The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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A Final, Personal Evaluation of a Full Year Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 18, 2020

One last look at this seemingly massive wardrobe. It's funny how gigantic this seems when I'm trying to squeeze everything onto a page! In reality, most of the world would be thrilled to have this much clothing, but I suspect many of us have a lot more than this!

Bring out the magnifying glasses, everyone!

As I sorted through this mass of goodies, my thinking was "what would I take with me if I got to go to ____ for a year?"

My blank is probably going to be filled in by Ireland, or Paris, as I'm sure you're shocked to hear. But I think that many of us might be able to test-drive this kind of possibility. Maybe it's just a chance to live someplace where COVID-19 restrictions aren't quite as erratic and ... View the Post

Adding Accents to a Warm Weather Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 4, 2020

Let's see what kind of fun we can have, now that the Weekly Timeless Wardrobes are finished!

It seems to me that during the Spring and Summer, you might just as well keep both seasonal 13-piece Wardrobes in your closet - 26 garments isn't going to fill any but the tiniest of closets. (I had a closet in Dublin that was pretty full when you got above 30....)

Of course, in the earliest months of Spring, you're probably going to want some Winter clothes still! But let's assume for our purposes that the following plan is for all of the warm weather months, no matter when they fall!

Remember, we had complete, if somewhat monochromatic, Spring and Summer wardrobes from earlier:

Let's put everything from these ... View the Post

A Spring Wardrobe! A Navy & Beige Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

July 31, 2020

 

One more season! The difference between the Spring wardrobe and the Winter is so pronounced - I thought that I was doing something wrong, until I stopped for a minute and remembered that... well... Spring IS DIFFERENT from Winter.

And I thank Buddha for that, every lovely April day...

You can clearly see that Spring is where my personal preferences shifted to pink WITH A VENGEANCE!

As always, there are 3 clusters here - these could be arranged in a different way if it works better for you! The whole point is that it should work for you...

This is what the original Spring wardrobe looks like when it's broken into 3 Clusters:

Am I going to be able to make this work in navy and ... View the Post

A Winter Cluster Wardrobe in Navy, Beige, Green and White

July 30, 2020

If you're tasked with finding a winter wardrobe right now, I wish you all KINDS of luck. This is not a year during which all of the retailers have rushed to thrill us with cashmere, velvet, tweed, and lots of boots...

Nevertheless, we persist...

Remember this wardrobe from week 26 of The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe? I love this one...

So what IS a cluster, anyway? To me, a cluster is a group of clothes - 4, 5 or 6 at the most - that all go together, that give you a range of ensembles, and that are built around 1 or 2 "bottoms."

My logic is that if you have a couple of spare tops to wear with a pair of pants,

you aren't stuck when you're traveling and someone spills coffee on your shirt; if the weather ... View the Post

Strategically Expanding a Capsule Wardrobe: Start with Art – Blue Major Elle by Marijah Bac Cam

July 22, 2020

Well THAT went well... Yesterday, our heroine was caught off guard when she realized that she needed to pack and leave for the weekend in 5 minutes!

She managed, using this painting as her color inspiration; she felt that the swirling and diffusion in this painting accurately represented the state of her brain:

The photographer and crew from the famous food magazine LOVED her sister-in-law's B&B. They loved it SO MUCH that they're going to come back in a few days, and film a half-hour video about them for their You Tube channel.

Panic ensues. And our heroine and her partner and enlisted to come stay at the B&B for... well, for the foreseeable future!

They're both leaving everything that they packed ... View the Post

Start with Art: Door to the River by Willem de Kooning

June 26, 2020

She knew, as soon as she saw it, that the door lead to where she wanted to be...

Some other day - some other season - she knew that she would include the blue, and the darker browns and greys, in her wardrobe. But for now, for the summer, she wants lightness...

When her sister called her - at the very last minute! - to invite her to the cottage for the weekend, she knew that she had to go. She was dressed for a meeting, but decided that getting on the road was more important than changing clothes.

