Archives for 2016

2016 - Page 2 of 23

Paris Street Style, December 2016, or What I saw Parisians Wearing, and in the Paris Shop Windows

December 15, 2016

Why yes, I did a bit of people watching, and window shopping, when I was in Paris! What did I see?

Sigh... lots of amazing things! One particular phenomenon that I saw on students (well, mostly students) was the plaid coat with unmatching plaid scarf outfit. The first time I saw it, I thought it was just a madly creative young man, but then I saw it again, and AGAIN...

I think it's rather cool, albeit bold. I could see myself wearing this black, white and red ensemble... For the less brazen, a plaid scarf worn with a solid or tweed coat would be a nod to this look, without going over the top!

Red plaid coat – Alcoolique; red plaid scarf – Halogen; Bluegreen & red plaid scarf – ... View the Post

Paris Street Art? Graffiti? Whatever you call it, it’s pretty interesting!

I'm still feeling a bit like the north end of a south-bound skunk (as my sainted father would have said!), but I wanted to start sharing my Paris photographs and observations with you. As you've probably noticed, I'm fascinated by the graffiti/street art in Paris. They work so HARD on it... and some of it's a real contribution to otherwise ordinary walls on ordinary streets - at least to me.

One thing that I think is significant is the degree of artistic quality present in much of this work. Even on the streets, you can't just toss any old half-baked thing out there and expect it to be accepted. High aesthetic standards!

When I first saw this wall below, I thought it was some Star Wars -ish movie poster, but when I looked ... View the Post

What if You Get Sick on Vacation?

This is more or less what the inside of my head has felt like since late Wednesday... my sinuses are a phenomenon of nature... But I made it back from Paris in one piece, and my experience in the last few days has caused me to think at length about what can be done about the risk of becoming ill when you're a long way away from home.

First, I think that we have to all accept that it's a very real possibility. The change in time zones, climates, length of day, food, water, and air quality can all send your systems into disruption, and one opportunistic little virus, bacteria or other malicious organism can wreck you... Realistically, travel might the time that we are most likely to become ill!

So, a smart woman would plan ahead, at least ... View the Post

Timeless: Some of My Favorite Posts from the Past, Capsule Wardrobes Based on Nature

Yes, I'm in Italy, but the Internet never sleeps! I thought that while I'm away, you might like to see some older posts from The Vivienne Files. One of the things that I try to accomplish with work here is to show that true style is timeless; when I look back at some of these posts, I feel comfortable having you look at them now, and I am pretty certain that they will still look good in 5, 10, or 20 years.

If you click on the dates, below the images, you will be taken back to the entire original post...

This first one is one of my all-time favorites; from the over 1,500 posts that I've done, it would be in the top 10 for sure!

This striking photograph gave us a story which continued into the NEXT wardrobe, below.

After the ... View the Post

Timeless: Some of My Favorite Posts from the Past, Based on Portraits of Women

Ah, artists seem to do some of their very best work when painting women and girls...

Marie Laurencin is one of my very favorite artists; were I ever to branch out from a back and white wardrobe, this color scheme would be perfect for me..

I think this post might have been one of my first forays into the idea of a story to accompany the wardrobe; it all just seemed to work together so well!

Working with wardrobes in brown might be the most difficult task of The Vivienne Files. But this came together nicely, with an attention to detail that pleased me tremendously!

A wardrobe of warm-weather, soft pastel colors, based on another work from my favorite:

This glorious painting served as the basis of a casual, but ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Olive-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 9, 2016 The wardrobe is as far from colors that I wear as is physically possible, but I still think it's really nice - very well-balanced, lots of attractive choices, and a wide range of ways to pull outfits together.

I'm always surprised to see how organized these wardrobes turn out to be, even though I made choices for a lot of months based on things that just interested me, or that I found attractive. In this wardrobe example, the Four by Four wardrobe possibilities were really easy to find:

When we look at this wardrobe in terms of how well it serves the owner for a range of activities, through a full year of weather, the only real "blanks" I see are in the area of very dressy activities. ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a A Black-Based Capsule Wardrobe – An Evaluation

December 7, 2016

Ah, this one is closest to my normal capsule wardrobe, and to what I would buy if I had to start all over...Remember, we left this wardrobe on the first of November like this:

You can see the outfit-by-outfit progression of this wardrobe here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

Because this wardrobe is so close to my own, I wasn't really concerned that things wouldn't be reasonably well balanced. The easy assembly of a "Four by Four" capsule wardrobe supports my thoughts:

I wasn't quite as certain that things would be as well-balanced for seasons and dressiness - I tend to love cold-weather clothing more than warm, and ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Grey Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 6, 2016 Back on the first of November (which seems like it was YEARS ago...) we left this capsule wardrobe looking this way:

If you need to track back and catch up on how we got to this point, the earlier posts can be found here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

I had a hunch that this wardrobe was in pretty good shape, and this is borne out by the way that the Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe fell into place so easily:

I noticed something sort of interesting when I graphed the garments on the basis of season and dressiness - the cooler weather clothes were more casual, and the warmer weather items skewed a bit more dressy.

This makes sense, when ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Beige-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 5, 2016

This seemed like it was going to be a really impractical, too pastel, too feminine exercise... but upon analysis, it's turned out quite well!This was where we left it on the first of November:

If you want to go back and catch up on earlier posts, check here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

Here was the first signal to me that this was a pretty well-constructed 11-month shopping adventure; I was easily able to pull out pieces to assemble a really functional Four by Four wardrobe:

This layout, on spectrums of weather and of dressiness, might suggest that this heroine could use something dressy for cool weather...

And when I arranged all of the ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Brown-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 2, 2016 If you want to go back and catch up on how we've arrived at this point, the earlier posts are here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.The second of our six wardrobes looked like this when we left it in November:

As I did yesterday, my first project is to try to fit these pieces into the Four by Four template. It seems to me that this wardrobe still could use a casual skirt. She already has 2 skirts, they they're both pretty dressy - maybe khaki is an option.

When I look at the existing wardrobe in terms of weather and dressiness, I find the same thing that I did yesterday - a shortage of simple tee shirts. That bottom right ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Navy-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 1, 2016

Back in November, when we left this wardrobe, it was in pretty good shape. Eleven outfits had been collected into a pretty coherent, and pretty comprehensive, capsule wardrobe that would see most people through a great many of their activities:

As I've said before, no wardrobe is ever really finished. Clothes wear out, or get damaged. Our sizes change, and sometimes, we just plain get completely fed up with a garment that we've worn a lot, and feel the need to replace it. So it's useful to have a few different ways to really look at a wardrobe and determine what might be needed, or useful, or helpful, to add. I thought of a couple of different ways to evaluate things...

First off, I thought that ... View the Post

How Much Can Accessories Affect Your Capsule Wardrobe?

November 30, 2016

Someone sent me this painting a few days ago, and the first thing that I noticed (after just generally admiring the lovely art) was the touches of teal and cool brown accent:

And I have to let you know that this painting set a record last week for the highest auction price EVER for a Canadian painting. Well worth it, in my opinion...

I was intrigued with the idea of a very conservative, mostly navy and grey wardrobe, accented with those two surprising accent colors. So I started with a few pieces, including a navy pantsuit. If you're looking for suit separates, I highly recommend Talbots - they have a variety of colors and fabrics.

Let's start with these basics - this is literally a Wardrobe Slot ... View the Post