Six Pack Archives

Want to Skip Brown? Start With Art – Red Rotation by Victor Servranckx

November 17, 2025

Our heroine is back to business travel... but no matter why she's packing, or where she's going, she always stick with her inspiration:

Her complete wardrobe is mostly these four colors:

And she has realized that if she omits one color from these four, she has four ADDITIONAL palettes that are ideally suited for small travel capsule wardrobes:

It's business travel again, but to an office that she knows pretty well. This trip is not particularly dressy, but there are excellent restaurants near them, so she still wants to be able to dress appropriately for that!

And her last trip, when she wore her velvet blazer, was full of excellent customer service. Thus she's wearing it again! Get ... View the Post

Want to Pack Dark Colors? Start With Art – Red Rotation by Victor Servranckx

November 14, 2025

Monday's heroine has to travel for business - it's surprising to me how many people STILL have to show up in person, press the proverbial flesh, and breathe the same air as the people from another office...

But of course, sometimes the in-person touch is essential. You hear the whispers in the ladies room, and glances from the corner of the room in a meeting, the strange phobias about using a particular printer - office life is weird and can be illuminating!

Her inspiration? This fascinating piece:

Her "master" color palette includes four neutrals; she does include the other colors in the painting in her wardrobe, in tiny amounts - there's a whole range of interesting beige to greenish bronze ... View the Post

Ready for Leafy Autumn Colors? Start With Art – Red Rotation by Victor Servranckx

November 12, 2025

Another heroine who is going to experiment with her neutral colors, to try to change the... feel? the mood? of her travel capsule wardrobes by omitting one of her neutral colors. Let's see how this works!

First up is her wardrobe inspiration, by an artist with a name that CAN'T be typed quickly:

The core of our heroine's wardrobe is black and ivory, with definite accents of brown and rust...

After getting dressed with mostly these colors for years and years, our heroine realized that she can take one color out of her four-color palette and have FOUR new, smaller color schemes:

Women's Basketball Home Opener! She and many of her friends played basketball when they were in college; it was VERY ... View the Post

Like Unusual Accent Colors with Classic Neutrals? Start With Art – In Vaudeville by Charles Demuth

September 26, 2025

If things go REALLY well, I'm flying back from London to Chicago today. I'm writing this on the 17th, so if things are sold out or if something is haywire here, I apologize! I will fix it next week... xoxo, J

We looked at this painting a long time ago, and I still think of it often. The colors are like nothing else!

This could be quite a complete wardrobe in ivory, taupe and black, of course. But adding yellow and rosy coral is a real departure from what one might expect...

Our heroine's going to a dance competition - having talented children occasionally requires hitting the road for a few days! They're going by train; the dancer in question has a LOT of gear to bring, so packing small is in our ... View the Post

A Complete Cool-Weather Wardrobe? Start With Art – The Dark Lady by A.K.Zinkeisen

September 15, 2025

Let's take one last, lingering and appreciative look at our painting inspiration:

This is the color palette with which we've been working, taken from this painting. You can always add faded denim - there's a glimpse of the sky in the top left corner...

Let's remember too, that we have four possible color palettes using only three colors...

For our first Six-Pack travel capsule wardrobe, our heroine decided to forego wearing black for a few days!

For her second travel capsule wardrobe, our heroine chose to not pack anything ivory - we can all picture this kind of trip!

At the approach of the winter holidays, our heroine focused more on burgundy, and omitted camel for this capsule ... View the Post

Want to Stick to Neutrals? Start With Art – The Dark Lady by Anna Katrina Zinkeisen

September 12, 2025

The last of the four "three-color" wardrobes based on this gorgeous painting:

Our heroine is on her last of four palettes - a perfect calm, neutral color scheme for after the holidays, when one needs to be disciplined and focused for the adventures ahead! Our heroine isn't even quite sure where she will be traveling, but she's pretty confident she will be able to pack without stress...

Warmly bundled up - she could easily wear a camelhair coat, or a black parka, over this outfit...