Besides, she knew that dinner on Friday night, at the cabin, was always pretty special! Her sister can really cook, her sister's partner is a whiz with wine, and all of the kids know that this is an important part ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting L’Ombre by Pablo Picasso

June 10, 2020

You might remember this psychiatrist from the spring of 2017; her casual wardrobe occasioned some discussions about how professionals should dress... She Wasn't Sure If She Would Go...

But they've asked her to sit on the dais 1 night, so she feels like that's a reason to show up...

Many of the meetings will be outdoors - better for social distancing, and more relaxing. The dinner's are rather nice, but most of the conference is quite casual...

She can drive there in just a couple of hours, so there's no worry about being on an airplane. And she'll have a private hotel room, and be outdoors much of the time, so overall the conference sounds both safe and... could it be? almost pleasant!

She's got ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – May 2020

June 3, 2020

Yes, it's the May bracelet. Time has lost all meaning for those of us between the quarantine and the curfew.

And I have to apologize for a slowly diminishing selection of products available to include on The Vivienne Files. More and more stores seem to be running out of things (or at least running out of good assortments of sizes), and some places are already getting in cashmere sweaters. It's difficult to know what the future few months of retail will look like, but I think I can confidently recommend that if there's something you really like or need, you should grab it when you can....

I will continue (of course!) to try to find the prettiest, best coordinated, best-priced items I can, available in as many sizes as I ... View the Post

Raiding my French Books: 8 “Must-Have” Items in Black from “Dress Like a Parisian” by Aloïs Guinut

May 29, 2020

Another book! I actually have a handful of them - some really fun and interesting, some... not so much...

This one is in English, and the author is witty and self-deprecation; she swears that one of the reasons that French women have such relaxed and unstructured hair styles is because they're inherently too lazy to style their hair! Hmm...

 

 

This is one of the few books that I would recommend, if only for her sense of humor!

She starts this book with the same general advice almost every wardrobe or style books gives - start with THIS list of garments. Everybody, even if they've never met you, knows what you need...

This, of course, isn't at all true, and is really nonsense, and will ... View the Post

Accessories! Start with Art: Resting by Paul Klee

April 30, 2020

This heroine knows full well the degree to which the right accessories can make a TON of difference in an outfit! First up, she's starting with this compelling painting, and lovely color palette:

Our heroine is starting with this most wonderful wardrobe in soft colors and timeless styles:

She knows that she's going to want to wear very simple monochromatic outfits sometimes, and that on other occasions she's going to break out her accent colors. Her plan, then, is to pull together some representative outfits, and accessorize each of them...

All accessories do NOT have to be neutral - blue suede shoes tell you what you're going to be humming all day!

She wants to be able to look pretty in a dress ... View the Post

Rescuing Forgotten Accessories: Butterflies by Echo

April 28, 2020

She decided she was going to wear them ALL. One, every 3 or 4 months...

So she dug into the very bottom of her scarf drawer, and found this beauty:

She didn't worry about a color palette; if she bought the scarf for herself, she's going to assume that it must go with something in her wardrobe...

So her plan - wear her newly special scarf twice a month, with clothes that she already owns!

April has remained practically a winter month, this year, so she's wearing sweaters... and her butterfly earrings!  

May, on the other hand, is all over the map, weather-wise! So she decides that cropped pants, with sleeveless tops and a cuddly cardigan might be her best option.

By the time ... View the Post

Start with Art: Resting by Paul Klee, and a Beige Weekly Timeless Wardrobe for Spring

April 27 2020

Finally, she's getting a break... And she's going to take advantage of being able to stay home.

Her plan is to sleep, read, go for walks in the park behind her home, bake excellent stuff, have a cocktail or two, and then sleep some more!

She's starting here - the colors of calmness, for her...

She starts with her favorite beige (there's some advantage to being blonde) and then adds in some denim-y blue, and some shades of rose:

For warm weather, she could probably live in shades of beige and ivory. From these 13 items, it might be possible to dress for weeks.

After what she's been through in the last few months, she doesn't care if her clothes get dirty or spotted; she knows that there are more ... View the Post