The Vivienne Files - Page 120 of 264 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

How to Clean Out Your Closet – Use Clusters!

April 5, 2017

I personally suspect that there are as many different ways to clean out a closet as there are people on our planet! Since most people tend to wear their clothing one outfit at a time, I have been pondering an "outfit-based" way to go about decluttering and streamlining a closet...First up, let me make it clear what I mean by a cluster; to me, a cluster is a complete (typically 3-piece) outfit, with one more top tossed in to give some versatility and options:

As you can see, a cluster is a bit more than the sum of its parts - adding the 4th piece tends to really expand the number of ensembles available to you. This idea becomes really powerful when you get a few clusters working together; in this example, eight pieces ... View the Post

Four Ways to Wear Denim and Khaki in a Capsule Wardrobe – Start with Art!

April 4, 2017

So our four friends from last week are meeting up at their hometown, for a high school function that none of them really wants to attend, but which none of them can gracefully avoid! (You can meet these four - the landscape architect, the psychiatrist, the cake decorator, and the day care manager - on the earlier posts from last week...)

To keep themselves amused, they agreed that they were all going to pack the same core wardrobe, and coordinate what they wore to various functions, just for the heck of it! They were pretty certain that nobody would notice, and that was going to be part of the fun...

The first evening, when everyone arrived, there was a sort of informal get-together at the local pub, bar, ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – April 2017

April 3, 2017

If you're new to this project, I encourage you to go back to the posts for the months of January, February and March to catch up with what we've accomplished so far...

This month, I'm pretending that spring is coming, and that it's warm enough to expose our ankles, but that we still are in the mood for a bit of sweater snuggling... (one could always wear a tee shirt, and tie the sweater around the shoulders...)

This first capsule wardrobe has had a lot of brown and black in it so far, so I decided to lighten things up considerably!

Somewhat the same story here - this wardrobe has been heavily dependent on beige as the neutral, and hasn't really addressed the lovely soft grey in the ... View the Post

How to Wear Denim and Khaki with a Variety of Accent Colors: Start with Art – Saint Bride by John Duncan

March 31, 2017

I love this painting... What a wealth of details, and vivid colors - plus being carried across the sea by angels sounds like a most privileged (and hard-earned) way to travel!

The range of accent color possibilities here is pretty vast, but I narrowed us down to just four:

She Really IS In Charge... Although you might find her sitting on the floor, happily coloring with a group of 4-year-olds...

Yep, she runs that HUGE day care facility. Inspections, regulations, paper work and MORE paper work...

If she's going to have time for the fun stuff, she's got to be meticulously organized:

Because she's ALL about the fun, especially when there are little children involved!

Happily, it's ... View the Post

How to Accent Khaki and Denim with Softer Colors – Start with Art: Hafen mit Segelschniffen by Paul Klee

Just plain pretty:

A wardrobe full of denim and khaki would still have a lovely feminine feeling with these accent colors!

She Builds Flowers All Day... ... using cake frosting! Some may think that this is just a routine grocery-store kind of job, but she loves it...

Just because her work is very temporary in lifespan doesn't mean that she can't be meticulous, and filled with pleasure at the sight of her finished products!

She's given quite a lot of freedom to choose her own color schemes and other design elements...

So she spends quite a bit of her spare time learning how to construct new flowers - if a customer wants a cake decorated with something specific like hydrangea, or lilacs, she can happily ... View the Post

Accents for a Denim and Khaki Wardrobe – Start with Art: L’Ombre by Pablo Picasso

March 29, 2917

Could be a dream, could be a nightmare, could just be a sweetheart - the enigmatic nature of this image is striking:

When I saw L'Ombre in the Picasso Museum last year, I knew that I would want to share it with you all!

Her Work is Complicated Enough, Thank You... She's a psychiatrist. A shrink. She sits, quietly, and listens to people. Takes notes. Tries to formulate the perfect, pithy question to open up the hidden pain in her patient's mind, and help the healing start...

