Start with Art Archives - Page 32 of 59

Expanding a Travel Capsule Wardrobe: Shopping with the Countess de Martel!

July 3, 2020

Okay, she's no longer living; for our purposes, our heroine is a fictional character who looks a lot like her...

When we left our heroine, stocking her pantry in Paris with the essentials, she was traveling with this wardrobe:

She has just learned that she's going to have to stay in Paris for at LEAST 2 weeks longer than she expected! (let's not get into the details of why - it's fiction, and a fantasy!)

She certainly could stay with just the 8 garments she has - a little bit of well-timed laundry would be really all she would need to manage. But since she's going to be staying there regularly in the future, she decides that she will very carefully buy more clothes...

Even though she can't ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting the Countess de Martel de Janville by Boldini

June 30, 2020

She really only planned to be in Paris for a couple of days....

yes, she's seeing more blue in this painting than is there, perhaps... but this kind of thing isn't regulated, and certainly isn't anybody's business but hers, and ours...

She was going to stock the kitchen of her pied a terre with the basics - vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, wine, wine, wine...

So she packed a good market bag, to leave there, and a couple of warm weather outfits. An extra cardigan is never wrong - she might leave it in Paris too...

She's happy with the clothes that she has with her, but....

Now she's found that she really doesn't want to go home! Paris is starting to gradually open up, and back home everything still ... View the Post

Start with Art: Door to the River by Willem de Kooning

June 26, 2020

She knew, as soon as she saw it, that the door lead to where she wanted to be...

Some other day - some other season - she knew that she would include the blue, and the darker browns and greys, in her wardrobe. But for now, for the summer, she wants lightness...

When her sister called her - at the very last minute! - to invite her to the cottage for the weekend, she knew that she had to go. She was dressed for a meeting, but decided that getting on the road was more important than changing clothes.

Besides, she knew that dinner on Friday night, at the cabin, was always pretty special! Her sister can really cook, her sister's partner is a whiz with wine, and all of the kids know that this is an important part ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting L’Ombre by Pablo Picasso

June 10, 2020

You might remember this psychiatrist from the spring of 2017; her casual wardrobe occasioned some discussions about how professionals should dress... She Wasn't Sure If She Would Go...

But they've asked her to sit on the dais 1 night, so she feels like that's a reason to show up...

Many of the meetings will be outdoors - better for social distancing, and more relaxing. The dinner's are rather nice, but most of the conference is quite casual...

She can drive there in just a couple of hours, so there's no worry about being on an airplane. And she'll have a private hotel room, and be outdoors much of the time, so overall the conference sounds both safe and... could it be? almost pleasant!

She's got ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

May 28, 2020

We haven't heard from this heroine is a long time! She was, for years, a caregiver to both her parents and her children. After her parents moved into a care facility, our heroine got a job in a corporate environment, which she loved. She excelled to the point that she was given a huge promotion, and then within a few months earned a gigantic retention bonus and raise; she and her sweetie took off for a very long weekend vacation!

Holy handbags, which a history!

This is her favorite painting - neutrals with brights - sort of like being business-ready, but still having some spark and some personality...

It all seemed as if it was going swimmingly. Until one day, they wanted her to lie about some statistics. Not ... View the Post

Adding Accessories: Coastal Image by Theo van Rysselberghe

May 22, 2020

Since we're having so much fun with accessories (oh yesterday was AWESOME...), I thought I'd go back and take a look at this beauty; it couldn't be more different from yesterday's wardrobe:

For me personally, I'd need another pair of shorts or 2, and maybe a dress? But this is so pretty, I think I'd manage!

Let's look at a stack of outfits to see what might be either useful or decorative! First up, sandals, earrings and the "always important for summer" tote bag:

I seldom show belts, but a simple gold belt would be lovely with so many of these outfits:

For those of us dealing with hair that's a bit over-grown, a gorgeous barrette is unmissable:

I love the endless softness of pale yellow and ... View the Post

Adding Accessories: Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

May 21, 2020

Let's look back for just a second at our saints, and appreciate the choice and balance of colors. There's a reason that I like to start with paintings - the artists put a LOT of thought into every choice, and we can learn from this...

