January 25, 2023
Plenty of Firewood…
She agreed to go up to the cabin for the weekend, with the understanding that (1) they would stop at the deli on the way out of town and get enough food, (2) there is enough firewood up there for at least 5 days, and (3) there are NO chores for her to handle!
Oh yes, and there are birds about…
Flannel shirt – L.L.Bean; earrings – Sokrocile; heather ash cashmere sweater – J.Crew ; watch – Breda; infinity scarf – Saniya Khan; weekender bag – Bellroy; chukka boots – Camper; yellow socks – Colorful Standard; black jeans – Alex Mill
In all fairness, she has 2 books she really NEEDS to finish in the next few days (for work!), so it’s not all just hanging about reading gossip magazines…
Sweatshirt – Uskees; hat – Kate Spade New York; flannel shirt – L.L.Bean; gold hoops – Madewell; oatmeal tee – J.Crew; pearl necklace – Karine Sultan; gold scarf – Bellemere New York; grey tee – Aerie; jeans – L.L.Bean; ivory waffle cardigan – L.L.Bean; ivory boots – Sperry; backpack – Topo Designs; blue cashmere shawl –Victoria Ragna; slippers – Unity in Diversity
She will, of course, walk outdoors from time to time, to catch some sun (if it’s out!), visit with any animals that are about, and take a break from her work.
In addition to using a favorite painting as her inspiration, our heroine is planning “Triple Top Secret” groups of shirts, tee shirts and sweatshirts to make layering easy. If the weather turns, and the temperature drops, 3 shirts is NOT excessive!
She loves living in the city, but from time to time it’s delightful to go somewhere quiet, that’s not centrally heated!
And see some different birds…
love,
Janice
p.s. Five years ago, our heroine was off for a vacation in Bermuda!
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This is very pretty. All the white makes me shudder a little bit – not for me – but I can appreciate how great it could look. I’ve recently come across a new style term “Coastal Grandmother” I think it was. Seems like this might fit right in. I love watching birds. We have a couple of flickers that come into the backyard for seeds. They are just so beautiful. Would love to spend time at a cabin reading and watching wildlife.
PS It’s always such a shock when I get to work and look at the colors on that monitor vs the colors on my laptop at home…… monitor at work clearly the better monitor!!!! or maybe I need to think about a new laptop…
Flannel and cashmere! So cozy. Maybe, just maybe, she will shop at a nearby village and find bird earrings!
I noticed the lack of bird-themed items in the wardrobe, too. Not even a pair of bird socks! As a bird aficionado, I can attest that once people know you like birds, you get bird-themed accessories at every gift-giving opportunity (in recent years, it’s been rabbits for me instead, of course).
I have always relied on black and navy as my go to neutrals but your collections have inspired me to try gray which is really the perfect neutral for almost every colour. I just bought some beautiful charcoal wool trousers and enough light gray tweedy wool to make myself a cabled pullover. I think my berry coloured cashmere scarf will look great with my new outfit. Thanks for the inspiration❤️
Grey and berry/plum/purple colours look fabulous together. The backbone of my winter wardrobe. Grey comes in so many shades as well. I wear charcoal in cooler whether and light grey in spring with silver grey in summer.
Lovely! We are off to the lake for a few days and this is pretty much how I dress if it’s cooler. Know we will see deer and birds. Last time a fox walked by. Not all relaxing though as Christmas decor needs boxing up and put away!
I love everything about this post! The color, the clothes, the accessories…all comfy, chic and casual! But I especially love the story – I wish I could tag along with your heroine!
I was thinking the same thing. What a lovely retreat and some beautiful clothes to retreat in. I can always find books to read. We heat with wood already (so I do have that at home) but we get very little snow here.
I’m glad our heroine brought a hat, but I hope she remembered to bring a warm jacket & mittens! I don’t wear grey very often but thanks for showing the gold with it–I could wear that!
I am delighted to report that I HATED this capsule! The cream plaid flannel shirt is trying valiantly to pull this together but it just doesn’t work for me. The detested gold color with grey is almost physically painful for me to look at, and I don’t love how the black pants fit (or don’t fit) into the capsule.
This may sound very harsh, but it’s not meant as criticism of Janice or anyone who likes/would wear/wears this palette. It’s more a relief that there are some color combinations I can write off for myself – I was starting to wonder if that would happen! :D
I truly believe that seeing something we have an aversion to teaches us at least as much as seeing something we like, so I appreciate having seen this capsule today.
The painting itself, however, is gorgeous!
