sweaters Archives - Page 2 of 8

Part 1 December 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

December 2, 2022

I always think of "finishing" these wardrobes for the December posts - but I'm realizing (after a TON of these posts!) that there is never a finished wardrobe. You might well be at a point that you have everything you need for the foreseeable future, but things will wear out. You will change your tastes. Your body will change. Oh, how things wear out...

So for this last post, I'm adding jeans to EVERYBODY'S wardrobes, as well as a couple of tops...

This wardrobe has been a lovely study in a couple of things:

How you can bring an accent color into your wardrobe without matching every piece (both the green and the pink here have garments that don't match!) How many pairs of pants you can have in your ... View the Post

Part 1 November 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

November 2, 2022

What do you do when you've got a real longing for some new clothes?

What about when you're in a store, and you decide you're going to shop?

That's what I'm thinking about this month... Our first heroine wanders into Boden, and wander out with some interesting things!

Remember, her inspiration is this scarf:

Our heroine was pretty disciplined - she stayed with green and pink accents for her purchases... The sweater, though...

When she brings her new things home (or when they are delivered, more likely!), she can see that the pants blend in perfectly, her green silk top goes with a lot of things, and the paisley sweater... is lovely.

Maybe this is the time for her to remember that her entire ... View the Post

I Love It, But Will I Wear It? Grey (?!?) Twinset

October 31, 2022

It's described as grey on the Boden website, but it really looks more taupe to me, and to the reader who wrote to me with her concern...

What do you do if these sweaters arrive in your home, and they're lovely and fit beautifully and you really like them, but they're a color that is completely new to you?

My first thought is to treat this color like an accent color; if you can find shoes that match, it's a bonus!

The cardigan could be worn over any other color with the same intensity and saturation i.e. any soft, kind of muted pastel...

Of course, you can always wear the 2 pieces with pants or a skirt in your favorite neutral...

Yes, you've seen this skirt before! I've found that my pleated ... View the Post

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Sōkō Frost descent

October 24, 2022

This is just about the time each year when you realize that you're going to need to wear a sweater (or sweatshirt) just about EVERY DAY. If that's what you're facing as autumn peaks, and winter starts to make itself felt, maybe you deserve a really NICE sweater...

If you start buying cashmere sweaters when you're 30, and you buy 1 per year, you will have almost 3 dozen of them by the time you retire! Not a bad wardrobe to wear through your "golden" years, eh?

It goes with every neutral, and probably flatters almost all of us - what's not to love about burgundy/wine/merlot/berry?

Of course, if you look good in gold, WEAR GOLD! It's so lovely...

Frost can be beautiful...

Autumn and winter do ... View the Post

Part 3 October 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

October 7, 2022

I've been thinking... This year's wardrobes are lovely, but I'm finding that a lot of them share the same accent colors - green and various shades of orchid or pink...

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

But what if we base next year's 6 wardrobes on SIX PAINTINGS that we've visited before. JUST the paintings and the color palettes - not the original story lines...

That way, before we start getting too far into the wardrobes, we will know what our best accent colors are going to be! I will propose six that I particularly like in the next few days, so we can get an idea of how this might work.

But for now - let's look at the Chrysanthemum scarf!

At this point, the orchid color in this wardrobe has ... View the Post

Part 2 October 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

October 5, 2022

What do you do if your planned color scheme needs to be edited in some way?

EDIT. Move on!

You'll notice that Ruskin's Meadow color scheme has received a necessary update...

Mauve was the request; mauve is the addition! It's interesting to see how 3 tops and a pair of earrings bring a very different look to this wardrobe:

It's all much brighter now, which means that our heroine has new options for getting dressed:

Her accessories are still mostly green, but she's now got those lovely pink earrings...

How might this heroine wear her new mauve tops?

Now on to what might be my favorite scarf, and is growing to be my favorite wardrobe!

I wore this scarf last week; it's ... View the Post

Part 1 October 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

October 3, 2022

Time to augment these wardrobes in some intelligent way!

