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Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Home » Start with Art » Page 13

Start with Art Archives - Page 13 of 59

The Fourth of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

The Fourth of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 6, 2025

Let's check up on our heroine who is working with the most limited color palette this year. Short of wearing just ONE color, this is maybe as small a palette as you can get. Well, maybe not, but after the multiple accent colors of our other wardrobes, this one seems quite streamlined!

At the end of February our heroine had a nice twelve-piece wardrobe - it would make a great travel capsule wardrobe... I'm thinking a lot about travel right now!

Our heroine has decided to shift her focus to warmer weather - especially in order to grab the sandals that she's wanted for a while! Yes, she won't be able to wear them for weeks, but at least she's not walking out of the store empty-handed when the weather finally ... View the Post

03.06.25 15 Comments

Tags: grey, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
The Third of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

The Third of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 5, 2025

Big news - my dear friend Scottie is having a sale on her scarves! Get thee to her website right now to see the possibilities!

A lovely, if deeply enigmatic, painting:

That wee geometric thingy on the breast of the white swan... Hmm...

At the end of February, this heroine had a pretty and very useful wardrobe:

This heroine decided to really emphasize spring clothes this month! Maybe she wears a size that's hard to find, or maybe she's been burned in the past by having things sell out that she really liked! And she decided to break out with a pure white top - she's not afraid of wearing white with ivory...

Her new additions make a big difference this month! Adding a pair of pants that aren't dark ... View the Post

03.05.25 17 Comments

Tags: black, ivory, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
The Second of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

The Second of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 4, 2025

A painting that I love, and a wardrobe that grows on me every time I look at it:

At the end of February, our heroine had this very tidy and versatile (as well as lovely!) 12-piece wardrobe:

Our heroine decided that she was going to try to fill in some of her cold-weather basics, before they vanish from stores in favor of bikinis! She knows that - even though it seems like it's the end of winter - there are still at least a few more weeks of weather plenty cold enough for a turtleneck.

If you've been looking for wool pants that are lined, I found these; you see them pretty often here, but they're a rare species of garment here in the 21st century...

Now, when she looks at her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe ... View the Post

03.04.25 30 Comments

Tags: brown, navy, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
The First of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

The First of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 3, 2025

March! Even though we still have to wear winter clothes in Chicago, once it's March we pretend that it's spring. At least the days are long enough to go out for a quick walk after work - that makes SO much difference.

This month, I'm starting here, with a change/addition to our color palette:

 

This is the 12-piece wardrobe that our heroine has assembled through the first two months of her project:

Frankly, this wardrobe was feeling DARK. For a heroine with fair, freckled skin and hair somewhere in the red/russet family, it got to be TOO dark... So an executive decision was made to add ivory to this wardrobe. Well, you can call it bone, or unbleached, or off-white, but the effect is the ... View the Post

03.03.25 22 Comments

Tags: olive green, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
Adding Accessories - Start With Art - Cow's Skull Red, White and Blue by Georgia O'Keeffe

Adding Accessories – Start With Art – Cow’s Skull: Red, White and Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

February 26, 2025

Of course, our heroine from Monday is going to need some accessories for her work wardrobe - shoes, at a bare minimum! And it's certain that she's going to be carrying a pretty big bag, since she has to carry her laptop, her mouse & mousepad, her power cords, and anything else she needs at her desk each day.

Here's the art which inspires her:

Here's the wardrobe with which we left our friend:

As much as our heroine would have loved to fill this part of her wardrobe with small sharp things, she (for the most part!) has stuck to normal, acceptable choices. If anybody asks about the skull earrings and necklace, she plans to launch into a lengthy Stoic philosophy speech about Memento Mori...

Her ... View the Post

02.26.25 31 Comments

Tags: 4X4 Wardrobe, accessories, black, cool weather, Start with Art
Need a Back in the Office Wardrobe Start With Art - Cow's Skull by Georgia O'Keeffe

Need a “Back in the Office” Wardrobe? Start With Art – Cow’s Skull by Georgia O’Keeffe

February 24, 2025

It's the most common question I've received since the first of the year - you've got to be back in the office FIVE DAYS A WEEK. And you don't have a clue what to wear, this time...

A specific question was from someone going back into a relatively dressy office, except for the "every two weeks Casual Friday." Our heroine doesn't want a big wardrobe for cool weather, since she only expects another 10 to 12 weeks during which she will need such things, so we're targeting a 4x4 Wardrobe.

She also has all kinds of plans to quit her current job, in favor of a place where she can continue to work from home. Much up in the air for this heroine; let's make her wardrobe simple and foolproof!

