A Common Wardrobe Archives - Page 2 of 9

Will Winter White Dress Up Navy? Let’s See…

November 29, 2017

Winter White (aka cream or ivory) is such a pretty option in cold weather! You of course have to be very cautious about street splashing on your lovely pants, but that's well worth the bright change of pace that this color brings to classic navy (or any other color!).

Two of these pieces are deliberately and obviously dressy, and two are more timelessly classic. Yes, I have an abiding passion for cabled sweaters; in cashmere, in an unexpected color, they can be absolutely lovely!

As I always do, I'm starting with a few classic pieces in navy, and navy with off-white. With just these 9 pieces you could travel long and far...

The cardigan can be pretty "grounded" with paired with a solid navy core, or go ... View the Post

What IS Dressing Up? Taking a Warm Common Wardrobe into the Winter Holidays

November 24, 2017

Of course I've been thinking a lot about what it means to say that you're "dressed up." In the absence of showing more skin than usual, I think I've learned that there are four ways to go about this process:

Anything metallic or sparkly - if you can find a garment in one of your colors that features some sequins, some beads, or metallic thread, the dressiness quotient is automatically raised. Ruffles, bows, or other trim that you would not normally wear. Swapping out an ivory cotton shirt for an ivory silk shirt with a bow at the neck can make a world of difference, while filling exactly the same role in your wardrobe. Swapping for a fabric with more texture or shine. Satin, velvet, lace, or brocade are all ... View the Post

Planning Your Complete Wardrobe – Maybe I Should Start with the Real World?

October 12, 2017

I have absolutely NOT forgotten about my desire to figure out a way to have an overall wardrobe plan - something that I think we first discussed back in July?

Theories were posited that one could choose a specific number of each category of each garment, and a certain number of pieces for each season, etc. etc. But it all felt.... forced.

So I'm going back to reality - what is currently in my closet? What have I worn in the last month or so? Maybe I should start with what I actually OWN AND WEAR, and then see if I can make sense of that...

For now, I'm sticking with a target number of 52 - i.e. one piece per week, or 13 per quarter. So right now, I isolated in my closet the last 26 pieces of "non-gym" clothing ... View the Post

Planning Your Complete Wardrobe, 1 Segment at a Time

I've made some progress on the 52-Piece Wardrobe Plan that we discussed last Wednesday.

First, I included the idea of columns for each of the "categories" of garment - I think this works pretty well:

The only real question here has to be about how many garments fall into each of the three categories, and that's going to have to be something that each of us personalizes. I will of course lay out my guidelines, but they're never carved in stone; I call them guidelines, and NEVER rules!

I tried to do something around the idea of using multiple colors for borders, to show that some garments were able to serve in multiple functions - FAIL. The page is pretty crowded already, and adding another border (thin as they are) just made ... View the Post

Expanding a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Night Study of Flowers by Maurice Prendergast

November 4, 2016

When you're looking for color and style ideas for updating a capsule wardrobe, always remember that the world is FULL of beautiful paintings:

Even though I'm pretty certain that I'm going to struggle to find green garments of this soft, subtle tone, I have to include it in the color palette! But when you encounter real road-blocks in find things that are perfect in your wardrobe, you just have to be patient, or learn to sew/knit. Worse hobbies exist!

A reminder that these are the capsule wardrobe "essentials" around which we're building:

tee – L.L.Bean; turtleneck – L.L.Bean; shirt – L.L.Bean; tee – L.L.Bean; cardigan – Lands’ End; chambray shirt – Topshop; pants – L.L.Bean; pants – ... View the Post

Expanding a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: The Bathers by Paul Cezanne

November 2, 2016

I've been assured by my experts that, as much as WE all understand that "Start with Art" means "building beautiful capsule and travel wardrobes using the colors and styles found in fine art," nobody else in the Google universe knows what we're doing... and that keeps new readers from finding The Vivienne Files. That, my friends, is bad... So I'm trying to name my posts in a more "search-friendly" way. We shall see how this works!But the beauty is here, no matter what. After seeing so much art in Italy, I just HAVE to do a couple of small art-based wardrobes...

