The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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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

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Autumn Trees – The Maples by Georgia O’Keeffe

March 28, 2016   You have sent me SO MANY beautiful art ideas - I'm going to dedicate a few days to addressing some of them. Fear not, the "1 at a Time" wardrobes will be back....  

  A travel wardrobe not for the faint of heart - but what beautiful, subtle colors:

   

She Has 24 Hours Well, she could take longer, but her plan is to spend her entire 1st day in town walking around, looking, listening, feeling her responses. By the time she goes to bed the first night, she's going to decide - yes or no - if she's moving there.

 

If she decides that she won't move there, she has the rest of the long weekend to enjoy her time off. But if she decides yes, she has the rest of the long ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932) by Georgia O’Keeffe

March 15, 2016     There are so many different ways that this painting could be interpreted, but I kept seeing denim blue...  

Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932) by Georgia O’Keeffe     Of course, I can always revisit this painting, if you're interested....      

  The Closing? She's flying out to close on the new cabin. Everyone's horrified...

Coat – Norma Kamali; crossbody bag – Phase 3; earrings – Judith Jack; socks – Polo Ralph Lauren; loafers – Cole Haan; jeans – L.L.Bean; sweater – Iris and Ink; scarf – Mosaique; watch – Movado;   duffel bag – Norma Kamali  

It's tiny. It's simple. And since she seems to have sold or donated about 90% of ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Madame Paul Escudier by John Singer Sargent

March 5, 2016   This arresting painting lives just down the street from me - I go visit it frequently!  

These colors are luscious:

  Your Biggest Client Called... And you're pretty fortunate that they complained about the service they were receiving, rather than just pulling the plug on your contract! But you're headed to the service center for a couple of days of... encouragement....

The keywords are calmness and quality.

You have to be careful not to be too much the "Home Office Person" because that will just alienate everyone. But you do want to show them, through every gesture, and every word, that you insist on the best possible work they can do, in a way that's not frantic in any ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf – Hydrangea Haze by Ted Baker London

February 3, 2016   I love it when one of you falls into mad infatuation with something... This time, it's a lovely scarf!

 

It's easy for me to be sympathetic to those who fall for something from Ted Baker - the floral prints are SO GORGEOUS...

I actually own both a scarf AND a cardigan in the same fabric (no, I would never wear them at the same time, but I would pack them in the same suitcase in a heartbeat!).

The ground of this scarf is deep navy, and for today I'm using the soft grey flowers, and shades of pink, as the accent colors. There's definitely potential to use blue and purple as accents, if that's your preference. 

Trailing spouse, my comfortably shod foot... She hates the term. ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: The Common Shelduck

January 14, 2016

When I say there's inspiration everywhere, I'm really NOT exaggerating! My recent trip to Florida is a good example - I saw these lovely guys all over the place (although they are not, in fact, indigenous to the area I was visiting - someone imported them! Someone with good taste....)

The color scheme was so easy!

 

Come Sit on the Veranda... Well, the invitation was a little bit more fleshed-out than that! It went more like "we have great internet down here, so you can work during the day, and then in the evenings, we'll sit on the veranda with a bottle or two of wine, and watch the birds on the lake until it gets dark. Then after dinner, we can come back out and look at the stars..."

Her toes ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Black and Yellow Broadbill Version 2

I hadn't planned to revisit this lovely bird, but someone wanted some yellow...

Without the green background, the colors seem more intense to me. At any rate, I brightened up the coral and blue, to be in a better balance with the yellow... No matter how good it looks here, I'm not recommending yellow eye shadow - there's a limit to taking inspiration from nature!

I thought I'd plunge right into the yellow... Note how the addition of the scarf with the coral and orange print keeps the ensemble from looking like a bumblebee, or a Pittsburgh sport fan. (for those out of the sports loop: I think EVERY professional sports team in Pittsburgh wears at least some yellow and black)

(I love the scarves from Abo London - they are REALLY ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Black and Yellow Broadbill

You've very possibly seen a Photoshopped version of this photograph, which made the colors really BRIGHT... and I'm not sure why someone would have bothered - this photograph is quite beautiful just as it is!

 

Weeks ago, someone asked me, on Facebook, to work with this photograph. It's about time I got around to it, because it includes lovely colors! I did NOT include the yellow circle around the eyes of the bird, except for a bit in one of the scarves, and the yellow gold in the jewelry. And while I don't always pick up the background color of a photograph, this one was really the perfect color, in the ideal intensity, for this color scheme...Yes, I really, TRULY believe that if you find a color scheme you love, you can ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Brooch: Boucheron Lotus Brooch

November 20, 2015  

Oh. My. Goodness....If this somehow became mine, I would wonder WHAT in the world was going on, and then I would indeed build my entire wardrobe (and that of my bodyguards!) around it. What a beautiful piece of jewelry...

But even if one is not destined to own this, it can still certainly be used as a style focal point, or inspiration. The colors are straightforward enough: 

 

Yes, I included the black of the background; I think it serves well as a foil for the diamonds, sapphires and emeralds.

So she's heading home for a long winter holiday weekend. She doesn't wear lavish, or amazing clothes - mostly things that are readily available. But in her mind, she remembers the brooch, and ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Music Party, East Cowes Castle by Joseph Mallord William Turner

October 26, 2015   It takes a minute or two for the images to become clear...  

But it's worth the wait. These are great colors for this time of year! 

  Skipping the Reunion, Again Every year, their school has a reunion. And every year, they get together in their favorite pub, and decide that they don't want to go! (everybody in the world did NOT love their school years...) It's become a tradition...

The someone pulls out the National Rails Timetable, and they haggle around a bit about where they go for a weekend away. This year, Edinburgh!

A few weeks ago, they knew nothing. Now, they're ready for one of the great castles in the world, beautiful scenery, excellent architecture, buckets of ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Cvetaeva, Version 2

September 24, 2015  

And, as promised, another look at this scarf, with a completely different color scheme!

Doesn't this look completely different when folded and worn this way?

I'm eschewing all accents this time, and going strictly for some interesting neutrals:

 

  She Doesn't Mean to be Difficult... But the prototypes were entirely wrong. Wrong color. Wrong sizes. Wrong details. You have to wonder if the had the specifications upside down...

So she's off to Milan, to have a serious chat with the knitting mill management!

It's not that she doesn't like Milan - she loves it - but this isn't a good time to have to make this trip. She won't have time for more than one really amazing ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Cvetaeva by wrq.e.d.

September 16, 2015  

Another beautiful scarf...This one, entitled Cvetaeva, is from the amazingly talented and creative team at wrq.e.d. The images include collages, ball point pen illustrations, florals, and a poem, by Marina Cvetaeva.  It's written around the border: the dear art of oblivion the soul has mastered all the way. some overwhelmingly big feeling melted within my soul today. This is the wondrous object:

The first time I looked at the scarf, these were the colors that I saw. I was always envisioning this with burnished brown accessories, to reflect the beauty of the border of the scarf:

  She's a Poet Yes, she earns her daily bread as an office manager for a real estate company. But if you ... View the Post