red Archives - Page 3 of 13

Three MORE French 5-Piece Wardrobes for Spring: Blush, Red and French Blue

More accent colors! If greenery, from yesterday's French 5-Piece Wardrobes for Spring, is the "color of the year," then blush must be running a close second...

First up, let's see how blush works with these very classic neutral pieces:

I'd say this looks great!

Will blush look lovely with these very organic-feeling neutrals:

I admit that I'm always surprised by how very versatile olive green can be...

I'm pretty confident that black and white will work well...

It's not an expected color combination, but I think it's all the more effective and interesting for that!

Red is such a classic accent color, but it really never gets boring. Not many women wear it, frankly, because I think they're afraid that it's too bold. That's ... View the Post

How to Accent a Neutral Capsule Wardrobe with Brights – Start with Art: Le Pot a Tisane by Leger

So far, we've been relatively subtle in our accent colors... THAT'S going to change!

I see many things in this image, but I do NOT see a pot of tea!

What might be the thing that really threw this painting into the "must address" bucket for The Vivienne Files is the surprising presence of that beautiful purple. (and yes, a wee touch of green!) Normally, I think most of us, if we were painting this, might be tempted to use blue alongside the red and yellow. But that's why he's Leger, and we're not...

I also really appreciate the degree to which these colors are strong, but not jarring or neon. That takes a bit of skill...

I know we're getting a bit weary of seeing these, but I have to always remember that many of my readers aren't ... View the Post

How to Assemble a Warm-Weather Capsule Wardrobe – Bavarian Cream Tossed Floral Cardigan

I have no idea why it's called "Bavarian Cream." I had no idea that the cream there was in some way special...

Today is the last version of the "start with a patterned cardigan" idea, with more complete explanations of what I'm doing with these cardigans. (brace yourself - I get pretty carried away explaining my methodology here!) This cardigan was chosen because one of you who is contemplating the purchase on this one felt that the colors might prove to be too autumn-like...

For what it's worth, upon close study, I think that these colors are pretty safely seasonless; one might be reluctant to wear a pair of cream wool crepe trousers in February (nasty salt splashes = ruined garment!), but for the most part, none of these colors are ... View the Post

Build a Whatever’s Clean 13 Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dragonfly by Miro

Such an interesting email....

Say you live outside the United States. You're retired. The weather's always reasonably warm and nice. You only shop every year or two, when you visit in the US...

And THIS is your inspiration:

I'm really liking these colors, and this WHOLE scenario!

In the interests of establishing a solid basis upon which we can build, I'm going to assume that our heroine either owns or already plans to purchase these pieces:

At this point, we've got a solid starting point, and a lot of fun things to find!

I'm ALWAYS going to recommend that you buy the sweater or tee shirt or top that goes with your cardigan. Even if you aren't the sort to wear a twinset, having pieces in the exact same color means that anything ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a A Black-Based Capsule Wardrobe – An Evaluation

Ah, this one is closest to my normal capsule wardrobe, and to what I would buy if I had to start all over... Remember, we left this wardrobe on the first of November like this:

You can see the outfit-by-outfit progression of this wardrobe here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

Because this wardrobe is so close to my own, I wasn't really concerned that things wouldn't be reasonably well balanced. The easy assembly of a "Four by Four" capsule wardrobe supports my thoughts:

I wasn't quite as certain that things would be as well-balanced for seasons and dressiness - I tend to love cold-weather clothing more than warm, and to like dressier things more than casual. You ... View the Post

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe Starts with Art: Still Life with Bouquet of Flowers and Plums by Rachel Ruysch

Dear Elizabeth, who's favorite designer is Vionnet - send me an email at theviviennefiles@gmail.com with your mailing address. You won the Mainbocher exhibit book!