This was the color palette ... View the Post

02.24.25 44 Comments

Tags: 4X4 Wardrobe, black, business attire, cool weather, Start with Art
The Last of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

The Last of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 10, 2025

This painting to me just cries out to inspire a wardrobe for someone who lives near water, and probably has a pretty long "warm" season and just a short winter. Anybody else feel that?

There's enough navy here to dress her for cold weather, and plenty of shades of sand, lovely sea blues and sea green for warmer weather. I could be so tempted...

At the end of January, our heroine had a wardrobe that was pretty great for weather that might be all over the place! She was really trying to find shades of blue and green, so she veered into that very summery tee shirt; sometimes you grab what's available if it's perfect for you, even if it's not "in season." The seasons will change, what's available in stores ... View the Post

02.10.25 31 Comments

Tags: beige, navy, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
The Fifth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

The Fifth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 7, 2025

I think of this wardrobe as that of someone who once wore black, white, and red, and has now softened and gentled her colors into grey, white and shades of burgundy...

You know, one could easily make a case that some of the background colors look like navy... I'm not going to do that unless I find that I hit a wall building this wardrobe, but it could be done!

As blessed February dawned, our heroine had this very simple eight-piece wardrobe. Nothing amazing, but extremely versatile:

This seems a good time to fill in more basics for this heroine, so I grabbed her my favorite white shirt, and a pair of black jeans. She already has grey jeans...

The sweater vest is one of my favorite garments, and ... View the Post

02.06.25 29 Comments

Tags: grey, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
The Fourth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

The Fourth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 6, 2025

I love this painting...

And I think that this wardrobe is going to be fascinating; we start with the world's most simple neutrals of black and ivory, and then add FOUR accent colors - one for each season. Yes, the idea of white as an accent color when we've already got ivory in the wardrobe is a little bit of a stretch. I'm interested to see what happens with this, since so many of us don't wear mixed shades of white and off-whites as often as we could.

When we happily ran screaming from the end of January, our heroine had a wildly versatile, if not super-exciting, eight-piece wardrobe:

It seems obvious to me that the coral/peach accent color makes a lot of sense for spring. Our heroine was ... View the Post

02.06.25 21 Comments

Tags: black, Common Wardrobe, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art
The Third of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

The Third of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 5, 2025

I often ponder what I would do with my wardrobe if I had to start from scratch. I mean ABSOLUTELY from scratch - I got out of my apartment in my moose-print pajamas and nothing else!

Well, THAT'S a nightmare, but I have to admit that I would be very tempted to go this direction:

These colors are timeless, and so appealing. And I think it's one of Delaunay's very best paintings...

As we very happily left January, our heroine had this eight-piece capsule wardrobe. It's small, but you could get dressed for quite a bit of the cold weather with just these:

Our heroine could certainly use a brown cardigan, but I didn't see one that really suited. But at least we've put her in a really good position for ... View the Post

02.05.25 11 Comments

Tags: brown, navy, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
The Second of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

The Second of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 4, 2025

This will warm us up!

Our heroine is committed to building a wardrobe in these colors; her patience might be tried, finding clothes! Beautiful as these colors are, they're not ubiquitous...

At the end of January, this was our heroine's eight-piece wardrobe. It all goes together nicely, and includes a deeply beautiful scarf!

This month there wasn't any grouping of clothes, or complete outfit, that appealed to our heroine, so she instead found four garments that are perfect in her wardrobe, and pretty doggone lovely, too!

The scarf she found is relatively small - it's described as a bandana. In the warm weather, tied in her hair, or to the handle of her tote bag, or around her wrist, it will be a ... View the Post

02.04.25 21 Comments

Tags: olive green, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
The First of Six Paintings - Twelve Months February 2025

The First of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 3, 2025

I've already reached the point at which I really want to look at these painting one at a time! It's possible to focus better on just one painting at a time - at least for my limited capacity...

This month, the top of the heap is this beauty!

When I look at this painting on different screens, the dark neutral color varies between camel and a dark olive green. I'm sticking with camel, although it's lovely to have a second option...

Our heroine comes into February with this compact but pretty excellent capsule wardrobe:

This month, our heroine decided to lean into the chambray blue in her wardrobe, as well as grab a good pair of loafers and a handbag:

With these additions, the overall feeling ... View the Post

02.03.25 29 Comments

Tags: camel, denim, Six Paintings - 12 Months, Start with Art, Weekly Timeless Wardrobe
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The Vivienne Files is a unique personal style blog with carefully-selected capsule wardrobes based on color palettes drawn from works of art, nature, and more. It helps women buy less clothing, and to love what they buy. Read more...
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