The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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How to Add Accessories to a Capsule Wardrobe: Olive, White, Tomato and Mustard

May 5, 2016  

This capsule wardrobe puts me in the mood to watch baseball - I have NO IDEA why... Maybe just typing the words tomato and mustard? But what a fun capsule wardrobe for accessories!

I've mixed up the order for the accessories this time, primarily so I could get another pair of shoes into the mix and give our poor wearer a break from those red loafers! Because this entire wardrobe has a warm feeling to it, I thought beautiful brown leather would be a great accessory option:

 

Because this outfit felt like three separate colors (maybe because it IS 3 colors.... duh....) I thought a necklace would be a good choice - something to pull things together and to break up the big patches of solid color. I ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Olive, Tomato and Mustard: 1 Piece at a Time

May 4, 2016  

It's been quite a while since I've done any capsule wardrobes using the "1 Piece at a Time" scheme, and it seems to me that this is a great time of year to get back to this. If my experiences are any indication, some of you might still be stuck wearing warm-ish clothing, but thinking daily about how you're going to gradually evolve your closet when (if?) the weather gets warmer...

So let's start with this - a cheery tee shirt, neutral pants in an already summer-weight fabric, and a linen cardigan. Although this outfit would be reasonably comfortable on a cool day (with a pair of socks - maybe bright yellow ones?), it's also composed of good building blocks for moving into warmer weather. And while beige or brown ... View the Post

How to Combine 2 Capsule Wardrobes

April 23, 2016  

Many of your mentioned that you felt that the capsule wardrobe based on the Sophie Taeuber-Arp painting (see it here) would work beautifully combined with the wardrobe inspired by the composite photograph of a lunar eclipse (see that one here). You're a bright crowd (but I knew that!); this is lovely!

First, the business capsule wardrobe with the soft mustard accent:

  And then the more relaxed black and grey capsule wardrobe, spared with shades of terra cotta:

 All of the clothes, in 1 place! There's really only 1 small tweak I would make to this - I would make sure that there weren't any "droopy" sleeves or armholes on the tops. Here, I would probably get a grey top that fit a bit ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Composition a Cercles a Bras et Rectangles by Sophie Taeuber-Arp

April 19, 2016   Another painting that I saw last week in Paris. That vacation seems so long ago now...  

At first this seemed like a pretty straightforward color scheme, but there are a LOT of possibilities here:

  She Does Modeling...

Square scarf – Isabel Marant; shoulder bag – Allsaints; cardigan – Simply Be; yellow diamond hoops – JCPenney; watch – Isabel Marant;  tee shirt – J. Crew; pants – J. Crew; suitcase – Longchamp; loafers – Patricia Green   Financial modeling, that is. The hardest work in the office, in many opinions. 

Yellow silk shirt – Theory;  leather bracelet - Bottega Veneta; silver square earrings – Gurhan; blazer – Nina Ricci; ivory top – ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Gulf of Saint Tropez by Claude Matisse

April 4, 2016   Summer's coming...  

And some people are embracing the bright colors that come with the warmer weather:

  This Year, A Uniform   

They can call it a Jitney, but it's really just a bus. A very crowded, and often very overly air-conditioned bus. And she rides it EVERY WEEKEND in the summer, to get to the shore. But this year, she is NOT going to go through a bunch of angst and constant pondering about what to pack into her tiny bag, that she always ends up holding on her lap. This is it:

 

If her friends get tired of seeing her 2 dresses at brunch, the heck with them.... If she destroys this pair of shorts somehow, she'll buy another one just like them. She's ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories, 1 at a Time: Navy, Yellow and White

March 9, 2016

I promised you accessories, and I try to always keep my promises! My plan is to take a representative outfit from each step of the wardrobe built earlier (this one is here), and then show a few choices for accessories. It will make more sense once you see it in action, I hope...

This was the "starter outfit" for the wardrobe in question. The first accessory needed, without exception, is shoes! With warmer weather coming, mules could be a fun choice, but there are those among us who are devoted to their driving mocs, or their ballet flats, so those are also possibilities.

