The Vivienne Files - Page 74 of 262 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

Start with Art: The Black Duck by Marsden Hartley

January 15, 2020

As I start sorting out my brain to pack for Paris, I'm looking a lot at the Perfect 10 Packing Template... Bird Watching

Nothing rigorous - no cameras, no sitting in a blind somewhere waiting for hours for the sighting of the rare crested whompalicious swamp duck... Just lounging by the lake, on the deck, sipping a warm beverage and watching the birds come and go...

Her plan is to keep it simple:

She loves the unexpectedness of using brown with black. Why don't more people wear them together? Lots of birds pair the 2 colors in the plumage...

She will be going out at night with friends, so she plans for a couple of slightly dressy evenings...

She reviews her template carefully...

And ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 28: A Dark Neutral Tee shirt

January 13, 2020

Ah, now we're going to look at a garment that I consider to be the unsung hero of about half of my outfits...

This is that shirt for the days when you want to wear the snazzy sweater or jacket!

If you're working around a scarf as your unifying theme, her are some suggestions of what this color might be...

The following outfits are going to look VERY familiar - they all include the same pants as the outfits from last Monday, as well as at least some of the accessories. But for these outfits, I've shifted to location of the accent color from the tee shirt to the cardigan. It's a sort of "theme and variations" way to get dressed...

Never discount the fun of having an accent-color ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – January

January 10, 2020

Time for another great bracelet! This is a special thought for all of you who love brown and all warm colors...

That little touch of the rust in the beads is lovely...

Just a Small Change of Habit... She quit buying coffee during the day at work. There was never any good reason to go downstairs and wait for coffee, when there's a perfectly decent coffee maker just down the hall. But SO many people used coffee as an excuse to be out of their office for 20 minutes, and it never occurred to her that it wasn't a good idea...

'Til she looked at her monthly expenditures! A couple of months of "office coffee" and she could take a long weekend someplace... warmer. Not necessarily beachy, but somewhere that was ... View the Post

I Love IT, but Will I Wear IT? Light Blue Cotton Tunic Sweater

January 8, 2020

This seems to have happened to quite a few of you this holiday season; you received a sweater as a gift, and you're not really sure what to do with it!

I've heard from a few people who are concerned that the only way they know to wear a new sweater is with jeans - especially if the sweater is blue. (apparently, LOTS of us consider blue our favorite color!)

Let me offer a few ideas...

First up, this is a great sweater - "sweatery" enough to wear all winter, but since it's cotton you can keep it in your closet forefront all year. Even in the heat of summer, you're going to go into a restaurant or store where they've got beef carcasses hanging somewhere.... (at least it FEELS that way, doesn't ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 27: An Accent Tee shirt

January 6, 2020

It's time for some brightness!

Especially if you have a scarf that you want to wear more often, this is a good time of year to start looking for tee shirts in a variety of colors; they seem to have arrived in a lot of places the first week of the year!

For example...

A fast way to inject some new possibilities into your core wardrobe of neutrals in an accent tee shirt along with 1 or 2 other accessories in that same color. Earrings are obvious, scarves are my favorite, and don't forget the possibilities of accent socks!

Speaking of socks - be alert when you're buying them; there are all SORTS of weird things out there right now:

mesh socks, which in my day would have been considered "knee-high ... View the Post

Should I Keep My Suit? A Perfect 10 Packing Capsule Wardrobe…

January 3, 2020

Answering a handful of questions in 1 post today! First - someone who has a lovely navy suit was wondering if she should get rid of it now that she's retiring. Heck no, unless the very sight of it brings back horrible memories!

Secondly, one of the scarves from Aspinal of London that I did NOT choose for the 12 month adventure is the source inspiration for today's post, AND

I'm addressing travel for a combination of business and leisure. This is the kind of adventure for which your suit can be madly useful!

The template that I'm going to use for this packing adventure is the Perfect Ten Pack. I'm seriously thinking about this, with a modification or 2, for my upcoming Paris adventure!

