accent colors Archives

Can I Wear Toast Brown With My Current Clothes?

August 19, 2024

Starting very early last Friday morning, I was asked repeatedly if the "toast brown" cashmere sweater in this post could be worn with neutrals other than black...

This is the post, just to make it easy for you to see it again!

So I thought that I would pull together a little "French 5-Piece Wardrobe" in that lovely brown/taupe. It's a great color - sort of warm, but not yellowish - at least on my computer screen!

Maybe you weren't convinced that this colors goes with black, so I will show it again...

Honestly, if I didn't already have both a brown cardigan and TWO brown crewneck sweaters, I'd buy this one... I love the way these colors look together!

I think it's logical, and maybe obvious, ... View the Post

Do You Love Larkspur? Are You Passionate About Periwinkle?

June 28, 2024

OMG, tomorrow is my birthday! I will be 64... although I feel like I'm somewhere at the crossroads of 21 and 90. My brain is young, my knees are past retirement age!

What do I want for my birthday? For you to recommend The Vivienne Files to anyone who might enjoy our community, and my ideas...

Speaking of community - many of you - MANY OF YOU - really love the color "Larkspur" offered by L.L.Bean. They currently have THIRTY-THREE items available, so it's pretty easy to find something you can wear frequently. That said, many of these things are marked down, and therefore might just rush into retail oblivion...

I assembled this French 5-Piece Wardrobe in Larkspur to help me focus on how this color might be ... View the Post

Need a Fresh Accent Idea? Pantone New York Fashion Week 2024/25 colors

April 24, 2024

These are "new" colors for Autumn/Winter upcoming - maybe we can get a head start on having these in our wardrobes?

I'm very curious to know which of these you like and dislike... As always, I have a certain fondness for all of them - after spending hours looking for things in these colors, if I didn't love them, I would throw my computer from our very high windows!

Let's go!

First up - I would almost certainly wear this dress, and I would certainly have Skimmies under it!

This next dress looks MUCH better on a human being than it does like this - when the top part of the dress is "filled out" by a human torso, it balances the skirt much better!

yes, these earrings are very expensive, but ... View the Post

Looking for a New Accent Color? Part 2 – Pantone London Fashion Week Spring 2024

April 12, 2024

It's always interesting to me how difficult it is to find some of these colors! One would imagine that a reasonable range of ALL colors should be available, given the literally hundreds of thousands of products I see...

Let's jump in and evaluate what I DID find!

The next color on Pantone's list was the beautiful Sun Orange... It wasn't terribly hard to find things, except a scarf that was mostly orange. So I decided that I would share with you this really pretty, bright, versatile and cheery scarf from Echo, which includes the orange and a bunch of other summery colors:

don't you like the way that the pattern of the earrings echoes the pattern of the headband?

They call it Fiesta, but I called it coral. ... View the Post

Looking for a New Accent Color? Part 1 – Pantone London Fashion Week Spring 2024

April 10, 2024

"New" Colors! Or at least we can say "colors that have been identified as being influential for this spring..."

I'm going to confess right now - I'm in a complete muddle about WHICH of the many Pantone seasons I have and have not covered, and further, I'm not 100% sure that this is the most recent! Neither of these facts is really a big deal, when you get right down to it; the big thing to learn from posts like this is to give yourself some room and some time to consider if a new color in your wardrobe might be fun.

Or might be super-useful.

Or might make you happy. Happy is really the bottom line for getting dressed...

Let's jump in with 5 of the 10 colors from London Fashion Week...

This first color? As ... View the Post

Looking for Unique Accent Colors? Start With a Scarf – Emiliano Ponzi Scarf by Echo

March 15, 2024

Some of us like lots of colors in our wardrobe. And sometimes, we're looking for an inspiration for a new accent color (or two...)

How about this clever and beautiful scarf for some inspiration?

Let's assume that our heroine wears black as one of her neutrals, and is interested in adding at least a couple of new things to her warm-weather wardrobe in black. She then has three really "off the beaten path" accent colors from which to choose!

