A pair of high-quality trousers can be worn almost anywhere... The navy ribbed tee shirt is a notch more elegant than the white cotton tee shirt, so ... View the Post

Can I Wear Warm Accent Colors with my Cool Favorites? Start with a Scarf! Berlin Graffiti 2 from ImageBerlin Grafitti 2 scarf by Image DiaryDiary

The questions around color combinations can go in all sorts of directions...

She Fell in Love with the Scarf...

She loved the story, the print, the colors... but her core wardrobe was grey and white! Is this going to work? She's going to honor her impulses and make it work...

She's starting here - comfortable and very versatile, but very grey, too... Not to worry, she has an idea!

The scarf will of course tie outfits together, but so will warm stones or faux stones like tortoise or amber, set in silver. And then she found another scarf that mixed some warm and cool...

(yes, "5-Piece" is an approximation, not a law!)

The blue sweater is simple - blue and grey are both cool, and are easy to wear together...

But she was ... View the Post

Can a More Casual Work Wardrobe have Personality? Start with a Moth…

You might think it's just a flying caterpillar, but the colors are so lovely....

Your understanding is that the first interview is going to be most of the day in their offices, and then a break before they take you out to dinner; they want to make sure that you know which fork is which!

It's a kitchen gear company - why would you be interested in their job if you didn't know your salad fork from your dinner fork? Of course you're hired! For the first few days, you're going to have options to dress nicely if there's going to be a meeting, but otherwise the offices seem quite casual...

This is the the tiny wardrobe that you have before your first paycheck arrives - you can get through a week of work without too much ... View the Post

Packing for an Overnight Trip by Starting with a Scarf: Echo Butterfly Silk Bandana

Sometimes I see a scarf, and my mind wanders, and my imagination takes off...

She's Not Excited...

They've been getting together about twice a year - more or less - for decades. Since they finished college... And she's starting to feel that they're growing apart. (for example, they would have a very difficult time with her outfit that mixes brown and black leather accessories, while she finds it perfectly comfortable...)

Well, she feels like she's growing. And they're further away than they used to be, metaphorically speaking. She just doesn't have the tolerance for a 3-hour conversation about skin-care. Or handbags. She wants to talk about things that are more serious...

She feels like her personal, quirky style is pretty well ... View the Post