The Vivienne Files - Page 95 of 262 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

What if I Get Bored Without Lots of Colors in my Wardrobe? The Wasp & The Pear by Gerald Murphy

June 20, 2018

Do you NEED color to be happy? A wide variety of colors? Lots of choices?

If this is you, then you can still travel with a capsule travel wardrobe - you just need to include a range of accents that all work with a neutral core. The neutrals give you all sorts of easy outfit possibilities into which you can insert a punch of color when you're in the mood. And when you want to be more subdued, you'll have that option too!

Let's start with an artist of whom I knew nothing until just a few days ago (I get the BEST mail from you all...):

While this painting clearly displays a strong affinity to great summer neutrals like khaki and ivory, it also includes some amazing accent colors. For this color palette, I skipped ... View the Post

Planning Your Accessory Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 18, 2018

Let's look back at another recent travel wardrobe, and choose some accessories to be packed along with the clothes...

This wardrobe was all about colors of sky and sea; here's the original clothing color palette:

It's never necessary to have a plan for anything you do, but I think when you're packing, having some structure and some limits in mind can help a lot. If I don't set some clear guidelines when I'm packing, I'm likely to just toss in everything that I like (which is just about all of my wardrobe!) and then get somewhere and struggle to make sense of things...

Silver would be the obvious metallic choice for navy and shades of blue... but since we're talking about warmth and sun and summer, I thought ... View the Post

What Accessories do You Need to Pack?

June 15, 2018

Wednesday I shared one approach to pulling together a travel wardrobe when your original plan starts to fall apart. Today, I'm going to look at what accessories need to be packed in order to make sure that you can get dressed without problems and panic...

First, let's look at our wardrobe color scheme:

For accessories, you want to make sure that you're including a color that will be suitable for jewelry - something metallic - and a color that can be used for your leather goods. This is pretty straightforward for this color scheme; the brown is perfect for leather, and gold just feels right...

Next, you want to think about what you expect to want to pack. This might not turn out to be exactly what ... View the Post

When Your Wardrobe Plan Hits a Snag – The Kiss, by Max Ernst

June 13, 2018

It all starts out so well. You've got your art inspiration in front of you, and quite a few of your garments are clear in your mind...

The brown was hard to find, but you're really happy with the results:

This is a great start...

The turquoise wasn't too tough to find; the maxi skirt is going to be SO nice to have on vacation...

This is where the wardrobe is supposed to get fun - finding tops that work with both core colors, and that pull them together. But you find that the things you were thinking about packing are too big. Too small. Too worn out. Too much in need of laundering. But you really don't have time to do ANYTHING except rethink things...

This isn't a bad wardrobe, so far, ... View the Post

Revisiting Van Gogh, and Using Cool Sky Blue to Accent Navy and White

July 11, 2018

Someone wanted another visit to this painting, someone wanted some navy and sky blue together, and someone wanted to see another French 5-Piece wardrobe. Here, I present ALL of that, and more. First, let's enjoy this painting, and the idea of the shore...

Warmth, salty breezes messing up your hair, reapplying sunscreen... The stuff of a million dreams!

And although this painting seems pretty monochromatic at first glance, when you look carefully at it for a while you find a whole BUNCH of different shades of blue and green, as well as dark brown, and warm orangish-tan. (I'm ignoring the red signature, except for lips and nails!)

I start a LOT of my blog posts with a core wardrobe of classic, neutral, timeless ... View the Post

Can You Dress the Way You Decorate? A Tote Bag Travel Wardrobe based on William Morris fabric

June 8, 2018

It's a good question... Maybe you're not inspired by a painting, or a scarf, but you're really happy with the way that you've decorated your home. Could that be the basis upon which you build your wardrobe?

Heck yes! It's particularly easy if you have your key colors chosen, and if you have a few keywords that you use to describe your "home style."

For example: maybe this is the wallpaper in your bedroom? Or curtains in your dining area?

For many of us, summer is for traveling to graduations, and weddings, and anniversary parties etc. etc. Usually these trips are only for a long weekend, so there's no need to pack everything you own; you should be able to manage with just a tote bag...

