The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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

April 6, 2016  

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 ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Gulf of Saint Tropez by Claude Matisse

April 4, 2016   Summer's coming...  

And some people are embracing the bright colors that come with the warmer weather:

  This Year, A Uniform   

They can call it a Jitney, but it's really just a bus. A very crowded, and often very overly air-conditioned bus. And she rides it EVERY WEEKEND in the summer, to get to the shore. But this year, she is NOT going to go through a bunch of angst and constant pondering about what to pack into her tiny bag, that she always ends up holding on her lap. This is it:

 

If her friends get tired of seeing her 2 dresses at brunch, the heck with them.... If she destroys this pair of shorts somehow, she'll buy another one just like them. She's ... View the Post

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

How I Pack for Paris in a Carry-on Bag

Remember, my bag is a hard-sided Tumi carry-on, very much like the great-grandmother of this beauty:

    My bag is pretty "whacked" on the exterior, but remains in very secure, solid condition! One of my better investments, I have to say...     One of the things about rolling bags that makes packing difficult is that the interior bottom of the bag is bumpy - the bars for the handle run through the bag and make the "floor" of your packing area bumpy. So the first thing I always try to do is use unwrinkleable things, like workout clothes, to level the floor.   Here, I've taken running tights, rolled them into long cylinders (fold in half at the knee, and then roll a few times), and then placed a pair of ... View the Post

How to Pack a Travel Capsule Wardrobe for Paris – the “Three Dresses” Version

March 30, 2016  

Belovedest and I are going BACK to Paris on Friday! Yes, I was just there in December...And I'm going to try the strangest variation on packing yet - since we're only there for 6 nights, and since I always fly back from Paris in the same outfit I wear for the flight over (with a change of tee shirt), I'm just packing three dresses, which will cover the 5 full days that we're there. Two pair of ballet flats, and a stack of scarves.... This is going to be interesting!

I'm sticking pretty close to my uniform for packing - tee shirt, cardigan, scarf, and pants that won't collapse after 8 hours of sitting. This cardigan is going to be really handy on this trip, as I can wear it over all 3 dresses, depending on the ... 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

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories: Denim, Stone, Pink and Soft Blue, 1 at a Time

March 24, 2016  

This wardrobe is such a nice mix of casual fabrics with soft and pretty accents, I thought that I would try to continue the theme of femininity in the accessories, without getting too girly or sissy... I love these challenges!The original wardrobe is from yesterday; this is the starter outfit:

While I felt that jeans and a sweatshirt strongly suggested boots, I limited my choices to softer colors or boots with a metallic sheen to them. A lady-like boot might be a stretch, but these at least have a lighter feel to them!For the first bag, I wanted to see something in the stone neutral, but with a bit of softness, or texture, or "pink-ness" to it...

An all-navy outfit strongly suggests a scarf that ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Denim, Stone, Pink and Soft Blue: 1 Piece at a Time

March 23, 2016  

This woman is one who really love denim, and a good sweatshirt, but who also has a side that wants a bit of the feminine, and the softly colored...Her starting "favorite" outfit:

shirt – Uniqlo; sweatshirt – H&M;  jeans – L.L.Bean; scarf – Hinge  

And this is the color scheme she has in mind. This is a really good scheme, in that the two neutrals are both typically available in a variety of casual fabrics, so they're a good "couple" to work together. And since both of the accent colors are equal in intensity and value, they will also be usable in the same situations, and very likely to appear together in prints and patterns. When your chosen colors have a certain "feeling" in common, ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Asiatic God by Paul Klee

March 19, 2016   This looks a little bit clown-like on my screen, but in person it's much more compelling, with a lot of texture. Almost mysterious, dark, and captivating, with amazing color highlights.  

Asiatic God – Paul Klee  

The frame is maroon and grey, and there are tiny accents of teal... the pink on the face is, in fact, the color PUCE! (I was searching around for the precise RGB combination to show the color on the color wheel, and learned this...)

 

This cried out for denim, to serve as a base for texture and a variety of accent colors...

Yes, the image of this skirt is TERRIBLE, but I really wanted you to see this skirt. It's a departure from a lot of denim skirts, in that it seems to ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories, 1 at a Time: Beige, Sage and Blush

March 10, 2016  

Adding the accessories is fun  - I'm going to do a few of these in a row, so we can all see the system, and the cumulative benefits that accrue when you get a nice core of accent pieces, growing bit by bit.Here's where this second "1 at a Time" started: (you can see the original wardrobe post here)

Shoes will ALWAYS be the first thing to make sure you have, for obvious reasons. It's entirely likely that you already have the shoes that you need, but it's always wise to be absolutely certain.

 

A bag is, to me, the second most important accessory to have. This time I've put the tote bag first...

 

From those two essential pieces, everything after that becomes much more ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Grey, Blue, Lilac and Black: 1 Piece at a Time

I thought that this would be challenging, but I really enjoy the options provided by including both black and grey with these soft accent colors:

cardigan – J. Crew; shirt – Uniqlo;   

scarf – Ted Baker London; trousers – J. Crew Factory  

If you like florals, I can't encourage you enough to look at products from Ted Baker London. While not inexpensive, they are SO beautiful, and you really only need 1 piece to be the starting point, and the lynch pin, of a beautiful wardrobe.

cardigan – J. Crew; shirt – Uniqlo;   

scarf – Ted Baker London; trousers – J. Crew Factory  

While my first inclination was to buy the sweater to match the cardigan, I thought that instead I'd invest in another ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Lime, Coral, Beige and Cream: 1 Piece at a Time

 

March 4, 2016

This is a breath of fresh air:

And the one things that makes it ever "spring-ier" is the addition of clear bright green!

This wardrobe really requires a solid core of neutrals to support and balance these 2 strong accent colors.

With that solid core of cream clothes in place, your can then go just a bit crazy with accent colors!

After that detour through the world of green, it's time to put together a few good options in a darker beige/taupe...

This is one of those colors for which all pieces don't have to match exactly - toning things is all that's required.

I thought this was such a cute sweater, and I'm not one of those people who uses the word cute ... View the Post