The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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

April 2, 2016  

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 ... View the Post

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

March 29, 2016  

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 ... View the Post

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

January 1, 2016  

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 ... 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.

Shoulder bag – Mame Huku; sequined flats – Bohemia; tee shirt – Uniqlo;    crop knit pants – Helmut Lang; nail polish – Forever21; bracelet – Platadepalo;     ring – Soru Jewellery  

Orange and brown ... 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....

Ryder pants – J.Crew; cashmere turtleneck – J. Crew;  jeans – Austin Reed; ribbed crewneck - Michael Kors Collection  

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:

Olive vest – L.L.Bean; green earrings – GFG Jewellery; scarf – L.L.Bean; ... View the Post

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

 

September 19, 2015

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 ... View the Post

Building a DRESSY Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

One last look at our beautiful art, and the very unusual, but workable, color scheme that I chose from it: 

You Must Always Look Elegant and Refined That's what they told her when she accepted the position. They even give her a clothing allowance any time they change the color scheme of the business, which is every 4 to 6 months, sometimes more often!

But she's clever, and knows that they aren't going to ask for receipts, so she chooses timeless, elegant, classic clothes that might be "recyclable" into a later scheme...

Cashmere cardigan – Uniqlo; wool skirt – J. Crew; Silk shirt – Stella McCartney; trousers – J. Crew  

She knows that a simple ivory silk blouse might be usable in any number of different "aesthetic ... View the Post

Building a BUSINESS CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 11, 2015

Yesterday, I put together what I thought was a pretty casual wardrobe, based on this painting. It wasn't the MOST casual thing imaginable - it included skirts and nice sweaters - but it would certainly be appropriate for most non-work activities that didn't include garage cleaning, painting, or basement mucking...This is our art, and our color scheme:

 

In order to take yesterday's wardrobe to work, I upgraded the skirt and the pants from the more casual cotton to nicer wool pieces. Depending on how casual your office actually is, you might easily have been able to wear yesterday's pieces to work too!

For the off white - same thing; the tops were keepers, but the skirt and pants were moved to slightly ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art in Orange and Red: Nature Morte by Georgette Agutte

September 4, 2015

This color scheme had to be revisited one last time, because there's an eccentric aunt lurking in the background who wants a bit of attention. (just for the record, I'm the eccentric aunt in my family's tree...)

She persists in believing that orange and red are meant to go together! They're side by side in the color wheel, they're both in flowers, and fruits, and lots of beautiful prints. Why not pair them - it's a singular style statement that you don't see every day!

You would see this woman... on a plane, train, you name it, she's going to be visible. Happily, her sunny personality is equal to the level of high-intensity color.

For reference purposes, and to give credit where artistic credit is due, ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Chapter 2 of Still Life with Apples by Henri Matisse

August 18, 2015  

The morning after the board meeting, they called her into the Manager's office for a conversation...An hour later, she was the first, and only, Commercial Relationship Coordinator in the entire company. It is a position with a  somewhat nebulous job description, but one which is going to be PERFECT for showing her diplomatic skills to their best advantage!

Remember, this was her work wardrobe:

Which was based on this painting and color scheme:

She finally felt that this was the right time to break out a new, and heretofore unseen, facet of her personality. Within her there was a brightness, and a strength, which she had downplayed in the past, in order to fit into the organization. Glimpses of ... View the Post

Accent Colors for Fall 2015

August 10, 2015  

You remember these guys, right? They're the colors that Pantone assured us would be the BIG colors for this fall and winter.Well, I've seen a lot of Marsala in the windows at Ferragamo. Other than that, I can't say that, in my hours and hours spent each day looking at clothing and accessories, I have seen any of these in large quantities. And for what it's worth, I had to do some serious hard-core digging to find some of the goodies shown below.

I think we can conclude that Pantone's either not as accurate as they would like to be, or that the market is much less dependent upon their advice than they once were. This is a real annoyance if you fell madly in love with one of the colors that was supposed to be ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Still Life with Apples by Henri Matisse

  August 5, 2015   As soon as I saw this painting, I knew we were going to have some fun. I really admire the juxtaposition of the very traditional navy and grey with the striking, almost shocking, colors of the apples. That Matisse knew what he was doing...  

  If I were to expand this wardrobe further, I would pull in more shades of grey, and a wider range of blues... so many possibilities just from this limited palette.

  Just the slightest suggest of unplumbed depths...

The subject of her came up before the Director's meeting started. It wasn't anything that they could actually put their finger on; they agreed that nobody in the room had ever even seen her knees!

She was always dressed ... View the Post