Build a Capsule Wardrobe Archives - Page 22 of 81

April Travel: Start with Art – Briqueterie a Tortosa by Picasso

April 8, 2019

Remember our friend who designs installations for solar panels? Happy for her, she's now traveling in warm weather! No more the "leave the snow, get off the plane in sweltering heat!"

So she's packing light - just enough to visit her clients, and the construction sites...

This painting is her inspiration:

She's driving to her next clients, so she's wearing sandals on her trip! Normally, she doesn't fly in sandals...

Many of her clients can be hard to read, at first. Some of them want her to put on a hard-hat and steel-toed boots and climb ladders (she doesn't go quite that far...) and other just want to sit over a cocktail at the country club and review the plans. So she tries ... View the Post

April Travel: Start with Art – Between Breath and the River 4 by Susan Osgood

April 5, 2019

Remember our friend the flooding expert? She's very busy...

This is her art inspiration, and her wardrobe color palette:

She's traveling to the Midwest United States, to help determine where bulldozing or other changes in the immediate terrain might help clear standing water from some flood areas. She's studied the maps, and thinks that she knows what her suggestions will be. If her map analysis is correct, she only expects to be on-site for a day or two...

Still, she's not sure if she's going to have to actually go out and SEE any of the locations in question. (there's one that spot she really feels that she should visit in order to be exact about her plan for drainage...)

So she's going to have shorts, ... View the Post

Ready for a Warm-Weather Wardrobe Update? How about a French 5-Piece Wardrobe?

April 3, 2019

Of course these aren't an entire wardrobe - I hope that's clear. But, to me, the idea of a "French 5-Piece Wardrobe" is the 5 pieces that you plan, and carefully choose, and use to update your normal seasonal wardrobe of classic, neutral clothes.

Let's start here - these are about as basic as you can get!

While this isn't a really exciting wardrobe, it's versatile; you can get two dozen combinations from these 9 garments. That's a working wardrobe, I'd say!

When I thought about doing some French 5-Piece Wardrobes, I was thinking specifically about that Hedge Green color that is so uncommon, and really delightful. But I figured that I might as well work my way through the rainbow... Red, Orange, Yellow, ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Hermès Les Nouveaux Amoureux de Paris

March 29, 2019

Yes, this is the scarf that I received for our anniversary.... Let's Be Slightly Reckless! When her sweetheart came home with a big bonus, they really wanted to celebrate...

Would it truly be insane to go to Paris for just a long weekend? (yes... it's madness!)

She's already inspired:

They agreed on a couple of key things:

1 suitcase - a big one - that they will share, and check. If it is lost, they will BOTH have to go shopping! Not even going to TRY to get over jet lag - sleep 'til noon, dine 'til midnight... SERIOUS dining... They will dress up (not black tie, but nice) every day, do a modest amount of sight-seeing, and focus on evening meals!

She's going to keep things very ... View the Post

Start with Art: Undergrowth by Vincent van Gogh

March 27, 2019

I love van Gogh... These colors are so perfect for spring and summer:

She Hasn't A Clue... Well, that's strictly not true - she knows that she has to wear clothing to the wedding, and that it won't be ballgowns, nor jeans. Other than that, the invitation was maddeningly vague...

So... she's taking a couple of dresses - there's a chance that she's going to the rehearsal dinner (more of that vagueness that makes this such a headache), so she will wear 1 for the dinner, and 1 to the wedding. Maybe.

At least she knows exactly what she's wearing for the drive to the hotel - her favorite new green!

She's not, in fact, all that worried about what she's going to wear. She's got plenty of options, from a nice ... View the Post

10 Ways to Wear a Denim Jacket

March 25, 2019

When I was younger, I seldom wore a denim jacket; I had one that had belonged to my husband, but it got donated somewhere along the line... For so many years, I wore suits or suit-y clothes that were too dressy to wear with a denim jacket (I thought).

But about 6 months ago, I bought myself this jacket, and I've been so happy with it...

It's deliberately built to be roomy, which I personally love - I might very well want to pile on a shirt and heavy sweater under here, and I don't want to tear the sleeves off of my jacket trying to get it on!