You can ... View the Post

Part 2: What I Saw Being Worn in Paris (and what was for sale, and what was in the windows, and on the walls…)

June 8, 2018

Let's start with some inspiration, shall we?

One of the first things that I noticed when I got back to Chicago is the absolutely boring way people dress here. Yesterday Belovedest and I walked about 5 miles - from near Wrigley Field to our home in the downtown. The majority of women we saw - of all ages and body types - were wearing workout tights of some embarrassing level of revealing, with a tee shirt and a sweatshirt. I don't for a New York minute believe that all of these women had been working out, or were headed that direction. In a world in which we collectively own more clothing than at any time literally in history, why are we all dressed so much alike, and so unflatteringly? Hmm...

So while I saw some ... View the Post

Part 1: What I Saw Being Worn (and Purchased) in Paris, May 2018

June 4, 2018

One of the advantages of the unexpectedly warm weather in Paris is that I got to see the entire city shifting into their warmer-weather wardrobes!

As I always do when I travel, I tried to keep my eyes open for things that I saw - in stores or on people - that were different from what I would see in Chicago. In Paris, there were LOTS of things that caught me eye - so much that it's going to take me 2 days to tell you about them all!

I can't swear that white eyelet is a trend this year, or if it's just something that everyone pulls out and starts to wear when the weather warms up. It really is more of a classic... But we saw lots of cute little dresses, and PLENTY of tops with eyelet trip being worn with shorts, ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe in 12 Months, 12 Outfits – June 2018

June 1, 2018

Always one of the great days of the month!

This month, in honor of heat (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the easing-up of many schedules, let's add a casual dress to these wardrobes!

Additionally, I'm going to find a tote bag for each of these heroines, some footwear to wear with their new dress, and a couple of pieces of jewelry. This wouldn't be a horrid shopping trip; once you find the dress, the accessory shopping should be fun...

Dresses can be an opportunity to really exploit your color scheme; because you don't have to coordinate a lot of different garments to wear with a dress, you can find a classic, summery linen shirtdress in a bright color and add it to your wardrobe without worrying that you don't have ... View the Post

When You Pack the WRONG Stuff, or “I Blame Lake Michigan”

May 30, 2018

The vacation was beautiful. Except for an unpleasant, but very brief, encounter with my fibromyalgia, this trip could not have been more perfect...

But I packed... not ALL wrong, but largely wrong. And I blame Lake Michigan!

Hear me out - in Chicago, if you live near the lake (and I live literally 100 meters from it), the weather is always colder than advertised. So when someone tells you that your forecast is... say 75 degrees... you draw a mental picture of what that means. In this neighborhood, it means coolish - a cardigan or light sweater is appropriate.

Which, if course, is NOT how that temperature feels when you're away from a very large body of water that keeps the heat suppressed for much of the ... View the Post

Roses! The Birth Flower for June

May 28, 2018

Roses! What's not to love? (I'm a little biased, because I'm born in June...)

There are roses everywhere - if you want home fragrances, or perfume, you're in luck.

And if you want to add some accessories to your wardrobe, maybe pick 2 or 3 pieces that look happy to be together? Sort of an instant update to your neutral outfits... I would cheerfully buy all 5 of these items, just to wear with black...

Or if you wanted a more striking color palette:

Maybe pink roses are your favorites? If you wear black, you can certainly live in that first scarf, and the 2nd scarf would be perfect with denim...

Yes, you might not want to wear a floral watch every day, but if you wanted to find one that you ... View the Post

Wear a Uniform and Simplify your Summer Wardrobe – Using Navy as Your Neutral

May 25, 2018

I wanted to share one final experiment into uniforms for warm weather. You don't necessarily have to dress like this every day (although you're sort of losing the whole "ease of a uniform" idea if you don't wear it... uniformly...). Still, if you have these pieces in your closet, you're never going to really be stuck finding something to wear... Unless you're going to something really outside of your normal activities, your "uniform" capsule should be perfectly chosen to help you get dressed in a flash for the activities that take up most of your time.

So let's visit some navy! What's nicer than a bit of navy for warm weather?

(a note about matching navy garments... when I was in Ireland last month, I saw LOTS of men ... View the Post