The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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travel capsule wardrobe Archives - Page 8 of 35

May 2025 Start With a Bracelet – Art Deco Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

May 21, 2025

Today's heroine has such a lovely inspiration:

She's particularly excited because she's about to break out of her navy and white routine. Her travel capsule wardrobes usually look like this or this.

So she's making just a little bit of a change; if you're one of us who've dressed in a monochromatic wardrobe for YEARS, you understand what a big change this is!

Our heroine's core wardrobe is based on her navy suit. When you buy a suit, you should assume that it's going to be worn a lot, in a variety of ways. (Suits are expensive!)

For short trips, during which our heroine might only have one "serious" meeting, this is typical of her travel wardrobe:

It's going to take our heroine all summer to ... View the Post

Unsure of the Weather? Start With Art – The Silbury Owl by Catherine Hyde

May 16, 2025

Lots of women artists this month; if you love this painting, prints of it are available from the artist!

Our heroine loves a good dark brown - or any of the autumn colors! And she's quite fond of pink and orange, together or separate. So her color palette is obvious and simple:

She's going away for a weekend event, and absolutely NOBODY can give her a hint of what the weather will be! She knows that it's cold where she is right now, so she's going to dress a bit warmly, even though it's May...

It might be warm enough to wear a slippy little dress. Or she might actually need a sweater! And for her spare time, she's even bringing a sweatshirt... Oh, weather keeps us on our toes, doesn't ... View the Post

Like a Base of Black and White? Start With Art – Variation on a Lighthouse Theme IV by Ida O’Keeffe

May 14, 2025

Yes, IDA O'Keeffe. Georgia's sister. Imagine how she felt, painting her lovely paintings... That had to be hard!

I quite like this painting. The colors are great, and I find the geometric qualities in it to be really pleasing. In the absence of her sister, maybe Ida would have been famous.

The color palette jumps off the painting at us:

This heroine is quite fond of a simple linen shirt, and with good reason. A linen or cotton shirt is one of the garments that you can literally wear every month of the year. It can be worn over a tee shirt and under a sweater in bitter cold, open over a tee shirt or tank top in scorching heat, or on its own (maybe with the sleeves rolled?) on all of the middling days.

Our ... View the Post

Want 2 Very Different Accent Colors? Start With a Scarf: Petal Pop Silk Scarf by Artifact.

May 12, 2025

This was the other Artifact. scarf that was requested as the inspiration for a wardrobe, and I can understand why!

The possibilities here are many - there's camel in the upper left quadrant, beige in the lower left, and even a touch of denim blue in the middle of the bottom right flower! But I'm sticking with the same black and ivory that we used on Friday, to show the range of possibilities within just a couple of neutrals.

The accent color I've chosen couldn't really be more different - a soft pink and bold orangish gold. It's easy to feel like your accent colors have to go well together, but that's not the case.

I've kept quite a few of the pieces from Friday for this wardrobe. Maybe this is the same ... View the Post

A Different Take On Scarf Colors: Start With a Scarf – Fleur Royale scarf by Artifact.

May 9, 2025

The instant Artifact. came out with new scarves, I received emails about them. This scarf is particularly lovely and an interesting mix of colors. When I first looked at this, my eyes were drawn to warm colors: orange, marigold, and olive.

And the heroine who wrote to me? She wants to work with black and ivory, and pink and olive accents!

Hmm...

So I built us this color palette reference page:

My habit with Artifact. scarves has been to build three outfits, and then add four more garments. It's one of about a billion different ways to assemble a capsule wardrobe; there's no rule about how this can best be done!

These outfits are for Spring weather, or summer days that aren't blisteringly hot. A cardigan ... View the Post

Uncertain Weather on Your Long Weekend? Start With Art – Study for Spring Madonna by Mainie Jellett

May 7, 2025

A favorite artist featured at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin? She's on the train for a weekend visit!

She's studied this painting SO MUCH - she knows the colors by heart:

Ireland's been having record warm weather recently, but this heroine is far too wise to fall for THAT! She's making certain to have a jacket and warm shoes; she doesn't have to wear these things again on her trip, but she's certainly not traveling without them.

A dress and three very summery tops, but a pair of "real" pants, and a cardigan - this give her options for unpredictable weather. And her olive jacket will look great with her stone chinos and ivory sweaters...

