Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature
(1) I've lost quite a few emails; I don't know how it happened, but I know that they're gone. If you've written to me recently and didn't receive a response, write to me again! (don't worry, it won't bother me!)
(2) I think I have flu; I can't swear that there will be a blog post tomorrow. I will do my best, but right now it feels like I've swallowed broken glass, and that for some reason limits my creativity!
love,
Janice ... View the Post
February 14, 2022
Remember, we are evolved enough as humans that we can buy our own Valentine's Day gifts... Do something beautiful for yourself today (and every day, frankly!).
Today, I'm pondering the role of a plaid, striped or printed shirt in one's wardrobe...
This little teal and navy cluster is a perfect example of the Triple Top Secret! You can - obviously - wear this outfit just as it's show above; in bitter cold weather, 2 shirts and a sweater isn't excessive. Add a pair of long underwear pants, boots in place of loafers, and some hard-core outerwear, and you'd be fine in Chicago in single-digit temperatures!
But if you own these 4 garments, you have SEVEN outfit possibilities!
depending on the style ... View the Post
February 11, 2022
I've probably mentioned this before (20 times!), but since we've all moved into 1 apartment together, my ONLY real issue is that my closet isn't conveniently placed, nor organized.
And I, of course, really don't have buckets of time to work on it!
My plan is to get rid of things that are no longer appropriate for what I do every day, and to have a good plan for what I purchase.
I'm also moving more and more toward Urban Organic as a style mantra, so I'm trying to buy clothes with better fabric, with less synthetic content, and that are made somewhere humane...
Big goals!
Initially, what would be the most help to me is to have a solid Cluster of 9 garments (either 3 outfits, or 27, depending on how ... View the Post
February 9, 2022
After working on this post, I saw green every time I closed my eyes for HOURS... seriously!
Lots of questions have been posed lately about wearing green. At least in theory, every person should be able to find a shade of green that is flattering to them. Green is poised between blue (which defines "cool" colors) and yellow (which defines "warm" colors) on the color wheel. If you don't want to wear "right down the middle" true green, you can just slide off toward blue, or toward yellow...
These are some of the shades of green that I found readily available right now:
If you want to dabble in the possibility of green, but don't want to go completely nuts, you really only need to get 2 or 3 things in order to ... View the Post
February 7, 2022
Ah, this garment is right on schedule, since I'm sitting here in a black tee shirt, black velvet jeans, and a black and white plaid flannel shirt. I only own 2, and they're both black and white plaid - sort of perfect for my wardrobe. But there are all KINDS of possibilities...
Like COLOR-BLOCKED? Who would have thought of this? (apparently, it was Lands' End...)
Another thing that I wanted to show today is the merits of owning a solid-colored scarf or 2. It might seem that they would be sort of blah, but they can be just the right touch sometimes!
If you're going to wear you flannel shirt over another shirt, and leave it untucked, why not just cut to the chase and get a flannel tunic?
If your ... View the Post
February 4, 2022
After I showed you this neckerchief last Monday, the 31st, more than a few of you asked me to expand upon it's lovely colors...
I have just the heroine for this color palette! Mature Plant Salvage Nobody really understands what her landscaping company does, until they really need her help!
Like the University that added a number of classroom/research buildings to their campus ALL AT ONCE, and now have a bare eyesore of land, interspersed with lovely structures...
"It will be beautiful in 100 years, when everything grows up around it and softens the edges..."
Well, that's NOT what she sees! She sees places to put trees that she saved from a condo development site on the north side. Corners of ... View the Post
February 2, 2022
Back to our favorite scarves!
I'm changing up the order of these scarves each month, just to get a fresh look at things...
When we left this heroine back at the first of the year, she had a tidy 7-piece capsule wardrobe that would be great for a short trip, or for having to go into the office once a week:
So what does a heroine need in February? For me, a bit of an accent color would be handy, and something to wear during that 2-day "faux spring" that we always see, when the weather is up above 15, and the sidewalks are dry!
While I might still want a sweater, my ankles want me to wear cropped pants!
And I am always a firm believer that most of us can get a lot of wear from a good, comfortable pair ... View the Post
January 31, 2022
A blazer or a cardigan? Or a "sweater-blazer," which seems to be the best of both worlds? You get to choose, but I think many of us agree that a classic second layer is pretty important this time of year!
Why yes, these ARE the same pants and shoes as last Monday's post; this is about building a wardrobe, not starting from scratch every week!
If you were only going to have just ONE second layer garment, you could do worse than this:
If you've wanted to introduce some camel into your wardrobe, this is a great way to do it! You don't have to wear it right next to your face, you can brighten up the look with a scarf and earrings...
If you wear lots of shades of grey and struggle to find something to ... View the Post
January 28, 2022
I don't know where the specific number - 21 - came from; if someone can point me in the right direction, I will be thrilled to credit the inventer!
But I also want to pause for a moment to consider the real intent behind all of the various "# Garments for # Days" wardrobes that are in circulation.
To me, the whole point of these is to provide a clear structure in which - for a specific period of time - you can test-drive what it feels like to have a clearly delimited, reasonably small wardrobe.
It started - in a big way - with Project 333. 33 items total (with a handful of caveats) for 3 months. Lots of people who have tried this have come to realize that they don't need to have a huge wardrobe, and that a ... View the Post
January 26, 2022
Okay, our heroine has a great color palette chosen for her quite long trip to Europe:
And all of her clothing is chosen too:
Because our wise heroine has already figured out what she wants to wear for travel, and what she's taking with her in her tote bag for that quick change in the airport, she has some of her accessories already chosen:
But she will need more accessories, almost certainly! (well, technically, she could get by with just these things...)
And there's so much to consider:
My favorite approach to choosing accessories when I travel is to pick out a LOT of outfits - making sure that I've included all of my garments at least once. Then I accessorize each of the ... View the Post
January 24, 2022
I know I'm getting old when I start reminiscing about things you used to be able to BUY... but who else among us can remember going into a department store (pretty much any of them!) and buying a pair of wool pants, fully lined? Possibly with the blazer and skirt to match?
Those were the days....
I thought that today I would share with you lovely wool pants that I found, but nearly everything that I saw broke 1 of my 2 general rules for garments on The Vivienne Files; lots of them were over $1,000 US, or they only came in single-digit sizes.
I wish I had kept some of my pants from 40 years ago...
Still, we have to get dressed even now, and unless we make our own pants, we're going to have to work with ... View the Post
January 21, 2022
Heirloom Fruits She's been trying for years to bring older species of citrus fruit trees back into production. They're beautiful, taste wonderful, and she loves them... Her work as a horticulturist gives her the perfect opportunity to introduce growers to them...
She worked at this for years as a sort of side theme to her normal work. Just when she thought it wasn't worth the effort, it became apparent that these trees are MUCH better suited to droughts and super-hot weather spells.
And now, she's being recognized, at the annual National Horticulturists Convention!
Now that she's FINALLY getting to pack and make a trip, she realizes that she has been dressing with accents of lime and orange (as ... View the Post