I tried to think of what good guidelines might be to choosing a versatile and timeless denim jacket:

Fast forward to someone asking me last week if it was okay to ... View the Post

10 Ways to Wear a Blue Dress

March 18, 2019

So the yellow dress was, in many of our opinions, hard to wear... I suspect that's why our heroine wrote to me in the first place! But the overall idea of figuring out at least a few ways to wear a dress is still a pretty smart way to get your money's worth from a purchase... Someone asked that I address the same dress, but in blue; that seems like a good idea.

But - the dress color is hard to assess - the dress on the model looks VERY different from the full-length photograph of the dress on its own. AND... the dress is supposed to be dry cleaned; if there was ever something that was going to keep it hanging in your closet (and not on your back!) is that knowledge in the back of your mind that you have to have it ... View the Post

10 Ways to Wear a Yellow Dress

March 13, 2019

From The Vivienne Files mailbox:

Yes, she asked our heroine to wear a yellow dress for the wedding.

It doesn't really matter what dress, just that it be yellow.

Now WHAT do you do with a yellow dress, after the wedding?

For a heroine in a position of having to purchased a dress in a real "non-neutral" color, I have a few suggestions...

If our heroine buys a dress that is a sleek "bottom layer" over which garments can be layered, virtually any neutral can be worn with this dress:

I don't feel like black and yellow together automatically scream "bumblebee!" to to the world... It might scream University of Iowa fan, or Steelers/Pirates/Penguins fan, eh?

With white, it just feels wonderfully ... View the Post

Start with Art: Grey Fireworks by Helen Frankenthaler

March 11, 2019

She's running for office... Not a big office, nothing that will require travel beyond an hour's drive from her home in order to campaign. But she's serious about it! This is what she's using to help her focus her campaign wardrobe...

She enrolled in a 3-day workshop for women running for office... And she's going to use this trip as her dress-rehearsal for some of her campaign outfits!

She's taken a close look at other women who are running for office, and she's noticed that some of them wear a very neutral "core" outfit (often black tops and pants) with accent jackets... She's going to emulate this idea, using dark grey as her neutral, and 4 accent colors taken from her favorite painting.

Since she ... View the Post

Choosing Accessories to go with a Blue and Grey Travel Wardrobe (for Ireland!)

March 4, 2019

It's all well and good to have your clothes sorted for a trip, but you really MUST pack accessories. Not necessarily all that much stuff, but some shoes are critical, as well as a few more odds and ends...

As a reminder, this is the photograph that was inspiring us, and the color scheme that we were using:

You've got to have shoes - there aren't terribly many places you can go and NOT need shoes... Even though the dress shoes aren't as important as hiking shoes, let's start here anyway!

If you're not going to do hard-core hiking, you might adjust your choice of hiking shoes to be something a little bit less rugged, but it always makes sense to have something very comfortable for lots of ... View the Post

Trying to Forecast Weather – Packing for May in Ireland!

February 25, 2019

Honestly, if I could tell you with any degree of certainty what the weather is going to be in May in Ireland, I would be doing something to make a fortune, like buying penny stocks and selling them for millions of dollars. The weather requires that level of omniscient genius!

But you can be strategic, right? Let's start with a beautiful photograph of an Ireland shore, to help define a color palette:

Okay, time for strategy. First, you can't take ALL of your wardrobe with you, so you have to make some smart choices. If we accept that it's not possible to pack for every possible kind of weather, I submit that it's smarter (in the spring and summer) to carry with you clothes for cooler weather, working with the ... View the Post

Winter Travel: Pilgrim of the Absolute by Brian Fahlstrom

February 18, 2019

She helps to plan the logistics for tours of pilgrims - those who wish to walk one of the many pilgrimage routes in Europe. They do the walking, but she and her staff make certain that they have lovely hotels, good meals, and a "sag wagon" to carry all of their bags (and the pilgrims themselves, if the walking proves too much!)

It's work she takes seriously; these individuals have in many cases saved for years to make these pilgrimages, and she respects their commitment and sacrifice.

She doesn't fully understand this painting, but she was drawn to the title, and captivated by the colors:

So for her travels this year, she's decided that this is going to be her inspiration and her color palette:

Her ... View the Post