orange Archives - Page 3 of 8

A Capsule Wardrobe in Beige, Bright Blue and Orange: Expanding Your Accessories

Oh, how I love accessories.... As a reminder, this is where we left the capsule wardrobe when we finished the 4 additions to it yesterday:

I was really appreciating the summery-ness of this wardrobe, so I thought I'd add some warmer-weather accessories (before they disappear entirely from the stores...) Sandals are essential!

And sunglasses. If I convince you to change only ONE thing in your entire life, I want it to be that you buy and wear GOOD sunglasses regularly. You might think that it's just a question of squinting, and getting wrinkles, but your eye health is dependent on shielding them from bright sunlight. Please, not a cheap pair of sunglasses - get something worthy of you and your health.

As I've said before, I'm ... View the Post

A Capsule Wardrobe in Beige, Bright Blue and Orange: From Travel Wardrobe to Whatever’s Clean

Yesterday's travel capsule wardrobe looked like this:

A few people asked me if a travel wardrobe could be expanded into "Whatever's Clean 13;" of course, almost anything is theoretically possible in The Vivienne Files world.

But interestingly, it's actually more difficult to fill a "Whatever's Clean 13" template than almost any other kind of wardrobe plan, because of the flexibility that each garment has to have. Realistically, this wardrobe's not going to be exactly perfect, because there might be some "issues" about the floral shirt with the orange cardigan. But you could certainly wear them together without someone throwing rocks at you, so we press on in our work. (in the best of all possible worlds, the floral print would ... View the Post

Packing Light: A “Six-Pack” Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Beige, Bright Blue and Orange

Let's start today with two scarves:

Archivist

Everybody wanted to know answers - why do we have to bill the Prosidion Group on the 8th of every month? Why do we have to call the head of the Alblomilon Corporation exactly 10 minutes before we send the invoice? Why does the entire invoice for the Habestrate Manufacturing Consortium have to be sorted alphabetically by street address???

Well, everybody had always archived the emails that explained these things...

But until she got there, NOBODY organized the archives!

So she worked. Carefully, methodically, attentively, for months...

In her first two weeks, she discovered that Habestrate was being underbilled $10,000 per month... When they were giving her her ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: 2nd of the Portraits Theatraux by Natalia S. Gontcharova

I don't know how many of these Ms. Gontcharova did, but I'm going to try to find them all:

Not a color scheme we see every day! I opted to use pure white, rather than try to match that "faded paper" color. My assumption is that the original might have been on white paper - can anybody confirm or deny?

She Yins, She Yangs "Do you think she's completely... normal? I mean, sometimes she looks so aggressive, and other days she's just so calm and quiet..."

"I don't know if she's normal or not, but she must have a GIGANTIC wardrobe..."

"And EVERY Friday, she's got that tote bag with her... Who's she kidding - she goes away EVERY weekend?"

Why yes, she has friends with a summer house. And in the place of a big wardrobe, ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Hermes Geologie, for 12 Months

This was difficult.... It's hard enough to find wintery clothes this time of year, even though the weather is still decidedly cool. But when you try to find clothing in warm colors, with decent photographs, that don't cost the absolute EARTH to buy... well, it explains a lot of the weirdness that I exhibit from time to time... But I persisted, and I'm pleased with these results. And I realized a couple of very important things, for those who wish to wear these VERY difficult to find colors:

Work with the idea of colors that blend rather than those that match identically. Cousins, rather than identical twins, of the clothing family. This will save you a lot of headaches, while at the same time giving you the opportunity to explore quite a ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A19 by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

I see this painting every week or two - it's a definite favorite, and it creates a clear mood of strength and confidence.

At first glance I thought that this painting was almost monochromatic, but when I started looking at the colors, I saw a pretty nice range of possibilities.

"It's a Good Idea..."

"An amazing idea, actually. But you do realize that you're going to have to visit every branch office and show them how to do it..."

Well yes, actually,she did know that. She was PLANNING on it...

"We're going to need to reserve the auditorium closest to each branch, so that the presentation can be made to as many people as possible simultaneously."