This just screams of nature, warmth, and organic fabrics in lovely faded dyes:

The colors here were very straightforward:

As has been my ... View the Post

How to Plan a Warm-Weather Capsule Wardrobe

It's the most popular question I am asked right now - what to plan for warm weather? It seems that a fair number of people are moving south, either for the winter, or for good!

I've thought about this a lot, and have written about it in the past. Maybe these posts will be helpful?

love, Janice

A Summer Common Wardrobe - a fairly casual warm-weather wardrobe in black and white

Start with a Bird: Northern Flicker - a Four by Four Wardrobe in black, beige, orange and green, including shorts and sleeveless tops.

Start with Art: "A Mysterious Hand Leads to Another Path" by Jan Toorop - a collection of warm-weather outfits in soft, powdery colors, that make a great-looking wardrobe when assembled together.

Four ... View the Post

Turquoise and Purple! With a Warm Transitional Common Capsule Wardrobe

August 19, 2015

You all were so eager to see turquoise and purple - I felt terrible that I didn't come through! So when someone suggested that I could start gradually migrating yesterday's Seashell Accents Common Capsule Wardrobe into cooler weather, I was suddenly filled with inspiration and good ideas!

In order to make this a bit more compatible with the choices above, I took out the shorts, changed up the shoes, and replaced the two linen wrap pieces (which are sold out!) with a silk blouse and a classic straight skirt.

The shoes are more closed, and a hair darker than the earlier versions of this wardrobe. The slightly darker flats were more at home with the brown skirt, and the more covered-up tops...

You still, ... View the Post

A Warm Summer Common Capsule Wardrobe + Water and Pearls

August 17, 2015

Yes, I promised a capsule wardrobe with turquoise and purple. I should have taken a look at what's still available for summer before I spoke so precipitously! It's kind of an unwritten policy when I'm working on The Vivienne Files that, if I show a piece of clothing, it should be available in the full range of sizes in which it was originally sold. It's no fun for anybody to go look at something that really appeals, and see that it's only available in one really peculiar size. (my favorite being 00...) So, plan B. Stick with blue, but go softer, and to a more seasonless offering of denim and chambray. That gives us another nice "seaside" feeling, and is beautiful when paired with the mother-of-pearl jewelry that ... View the Post

A Warm Summer Common Capsule Wardrobe + Seaglass

August 15, 2015

We have looked at soft and warm accents, and strong warm accents, so now it's time to look at some really beautiful soft, cool touches in a capsule wardrobe. Someone mentioned sea glass as an inspiration, and so I chose a bracelet to anchor my color wanderings, and then went looking!

(I have the very BEST job....)

When I was looking about, I kept in mind that I wanted organic, soft items, that held onto the warmth of the summer sand (I mean the beige neutral clothes...)

As with all accent color purchases, the colors don't have to be perfect matches. If you keep wandering around the same general color(s), you will find that things either match or blend pretty well without a lot of effort. This is supposed to be ... View the Post

Olive, Wine and Gold join A Common Capsule Wardrobe, warm tones for summer

August 13, 2015

In honor of the season (in the Northern Hemisphere) of the ripening of all delicious things, I give you the "Tuscan inspired" capsule wardrobe of wine, olives, and gold that was sent to me a few days ago.This reader really goes all out - she finds photographs and paintings that illustrate the colors that she likes, and builds me a little collage that is my reference material. I need to find out if she'd mind if I showed the illustrations here - they're really beautifully chosen and constructed, and serve as a glorious inspiration to my already hyper-drive imagination!

And yes, I did choose that bracelet because it reminded me of olive trees and grape vines...

For easy reference, here are the original ... View the Post

A Warm Summer Common Capsule Wardrobe, with Seashell Accents

August 12, 2015

Yesterday's comments were wonderful - thanks so much for sharing all of your ideas!

Someone suggested soft pink and peach in a capsule wardrobe, and described it as feeling like being inside a seashell... HOW was I going to resist that idea?

Let's add these accents, shall we?

As a reminder, this was the original Common Wardrobe:

And these were the original accessories. These are still going to be used, and be important!

I think I've paired each new top with each of the bottoms from the original neutral wardrobe. I confess that I was getting a little bit muddled, but you get the general idea - there's everything here from very casual to "nice evening out" dressy. The long cardigan will really ... View the Post