The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Evaluating a Wardrobe – How do the “12 Months, 12 Outfits” Wardrobes Do?

What makes a wardrobe work? And how can you tell if a wardrobe is going to be functional and versatile? Not the headiest questions in life, but still important, if you like to get dressed and enjoy the process (as well as the results!).

Ultimately, your wardrobe works if you can get dressed every day with ease and pleasure. It doesn't matter what's in there, how tidy or messy it is, or how many different colors and/or styles of things you own. It's the most subjective thing in the world...

That said, if you're struggling, I have a few ideas that you might want to consider!

First up, let's start with the black, white, grey and rust wardrobe that I finished up on December 1st:

Since I built more or less identical outfits each month for ... View the Post

How to Accent a Denim and Khaki Capsule Wardrobe: Start with Art – The Stairs of the Asylum by Van Gogh

I'm sure there's a story here, and I'm afraid it might be a sad one:

Even in difficult circumstances, van Gogh captures the exuberant energy of nature, in a very limited palette:

Celebrating Nature is Her Profession Landscape architect - it was the title that she always wanted. So she started out working as a landscaper with a successful female manager, and she went to school in her spare time...

For a long time, she wore a uniform of khaki pants, and a bright green polo shirt with a logo, and a matching bright green jacket when the weather demanded. So when she finally wasn't in a "uniform" position anymore, she didn't feel the need for a wildly extensive wardrobe. She found that her simple khaki, denim and white wardrobe gave her ... View the Post

How to Use Both Warm & Cool Accents in a Capsule Wardrobe – Start with Art: Carnival Evening by Henri Rousseau

This sets a mood, doesn't it?

I love how much the sky is emphasized... and that glimpse of stars... sigh...

If you've seen the earlier installations of this series (yesterday, and the day before) you can cruise through this quickly. We have our starter Neutral Building Blocks:

The dozen (at least!) possible outfits from these pieces:

And the way those 9 pieces fit in a 4 by 4 Wardrobe template:

What a fun exercise this is! It's not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to find seven perfect pieces within an 8-hour work day, so if you're going to try to put together a wardrobe like this at home, please be patient with yourself as you shop. The pieces are out there, but might take a bit of time to find..

I love those swishy ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe Around a Statement Tote Bag

Someone sent me a link to this beauty... What excellent colors!

If you love this fabric but don't want a large tote, there's a smaller tote available, as well as a shoulder bag...

This bag includes a bunch of the classic neutral colors - beige, white, shades of rust into dark brown, maybe some black? I'm deliberately NOT including any sort of style guidelines here because I think that this is a case in which a wide variety of personal styles could accommodate this bag.

I'm going to focus pretty much on warm-weather attire here, but imagine for cooler weather - a navy winter coat with camel trousers... a navy wool skirt with an ivory sweater and brown riding boots.... mmm....

This is sort of a styling free for all - I just let my ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories 1 at a Time: Shades of Beige and Brown

These subtle colors in this capsule wardrobe really appeal to me... Remember, this was our first outfit, to which one MUST add some shoes. Unless you live somewhere that doesn't require shoes?

And simple earrings! I particularly like that bottom pair because they're simple, but they aren't...

There weren't hundreds of scarves in this very subtle color scheme, but many of them were lovely; if this were my wardrobe, I'd have quite a few scarves! 

Finding just the right color sandals was a challenge! These colors are somewhere between sand, taupe, drift, and some other strange names... Remember when you're searching the internet for something specific, you have to be really creative about color names. It's worth searching for ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe 1 Piece at a Time: Beige and Brown, for Leisure

You wanted to see a leisure capsule wardrobe in warm colors? Here it is.... I found that I could stick exclusively to shades of brown, tan, and cream and put together a really nice, workable capsule wardrobe. The accessories (which will be here on Monday!) are going to have a big impact on this very subtle collection. I started with a simple beige column (although the tee shirt has a bit of a stripe) and found a cardigan that contained all of the shades that I wanted to consider:

The gold is included here as a very clear hint about accessories:

With warm weather coming (theoretically, where I live!), I thought that a light-colored top would be a good starting point. This top could of course have short sleeves, or 3/4 ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Pigs on the Wing by wrq.e.d. Version 2

While the first colors that I saw in the scarf were greys and black, there's definitely enough beige and brown here to work with; maybe I see black and grey first because that's my personal capsule wardrobe focus? But this time, this is the color scheme. I like giving myself the full range of the blues and browns as options, I think it works well with the scarf, and makes the blending of different shades of one color possible. While there are a few colors that need to be matched pretty closely, others can blend all over the place and work well - I think brown is one of those!

I didn't mention this, but the border of this scarf reads:

my song was out of tune, my voice was cracked, but at least no chorus can ever sing it back.

Imagine ... View the Post

A Summer Common Capsule Wardrobe, In Warm Tones

What fun this was - the same general idea as my personal mostly black Common Capsule Wardrobe for warm weather, but in warm tones!

There aren't quite as many accessories here as there were in my wardrobe - but for anyone who is going to wear this wardrobe, you certainly already own LOTS of pieces that will work beautifully here.

So very many different ways to put this together:

And just for reference, the template for Your Common Wardrobe.

What accent colors would you put with this? Peach is the first and most obvious, to me. What else? I'd like to revisit these pieces with some accent colors, if you're interested.

love, Janice ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Self-Portrait in a Green Bugatti by Tamara de Lempicka

Yesterday, after I worked on Camposanto, I was thinking about the inherent utility of a wardrobe that had a khaki and white core, and how virtually any accent color would work well with those 2 neutrals. And of course, I'm thinking about tossing black into the mix...

So in the comments, someone mentions this MOST elegant and compelling painting!

White would also work beautifully here:

In the interest of showing how versatile a simple, solid core of clothing can be, I kept yesterday's Core in camel, or tan, or whatever you wish to name this color.

When looking for the black Core, I tried to find pieces that had some swish to them. Tamara has always looked like someone who could carry off a good swish!

And then some ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Hermes Maroon Shawl

Someone sent me a photograph of this delectable item - a shawl, no longer available, from Hermes - and asked if it would be possible to build a little something beautiful around it. Ooooh, yes, this is DEFINITELY possible...

First up, a color scheme, as always. Using camel as the neutral, there's a whole range of maroon, dark red, bright red, and hints of yellow here - lots of possibilities!

My imagination called this transition season dressing - either spring or fall. Maybe for business, or for pleasure. One dress, for a splashy night out, and otherwise dressy but not fussy separates for business or elegant sightseeing.

(Note that the accessories are either angular, or have a woven element in them, to harmonize with ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A Shelf of Books -> a Summer Wardrobe

You really, seriously, can get inspiration anywhere, if you keep your eyes and your aesthetic heart open to what's out there.  This absolutely wonderful picture was sent to me - what a delightful mix of softly faded colors.

It wasn't at all hard to come up with a color scheme.  Many of you ask about how I build color wheels - I use the graphing gizmo in PowerPoint.  I use PowerPoint for all of my vignettes, because it does everything I need.  Just insert a graph into a slide, and then change the colors and sizes of the various wedges to suit your preferences.You have a new, beautiful mnemonic for your wardrobe colors, AND you have a new skill to put on your resume.  How fun is that?

This lovely ... View the Post