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Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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The Power of Accessories in a Travel Capsule Wardrobe; Start with a Scarf – Flower Burst by Kathkath

May 16, 2017

I've known the power of a good accessory for DECADES...

The "foolproof travel wardrobe" that came from the colors and the themes of the Flower Burst scarf by Kathkath was very coherent, but cried out for a few more pieces...

Here's where we started:

This was the wardrobe that we had for our flower lover, when we finished off her "Whatever's Clean 13":

Just for reference, this was the template upon which I was building:

And this is how the clothing fit into the template:

I wanted to find a really methodical, organized way of accessorizing this wardrobe, so I thought that I might work my way through five outfits (one for each of the "bottoms") and make certain that these outfits covered ... View the Post

The Only 4 Pairs of Shoes You Need in New York

May 15, 2017

New Yorkers walk a lot - everybody knows that. And so it's only logical that they wear (for the most part, with some insane exceptions!) practical shoes. But after some careful observation, I realized that almost every pair of shoes that I saw on a woman in New York could be classed into 1 of 4 categories:

Ballet flats - if you're wear a dress or skirt for work, it's better than even odds that these are what are on your feet; Canvas loafers - a step up from athletic shoes, but equally comfortable and relaxed. Paired with pants, jeans, or more casual skirts; Short boots - worn with tights and skirts, or with bare ankles and the narrowest of pants. As a general rule, the legs of pants in New York were so narrow that ... View the Post

What Were They Wearing in New York? Chic Sightings of Accent Colors

May 11, 2017  

They were wearing black! Of course they were wearing black.... Or navy blue...So what I really noticed were the accent colors - the bright pops of cheer that stood out in the crowd.

Please note that I did NOT ever go up to someone and ask them what brand of whatever they were wearing; I took careful notes, and have attempted to recreate their overall look as well as I can with the tool at hand. I suspect that if you were to see the same women, in the same outfits, you would recognize them immediately!

This first woman was business lunching; she was able to stride down the street with her male companions without any problems, thanks to her flat shoes. (I'm going to share with you tomorrow my observations about ... View the Post

How to Wear Emeralds – the May Birthstone

April 27, 2017

 

Emeralds were TOUGH to work with here on The Vivienne Files - they're very rare, I suppose, because they're quite expensive and not available in the mad range of designs that you can find with most other precious stones. Nevertheless, we're more than able to find a lot of lovely ideas...

Given their price, you might not be wearing "authentic" emeralds (that's fine...) and you might just use emeralds as an accent with a larger, less-expensive semi-precious stone. It's your birthstone - wear it the way you want! Finding a beautiful scarf with a bit of bright green in it will draw attention to your beautiful jewelry, and make it all look wonderfully intentional and well-planned.

 

  Don't ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – April 2017

April 3, 2017

If you're new to this project, I encourage you to go back to the posts for the months of January, February and March to catch up with what we've accomplished so far...

This month, I'm pretending that spring is coming, and that it's warm enough to expose our ankles, but that we still are in the mood for a bit of sweater snuggling... (one could always wear a tee shirt, and tie the sweater around the shoulders...)

This first capsule wardrobe has had a lot of brown and black in it so far, so I decided to lighten things up considerably!

Somewhat the same story here - this wardrobe has been heavily dependent on beige as the neutral, and hasn't really addressed the lovely soft grey in the ... View the Post

How to add Accent Colors to a Navy, Grey and Camel capsule wardrobe

March 10, 2017

Monday I added accessories to a very neutral navy, grey, camel and white; many of you requested in the comments that I go back to my reader's original accent colors of wine and forest green to see how they might look with this capsule wardrobe.

Changing up accent colors is one of the easiest ways to take a very classic capsule wardrobe and put your personal spin on things, so I was positively eager to get to this post!

First up, let's update the color palette that we were using, and update the style notes for a bit of guidance:

 

I didn't want to really disrupt the core of our original Four by Four wardrobe, so I chose the very easiest way to experiment with accent colors - tee shirts!