If you build a wardrobe outfit by outfit, you'll eventually reach a point where you have plenty of "bottoms" but not really enough tops. Since tops are more memorable, usually need to be laundered more often, and provide more of the visual interest of your outfits, it's normal for most of us to have 2 tops (at least) for each bottom. Additionally, I like to have almost as many 2nd layers as I have bottoms.

Your feeling about this can certainly be different! But for our heroines, this is a month to stock up on things for above the waist:

I debated with myself about including the Fair Isle sweater here. It doesn't really perfectly match the brown of our ... View the Post

Five Accent Colors with Winter White and with Beige

September 30, 2022

Why yes, Pantone found additional colors at New York Fashion Week...

Which is fine with me, because I could look at accessories 'til the cows come home! And since I live in the city, that would be forever, right?

Let's start with this classic red; yes, this scarf is an investment. But you could wear it at least once a week during cool weather, for the rest of your life. I'm finding that I have some scarves that 20+ years old, and that I still adore.

I've chosen ivory (Winter White?) and beige as our wardrobe core colors to "test drive" this batch of accent colors. While I wouldn't wear white pumps in this lifetime, I know a LOT of women who wear them through the year and look just lovely.

And ... View the Post

Five Accent Colors with Navy

September 21, 2022

As we have come to expect, Pantone "discovered" 10 "new" fashion colors from the London Spring/Summer 2022/23 Fashion Week.

Bizarrely enough, they seem to have arranged them almost like a (weird) rainbow! So to look at these colors as suggestions for wardrobe accents, I'm going to take the first 5 colors and pair them all with a tiny number of navy pieces...

I chose navy because it looks good with all 5 colors - which makes sense. Navy is opposite to orange on the color wheel, and these colors are all on that side of the wheel!

It sounds strange, but it seems to work...

First up - how often are you looking for something in a true, "not blue, not yellowish" red color, and everything you see is really on ... View the Post

1 Dress, 14 Ways to Wear It

August 31, 2022

Tomorrow, I'm going to start the "1 Dress, 100 Days" project, sponsored by Wool&, and completed by hundreds of other women. I'm very excited...

My dress will be the Sierra Tank Dress - 100% wool and softer than you can imagine. Mine, of course, is black!

I plan to Instagram what I wear every day and put it here on The Vivienne Files. That means there will be posts here EVERY DAY for the next 100 days - although many of them will be pretty brief. On my normal "off days," I will show you what I'm wearing and make any observations or comments about what I think about the whole process.

But what can one do with the same dress for 100 days?

Wear it alone, with accessories, or wear it with something under ... View the Post

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year – Risshū – Beginning of Autumn

August 17, 2022

Here in Chicago we felt it yesterday - that sense that autumn is coming. We all know that there will be sweltering days ahead, but we were reminded...

For me, that early cool day reminds me that I might want to check my wardrobe for upcoming autumn weather. This is a good time to start looking for the accent cashmere sweater that you will wear every week for six months, the scarf that you will cherish for years to come, or the warmer trousers that you need to replace the ones that you've worn to pieces this last few years...

Even if you live somewhere that doesn't get a lot of snow, you might still need a warm outfit or two!

This leaf perfectly conveys where we are, right now!

When I was ... View the Post

Part 3 August 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

August 5, 2022

I really like doing these monthly wardrobes in 3 posts, rather than 1 REALLY large post. You can imagine how much work goes into getting all six wardrobes ready, and I feel like taking my time over them gives me a chance to do a better job!

What do you think?

So let's look at the glorious hydrangea scarf... I love hydrangeas - the mix of colors in the blossoms delights me! My phone wallpaper is a photograph of mixed pink and blue flowers... sigh...

A navy blazer. It just seems like something that someone who loves navy might want to consider - especially if this heroine likes classic, timeless styles...

And if you're going to buy the blazer, buy the pants (and/or the skirt) while you're at it. Yes, it's a ... View the Post