The Vivienne Files

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2 – The Swan No. 24 by Hilma Af Klint

April 2, 2025

I'm really liking this painting, and this wardrobe, more every month. The four colors in the background are perfect accents for the colors of the two swans - I wish all paintings were this easy to analyze!

At the end of March, our heroine's 16-piece wardrobe was pretty well organized, and would make a good travel capsule wardrobe for a destination with moderate temperatures - nothing too hot, nor too cold!

Our heroine already has three blush garments, including a quarter-zip fleece top. But she doesn't have a simple sweater, and so she grabs this one! Grey jeans and a grey tee shirt are in her color palette, but a kind of new feeling for her wardrobe. And if you want a tee shirt in a specific color - even a ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1 – Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

April 1, 2025

No, I don't do April Fool's Day jokes. Just not my style...

What I DO is look for a long time at beautiful paintings, and then dream of ways that we can internalize the beauty and colors from the paintings, and express that in our wardrobes! It's pretty fun...

Let's start with this beauty:

As March ends, with wind, rain and cold in Chicago, our heroine has this 16-piece wardrobe:

Maybe Spring has completely sprung where you live, but here in Chicago, we know (well, we TRY to remember!) that we aren't going to be consistently wearing warm-weather clothing until May. But that doesn't mean that we can't start looking at linen, and cotton sweaters, and SANDALS!!!

If we fit these new garments into our ... View the Post

10 Ideas for Wearing a Navy Ponte Knit Dress

March 31, 2025

It's a question that many of you ask - do I really need to own more than one dress? If I pick something really simple and classic, can't I just wear it for every "dress event" that I have?

To which I am - of course - going to reply "Heck yes!!!"

This dress is a wonderful candidate. Simple. Flattering. Ponte knit, which travels well, sheds wrinkles nicely, and has enough of a "neutral personality" that it can be dressed up or down with equal ease:

There's no real pattern or system to the ten ways I'm accessorizing this dress - I honestly just scrolled through all of my usual suspects for finding sweaters, shoes, scarves and jewelry. When I saw something that appealed or sparked my imagination, I proceeded!

First - ... View the Post

Pretty But Relaxed? Start With a Dress – Two Piece Linen Dress in Thistle from Alex Mill

March 28, 2025

A honeymoon? Somewhere warm? Sign me up!

She's all set for what to wear for her wedding, but her travel wardrobe is still under construction. She knows she's starting here:

There's no question that the weather will be warm where they're going - actually legitimately hot during the day! She has no plans to swim, but definitely intends to be at the beach.

And for once in her life, she's NOT going to worry about laundry. It's her honeymoon, for heaven's sake! Maybe not her first honeymoon, but that's neither here nor there...

So bridal white it is!

At this point, she decides she's going to pack all pretty pastels. It will be the last time in her life she does this, so she's going to do it ... View the Post

Adding a “Difficult” Color to Your Wardrobe – Alex Mill Moss linen shirt and skirt

March 26, 2025

Sometimes, you just love something, even though you know that it might take a bit of effort to incorporate it into your wardrobe. This two-piece dress might be a good example:

I searched for HOURS to find other garments in this shade of green/brown. A cardigan - a tee shirt - maybe a pair of shorts? Not to be found in my world...

But there's still a way. There's ALWAYS A way!

How about finding a scarf that's both perfect with the olive dress, and gorgeous?

If scarf designers are happy putting colors together, we can be pretty confident about using those colors in a wardrobe!

Note - for leather accessories, a color like this one is a good match with bronze leather. And the entire scarf-based color ... View the Post

Love Soft Accents? The Impressionist Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

March 24, 2025

Beautiful bracelets! Always such a treat, and such an inspiration to the imagination...

There are four accent colors here, but I'm passing on the dark green and vivid gold for today - in the autumn, our heroine could certainly assemble an entirely different wardrobe in navy with those accents! How fun is that?

But for today, for Spring, we're going with pretty pastels:

Let's get our heroine started with some grey basics; any time you've got silver in jewelry, you can easily translate that to grey clothes. I suspect our heroine might have some grey hair? And blue/green eyes?

