beige Archives - Page 13 of 31

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Starting From Scratch, First Steps

November 7, 2016

Another step by step, starting from scratch Capsule Wardrobe exercise! This week, I'm tackling olive and beige as the neutrals, with teal, rust and ivory as the accent colors. Our primary emphasis is going to be on the "very casual, lots of jeans and corduroy" sort of style. Many of you have told me that you have very little need for dressy clothes in your wardrobe, so let's see what can be done with that in mind.

And fear not, when I do this in December, it's going to be conservative-office dressy!

First up, let's visualize the colors:

Since these colors are definitely pretty warm, with the exception of the teal, my current plan is to use warm deep brown leather goods, and gold jewelry. Our heroine's style is ... 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

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Orange, Black, and Sand

October 26, 2016 These colors could be "Halloween-y," in a capsule wardrobe but I'm going to keep that from happening!

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; wrap –BP.

The presence here of the sandy tan, and some white, are critical!

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; wrap –BP. She Wrote Her Thesis... about Lázsló Moholy-Nagy! So when she learned that the Art Institute of Chicago had a HUGE special exhibit of his work, she cleared a couple of days from her calendar...

sweater– L.L.Bean; earrings – Bloomingdale’s; scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; loafers – G.H.Bass & Co.; khakis – L.L.Bean; watch – Seiko; bag – Bric’s

His work influenced all sorts of things ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel in Orange, Rose and Sand

October 24, 2017 Not what you normally think of as autumn colors, but why not:

She Had Hoped that Nobody Noticed.... That she was working from home on the day of the holiday party...

"You're going to be here later, aren't you?"

"No, I didn't plan to..."

"You can have one of the Executive Committee hotel rooms...."

"Well, ***sigh*** I'm not going to wear a dress..."

Later, the Chairman told her that she looked like "a spring flower in the midst of all of these black dresses..."

She's not sure how she feels about that, frankly.

love, Janice ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Sand and Teal

October 18, 2016

I love this scarf - in fact, in the next 2 weeks, you're going to see it FIVE times, in 5 different color combinations. I do these kinds of things to show the inherent versatility in simple garments, once you start playing around with the color combinations!

So let's start here:

I'm going to resist the temptation to focus on the black, and use sand as our main color:

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; wrap – BP. HOW Did He Do It??? It was the place that's booked until Christmas. Christmas of 2018...

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; earrings – House of Harlow; watch – Timex; turtleneck – J.Crew; loafers – Tod’s; cords – L.L.Bean; bag - Tumi

When the ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Portrait of Pablo Picasso by Juan Gris

September 20, 2016 Mmmm, Cubism... it forces us to look at things in a different way, and that's bound to be a good idea...

Remember the author/art dealer from the class reunion?

When she left the reunion, she had only a few days left to pack before she had to prepare for a big art show in Milan...

She's devoted to beige and brown, and her blue eyes insist on blue accents. The show will be casual, dressy, classic, avant-garde, and everything in between. So she's just going to dress like herself, and let everyone else do the posturing...

The brocade shroud, the military uniform, the obsessive caressing of a VERY inappropriate pet are NOT for her...

Let them be all artsy and fey ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Portrait of Pablo Picasso by Juan Gris

September 6, 2016 I see this painting frequently, and am always riveted by the impact that two colors can provide:

Class Reunion/Homecoming Weekend

Earrings – Black; dress – Eleventy; boots – Madden-Girl; cardigan – Lands’ End; scarf – Ralph Lauren; watch – Emporio Armani; nail polish – Dior in “Junon”; tote – Under One Sky "I don't know if she'll make it - knowing her, she's probably living in an ashram somewhere..."

Blouse – Peter Cohen; earrings – Ippolita; ring – Geraldine Valluet; necklace – Wild Lilies; marled sweater – M.I.h Jeans; blue sweater – Roberto Collina; pants – Fabiana Filippi; scarf – Nordstrom; skirt – Lands’ End; clutch – Edie Parker; ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Approaching Storm by Eugene-Louis Boudin

August 24, 2016 I hope these ladies don't have to sprint too far to escape the storm; they're not dressed for the 100 yard dash...

But it's a beautiful painting, and it so vividly evokes that feeling when the weather is about to turn. I was particularly drawn to the simple, neutral color scheme:

Other Things on Her Mind She travels with a lot of gear...

shirt – Lands’ End; watch – Marc Jacobs; socks – Topshop; loafers – Munro; earrings – Kate Spade; scarf – Bindya; jeans – L.L.Bean; cardigan – Closed; tote – Bohemia; suitcase – Tumi

Actually, she's ALWAYS carrying bags and bags of photography equipment, even if she's not traveling. Photography is what she does, ... View the Post

A Capsule Wardrobe in Beige, Bright Blue and Orange: Expanding Your Accessories

August 12, 2016

Oh, how I love accessories....As a reminder, this is where we left the capsule wardrobe when we finished the 4 additions to it yesterday:

floral shirt – Barbour; orange earrings – Kendra Scott; watch – Skagen; ring – Savvy Cie; hoop earrings – Madewell; necklace – Bleu; bracelet – Danielle Nicole; blue earrings – Kate Spade; tee – L.L.Bean;blue tee – Uniqlo; orange cardigan – Joseph; floral tee – Atos Lombardini; tank - Missoni; orange tunic – Jaeger; scarf – Eloise Bricka; blue cardigan – Betty Barclay; field jacket - L.L.Bean; wrap – Goyo; pants – L.L.Bean; skirt – L.L.Bean; ballet flats – SoftWalk; loafers – Aerosoles;jeans – L.L.Bean; bag – Ted Baker London; ... View the Post

A Capsule Wardrobe in Beige, Bright Blue and Orange: From Travel Wardrobe to Whatever’s Clean

August 11, 2016 Yesterday's travel capsule wardrobe looked like this:

floral shirt – Barbour; orange earrings – Kendra Scott; watch – Skagen; ring – Savvy Cie; hoop earrings – Madewell; necklace – Bleu; bracelet – Danielle Nicole; blue earrings – Kate Spade; tee – L.L.Bean; blue tee – Uniqlo; orange cardigan – Joseph; orange tunic – Jaeger; scarf – Eloise Bricka; blue cardigan – Betty Barclay; wrap – Goyo; pants – L.L.Bean; skirt – L.L.Bean; ballet flats – SoftWalk; loafers – Aerosoles;jeans – L.L.Bean; bag – Ted Baker London; tote – James Perse

A few people asked me if a travel wardrobe could be expanded into "Whatever's Clean 13;" of course, almost anything is ... View the Post

Packing Light: A “Six-Pack” Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Beige, Bright Blue and Orange

August 10, 2016 Let's start today with two scarves:

Archivist Everybody wanted to know answers - why do we have to bill the Prosidion Group on the 8th of every month? Why do we have to call the head of the Alblomilon Corporation exactly 10 minutes before we send the invoice? Why does the entire invoice for the Habestrate Manufacturing Consortium have to be sorted alphabetically by street address???

Well, everybody had always archived the emails that explained these things...

But until she got there, NOBODY organized the archives!

So she worked. Carefully, methodically, attentively, for months...

In her ... View the Post