Happily, she was born without the stage-fright gene, so all she needs to ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Lunar Eclipse Montage by Dr. Robert Vanderbei

Yes, I'm currently in Paris. (!!!!!!!)

But there are posts here, queued up in advance, for 6 days a week while I'm on vacation. Just because I go away doesn't mean that you don't need your almost-daily dose of The Vivienne Files!

Now, back to the beauty:

Sometimes, scientific documentation of natural phenomena is executed so perfectly that it becomes art:

Two colors, but WHAT colors:

Connected

She spends almost all of her time in her studio, alone. Her work is such that she wears only the most disposable of casual clothing, usually purchased from thrift stores. The materials with which she works, and the abandon with which she uses them, precludes neatness; an apron will NOT be helpful...

But now, an exhibit!

So she ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Wrapped Oranges by William J. McCloskey

This is the 1,500th post on The Vivienne Files! If you're looking here for a specific color scheme, or general ideal, I encourage you to go to Google and enter "The Vivienne Files" and then whatever things you'd like to find. The chances grow greater every day that you might find something helpful to you in my archives! And if you don't find it, let me know and I'll build it, some day. I've got no intentions of stopping now... And thank you, very humbly, and very sincerely, for your continued support of my efforts. You each mean so much to me! love, Janice On with the show!!! What a simple, but lovely painting:

It's the kind of painting that you might walk right past during a museum visit, but which merits some attention; a painting ... View the Post

Wearing Unflattering Colors: Rust, Gold, Burnt Orange – the Autumn Leaf collection!

This started as rust, but I saw such pretty things in colors close to there that I decided to expand my focus to include all of the "autumn" colors.

For years, because I have brown hair and brown eyes, it was assumed that I would look good in these colors. (this was back in the days before the seasonal color theory caught on...) It was a reasonable thesis, because my eyes are decidedly amber-ish, but it just never worked out. I'm glad that I stumbled onto this idea for including unflattering colors in a wardrobe; maybe now I can have a reconciliation with warm gold and cognac shades!

This first color feels like caramel to me - I would be tempted to pour the nail polish over ice cream...

(and note that the handbag is NOT ... View the Post

Wearing Unflattering Colors: Orange

I think a lot of us find orange challenging, because of its associations with Halloween, or fast food. That's too bad, because it's really quite nice, and there are a lot of gorgeous accessories in the world that just happen to be orange...

Hardest of all is combining orange and black, but I think using prints, or defiantly non-Halloween details, helps a lot... Using accessories from other cultures, who DON'T think have the same associations with colors that we have, can make a big difference, too.

Orange and brown feel like a match made in heaven, don't they? I think it's important to break this combination out of the "only wear it in the autumn" category and use it more of the year... One of the benefits of testing out an accessory ... View the Post

Choosing an Accent Color for Brown

As I mentioned yesterday, I want to look at the possibility of different accent colors for a few neutrals - today let's think about dark chocolate brown!

First up, the core four garments upon which we will build these outfits. Having these 4 pieces can make your life so much easier....

I took the same approach, starting with two neutral colors that could serve as accents in a mainly brown wardrobe. If you were building a wardrobe with more than 1 neutral, you would have lots of options like this:

I loves these bright colors - you would certainly stand out in a sea of black winter coats if you wore one of these vests! And for many people, these are much more flattering colors...

I was so happy to see that the ... View the Post

Whatever’s Clean 13 FOR MEN – warm colors, warm weather

I understand that some of you are less than fascinated by the assembling of a travel wardrobe for a man; I can understand that. However, I felt that I really needed to respond to the requests that I've received, for years, for such a project.

And let's not collectively forget that these wardrobes work EXACTLY like the women's version. With very little adaptation, any of these wardrobes could change gender and be really attractive. Yes, you'd want to toss in a piece of two of jewelry, and swap out ties for scarves. Maybe the 3rd pair of trousers would be better suited to be a skirt, and you don't have to pack quite so many shirts that button down the front, and have a collar. (although you could keep them just like this, if you wanted ... View the Post