The night before she leaves, she takes a look at ... View the Post

Black, White and Brights! The Mondrian Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

April 28, 2025

Classic, colorful, and so versatile! These are timeless for sure:

The colors here are obvious, but it's always worth the effort to picture your plan as clearly as possible:

Our heroine already has her good core of black and white things, upon which she will build with her accent colors!

These colors are so much fun to look for in stores! And our heroine couldn't resist a black & white striped shirt; if you have a bracelet with a striped bead, a striped shirt seems essential...

Imagine traveling with this for a few days! Maybe you'd want to look for a pair of black & white spectator loafers, too? 

Let's take a moment to imagine a few of the possible ways our heroine could get ... View the Post

Pretty But Relaxed? Start With a Dress – Two Piece Linen Dress in Thistle from Alex Mill

March 28, 2025

A honeymoon? Somewhere warm? Sign me up!

She's all set for what to wear for her wedding, but her travel wardrobe is still under construction. She knows she's starting here:

There's no question that the weather will be warm where they're going - actually legitimately hot during the day! She has no plans to swim, but definitely intends to be at the beach.

And for once in her life, she's NOT going to worry about laundry. It's her honeymoon, for heaven's sake! Maybe not her first honeymoon, but that's neither here nor there...

So bridal white it is!

At this point, she decides she's going to pack all pretty pastels. It will be the last time in her life she does this, so she's going to do it ... View the Post

Adding a “Difficult” Color to Your Wardrobe – Alex Mill Moss linen shirt and skirt

March 26, 2025

Sometimes, you just love something, even though you know that it might take a bit of effort to incorporate it into your wardrobe. This two-piece dress might be a good example:

I searched for HOURS to find other garments in this shade of green/brown. A cardigan - a tee shirt - maybe a pair of shorts? Not to be found in my world...

But there's still a way. There's ALWAYS A way!

How about finding a scarf that's both perfect with the olive dress, and gorgeous?

If scarf designers are happy putting colors together, we can be pretty confident about using those colors in a wardrobe!

Note - for leather accessories, a color like this one is a good match with bronze leather. And the entire scarf-based color ... View the Post

Love Soft Accents? The Impressionist Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

March 24, 2025

Beautiful bracelets! Always such a treat, and such an inspiration to the imagination...

There are four accent colors here, but I'm passing on the dark green and vivid gold for today - in the autumn, our heroine could certainly assemble an entirely different wardrobe in navy with those accents! How fun is that?

But for today, for Spring, we're going with pretty pastels:

Let's get our heroine started with some grey basics; any time you've got silver in jewelry, you can easily translate that to grey clothes. I suspect our heroine might have some grey hair? And blue/green eyes?

The weather's not all that warm where our heroine is, but her heart is set on pretty colors! She manages to find four tops that ... View the Post

The Least I Can Pack – Maybe? – For Ireland

March 17, 2025

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I was to have been in Dublin this week, but family emergencies have kept us in Chicago. I figured that I could still share with you what I'd planned to pack, since I took so much time pondering it! So here's the post, as it was originally going to be published:

I'm taking as small a wardrobe as I think I can tolerate; there are a couple of very good laundries near our hotel - one north of us, one south! No matter where we're heading out for the day, we can drop off shirts and anything else that's beyond the pale of wearing again. I'm happy to pay someone to do my laundry a couple of times a year.

Here's what I'm flying in - not showing a short black quilted jacket...

Please note that these ... View the Post

Want A Different Way to Pack? Start With Sandals – Ellen Backstrap Sandals by Keen

March 14, 2025

Sometimes, you're inspired by something that might not speak to many people. That's fine - you're one of a kind, and your inspiration will be unique!

How about these?

I didn't find all of these colors readily available right now in summer clothing, but it's always good to know colors to keep in mind...

Our heroine's dashing off for a quick weekend somewhere casual - and the weather promises to be unusually warm for March! It can happen - yesterday was shirtsleeves weather in Chicago...

So she's driving off like this:

It's very likely that they will go out for dinner - somewhere nice, but not stuffy or prim... Otherwise, she expects to walk and look out over the water, or to sit, and look out over ... View the Post