Most of us can stand to replace summer pants every few years, and a nice cardigan is never a bad choice. But this year, instead of a black & white striped tee, how about butter yellow?

For some of us, this dress might feel short - others might find it just ... View the Post

Fresh Accent Colors! Pantone NYFW 2024 Spring colors

December 13, 2023

So, Pantone decided that Peach is going to be next year's color. I'm not sure how that will work out - generally speaking, I never see the "color of the year" show up in the urban wilderness any more often than any other color!

But their choices of colors always give us an opportunity to consider adding a new accent color to our wardrobes...

I've divided their 10 "New York Fashion Week" Spring/Summer colors into 2 posts, because they take a while to find!

editorial note - I'm VERY fussy about getting these colors to match as closely as possible, because I know that you're going to view them on a relatively small screen; items that are only a few inches apart need to look good together! In real life, on a ... View the Post

New Colors! Pantone London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2023-24

May 15, 2023

It's sort of hard to conceive of this coming winter, since summer has just started, but the people at Pantone are always way ahead of the rest of us...

Today, I'm only showing you 5 of the 10 colors, because many of these colors are proving to be... elusive... If I'm successful in finding the other 5, I will share!

Let's start!

This persimmon is a pretty compromise between orange and red...

In order to see if these colors will work well for some of us, I want to add each color to a simple navy or beige outfit, and see what happens!

You could of course wear your new sweater with either pair of these pants, but I thought that the best look was bringing Persimmon accessories into simple, neutral ... View the Post

Accent Colors to Wear With Gray – Pantone New York Autumn/Winter 2023

March 6, 2023

Grey for warm weather is hard to find! Later on, I might be able to find gray linen without a lot of trouble, but right now we have to think of grey as something we will wear on cool spring days...

All I'm doing here is showing all 10 of the Pantone Colors for Autumn/Winter 2023, as chosen from the New York Fashion Week shows... (which means that there will be ANOTHER bunch of colors for London, and probably ANOTHER bunch for Autumn/Winter, without any fashion show connection!)

I'm eager to hear from you all about which of these color combinations you like, and which you ... View the Post

Pantone: Colors they Love, Colors that Endure

December 9, 2022

I was browsing the Pantone website a few days ago, after their announcement of the 2023 color of the year. Viva Magenta!

Of course, that doesn't mean that we will EVER walk into any store and see a decent assortment of magenta clothes and accessories. Pantone doesn't seem to have the influence over retailers that they once did...

But I DID run across an article about "Colors We Love, Colors That Endure."

I'm not sure what they mean by endure - all colors endure, don't they?

Still - I had to see what these colors might look like, if we were considering a new wardrobe accent!

White Asparagus is a color that I would consider adding as a wardrobe neutral; to me it's really just a variation of beige or ... View the Post

Five Accent Colors with Five Neutrals

October 12, 2022

Ah, the last 5 Pantone colors from New York Fashion Week! Just to make things interesting, I brought along five different neutral color "clusters" to test-drive with these VERY varied colors...

To me, this peachy color cried out for some camel...

And I think these are perfect together!

For about the ten thousandth time, if you look good in yellow - WEAR IT! It's not easy to wear for some of us, and it's such a great accent...

I'm picturing this heroine living somewhere that's warm most of the year, so her favorite neutral is white:

I think this is lovely - the top outfit, on a rainy day, with the right coat and umbrella, would cheer up everyone you saw!

I'm tempted to wear ... View the Post

Five Accent Colors with Winter White and with Beige

September 30, 2022

Why yes, Pantone found additional colors at New York Fashion Week...

Which is fine with me, because I could look at accessories 'til the cows come home! And since I live in the city, that would be forever, right?

Let's start with this classic red; yes, this scarf is an investment. But you could wear it at least once a week during cool weather, for the rest of your life. I'm finding that I have some scarves that 20+ years old, and that I still adore.

I've chosen ivory (Winter White?) and beige as our wardrobe core colors to "test drive" this batch of accent colors. While I wouldn't wear white pumps in this lifetime, I know a LOT of women who wear them through the year and look just lovely.

And ... View the Post