February 3, 2023
I must mention this: to me, this first heroine MUST be living somewhere warm, or at least warm-ish. It’s hard to picture someone wearing this much ivory in a place where slushy streets are an issue!
Adding both the pink tee shirt AND the pants to her wardrobe this month gives this heroine a VERY pink wardrobe, but it’s wise to grab things that match (or in this case – tone). Skipping 1 of these 2 pink garments because it feels like “too much pink” makes sense in the short term, but in the long term, having both pieces makes life easier…
Gold floral earrings – Laura Ashley; cream cardigan – L.L.Bean; pale rose tee – L.L.Bean; scarf – Echo; sneakers – Sam Edelman; muted rose pants – L.L.Bean
Yep, this heroine likes pink. And she looks amazing in it!
Her 3 new garments give her lots of new options, although her wardrobe doesn’t have a wide variety of colors yet!
(look at her palette – she will add green, more blue, and some yellow before too long!)
This next heroine is on my wavelength!
Long ago, I swore that I would NEVER show things with skulls on The Vivienne Files! But these are no ordinary skulls – they’re Day of the Dead skulls…
How could I resist these colors?
Dripping earrings – Marie June Jewelry; white tee – J.Crew; violet jacket – L.L.Bean; scarf – Folklaire; boots – Vionic; black barrel jeans – Banana Republic
I love this wardrobe! Even though she only has 25% “non-black and white” garments, this is NOT a dreary wardrobe:
Of course, this heroine now has lots of new outfits…
I’m loving this last wardrobe – would it be extreme to dye my hair some shade of auburn, and replace ALL of my clothes?
Such a traditional outfit – with an amazing scarf!
Smoky quartz earrings – Opuline; barn jacket – L.L.Bean; heather camel tee – J.Crew; scarf – Brunna.Co; boots – Steve Madden; khakis – Alex Mill
Her wardrobe is so warm and cozy…
I haven’t tested the theory, but I have a hunch that this heroine can’t pull together a bad outfit from this assortment…
And your favorite, so far? My wardrobe is most like the Street, Berlin wardrobe, but if I had to start from scratch I would be sorely drawn to this last ensemble…
love,
Janice
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I would (and have!) wear top to toe pink. I’m just imagining the blue as a grey, and the yellow will likely have brown as a substitute instead and that it’s enough to make it my favourite wardrobe. One of the ones from Wednesday is close, but I’m not sure of the top which of them it is that has the brown in.
Hi Janice,
Would you be interested in doing a capsule for a breastfeeding mum? Tops have to be breast-feeding friendly.
Colours: black and rich jewel tones. No white. Silver jewellery.
Style: jeans, cardigans, pencil skirts with t-shirts and sneakers. Preferred necklines are either very high or very low.
Climate: Australian warm, going into autumn.
No pressure :)
Love the Berlin Street wardrobe, by the way. Those dripping earrings are great!
Speaking as a mama of 6, who’ve all been nursed 1+ years, I’ve found most top+bottom combos to easy to nurse in( maybe with a nursing tank to cover my midriff). The real challenge is dresses, they need to have some kind of front opening, and when it unfastens from the top it’s more of a challenge to be modest!
Yes, a good dress for nursing is hard to find! A top and bottom combo also means you don’t have to wash your whole outfit every time something gets dirty.
I found that for the first months, when nursing was incredibly frequent and I was often in public, I wanted tops specifically designed for breastfeeding since they made it easy to be discreet in restaurants and classrooms and so on.
This exact request is something I woukd have really appreciated back when I was nursing my babies. I ended up making or adapting my own tops and dresses, and had a bit of what ai now know was a capsule wardrobe of these items. One of the easiest to adapt and nurse in was a connected “twin set”, where it was an open cardigan with a sewn-in panel to look like a shirt underneath. All you have to do is cut long slits near the sides in the inner panel and you’re ready to go! Works best with darker, heavier fabrics! By the time I had my 3rd and had to take my newest 6-month old across the ocean to my sister’s wedding I was good enough that I was able to adapt my “matron of honor” dress with hidden invisible zippers. No one knew I was nursing my baby right there at the head table, except my Dad, who was a fabulous supporter of women and breastfeeding! Anyway, I’d enjoy seeing a wardrobe like this for all the nursing moms.