The weather's not all that warm where our heroine is, but her heart is set on pretty colors! She manages to find four tops that ... View the Post

A Two-Piece Dress is ALSO Two Separate Garments!

March 21, 2025

Let's take a second look at this two-piece dress, or camp shirt and skirt, as you wish!

You can - of course - wear these pieces separately. The only thing you want to be sure to do is launder them together always, so you don't have a really soft and faded shirt with a still crispy and bright skirt!

I'm going to start with fairly obvious ways to wear the pieces, and then branch out into more adventurous ideas...

There's no color that you can't wear with beige - some go better than others, but all are worth at least trying!

Same with white - I think that this shade of blue, with white, looks lovely for summer:

If you want to cover your dress for some reason, having this shirt handy works well. I ... View the Post

Five Ways to Wear a Two-Piece Dress

March 19, 2025

When I saw these matching shirts and skirts, I knew that I wanted to share them with you. What a practical, sensible, and just plain pretty option!

These two piece meet my "requirements" for a simple dress that can be worn a lot of different ways; if you don't wear dresses very often, it makes good sense to own a dress that offers you plenty of choices.

The easiest and most obvious way to wear this two-piece dress is with beige - summery and classic:

Okay, in the true hot weather, white is the most obvious neutral! Wear it - if it gets dirty, clean it. Don't be intimidated by the prospect of your clothing looking as if you actually WEAR it...

This scarf reminded me of one of our favorite accent ... View the Post

The Least I Can Pack – Maybe? – For Ireland

March 17, 2025

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I was to have been in Dublin this week, but family emergencies have kept us in Chicago. I figured that I could still share with you what I'd planned to pack, since I took so much time pondering it! So here's the post, as it was originally going to be published:

I'm taking as small a wardrobe as I think I can tolerate; there are a couple of very good laundries near our hotel - one north of us, one south! No matter where we're heading out for the day, we can drop off shirts and anything else that's beyond the pale of wearing again. I'm happy to pay someone to do my laundry a couple of times a year.

Here's what I'm flying in - not showing a short black quilted jacket...

Please note that these ... View the Post

Want A Different Way to Pack? Start With Sandals – Ellen Backstrap Sandals by Keen

March 14, 2025

Sometimes, you're inspired by something that might not speak to many people. That's fine - you're one of a kind, and your inspiration will be unique!

How about these?

I didn't find all of these colors readily available right now in summer clothing, but it's always good to know colors to keep in mind...

Our heroine's dashing off for a quick weekend somewhere casual - and the weather promises to be unusually warm for March! It can happen - yesterday was shirtsleeves weather in Chicago...

So she's driving off like this:

It's very likely that they will go out for dinner - somewhere nice, but not stuffy or prim... Otherwise, she expects to walk and look out over the water, or to sit, and look out over ... View the Post

A Weekend Away? Start With Art – Abstraction Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

March 12, 2025

Remember our heroine from January, who was traveling into the city to go to a ballet matinee? Her inspiration painting is this luscious wonder:

Her wardrobe is solidly based upon blue, and this is her preferred color palette:

Friday afternoon... she's working from home. Wearing something... comfortable.

"Put on something pretty - I've got EXCELLENT tickets for tonight's opera!"

"I thought they were sold out???"

"Yup, but my boss has tickets, and she can't make it. She knows how much we love opera, and she's GIVING them to us..."

"celebratory noises..."

"I will be home in just a bit, so I can change clothes; we'll drive into the city and stay over 'til Sunday..."

She knows exactly what she's ... View the Post

The Sixth of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 10, 2025

The last of our paintings, but certainly not the least! Frankly, I don't know that I could rank these paintings, nor rank the wardrobes. Happily, there are lots of things going on in the world in which there are NO winners and losers...

Oh, that looks so nice....

At the end of February, our heroine had this 12-piece capsule wardrobe. Good for travel to a destination that's bright and sunny, but not necessarily very warm:

With warmer weather in mind, our heroine grabs some decidedly summery things! But she doesn't miss the chance to buy the scarf that includes a lot of her colors. She may not wear it for a few months, but these kinds of things don't show up every week.

Just adding shorts and sandals ... View the Post