Our heroine's ... View the Post

January 2020 Six Scarves, Twelve Months, Twelve Outfits

January 1, 2020

I finally made my scarf choices - holy handbags of happiness, THIS was a project!

But here they are - I'll explain my choices after you've had a chance to look them over...

All but 1 is from Aspinal of London. I love Hermes scarves - but these from Aspinal cost 36% of what an Hermes scarf costs! That's a big thing for most of us, I imagine.

First up, I knew I had to include this scarf. This will be the "navy-centric" wardrobe, including that lion beige/camel color as the 2nd neutral. I suspect that there will be some rust accents in this wardrobe before the end of 2020, as well as a simple white shirt or tee shirt...

All of the outfits for this month are basic, as befits the start of a disciplined new ... View the Post

What Does a Winter Capsule Wardrobe Look Like? 3 Ideas, Starting with Art!

December 30, 2019

Ah, before we dive in, I have a few observations that I want to share:

Winter clothes are flying out of store - it wasn't at all easy to find these garments for these wardrobes! If you need something, start looking now. L.L.Bean still has a full assortment of sweaters and warm pants, but most other places are running out of sizes/colors even as I type. NOW I remember why I started this project before the season had even really started! By the same token, if you need specific things for warmer weather, be prepared to start looking by the end of January. It's weird, but it's the way the retail world seems to want us to shop... Lots of garments are currently sporting a "puffy sleeve" thing - especially at the ... View the Post

Start with Art for Cold, Wet Weather Travel: Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

December 27, 2019

Remember our art/architecture Gothic specialist? She was a guest lecturer back in 2016, took a group of students to visit the Cloisters, and then was invited to lecture in Paris...

Nobody has the first clue how old she is; her white hair is braided into an intricate crown (how DOES she do that by herself?), her fingernails are always a practical length, but red and flawless... I still suspect that denim has never touched her body, except in passing!

She's inspired by these 2:

The Saddest of Projects

She's off for a couple of days in Venice. Things are going to have to be moved, and she's going to make some suggestions about what needs to go first... The flooding isn't going to get better with ... View the Post

The Holidays with Edith and the Kingpin, by Jack Vetriano

December 25, 2019

Remember these 2? We first met them back in the summer of 2015, then Edith went to interview to work at the resort, and then AGAIN after she was hired...

Even during the first week of December, the resort was still quite busy; Edith has not realized when she was hired that they had an extensive winter sports complex in the forested areas behind the lodgings. She was thrilled - rather than just a summer job, this had become real, full-time work!

She clocked out from her lunch hostess shift and checked her mail cubby hole for any notes. And found this very imposing envelope:

Probably just a holiday card, although it felt sort of... hefty...

She was a bit excited, but she took a deep breath, composed ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, Week 26: A Warm Dress

December 23, 2019

The last garment for winter! I know that I plan these wardrobes to be forward-thinking; the best clothes are always in the stores long before a normal person could wear them (unless they're traveling). But this seems early, even to me!

Next Monday I'm going to show a couple of "what a Weekly Timeless Wardrobe might look like" options, and then in January we will plunge back in and start getting our wardrobes ready for the advent of Spring...

Scarf update - my Aspinal of London scarf arrived, and I'm VERY pleased with the quality. These scarves cost literally 36% of what an Hermes scarf costs! Yes, there are differences. Yes, they're a bit thinner, and then hems aren't hand-stitched. BUT STILL... It's a beautiful ... View the Post

Analyzing 2 Wardrobes: When Your Color Palette is Challenging

December 20, 2019

The last two wardrobes! These were the most difficult - no question. And I made a couple of early strategic mistakes that I would re-do...

First up, this excellent scarf!

I should NOT have tried to make white one of the neutral colors. White as a neutral really only works well if you live in a hot place and don't mind laundry...

A smarter move would have been to use brown and navy as "co-neutrals" and then white, red, turquoise and orange as accents. This would still have been a big stack of colors with which to work, but it might have been a better balance. It's always easy to look back and say what I might have done differently, isn't it?

I went off the rails in a big way in February - I had designated ... View the Post