The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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White Capsule Wardrobe with Grey, Turquoise, or Celadon Green Accessories

January 24, 2015   For now, I'm finishing up this idea of monochromatic outfits and "accessory families" with some summery white linen items. (yes, they look sort of beige or ivory on the page, because white on white would be an incomprehensible blizzard...)   Since the available linen white shoes are limited in January, I decided to grab some shoes that match or tone with the accessories - always a fun option! And for the elusive celadon, I chose some gold sandals; metallic are always worth remembering when you're struggling with a shoe color choices.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm starting to work on some more "Start With Art" wardrobes - anybody have some ... View the Post

Four Pack Travel Capsule Wardrobe: Camel and Burgundy

December 18, 2014   Many of us are preparing for holiday trips of varying lengths, so today I felt like putting together something that just oozed luxury and subtlety. These rich, beautiful colors, fabrics and textures make a quietly elegant statement, without gaudy logos or overdone ornamentation.  

love, Janice ... View the Post

Start With Art: Trumpet Creeper by Abby Williams Hill

November 13, 2014   Isn't this beautiful? One of you sent it to me, and it captivated me immediately. The vertical layout, the soft background, the muted shades of green and blue, the accents of warm rust, gold and orange - what a wonderful painting.   There are so many things about this that could serve as inspiration and focus: the colors, the organic nature of the image, the soft blending of the background colors, the use of about a billion shades of bluish green - there's just no end to the ideas that can come from this one work of art. (but that's probably true, for the right person, of any work of art, right?)  

  This was my chosen color scheme - a base in very dark navy, accents of all those ... View the Post

Start With Art: Call of the Loon by Ewoud de Groot

November 6, 2014  

There's a lot of beauty here, and colors galore...

 

I settled on these, using ink blue as my base neutral.  Realistically, you could choose anything soft and muted in the green/blue/purple family and be extremely successful.

 

This is for someone subdued, a little bit dressy, going away for a couple of days to a warmer destination.  Maybe not the beach, but someplace where lighter fabrics will be comfortable.  The dotted texture of the water is echoed in the first scarf, and the floral earring and pewter loafers are feminine but not girlish.  

A linen dress, a silk skirt and a couple of tops, along with some pretty accessories are all you ... View the Post

Travel Capsule Wardrobe – Packing with Scarves: Missoni #2

November 5, 2014   After Friday's post about a Missoni scarf, I received an email with this picture - another really lovely combination of colors...  

 

There are a lot of possibilities here, of course.  One could concentrate on the beige, ivory, and periwinkle, but I chose to work with the brighter shades apparent in the scarf.  

In my vivid and bottomless imagination, I pictured this protagonist as someone who had to travel for work, but who's work is something rather creative; she's one who likes to wear things a little bit bold...  

  While many of the garments are relatively simple and classic, the accessories are anything but!  And the dress... I personally love ... View the Post

Start With Art: Flowers from Rosablue – a Four Pack for Business

Turns out that this beautiful thing is from Rosablue, who prints her own fabrics...  

    Beyond the very obvious black background, there are quite a few colors in here that could come to the fore in a color scheme. How about black, white, and the orange and green?  Or black, pale green, pale blue, and soft pink?  But for today, I've chosen these colors:    

  As a woman in search of a red duffle coat, I'm drawn to all red coats right now, so that seemed a reasonable place to start. In my mind, the person in this vignette is heading out of town for a day of two of business meetings in which the people being visited have to do the impressing - her job is just to sit quietly and evaluate ... View the Post

Travel Capsule Wardrobe Packing with Scarves: Missoni

October 31, 2014   One of my most loyal readers recently purchased this scarf and wanted to know what I would do with it - the answer is, of course, a LOT. One of the many joys of a scarf from Missoni is that they contain a wealth of colors that you wouldn't otherwise put together. I don't know why I saw bright pink here - when you get your nose right up against the scarf, it's not really there. There's teal, as well as a softer sage green, quite a bit of light blue, some slate greyish blue, navy... Lots of things to consider...   Missoni scarves are available in a lot of places, and often on sale. Different vendors get different designs, so if you have your heart set on one particular color scheme, don't forget to check ... View the Post

Start With Nature: Ornamental Cabbage – a Four Pack

Why do I feel confident suggesting that this may be the only fashion ensemble in history that was explicitly inspired by a cabbage?  But I don't feel very apologetic about this - these cabbages look more like big, gorgeous flowers, with subtle colors.  Frankly, if you find colors that you like, they can come from ANYWHERE, and you never have to tell your secrets! 

It would certainly be possible to go with more pink, and a couple of different shades, but I was in a green mood...  There could also be some white in this combination, and you could use black in place of the dark grey.  I can't stress enough that you should see what YOU want to see in these colors, and adjust your choices accordingly.  The only ... View the Post

Start With Nature: Chrysanthemums – a Four Pack

October 24, 2014   Okay, some of these colors aren't easy to find, and they might be a little bit much for your entire wardrobe.  But if you have a core in taupe (or brown, or navy, or black), these colors as an accent could be a lot of fun!  

  Just as a reminder, these are the Starburst Chrysanthemums I photographed a few weeks ago - they are now frozen and quite dead, but I will love this photograph for quite a long time.  

Stumbling onto the scarf was really key!  It has the accent colors of the deep coral, the softer rose, and the yellow - everything after that was relatively simple!  Here you can see where having the core items of a coat, trousers, boots and a tote bag in your neutral ... View the Post

It’s all about packing…

This is a cheery six pack to look at on a grey day... especially since I felt the first snowflake this morning!

Check up at the top of the page - the Packing links are there!  I'm going to be working a bit more on them...  A lot of them refer to guest-posting that I did on another blog; I'm going to revise those links to take you directly to the full post, on the other site.  But for now, I think you'll find LOTS to inspire you to start pricing plane tickets! love, Janice ... View the Post

How to Be a Parisian (or not…)

October 11, 2014

  I grabbed this book when I was in the middle of a mad shopping spree at Athaeneum bookstore in Amsterdam. If you read Dutch, French or English, this is a wonderful place to wile away the time and the Euros. Of course, I'm a little weird about bookstores now that Chicago has very few in the entire city...     Frankly, either this book is terrible, or it is so tongue-in-cheek that the authors must have disfigured themselves writing it. It makes Parisian women (and yes, it's ONLY about women) into a caricature of reckless sexual conduct, adolescent romantic sensibilities, and an overall casual disregard for their work, significant others, and family members. That said, there were, as always, some ... View the Post