The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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turquoise Archives - Page 4 of 6

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe from Scratch: Choosing Color Schemes

It's a question that's as old as The Vivienne Files - if you're starting a capsule wardrobe from scratch, how do you start?

What an ambitious question! But after thinking about it for three years, I'm going to give it a try - a step by step approach to rebuilding your wardrobe from the ground up.

Before you buy any garments at all, you've got to make a couple of decisions. One thing you'll have to work out for yourself - which silhouettes suit you best. I'm really not qualified to answer this question for every woman, but I encourage you to address this question on your own; you know better than anybody else in the world what shapes and sizes of garments suit you best...

But the next question - truly critical - is to choose a color ... View the Post

What I Packed for Florida

I completely missed the backpacking around Europe experience - I never took a year off of school, and I never even WENT to Europe until I was 35... But I'm still fascinated by the whole experience of being THAT light on your feet - that self-contained.  So when a really nice Patagonia backpack made it into our home, I decided that I was going to give it a try.  At least once, just to know what it's like, I'm going to be a backpacker...

I loved it.  The incredible lightness of putting all of your luggage under the seat in front of you, and being able to walk for miles without wheels, was memorable.  I don't know that I'll ever do it again, but it was wonderful.

There were a few factors that made this possible. ... View the Post

A Summer Capsule Wardrobe, from “Ma To-Do List: Dressing”

A little more of the text from this section of the book:

"To build your "capsule wardrobe" can be intimidating, and also can represent a substantial outlay of money!  Why not take things step by step, and focus on the essentials necessary for each season.  This permits you to gradually, purchase by purchase, build an ideal wardrobe. Several paths can be considered and adapted according to your personal  needs and life style, as well as the weather where you live." ... View the Post

Navy and Beige Wardrobe gets the (Turquoise and Periwinkle) Blues

Many of you mentioned mixing shades of blue with your navy and beige, citing the always beautiful suggestion that this reminds you of the sand and the sea. How can anybody make this happen?

Say this is your summer shopping - these are the accent colors that you use, rather than the red and green that I used earlier.  So your color scheme is this:

In addition to changing out the accent colors, I'm going to make two simple changes to the original core wardrobe.  First, I want to include a floral sweater that does justice to our chosen accent colors:

and I'm swapping out the patterned skirt from earlier for a solid navy skirt with a bit of texture. 

  

Our 24 pieces now look like ... View the Post

More Wardrobe Leverage: 3 = 30

Let's say that you are the happy owner of the 24 piece wardrobe in navy and beige that we've looked at for the last two days...  And you decide that you want a little bit of brightness for spring!

The only real thing you want to keep in mind while shopping is the degree to which anything new that you choose can be worn with your core pants and sweaters.  A scarf that includes your core colors, along with a couple of pretty accent colors, is a good place to start.  Pick up a pair of tee shirts in the accent colors, and you're on your way!

At first, these don't see to be a particularly compatible choice for your original wardrobe:

But in fact...

            ... View the Post

Wearing a Celtic Knot Scarf – July through December

As is usual in the hottest weather, you might only be able to use your scarf to tie up your hair, or to decorate the handle of your bag, but the colors can still be the guiding inspiration for your wardrobe choices. These four garments clearly give you four outfits for the summer months.

Even though September is still warm, it always puts me in the mood for a sweater - and warm gold seems so perfect for autumn.  For October, olive is a perfect neutral for a jacket, and a suede skirt in deep russet will have lots of mileage through the colder months.

Many of us need a dress during the winter months for family and holiday events.  If you wear warm colors well, this dress will help you stand out in any crowd of ... View the Post

Wearing a Celtic Knot Scarf – January through June

One of my dearest readers sent me a couple of photographs of this scarf, and asked me for some suggestions...  This scarf has great possibilities - the gold, turquoise, carnelian and olive drab colors, with some white, offer tons of possibilities.

If anybody can tell me who designed this scarf, or where it's available, please let me know ASAP - I hate showing something this beautiful without giving credit where credit is due!

Cold weather requires sweaters and boots - and olive and carnelian are both exceptional colors for this.  All of the major colors in this scarf go really well together, so you can combine them pretty much at will and the scarf will pull everything together beautifully.

A sweatshirt is always ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting With Art: The Breakfast Room by Childe Hassam

My life - wardrobe-wise - is now an interesting contrast between being in gym clothes, or leisure clothes, for much of my time, and then every now and then I have to look like I belong in a business meeting or a dinner party...

Apparently I'm not at all alone, because many people have asked me about how to have a coherent wardrobe strategy when you dress for such a wide variety of activities.  

So I chose one of the very beautiful paintings suggested to me, and went to work.  This painting is an innovative combination of accent colors, some interesting asymmetry, and a wide range of grey through beige and taupe neutrals.  

First up - the gym!  Being able to use grey as a neutral is wonderful, because it's the ... View the Post

Wearing Hermes Grands Fonds Silk Scarf All Year – July through December

Okay, under no circumstances would you wear this scarf with the frankly gym-like outfit for August, but I show this as an example of how your color preferences can permeate and inform ALL of your wardrobe choices.  And yes, I would wear flat loafers with a dress, depending on how much standing/walking is going to be involved in an event.  Plus I just couldn't leave out these great shoes...

After establish a core of blues and some khaki, don't forget that this scarf easily supports some accent touches of shades of red!

The best aspect of this sweater is the way it enables you to mix shades of blue with happy abandon, and experiment with combinations that are uncommon and unexpected.

And as usual, at the end of ... View the Post

Chic Sightings: Turquoise and Navy

This first outfit is what got me looking for turquoise - the pieces are all really simple, but the color combination was striking, and the proportion of the long tee shirt, the cropped cardigan, and the modestly longer shorts was both pretty and unique.  Once I started to focus on looking for turquoise with navy, I saw it quite a few times!

And as I've noticed before, when you started to actually collect clothes in these colors, it becomes an effortless capsule or travel wardrobe! ... View the Post