The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Customizing the Classics: the trench coat

Trench – A.P.C.  

Yellow – Burberry, blue – Burberry, green – Lanvin, bright indigo – Burberry, purple – Max Mara, red – Burbearry, raspberry, orange – Burberry  

Sage green – Wallis, white – Ann Demeulemeester, pale grey – Moncler, olive grey – Organic by John Patrick, apricot/lt. blue – Dries van Noten, light denim – Derek Lam, grey – Preen, yellow – L.L.Bean  

Trench coat with ruffled hem – Miu Miu, drawstring hem coat – Acne, san suede waterfall-front coat – Ralph Lauren Black Label, cotton belted coat – Carven, leather jacket – Preston Knight, beige coat with black leather piping – Marni, short waxed cotton jacket – Vince, military style jacket - Gryphon  

Metallic brown ... View the Post

Scarf tying: the square knot, two ways

I don't wear this knot terribly often, but it's very handy to know, as there are two variations using a square knot, and once you know how to tie this one, you can do it without a mirror...

Start with a bias folded scarf, or a rectangular scarf, and center it behind your neck like so:

 

  Bring the left part over the right part:  

    and loop it over and through - standard knot-tying procedure:  

Now here's where many people go awry.  Your normal instinct is to take the "new" left end and take it back over the "new" right end.  Resist such instinct, and instead, bring the RIGHT SIDE OVER THE LEFT SIDE.  (I could get into a technical explanation of how changing direction ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Statement footwear

 

Navy sweater – Acne, navy bag – Debenhams, Striped tunic - Jaeger, sunglasses – Cutler and Gross, Melange sweater – Black Fleece, Jeans – Alexander McQueen    

Silk blouse – Stella McCartney, earrings – Tiffany, silk sweater – Private B, gold necklace – Ben-Amun, tee shirt – Burberry Brit, 6-button cardigan – John Smedley, drop-collar cardigan – Eastex, Navy pants – Joseph,    

Silk blouse – The Row, hat – Topshop, turtleneck – Woolrich, tee shirt – Isabel Marant, floral scarf – Erdem, boucle coat – Jil Sander, Navy skirt – Debenhams, navy tights – Falke     

Ruby earrings – Lord & Taylor, Paisley drop earrings – Max and Chloe, ¾ sleeve dress – Crumpet England, ... View the Post

Maximize Your ROI: Bright Pants

Coral pants - Maxmara    

Pearl & gold earrings – Lord & Taylor, brass & pearl bracelet – Alcozer & J, coral earrings – Roberta Chiarella, ring – Del Gatto, tee shirt – T by Alexander Wang, sleeveless tee shirt – Topshop, white sleeveless shirt – Joseph, flats – Modcloth, woven sandals – Monsoon, spectator flats – Circa by Joan & David    

Aquamarine earrings – Lord & Taylor, tourmaline earrings – Amrita Singh, hot pink earrings – Asos, orange resin earrings – Amrita Singh, Blue bracelet – Alexis Bittar, green & gold bracelet – Rodarte, hot pink bracelet – Kate Spade, Blue tank – Splendid, green tee – Bruuns Bazaar, pink tee – Topshop, floral bag – Kelly & Katie, striped ... View the Post

Shopping: The Logical Flaws of the “10 Must-Have Items” lists

If you search on the internet for "2012 must-have items", you get more than three hundred MILLION hits.  Even if you assume that most of these won't, in fact, tell you to buy something, that's still a tremendous number of people bossing you around about how to spend your hard-earned money!

And these lists are full of logical flaws:

If these are truly must-have items, why don't all of the lists agree?  Or at least have a significant degree of overlap?  After looking at the first handful of "top-ten for spring" lists, I saw at least 50 different items I absolutely have to buy if I'm going to be able to show my face in public. Why do all of these lists assume that you can't look around a store and make your own choices? ... View the Post

A Cool, Cool, Style-Defining Tool!

January 16, 2012

Above is a "word cloud" of my core wardrobe.  I absolutely love this, because it sort of puts into a graphic image the key aspects of how I dress most of the time.

Doing this requires that you keep a list of everything that you wear for at least a few weeks...  Or, you could just type out a list of everything you own - it depends on what you're trying to visualize.

Then get thee to wordle.net, and follow the instructions under the heading of "create".  You can choose fonts, color schemes, orientation of the text etc.  I found that my cloud really started to come into focus for me once I had a classic font, and a black and gray color scheme.

An interesting use of this for me might be (1) ... View the Post

Shopping: The Danger of the Alluring Assortment

I've seen it a hundred times, at least.  Hapless shopper wanders into store, without anything particular in mind.  And then... they see it.  The shelf of tee shirts in 19 colors.  The round rack of cardigans in 24 colors.  OR the wall of socks in every color of the rainbow (yes, I'm talking to you, Bon Marche!).

When this shopper came into the store, their feelings about buying were "Will I buy?".

But then they see this assortment, and they automatically start to evaluate the various colors, mentally sorting them into piles of "yuck", "nice but I couldn't wear it", "possible", and (this is the fatal one) "my colors".

And of course, when you see something in "my color", it should therefore become "my garment", ... View the Post

Wardrobe based on 2 suits: Was Chanel right?

December 23, 2011   One of my favorite Chanel quotes is "One shouldn't spend all one's time dressing. All one needs are two or three suits, as long as they and everything to go with them, are perfect."   So I thought about how this quote applies to the wardrobes that I build - let's try on Chanel's advice!   First, two suits: one black, one taupe. Now, to me, a suit is a jacket, pants, a skirt AND a dress. (sometimes, nothing looks better than a dress and jacket). Yes, I'm taking the definitions very loosely...  

Next, you need the things that go with the 2 suits.  One twinset that matches a suit, and another twinset in an accent color.  One turtleneck that matches one of the suits, and a ... View the Post