I like the sound off those zippers… with the right top I could nurse while walking down a busy street with my baby in a carrier. Nobody knew.
I waited until today but my favourites going forward are the Normandy train from Wednesday with the soft greens, blues and grey and the Street in Berlin today. I’m also with Rex and the lovely soft pink, though I’d also have to change the ivory and yellow to silver grey.
I’m liking the Berlin heroine with that bit of an edge to her wardrobe. Choosing that as her favourite one would assume she had a classic elegance much like the lady in the painting. However, the skull scarf and dripping earrings suggest that she is full of surprises and doesn’t conform to type. I bet she dyes her hair purple or pink too.
Berlin heroine is definitely a badass. I’m substituting my longish purple boiled wool moto style jacket for the puffer (I’m in CA) and I’m sure she would approve.
I love the Degas, I wore those colors in my youth. Those colors have never been easy to find and shopping was always a challenge.
Ivory and khaki were my warm weather neutrals, the ivory has been replaced by stone and white. Warm brown and black were my cool weather neutrals, but nowadays I’ve shifted to cooler colors as my hair has grayed and my complexion has become cooler as well.
I’ve noticed that increasingly, my preference is to wear a palette of all neutrals. Earlier this week I enjoyed wearing an oat colored top and pants with a dark muted olive jacket and a brown hat. When I want color, I’ve been adding it in my jewelry ( warm weather) and my scarves in cool weather. It’s a much simpler way of dressing.
I’m playing along with Street, Berlin – those are my colors. So far out of my closet I am missing the scarves and a black crew neck. I own the rest in one way shape or form.
Definitely Street, Berlin for me! But for the Day of the Dead scarf I’ll substitute my Hermes Under the Sea scarf that has approximately the same colors. I especially love the pink in this painting.
BeeeBeee it seems as if we are kindred spirits. After having what my husband called a “clown closet” (AKA a crayon closet) for years, over the past two years I have pared down and down and now have primarily neutrals with a little emerald green and red thrown in. I use scarves and earrings to pull in the accent colors. I can’t pick a favorite right now. I originally liked the Renoir but going forward the olive green might be a sticking point for me personally. I’m also very drawn to the Rothko – but except for the navy I don’t wear the other colors at all. And the Degas is amazing, but I’d have to go darker with all the colors. What’s a girl to do? I think your experiment with choosing paintings vs scarves might be deemed a success! Happy Friday everyone and thank you Janice!
I enjoyed looking at the first two wardrobes today, but I had an almost visceral (in a good way) reaction to today’s Degas wardrobe. I actually felt myself relax looking at the options. I am most comfortable in a cream and brown world these days. Thanks for the relaxation moment and these beautiful visuals.
The Degas wardrobe is still my favorite, although I’d throw in some color (mostly teals and aquas) because unlike others, I need more color as my hair has grayed, not less. If I wear all neutrals I just fade away visually, although it’s a very simple and timeless way to dress.
I was torn between the Degas and the Renoir wardrobes until I realized that a combination of the two is where my current wardrobe is trending. In fact I purchased the LL Bean barn jacket earlier this winter. Like the other commenters, I am also trending toward neutrals with small hits of color (so much easier). I am gearing up to tackle a major closet redo since now (thanks to The Vivienne Files) I have a much clearer view of where I want my wardrobe to go. I’m looking forward to seeing fewer garments in my closet but seeing only things I will enjoy wearing.
I heartily concur with Janice’s advice to grab those matching/tonal pieces when you can! I have regretted NOT getting the coordinating piece, but have never regretted finishing the column/twin set (or buying a coordinating scarf in print or solid). And for me, those items in colors that have the column/twin set get worn a lot more because it’s so easy to create outfits using them.
It can be amazingly difficult to find a coordinating piece later. I’ve had the other piece sell out in my size or just no longer be available faster than I would have expected. I think brands/stores differ in how quickly they change their color sets, and at least a couple of my go-to stores seem to switch colors about 4-6 times per year and not revisit them! They’ll have teal again next year but not the same teal as this year – argh! Of course sometimes you can get amazingly fortunate that items across brands/years work extremely well together, but it’s definitely not a given.
