The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Start with Art: Windows Open Simultaneously by Robert Delaunay

June 6, 2022

Iceland, and Packing in a Different Way

She knows her color palette, she KNOWS she's going somewhere relatively cool, and she knows what she wants to wear on the plane...

Is that enough?

She understands that she's going to be wearing her travel outfit for quite a while on her actual travel day, and she plans to wear all 3 garments frequently while she's there...

So she thinks... what additional garment - just ONE thing - would she bring with her for a cool place and lots of sightseeing?

There's a BIG advantage to packing this way - she remembers immediately that she wants to bring her labradorite earrings, so she grabs them and puts them in her little jewelry bag. And she digs her green socks out ... View the Post

Preparing for Warm Weather – Stress Dressing Clusters!

May 9, 2022

Years and years ago, I shared with the world my secret for how I get dressed on those mornings, when everything goes wrong and I don't even want to THINK about clothing...

Right now, our weather is madly uncertain - it's been a cold and wet spring, but I think that in the next few days, summer is going to arrive with a vengeance.

How to prepare? I can't just open my closet door and hope to make sense of a complete change of seasons...

So I've sorted out a wee wardrobe cluster, all pressed, hanging in 1 place, and ready to go!

You can choose any 6 garments that work well for you, but I would always suggest that you include a 2nd layer, like a cardigan, and a pair of long pants. This is the perfect ... View the Post

Start with Art: The Water, Monaco by William John Leech

April 18, 2022

Making Compromises, When Your Palette is Difficult

She's really committed to these colors, even though she knows that it's not going to be easy... There's no real way she can envision getting dressed for an entire season without wearing black - even if it's hot!

And the rest of the colors? She has accepted that "her" beige, that green-ish, rain-soaked and slightly lichen-colored quay, isn't going to be anywhere to be found; she's prepared to compromise with the much more common beige...

The accent colors could be tricky; she can't actually see herself wearing soft lime OR light periwinkle with black!

But she gives it all a go - it's just clothing, after all.

Starting with the simple stuff - it's never difficult to ... View the Post

Version 4 Start with a Scarf: Peonies Silk Scarf by Arlo Goods

April 13, 2022

She's An Actress...

She's been a star of a daytime drama for years, playing the good twin and the evil twin...

Part of the fun of being friends with her is that her expressions and emotions can run the gamut from intellectually serious to hysterically funny in a matter of moments...

So nobody is surprised that she has included ALL of the accent colors in their "scarf-centric" wardrobe, nor are they amazed to see that SHE bought the kimono, and not the scarf!

It's still a pretty versatile wardrobe:

Rumor has it that the writers on her show are about to introduce a long-lost triplet...

love,

Janice

p.s. Approximately seven years ago, I shared with you my shortcut to calculating ... View the Post

Version 3 Start with a Scarf: Peonies Silk Scarf by Arlo Goods

April 11, 2022

They all seem to have chosen the same scarf...

  Executive Coordinator of something or other... She came directly from a training visit to one of their branch offices...

Her company's name is just a long list of letters, with an ampersand in there somewhere; her friends can NEVER remember...

And they could not BEGIN to explain what it is that she does. What they do know is that she's important, travels a ton, and has the bold confidence of a pride of lionesses!

She has been packing for 2 or 3 day work trips for years, so going from meetings to friends and then BACK to meetings doesn't faze her in the least...

9 garments is plenty for her - options for operas and dinners with friends, ... View the Post

Version 2 Start with a Scarf: Peonies Silk Scarf by Arlo Goods

April 8, 2022

The Soccer Coach...  

Green eyes, and an auburn pixie hairstyle... But a serious Division A college soccer coach. Her friends from childhood never doubted...

They often joke that she chose the University at which she works because their colors are green and white! When she got the gig, they all chipped in to get her a pair of emerald earrings, which she wears almost constantly...

What might be most surprising about her is that she manages to get dressed up for some of their get-togethers without sacrificing a smidgen of her personal style!