Of course, if she's packing her long plaid coat/cardigan, then her long coat would make more sense. Unless she won't NEED a coat over her "coatigan". It depends on where she's going, what time of year it is, what she's ... View the Post

Avoid A Warm Neutral? Start With Art – The Dark Lady by Anna Katrina Zinkeisen

September 10, 2025

Back to exploring the possibilities offered to us in this most beautiful painting:

If you have four neutrals colors in your plan, you (by definition!) should have four three-color color schemes that you can use for smaller wardrobes, like a single season, or for travel:

Our heroine is planning ahead to pack for the winter holidays. She wants to stick with lots of red, and some black and white because that feels festive to her! That's really all that matters - pack what you want to pack! (I'm planning my packing for London right now, and I have to keep reminding myself of this...)

As far as she can tell, she's going to have a church service to attend the evening she arrives at her sister's ... View the Post

Avoiding Wearing Light Colors? Start with Art – The Dark Lady by Anna Katrine Zinkeisen

August 30, 2025

Back to visit our heroine from Wednesday, and her most alluring and engaging favorite painting:

When our heroine knew that she was going to help out at her high school's Homecoming weekend, she knew that she was going to need a darker-hued travel capsule wardrobe! Setting things up (and tearing them down) for the entertainment of teenagers is NOT for the faint of heart...

She looked over her options, and chose the palette that omitted ivory. Smart lady!

I have a hunch that almost all of us look at least passably good in burgundy. What say thee, my friends?

And yes, these palazzo pants might look like pants here, but in person, they're more like a longish split skirt. Talk about useful!

She knows ... View the Post

In the Mood for Autumn? Start With Art – The Dark Lady by Anna Katrina Zinkeisen

August 27, 2025

It's getting to be that time of year...

"So, should take a short vacation? Take a long weekend in October and drive north? Look at leaves. Drink cider. What do you think?"

Our heroine loves autumn - her favorite painting just oozes cool weather vibes:

All of her favorite wardrobe colors are here...

And she's already decided that for her next few trips, she's going to experiment with her four neutrals - she will omit one neutral from her travel capsule wardrobe and use three neutrals for her wardrobe. It will be interesting to give herself some slightly different moods...

Viewing autumn leaves is a recreation that actually can be done from one's car, for a lot of the time. So our heroine doesn't ... View the Post

Build a Wardrobe in 4 Colors? Start With Art – A Forest by Leon Spilliaert

August 20, 2025

Let's take one last look at this lovely painting. I had never heard of Leon Spilliaert until I found this painting; I can't imagine how much wonderful art there is in the world that I haven't seen!

As you very probably already know, the last four posts here at The Vivienne Files have been variations on this painting; let's take a last look at each of the four travel capsule wardrobes that this heroine assembled through the autumn and winter:

It looks like a lot, doesn't it? But when you aggregate it into one place, it starts to look coherent...

The accessories are always so wonderful - a coherent collection of shoes, bags, jewelry and scarves is always going to be lovely!

Getting all of ... View the Post

Avoiding Light Colors? Start With Art – A Forest by Leon Spilliaert

August 18, 2025

Ah, for the winter holidays, our heroine has plans to visit friends and family, with a particular fun twist - all of these families seem to be the ones with small children!

Now, our heroines loves children, and will spend much of her long weekend on the floor, playing with new toys, reading books for the 37th time, and just generally cuddling sleepy, grumpy tots...

But as always, her packing starts here:

She wants soft things. Dark things that show spots a bit less. a necklace or two that can be quickly tucked into a collar, to avoid the inquisitive fingers of the wee babies in the crowd...

She's even packing a pair of shorts; she spends a lot of time on the floor...

This wardrobe is darker than ... View the Post

Don’t Want to Pack Black? Start With Art – A Forest by Leon Spilliaert

August 15, 2025

Back with our heroine and her multi-faceted wardrobe, based upon this painting. Today's color palette is the one shown here, in which she eschews black and concentrates on the other colors.

Maybe your family thinks your wear too much black? Maybe it just doesn't feel right for a particular holiday, like Thanksgiving? Maybe you just want to try something different?

Of course you're not going to quit wearing black just because it bugs your sister, but you can be a bit flexible just to keep the peace. Especially if you get to wear this luscious shade of green!

Packing in this wardrobe is always so easy - enough ivory to dress up if the occasion warrants (maybe take everyone out for dinner some night, so you ... View the Post