So what do you do if you WANT something new, but you really don't need anything? You feel the need for brightening up, for some new ideas and inspiration, for some updated options in your wardrobe... I think it's important to take these feeling seriously, and to act on them deliberately, with a clear plan and established goal. If you just start buying things willy nilly, you risk wasting money, and feeling guilty, and still not satisfying that urge that stems from something vital within you. How about first find something beautiful to help focus that sort of "all over ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Red, Blue and White

It's always interesting to work with red, blue, and white in a capsule wardrobe - the challenge is to do justice to three colors that look great together, without ending up looking like someone's flag... The grey here, the 2 shades of red, and the 2 shades of blue, give us lots of options to avoid a very "bleu, blanc, rouge" kind of look. (unless that's what you want - I'm not going to tell you no!)

For this very abbreviated little ensemble, I focused on just four colors. Introducing a spectrum of grey could give you a million options...

He Falls Asleep....

At the symphony. Always. Audibly...

And that's kind of a drag for her, because she LOVES it. The longest Mahler, the most repetitious theme and variations from Bach - ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Yellow and Red

Strong, classic colors, with LOTS of accent possibilities in the Hermes scarf:

But for just one night, we only need a couple of accent colors in the capsule wardrobe color palette...

She LIKES Carmen...

But nobody else seems to... so she's going to the opera alone!

A nice pre-theater dinner is in the cards too; if she's going to do this, she's going to do it right!

And she's got a knockout brunch planned for the next morning... love, Janice ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, White and Red

As you might already know, I'll be in Italy when this post goes "live"! But I've got 2 weeks of lovely capsule wardrobes lined up for you, all of them starting with a pair of scarves. From there, our protagonist is going to spend one quick (but lovely!) night somewhere... Starting NOW!

This is our color scheme, although careful scrutiny of the left scarf suggests that pink might have also been a possibility here:

Barely Enough Time...

Okay, she checks her watch...

As soon as she's off the train and in the cab, (1) change earrings, (2) add bracelet, (3) change shoes, (4) stuff cardigan in bag and grab wrap, and (5) make sure she has what she needs in her gorgeous evening bag...

Worst case - the way she's ... View the Post

Capsule Wardrobe Color Palette – A Soupçon of Scarlet, with Six Neutrals

You asked for "soupçon," you get it!

If you're going to have a red sweater, why not a cozy cashmere cardigan? This is one of those garments that you could keep forever, and wear it mostly for Christmas and Valentine's Day, but there are a lot of other times when it could be just the ticket. Some gloomy day in November, when the sun has never shone...

First up, scarlet and olive! This is a combination that might veer too far into the Christmas-y, if the green is too bright. (Which isn't a problem, unless you don't like the look.) However, this olive green mutes those holiday associations, and provides a good base for the brightness of the scarlet.

I've worn red with grey for years, and I've always like the way to quiet richness of ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Cow’s Skull: Red White and Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

She's a medical examiner, and she's got her own, very deliberate, way of doing things! When we saw her at the class reunion, this was what she had with her:

This is the unifying style inspiration that she uses for her appearance and image; not for just anyone, I'd say!

Now, she's preparing for an interesting vacation. She's agreed to go with him on his lengthy business trip, even though they don't know each other all that well...

The promise of 10 days in a new city is compelling, and the idea of having 8 or 10 dinner dates with him is... sufficiently intriguing that she's willing to give it a try!

She packs meticulously, as would be expected. Because it's vacation, and because it might be romantic, she includes lots of ... View the Post

One Red Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: Fourteen Ways to Wear It

I love doing these... and this dress just calls my name. How can I NOT own this in black? This dress also comes in yellow (remember last week's post about a yellow dress?), black, and raspberry, which is a gorgeous rich hot pink... sigh...

It probably doesn't amaze you to learn that when I do similar blog posts, I reuse the original template, and just make the appropriate changes. So after I went into this template and changed the dividers in the middle from red to yellow, I removed the yellow dress from every page, and just plunked the red dress in...

And didn't have to change ONE THING, for these two options! How many different colors could work here? Certainly the black dress would be perfect here, if even a bit drab, and the ... View the Post