It’s essential to know what you HATE – so long as you’re still my friend, I can accept that you dislike something that I do! I would be some sort of miraculous goddess if I created capsules that everyone loved!
hugs,
Janice
I still get a lot of inspiration from you Janice, even though I see outfits I wouldn’t personally wear. The travel outfit here is too boyish for me, personally. I’m tall and broad (think Julia Child) and I really do need to lean into the feminine to feel comfortable.
That said, I love the idea of waking up all the grey with the yellow in the scarf, and since I have both gray neutrals and a beautiful mostly yellow silk scarf, I will be trying this in my own way. I wouldn’t have thought of it myself for whatever reason!
I was mentally turning the gold to purple or red, but maybe I shouldn’t mention that or Sally might get a second wind!
I know exactly what you mean! Not the capsule in particular, but the idea that there are some I can write off for myself! Janice always makes them seem so tempting!!!!
Yes, Sheila, you have captured it quite right – every capsule is such a temptation that it’s a relief to say Nope, not for me this time! It happens so very rarely where Janice’s capsules are concerned.
Dame Eleanor, the purple or red works better for me (I have a personal hang-up about the gold) but interestingly, the cream + grey aren’t working for me much either. I didn’t realize that until I tried substituting a different color for the gold, so thanks for that suggestion.
Janice, if every reader loved every single capsule, we’d start to wonder if you were some super-villain artificial intelligence starting your takeover of humanity with this blog! But happily, we can see that there is no brain-washing going on at the Vivienne Files – only options and considerations and advice that is well-thought-out and well-meant.
I cherish that we can all have our differing opinions of what we like for ourselves and yet remain friends! We all have our idiosyncratic preferences that means that for every lovely thing there is someone who doesn’t like it.
What’s interesting for me to consider is that if I met this heroine (hopefully while watching some waterfowl), I would probably find her outfits from this capsule quite nice because they are a good match for *her*, even if not for *me*.
I love this heroine’s jewelry!
My late sister loved grey more than anyone I knew and she discovered that some grey has yellow undertones. So she had different grey modules. The pieces featured today would have been right at home in her closet. And even though we have central heat, I am sitting here in three tops.
Well, I do understand Sally’s feeling about gold, but for me the ‘hate it’ is directed to black, gray, red and purple. However, knowing what you dislike is very important. It saves a lot of wasted time trying…because if you don’t like it, you won’t wear it or if you do, you will not feel good in it. I enjoy all the lessons from Janice though.
I have the same monitor problem as Sheila and the same aversion to gold as Sallie. I hadn’t realised that the dark neutral was black; I thought it was navy 🤦♀️ I like the denim with this capsule although I would have a muted gold. I do admire your ability, Janice, to find a shirt with gold and blue. How do you do it? I like the grey and pearl mismatched earrings. One way to wear the singles of lost earrings. However, if I wore them, I’d look like a pirate!
Great clothes. Greater discussion. I have trouble thinking that most color schemes that Janice shows us should be my new color scheme since it looks so great here. I had a heck of a time with the Tree of Life scarf last year. I don’t wear black. Color aside, a pair of thick sweatpants and some flannel pajamas would be useful and cozy.
Love this capsule. I like the neutral greys & creams with the dash of golden yellow & blue. I have a yellow short sleeved polo top on today. I have a golden scarf which I really love.
The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe has light & dark neutrals splashed with an accent or two to make it more interesting. I can identify with it as I have built my own WTW. Change the accents in or out – your preference. Eventually I will have a grey/cream/white set of neutrals as my hair changes colour but can add accents to sparkle the neutrals up.
I was expecting more spots/dots/snowflakes.
I’d bend it a bit. I really love a pale clear lemon yellow with grey. Like winter sunshine weakly trying to break through thick fluffy grey clouds. A hint of sky blue here and there as the sky becomes visible.
That’s a beautiful picture you have made.
I wouldn’t have thought of putting these colors together but they work really well. It is so nice to have some bright/light colors in winter.
That’s why I really like to use paintings as an inspiration – they have color combinations that are new to me!
hugs,
Janice
Janice – Love the “triple top secret” and am wondering if you have created a template for planning a wardrobe based on packing three or four of these groups. Adding bottoms could bring the total items to match a Whatever’s Clean 13 or a Four By Four (16 items). I’m loving all neutral wardrobes these days and would be interested in seeing how you would curate a capsule with multiple neutral triple top secret groupings.
What a good idea – I’m in the middle of working on a 4 by 4 Wardrobe for tomorrow (well honestly, that’s finished) and then adding accessories on Monday. I will work on updating the template while I have it in front of me!
hugs,
Janice