She's always watching people, listening to people, learning from people. So she doesn't really want to spend a ton of time worrying about what she's going to wear - it just plain and simply isn't all that interesting to ... View the Post

How to Accent a Denim and Khaki Capsule Wardrobe: Start with Art – The Stairs of the Asylum by Van Gogh

March 28, 2017

I'm sure there's a story here, and I'm afraid it might be a sad one:

Even in difficult circumstances, van Gogh captures the exuberant energy of nature, in a very limited palette:

Celebrating Nature is Her Profession Landscape architect - it was the title that she always wanted. So she started out working as a landscaper with a successful female manager, and she went to school in her spare time...

For a long time, she wore a uniform of khaki pants, and a bright green polo shirt with a logo, and a matching bright green jacket when the weather demanded. So when she finally wasn't in a "uniform" position anymore, she didn't feel the need for a wildly extensive wardrobe. She found that her simple ... View the Post

How to Wear Diamonds – the April Birthstone; Some New Ideas!

March 27, 2017

Everyone already knows how to wear diamonds - there's a big business consortium that's been telling us exactly what to buy, and how to wear it, for decades...

So I'm looking at something a little bit different - unpolished diamonds, or diamonds as an accent with other stones, or diamonds in unusual colors. So if your birthday's in April (or the birthday of a special someone...) and you don't want to go full-on solid diamonds, I have some suggestions:

(yes, you've seen some of these dresses before! A nice dress can stand up to a lot of scrutiny, and works well with a variety of accessories...)

And this black pleated dress? I'm just saying - it's a REALLY good thing that I'm not shopping for a dress (or anything ... View the Post

Part 2 of How to Gradually Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Start with a Scarf – Ted Baker Enchantment

March 24, 2017

After you've had a bit of time to process the outfits for the first 4 months of the year, which I shared here yesterday, it's time to dive back in and finish the year, and the capsule wardrobe!

First, let's refresh our memories about what our "inspiration scarf" is, and the color palette that I drew from the scarf:

She Loves Flowers And she has no better explanation for it than that - she loves them. Yes, she grew up helping her parents in their flower beds - that certainly played some role in her affections...

So when she didn't have to go to the office any longer, she decided to remake her wardrobe in the image of her dreams and desires - flowers, and flowery colors!

Sometimes, when the weather ... View the Post

How to Gradually Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Start with a Scarf – Ted Baker Enchantment

March 23, 2017

A normal blogger would wait until this was finished to share it with you, but nobody's ever accused me of being normal!

I freely admit that I think Ted Baker London makes some of the most beautiful scarves, and that they are an excellent starting point for a well-chosen capsule wardrobe. This just screams spring to me... and if you're a pansy person (or you love someone who is) this would be a beautiful "no reason at all" gift:

This beautiful floral is available in such wide-ranging lovelies as ballet flats, bags, 2 swimsuits, a cover-up, cropped trousers and a matching sleeveless top, a blouse, a tee shirt, a couple of skirts, a couple of dresses and of course other shapes and sizes of scarves. I have to admit ... View the Post

How to Build an “All-Neutral” Capsule Wardrobe in Ivory and Black

March 22, 2017

Someone asked me what this wardrobe would look like with ONLY ivory and black pieces, incorporating prints and patterns as the accents. And someone else asked what I would do if I were choosing how to build on the original 9 Neutral Building Blocks. So I thought I'd incorporate both ideas into one post - a last look at those 9 ivory and black pieces!

First off - these are the pieces that I would add, if I were going to build on the neutrals. It would be really easy to just get seven striped garments! But I always love a good marled sweater, the mitered skirt is a fun way to slim one's hips, and then there's that Keith Haring tee shirt that I like so much...

And just for reference, the original nine ... View the Post

Four Paintings, Four Different Ways to Wear Black and Ivory Neutral Building Blocks

March 21, 2017

Ah, here's where the heroines with the wardrobes from last Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and yesterday all come together, and where we get to see just HOW much a few accent piece can change the look of very simple, neutral pieces of clothing.

First up - all four of these women own the SAME black cashmere cardigan. But once they put it into the mix with their own things, the results are very different:

Someone didn't mention to our last woman (the very avant garde lady) that we were getting dressed up, but I don't honestly think she's the kind of person who would mind...

If these four women were sitting in a restaurant together, I don't think anybody would be inclined to walk up to them and point out that ... View the Post