April 10, 2023
I really love this painting – it seems so simple, but the more you look at it, the more the colors make themselves clear and distinct…
You may remember that this heroine assembled this wardrobe for the eventual arrival of warmer weather:
cardigan – GAP; linen shirt – J.Crew; pointelle tee – Alex Mill; natural jeans – L.L.Bean; dress – J.Crew; long-sleeved linen shirt – J.Crew; shorts – L.L.Bean; linen pants – J.Crew; Captains Blue blouse – Boden; Pale Orchid eyelet top – J.Crew; Captains Blue tee shirt – Boden; mint green sweater – Salanida; purple notch-neck top – L.L.Bean; Sea Pine green tee shirt – L.L.Bean; pale orchid shorts – J.Crew; muted purple sweater – L.L.Bean
I haven’t yet thought of a better way to add accessories than to go through a wardrobe and put together a bunch of outfits, and then make sure that each outfit can be dressed up (or down, I suppose?) appropriately. I don’t think that there’s a rigid checklist of accessories that everyone should own – some women don’t wear jewelry, some don’t wear scarves, some don’t carry a handbag… You get the idea!
I enjoyed this – these colors are beautiful and soothing…
purple notch-neck top – L.L.Bean; shorts – L.L.Bean; purple jade bracelet – seree; tote bag – L.L.Bean; espadrilles – Toni Pons
I’m going to get one of these small, narrow scarves and experiment with it; there are so many really pretty ones around, and they are such a nice, manageable size!
cardigan – GAP; Captains Blue blouse – Boden; linen pants – J.Crew; blue topaz earrings – Gemondo; scarf – Borganb; espadrilles – Chinese Laundry
Here, I tried to find earrings that echo the feeling of the large gold bead in our heroine’s bracelets… Those kinds of things make me happy!
cardigan – GAP; Captains Blue tee shirt – Boden; linen pants – J.Crew; earrings – Nyoman Ariawan; Legendary Lynx bracelets – Fierce Lynx Designs; sandals – Miz Mooz
If it’s impossibly warm to wear a scarf around your neck, never forget that it could be folded on the bias and worn as a belt!
long-sleeved linen shirt – J.Crew; pointelle tee – Alex Mill; pale orchid shorts – J.Crew; earrings – Sorelli; scarf – OnebyOne Design; sandals – Dr. Scholl’s
This heroine has the best assortment of summer footwear!
mint green sweater – Salanida; natural jeans – L.L.Bean; earrings – Talbots; necklace – Ebru Jewelry; sandals – Bohonomad
This scarf is technically just a pocket square – just big enough to fold on the bias and tie around your neck for a dash of color. Or around your wrist. Or pony tail. Or handbag handle…
muted purple sweater – L.L.Bean; dress – J.Crew; earrings – Kendra Scott; pocket square – Crease; sandals – Miz Mooz
More cool shoes!
long-sleeved linen shirt – J.Crew; Sea Pine green tee shirt – L.L.Bean; shorts – L.L.Bean; earrings – Ninemoo; crossbody bag – Roxy; espadrilles – Gentle Souls by Kenneth Cole
Shouldn’t everybody have lacy shoes?
cardigan – GAP; Pale Orchid eyelet top – J.Crew; pale orchid shorts – J.Crew; earrings – Sorelli; scarf – OnebyOne Design; espadrilles – Toni Pons
Imagine arriving at the beach every Friday night to find THESE accessories, and the above wardrobe, waiting for you! I could live like this…
It’s amazing how much difference the right accessories can make to a simple wardrobe, isn’t it?
love,
Janice
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Your talent for discovering accessories is unsurpassed.
Very Pretty.
This capsule wardrobe has my name all over it! Too bad the Roxy crocheted cross body bag is sold out, it’s perfect ☹️
These colors are beautiful and so soothing. Perfect for summer.
I love the way you put together a plan for accessories. It makes perfect sense to me and is teaching me to go through the exercise of really planning out a wardrobe.
I have misgivings about the narrow scarf. I look forward to hearing if it worked for you or not.
What a pretty wardrobe! With a foundation of grey in the place of the ivory, I could live in this. I do love beautiful shoes and these sure are pretty.
Love the accessories you have found. I have no trouble plugging in a different neutral color and going from there. It’s things like large gold earrings that echo (not match) the bracelet that you have taught me to look for. Kendra Scott has a wealth of colors and shapes at a fair price point. I have two long narrow scarves and only wear them as belts. Just don’t care for them any other way. I want to say I would love to see a wardrobe based on that wonderful owl photo from a day back. Stunning! I never worry about subscribe I just start typing in The Vivienne Files and you pop up I click and away we go. Love your info.
Me too, I just check the blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday! (Actually I check more days because I love reading comments as they come in too!!
This is a lovely wardrobe! I love your approach to adding accessories. I need to do this with my actual wardrobe because I know I have shoes holes to fill when I have some extra money.
Must be a SugarLand thing. That’s what I do too!
Since we are talking scarves, this one popped up on one of my feeds, how gorgeous is this? Thinking it would provide a great start with a scarf!
https://www.wolfandbadger.com/us/an-english-tale-scarf/
I love the lacy sneakers in this capsule!
These are my FAVOURITE accent colours, & they are beautiful with the off-white/natural wardrobe. I’ve always believed I look unwell in beige, but turns out that if it’s really light, and called something else, I love it! Having never before considered such a light colour for a neutral, I am now working towards it for summer, along with very light grey, which also goes well with these accents, and I also like it with the natural. For the first time, I already have something that is featured! (the amethyst bracelet). The look-back was interesting, in terms of a methodical approach to packing of accessories. I never used to take any jewellery on holiday, nor scarves. Always a sunhat, sunglasses, and shoes, obviously! We’ve just had 6 weeks away, and I took a couple of pairs of earrings, and some scarves, & felt very spiffy. Thank you Janice, & also thanks for the look-backs, I find them very entertaining. And thank you to your readers also, for their entertaining comments :-)
Janice,
This post makes me feel happy — it’s those colors !
Unfortunately, I did not receive your email today. I believe you asked us to report back this week. I enjoy your posts and don’t always remember to come directly to your website since I subscribe to quite a few blogs. How frustrating this email snafu must be for you!
Such restful colours. I would also sub out the beige for pale grey. I have a lot of costume jewellery but deciding on specific items with specific outfits is very pleasing and makes dressing easier.
YAY!!! Thank you for adding me back in, Janice!! Yours is the first email I read every morning! I’m going to Paris from the mid to end of May and continue to search your posts for perfect packing ideas!
I’ve been a loyal follower for years… YOU ARE A ROCK STAR!
Thanks again!
Susan
Update on my comment from yesterday: I DID receive your Monday email this morning (Tuesday). Better late than never! I have noticed that I receive emails from some other bloggers a day late. Thank you!
So happy to see you back – I haven’t received an email from you in a while, and was worried about you!
You are back in my inbox! I’m so happy!
I think maybe I have the clothing formula down, but it would be great if there was something for accessories as those are tricky little critters. Wonder if you could do it as x items worn above the waist such as scarf, necklace, pin…x items worn at waist level like belt, bracelet, ring…x items below waist for footwear and socks…and finally other for bags, etc. Just a thought for how to sort it.
Hmmm… I might be able to manage that. Thanks for the suggestion!
hugs,
Janice
I also had a thought in response to your statement about dressing an outfit up or down. Maybe you can actually do both? And up and a down look with each outfit?
So appreciate your work, and share it with friends.