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rose Archives - Page 4 of 4
Wardrobe: sky, sunset and pewter
The wardrobes just keep getting harder! The request for this wardrobe was: "I am a short, graying brunette in her early 60’s woman who lives in the South (think 4 seasons with an emphasis on hot & humid but occasional snow/ice). I think Katherine Hepburn with more colors would be my inspiration. Casual, few skirts/dressy itesm, but chic. I love the colors of the sunset and sky plus silver/pewter jewelry with black, charcoal or dark jeans as the neutral."
So I focused on the colors of the sky and the sunset... enjoy!
Some cool, roomy linen pieces, a couple of dressier options, and always a sweater for colder weather...
A request: someone asked me for a wardrobe based on the painting Down on His Luck ... View the Post
Accessories for the French Chic wardrobe
One of my dear friends asked how I would accessorize the French Chic wardrobe. While this is far from definitive, I think it's an interesting start.
I learn more and more every day as I build these vignettes for our shared pleasure: you should be ABSOLUTELY FANATICALLY DEMANDING when you purchase anything. There is a world of merchandise out there, and the perfect item exists, if you have the patience and the focus to find it. Settle for NOTHING LESS THAN PERFECTION. You deserve it. And if you fully intend to own many of your accessories for the rest of your life, you can easily justify buying the very best item being made today - support geniuses and craftspersons, and beautify the ... View the Post
French Chic: Expanding on the core wardrobe
So as lovely as the garments above are, this is certainly not going to be enough clothing to even get you through a week. Most of us would want at least five separate tops and bottoms (or a dress) to get through the week. Even if you wear black pants repeated each week, it's nice to have more than one pair.
Thus, I decided to take it upon myself to determine what additional garments Vivienne would want in order to consider this a complete wardrobe. Realistically, I think most of us would do this exercise twice - once for cooler weather, and once for the sweltering misery that passes for summer on much of our planet. But for starters, let's just round out this core wardrobe with a few of the essentials.
The ... View the Post
French Chic: The core of the French Chic wardrobe
One of the things about the book French Chic (Susan Sommers) which intrigued me was the list of garments which included "The seven essentials no well-dressed Frenchwoman would be without".
That list included:
A black straight skirt a V-neck or cardigan sweater a suit a pair of jeans a silk shirt a couple of white tee-shirts an Hermes scarf
The idea of a list of essential clothing fascinates me; in a world that tries to compel me to over-consume, that finite-ness of a list like this, in which I could have some discipline and some structure, seems heaven-sent. Knowing that I was going to buy a fixed number of garments would give me the freedom to determine how much I wanted to spend, in what areas I could be extravagant, and on ... View the Post