When you’re wanting to test drive a color, it can feel more sensible to buy just one piece and see how you like it. At the same time, that one piece can also sometimes not slot into your wardrobe easily by itself, so you can get a sense that the color isn’t working for you when it’s really about not having the right pieces in that color to easily create cohesive outfits. Of course, this is where thinking strategically about a French 5 shopping plan (or similar) can help, as can knowing whether you’re more a “that one new light pink top livens up my entire wardrobe” person or a “that one new light pink top becomes an orphan” person.
For our heroine who loves light, soft pink, it is so smart to have a good little bundle of coordinating pieces! On my screen, the pants are a bit darker and more muted but look terrific with the light pink tops.
As for favorites among the wardrobes…I think right now I lean toward the two navy wardrobes from last week (which to me are converging into a single wardrobe with the addition of the warm cognac brown leather in the Rothko), but it could change easily next month!
I am loving them all! I am definitely a person who loves my color… but that brown/cream wardrobe is just amazing and if someone swapped it out for my current wardrobe I would be ok with that! :)
My two favorites are the Renoir and Degas. The Degas seems to be becoming the warm version of the cool, muted, gray-based wardrobes I always admire so much (just like the train station!). It is definitely worth my time to study it in detail more. And, I can see mixing in the light, warm, bright colors I love so much (lime, coral, aqua, butter, etc.) with this range of neutrals.
I love the dripping earrings!
I love this concept of dressing as art – without having to buy designer wardrobes! Janice gives me ideas of how to use what I already have, maybe add an accent or two, and get excited about going into the closet again. And the choice of paintings is wonderful!
I think the first heroine today lives in Phoenix.
I am closely following the Kirchner in real life, substituting navy for black. I absolutely love this month’s scarf but I have never been any good at wearing a square scarf (I have loads of unused ones in my closet.) I’m on the hunt for something similar, but the fun is in the hunt.
* something similar but oblong
The last wardrobe is beautiful, I just wanna buy it all! I have discovered what I like through many of your posts, and it’s helped me enormously to make better shopping choices, thank you!
I look Terrible in caramel but I love caramel and black, so I’m enjoying the last wardrobe very much, even as I build my own in very different colors. I don’t have a favorite yet, I like them all for different reasons… but so far this looks like it might become my fave.
Gail I feel the same way! This year I seem to be liking some details in each: navy as neutral, having more than 2 accents, light colors and restricted pallette. Some things I like are opposites! Hahaha, but is the exercise Janice takes us to that I really enjoy ;)
Cheers and blessings,
Arwen.
I love the Paul Klee Vocal Fabric partly due to the creamy off white and the soft pastels especially the soft pink.
Easy to add into my navy white and grey neutral base for my spring wardrobe.
Definitely Team Kirchner here. And I love the Day of the Dead scarf but can’t justify it given my track record of not wearing my scarves. The blue (and purple) version of the scarf is also fabulous.
The Kirchner wardrobe has quickly become my favorite. The colors have been friends of mine throughout my life. I also have a special place in my heart for sugar skulls. Alas, I, despite loving them, never wear my scarves either.
Loving the Degas for the style and simplicity of color. I am following along using denim and different shades of blue. However, the Klee painting has me contemplating adding a few items in pink to my wardrobe. My pink needs to be more of a clear, cool shade; not so soft and dusty as in the Klee and not as deep and rich as the in the Kitchener.
Finally a wardrobe for us Auburn people! Although I do use basic Blacks I know I look best in colors close to my hair. And a bit of emerald green. (That’s the Irish half. …tartan is my other half!! More Auburns please!
Am a bit late on commenting, but I love the brown! Also thought that it would be interesting to share that the Kirchner is part of a series he did focusing on street scenes. Many of the female figures in those pieces are Cocottes. I just happened upon a fascinating study that includes references to Kirchner’s work entitled Berlin Coquette written by Jill Suzanne Smith.
I love the Paul Klee wardrobe–sans yellow–and really am looking forward to seeing what the spring and summer brings. And autumn, for that matter! Although I hope the yellow and olive continue as very supporting acts rather than dominating, for they would very quickly overpower the softer colors imo. Thanks for making a no-black and no-navy wardrobe with white as the neutral, along with lots of soft colors.