The Vivienne Files - Page 193 of 267 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

A quiet moment of total incredulity, in place of a rant…

Belovedest and I were married at the Chicago Cultural Center - the former Chicago Library. It's just a couple of blocks from where we now live, and it's a treasure of downtown Chicago.

On Saturdays, they schedule civil wedding ceremonies every 15 minutes in one of the beautiful rooms that overlooks Michigan Avenue. The whole crowd is great fun - weddings about to happen, or wedding that are just ending.

The rest of the time, the center has concerts at lunch time, a small cafe, a center with tourist information, and temporary art exhibits...

And now, it has these stickers on all of the doors. ... View the Post

A Winter Capsule Wardrobe, and the Full-Year Assortment, from Ma To-Do List: Dressing

May 2, 2014 Let's see if we can jointly make sense out of all of this, shall we? First off, working from the list of garments in Ma To-Do List: Dressing, I chose these garments as the Winter Capsule:

Yes, they suggested sleeveless tops for layering. The authors are in France, not Chicago... In order to anchor all of this in some neutrals, I'm going to pull in seven simple, neutral garments to act as the core of all of these lists.

So I pulled out the outerwear and the swim suit, and this is the ensemble wardrobe that you have if you take their four "capsule wardrobe" suggestions together:

Frankly, I think this isn't a bad wardrobe at all. There are enough ... View the Post

An Autumn Capsule Wardrobe, from “Ma To-Do List: Dressing”

May 1, 2014 It's become apparent that many of us aren't clear on what exactly this book intends for us to actually DO with these lists... My approach, with the choices that I've been making, has been to assume that someone has a very basic, simple "whatever's clean" wardrobe, and that these are the additional garments, season by season, that are added to that wardrobe in order to fill it in and make it sing and dance. Tomorrow, when I show the winter wardrobe, I'll also show all of the clothes together, and I think it might become a bit clearer what the authors have in mind. I think. Maybe its just what I have in mind...

love,

Janice ... View the Post

A Summer Capsule Wardrobe, from “Ma To-Do List: Dressing”

April 30, 2014

A little more of the text from this section of the book:"To build your "capsule wardrobe" can be intimidating, and also can represent a substantial outlay of money! Why not take things step by step, and focus on the essentials necessary for each season. This permits you to gradually, purchase by purchase, build an ideal wardrobe. Several paths can be considered and adapted according to your personal needs and life style, as well as the weather where you live."

love, Janice ... View the Post

A Spring Capsule Wardrobe, from “Ma To-Do List : Dressing”

April 29 2014

Back to my new favorite French fashion book, where I found four capsule wardrobe suggestions for each of the four seasons. I intend to show you all of them...But first, a quote with which they open this section of the book, from Angelica Huston.

"It's easy to think that you don't have anything to wear, but this is really a problem of identity. If you have a well-developed self image, you know what is "you" no matter what the trends of the moment."

love, Janice ... View the Post

18=216, in a really big, perfect wardrobe slot machine…

April 28, 2014

I said on Saturday that the idea of a wardrobe slot machine could be expanded, and one of my dearest friends was eager to see how this would play out. For some of us, the idea of getting dressed for work every day is just plain annoying - nobody is going to pay much attention to what we're wearing, as long as we're appropriately dressed.

So I promised her that I would show an example that would give her more than a week's worth of shirts or blouses (i.e. six), and then show how it could be expanded. Six top layers x six shirts or blouses x six pants or skirts =216 combinations.

She could literally shop once a year and then forget about work clothing for a long time... In the hottest ... View the Post

The Perfect Clothing/Slot Machine /Backpack

April 26, 2014

I've been in the live-in caretaker role for quite a while now - since we got back from Paris, I've only been home a handful of days... In order to uncomplicate my life, I just put some clothes into a backpack and hopped on the train, hoping for the best. Turns out that my instincts were great - I was wearing three garments, I packed six, and there was literally NO combination that wasn't wearable. I felt like my clothes were a perfectly weighed slot machine upon which I couldn't lose...

These were the clothes that I had with me: (okay, these aren't exactly the same garments. My cardigans are from Lands' End, and are years old. My denim shirt is from J. Jill and is no longer available. Everything else is Eileen ... View the Post

What Shoes Can I Wear with Navy Clothes?

April 25, 2014 It's a question that comes up often - what are the best shoes to wear with navy clothes? Well, men have, for generations, worn black shoes. Nobody would expect them to wear anything different; navy shoes worn with a navy suit would be inappropriate for most men in most business settings. I've never felt that there was anything wrong with women doing exactly the same thing... Or you can thrown yourself into the project of finding navy shoes that work with your clothes. Generally speaking, I think this means looking for about the darkest navy you can find that doesn't look like black. But then you've got to make sure that you keep your shoes together and that they don't migrate into your black ... View the Post

Navy and Beige with Coral and Sun

April 24, 2014 Warm accent colors with navy and beige? Absolutely!

I've changed up the cardigan again - this one is a splurge and a half, but the navy and coral are beautifully presented here:

And just to show some other possible choices, I've picked out a new skirt and a pair of outrageous summer pants. I personally would wear these pants in a heartbeat, but your mileage may vary!

This gives you this 24-piece wardrobe; isn't it fascinating how changing just a few of the garments makes so much difference in the overall feel of the ensemble?

As always, lots of possible ways to wear these - from the most casual, to reasonably dressy activities.

love, Janice ... View the Post

Navy and Beige Wardrobe gets the (Turquoise and Periwinkle) Blues

April 23, 2014

Many of you mentioned mixing shades of blue with your navy and beige, citing the always beautiful suggestion that this reminds you of the sand and the sea. How can anybody make this happen?

Say this is your summer shopping - these are the accent colors that you use, rather than the red and green that I used earlier. So your color scheme is this:

In addition to changing out the accent colors, I'm going to make two simple changes to the original core wardrobe. First, I want to include a floral sweater that does justice to our chosen accent colors:

and I'm swapping out the patterned skirt from earlier for a solid navy skirt with a ... View the Post

Leveraging the Floral Trend: 1= 20

April 22, 2014

Once more, let's visit this beige and navy spring and summer wardrobe. You're happy with this wardrobe - it provides appropriate and attractive options for pretty much every event in your life. But you decide that you WANT something floral, just to participate in a current trend. You love flowers. You want a new tee shirt. You just plain want to shop! Keeping your color scheme in mind - either through carrying around some skeins of embroidery floss, or a photograph of your closet, or whatever mnemonic works best for you:

You stumble across this beauty in your shopping:

All your colors. Floral. It seems perfect... ... View the Post

I Built Us a Worksheet…

I realized that I needed a good worksheet for building my own 24-piece wardrobe, so I built a JPG file that we can all use.

Click below - it costs 99 cents, to help me pay for the file hosting. Let me know how it works for you! ... View the Post