For most of us, given the lack of pockets in our clothing, a bag is essential. I was trying to find a mid-sized, classically styled option ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Galaxy by Ibe Kyoko

March 3, 2016   I saw this Sunday at the Art Institute of Chicago, and I knew immediately that I wanted to show it to all of you:

 

The contrast between the strong, almost wood-like grey top and bottom, and the cloudy and beautifully color center caught my eye and held it for a LONG time...

  Career Enrichment? Actually, she really does want to go to the training. After all, it's in New York!

Not just any place in New York, but at the VERY prestigious NYU... Having this on her resume can do nothing but good!

 

  So when her employer offered the chance to go - at their expense - she was filling out the application forms before the email had cooled in her in-box. (metaphorically ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Brown, Cream, Aqua and Golden Yellow: 1 Piece at a Time

February 27, 2016   Wow, this was much more difficult than I expected it to be!  

This is really a great color scheme - the accent colors are sufficiently different from each other that introducing them into an outfit gives you two very different sensibilities...And I didn't set out to find so many pieces from one source, but when I found that they had matching pieces in brown, it didn't seem like a bad idea!

So the matching brown pieces made it impossible to resist getting a brown shell, too. I think of this as a wardrobe that's ideally suited for changeable weather, or for those of us who have hot flashes...

 

I love this yellow...

 

Cream and brown together are an ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe One Piece at a Time in Navy, Beige Turquoise and Yellow

February 23, 2016

I'm going to start tackling the various color schemes you all requested - what a great, long, and wide-ranging list! Today I'm going to do the first of a couple using navy and beige...

First up, the favorite outfit: (for what it's worth, the most frequently mentioned accent color from you all was turquoise).

This request was for accents of both turquoise and yellow, so the color scheme looks like this:

From here, for a while, this will look very familiar. I am a strong believer in the absolute necessity of investing in a core of neutral garments before you start going crazy with a lot of accents!

I could have included the navy and beige tee shirt I used before, but I've got a plan for ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe One Piece at a Time

February 19, 2016

 

Unpacking my bag last night, I was thinking about how, for the last handful of trips I've taken, I've started my packing by choosing my travel outfit, and then adding 1 piece at a time until I'm at an appropriate number of garments for the length of my trip. It's a system that's working pretty well for me...

I then started considering the possibility of applying this concept to the building of a wardrobe. Some people just aren't in a position to buy an entire wardrobe, or even an entire outfit, at one time. And for those among us who are more comfortable moving gradually into changes, this might be just the ticket!

Let's start with this outfit; maybe this is someone's very favorite ensemble, including ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Blocks and Circles by Paul Klee

January 21, 2016   I can so easily picture the woman who wears these colors - freckles had better be in the picture!  

Just in case nobody else has ever told you this, it's pronounced Klee as in Clay. There was once a book with that title, that taught one how to pronounce all sorts of art names; I wonder if it's still around....

Yep, lots of color possibilities. I chose the beige/camel neutral for our upcoming spring dressy events, but if you wanted to segue this wardrobe into cooler weather, olive and fir green could definitely becomes neutrals, as could a deep rust, or a russet brown...

This is another one of those dresses that has a LOT of potential, for the entire year. And while the culottes were a bit ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Black and Yellow Broadbill Version 2

I hadn't planned to revisit this lovely bird, but someone wanted some yellow...

Without the green background, the colors seem more intense to me. At any rate, I brightened up the coral and blue, to be in a better balance with the yellow... No matter how good it looks here, I'm not recommending yellow eye shadow - there's a limit to taking inspiration from nature!

I thought I'd plunge right into the yellow... Note how the addition of the scarf with the coral and orange print keeps the ensemble from looking like a bumblebee, or a Pittsburgh sport fan. (for those out of the sports loop: I think EVERY professional sports team in Pittsburgh wears at least some yellow and black)

(I love the scarves from Abo London - they are REALLY ... View the Post