And let's take a look at her wardrobe:

Our heroine is a BIG fan of accessories, so she assembles a dozen outfits and accessorizes them! She limits herself to 6 pairs of shoes, but otherwise the sky's the limit:

She realizes that she might not need a handbag all the time, but it wouldn't do to be unprepared if she finds that she has to step out!

Note that when she chooses shoes to wear with her onyx jewelry, she finds some mules with teeny round perforations, and wee ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

May 20, 2020

Oh, we haven't heard from this heroine for a while... Remember her when she first visited a college campus for some lectures (and brought the house down!), then she took some students to The Cloisters, outside of New York.

She's been working off and on in Paris, since the fire at Notre Dame. Now, of course, she's working from home. But her intricately braided white hair remains flawless (how DOES she get it cut?) and her nail polish and lipstick are still works of art that defy normal wear and tear...

This is her inspiration:

Her color palette is firmly in mind any time she shops - this is not a woman often given to wardrobe impulse! Someone once remarked that red and green seemed "Christmassy" to them - ... View the Post

Start with Art: Coastal Image by Theo van Rysselberghe

May 19, 2020 We're Working from Home Indefinitely The work environment at her office is usually super-dangerous, from a virus perspective - people in each other's faces all day, sitting too close, yelling back and forth, passing food...

So when they announced that she would be working from home for at LEAST the rest of the summer, she was delighted!

She's working towards calmness; this is her inspiration:

Her color palette is light, and soft. She's working at home, so she won't sit on something disgusting on a bus or train. She doesn't eat at her desk, so she's not worried about spills...

She's not on screen that often, but she knows that she needs to be prepared every day to pull on a cardigan or ... View the Post

Start with Art: Dans la Forêt: Portrait de L. Massine by Natalia Gontcharova

May 14 2020

Remember the accountant? With a man's first name? Well, she's been doing quite well; the last big engagement in which she was immersed resulted in 3 people being charged with financial fraud, and a handful of other officers resigning in the dead of night and vanishing...

She was made partner...

Her color palette for her wardrobe is unusual - just when someone thinks that all she wears is black and shades of beige and brown, she trots out some cobalt blue!

She's got to go back. Yes, during the pandemic. She's assured that nobody is there, and that this is the very best time to take a team in and go through some of the really old "on paper" records that seem to have been... forged? Expense ... View the Post

Accessories! Start with Art – The Visit by Marie Laurencin

May 8 2020

I couldn't resist coming back to this painting, and to the wardrobe based on these colors!

First, let's look back at the spring wardrobe with a core of grey and white garments, and then a few accents in blue and pink (including that blue cardigan that keeps catching my eye!):

I'm looking for accessories that are somewhat "soft" in feel, to compliment the softness of the colors here, and also for things that will look good with more than one outfit...

For our blue dress, I wanted a scarf that our heroine could wear around her shoulders (although of course she has her white cardigan that will be perfect for that!), and some earrings that also were organic in theme. Silver sandals will be useful with pretty much ... View the Post

Start with Art: My favorite puppy’s Life by Fiona Rae

May 7, 2020

The capitalization of the painting is the artist's; artists see things in ways we hope to learn, some day...

While there are quite a few really fun colors in this painting, any heroine worth her salt knows that you've got to limit yourself a bit, at least at the start of a wardrobe "build."

First up, our wise heroine decides to make certain that she has a solid base for her wardrobe in navy and white:

Her heart was SET on hot pink and purple... but the marketplace of clothing didn't really help her out much!

This is one of the hardest parts of putting together any wardrobe - deciding that you KNOW what you want, but then finding that your lovely dreams are not readily available in the retail ... View the Post