I just pulled ... View the Post

Accessories for an “All-Neutral” Capsule Wardrobe in Navy, Grey, Camel and White

March 6, 2017

 

Oh, how I love accessories! As much as it's important, and nice, to have good-quality, classic clothes, it's really the accessories that make outfits distinctively yours...

Let's briefly flash back to look at the scarf from which we're working; note that I've slightly changed the color wheel to reflect the focus that I'm going to put on brown leather accessories! I do these in PowerPoint, which gives you nearly infinite flexibility in the number of colors you include, the proportion of each color, the nuanced shade of each color, as well as the ability to change the borders (both color and width) at will. I don't think that PowerPoint was ever intended for this purpose, but it works really well!

The lace ... View the Post

How to Choose a “Project 333” Wardrobe Based on a Scarf – Ted Baker London’s Gem Garden

March 2, 2017

 

Monday I put together a wee wardrobe based on a most beautiful scarf, and today I'm going to add some accessories. Given my incredible fondness for numbers, I early on realized that the overall number of items here was going to be very close to 33, so I specifically aimed at that number...

First, let's refresh our collective memory of the scarf, and the colors we were using:

In case you didn't see this on Monday - the scarf is also available with a cream background in place of the black. Did you need more temptation? And this design/pattern is also available in other sized scarves, as well as some lovely bags!

And these were the pieces of clothing that I chose; there are 18 pieces here, so I'm going ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – March 2017

March 1, 2017

 

Always one of my favorite days of the month!

For no good reason I can explain, the earliest glimpses of spring make me want to wear a skirt, but not really get dressy. It's hard to explain, but I'm a firm believer that a skirt in a casual fabric can be a great substitute for shorts or pants; the world will think you're all dressed up, when in reality it's just a simple garment switch...

So - let's see what I found this month:

I really tried to find the perfect brown, black and grey scarf in "current production," but I finally realized that this Missoni scarf was going to be my choice. It's second-hand (but probably never worn, as is so often the case!); I have confidence that Missoni will do this color ... View the Post

How to Wear Aquamarines – the March Birthstone. I Have Suggestions…

February 23, 2017

 

From now on, I'm going to try to write the "birthstone" post a few days before the beginning of the corresponding month - in case you have a gift to find. (and yes, gifts to yourself are legitimate gifts!)

This turned out to be a much more difficult blog post than I expected. Normally, the first thing I would do is Google the word "aquamarine" and see how the color is "defined," i.e. how you arrange your RGB settings to get that color. (RGB is Red Green Blue - numerical settings that you can combine to get any color of the rainbow...) Then I'd change the word "Aquamarine" on each page to that shade of blue, as well as change the wee diamonds in the page dividers to that hue.

Well, THAT was interesting. ... View the Post

How to Wear Garnets – the January Birthstone? I ALWAYS have some ideas…

February 21, 2017

Yes, we're playing catch-up here; the idea of writing about birthstones wasn't sent to me until late in January, so I missed writing about garnets during "their" month. And going forward, I'm going to write about each stone a few weeks before it is "in season," so that if you're inclined to get something in anticipation of a birthday, you'll have a chance to plan ahead some.

Since this posts follows so quickly on the heels of the post about the February amethysts, I stuck with the same garments (for the most part) and just found new and lovely accessories!

One of the fun things about garnets is the range of shades of red available - everything from a pretty bright "true" red through to a deep maroon or burgundy ... View the Post

How to Pick Accessories for a Grey-Based Wardrobe – Start With Art: Paris Dreaming by Peter Rumney

February 15, 2017

 

You might remember that yesterday we were looking at this very pretty painting and building a wee wardrobe around it:

 

And that we left that post with this capsule wardrobe assembled using our backbone template:

There's an interesting conundrum around the idea of accessorizing this wardrobe - it's inherent in the very different two "sides" of the template: bright vs neutral. One the one hand, a few bright accessories are going to be good fun to complement the bright blouses and sweater that I've included. However, you don't ever want to go overboard in that direction, because you can end up looking a bit cartoonish, and you don't want to leave your "all-neutral" outfits without any jewelry, ... View the Post