She knows that her friends love to see her wear green, because they so admire how it flatters her - so she packs to oblige! In all fairness, she does have ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Peonies Silk Scarf by Arlo Goods

April 4, 2022

She's Always Rather Dressy... She always has been - they've all known each other since school, and she was always the most dressed-up of them all at any event! Not that she was ever inappropriate - just a notch or 2 fancier than them..

So when they make plans to get together for a long weekend in the city, they look forward to seeing her, (of course!) and seeing how she is dressed!

For what it's worth, she's hysterically funny, very generous, and an all-around great friend...

This weekend should be particularly interesting; they've got tickets to Orchestra Hall, and dinner reservations another night at one of the new, "fancy" restaurants that has recently opened...

They haven't all been together ... View the Post

I Love Them, But Will I Wear Them? John Fluevog boots

February 25, 2022

Sometimes, you just give in:

So when our heroine was very politely requested to accompany her partner to a weekend conference in a big city, she thought that these would be her perfect slightly rebellious keynote for her travel capsule wardrobe...

She's not going to go completely nuts; she's just going to assemble a wardrobe that will show off her fabulous new boots to their best advantage!

On her own time, when she's sight-seeing, she WILL wear her new boots. At the various dinners, she may wear them, but she chooses to pack a pair of more conservative pumps too!

Since soft rose and dark green are already her favorite colors, it wasn't terribly hard to assemble a travel wardrobe to wear ... View the Post

One Way to Choose and Assemble Your Uniform

February 11, 2022

I've probably mentioned this before (20 times!), but since we've all moved into 1 apartment together, my ONLY real issue is that my closet isn't conveniently placed, nor organized.

And I, of course, really don't have buckets of time to work on it!

My plan is to get rid of things that are no longer appropriate for what I do every day, and to have a good plan for what I purchase.

I'm also moving more and more toward Urban Organic as a style mantra, so I'm trying to buy clothes with better fabric, with less synthetic content, and that are made somewhere humane... 

Big goals!

Initially, what would be the most help to me is to have a solid Cluster of 9 garments (either 3 outfits, or 27, depending on how ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Louis C. Tiffany Peonies Neckerchief

February 4, 2022

After I showed you this neckerchief last Monday, the 31st, more than a few of you asked me to expand upon it's lovely colors...

I have just the heroine for this color palette! Mature Plant Salvage Nobody really understands what her landscaping company does, until they really need her help!

Like the University that added a number of classroom/research buildings to their campus ALL AT ONCE, and now have a bare eyesore of land, interspersed with lovely structures...

"It will be beautiful in 100 years, when everything grows up around it and softens the edges..."

Well, that's NOT what she sees! She sees places to put trees that she saved from a condo development site on the north side. Corners of ... View the Post

Start with Art: Lucinda by Sofia Bonati

December 31, 2021 An Expert in Medieval Flower Illustrations...  

You know, those flowers that appear in the ornamented capital letters at the beginning of a manuscript chapter?

Or in the dividers between sections of a breviary, or other sacred document?

She knows why that particular flower was chosen, and what it means!

It's a niche bit of study, and she is the acknowledged master of it!

From the time she chose her thesis topic (a few years ago, to be honest!), she realized that her wardrobe made a great deal of sense if it was the black of print, the ivory of old paper, and the shades of rose and lavender that are the colors of most of the flowers. If they were colored, of course!

So when she travels to ... View the Post

Start with a Sweater: An L.L.Bean Fair Isle Sweater, and a 1 Piece at a Time travel wardrobe

December 10, 2021

I am asked 2 questions pretty often - how do you build a wardrobe around a specific garment, and how do you decide WHAT to pack?

This post is going to try to answer both questions!

First up, let's start with this classic sweater, perfect for this time of year in much of the Northern Hemisphere:

For me, the 1st step is to look, really look CAREFULLY, at the colors in our focus garment. You're looking for the easily seen, visible at a moderate distance colors.

Like these:

By now, you know full well that I'm going to go a bit nuts emphasizing how important your travel outfit is - you could easily have to wear it for 36 hours, so you need to love every stitch of it!

It's an obvious ... View the Post