The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Morris Graves/Rain by Kay Russell

January 27, 2023

This is her favorite painting:

She wants to tackle Project 333 for February, March and April! So she's starting with her favorite outfit, and with colors that she's drawn from her favorite painting.

Of course she can't include ALL of the colors in the painting; that would be overwhelming!

These were her choice:

And this is her favorite outfit, right now:

She tries to think of things that she ABSOLUTELY must wear through the rest of the winter - dark pants, and a denim shirt come to mind immediately:

Jeans? Heavens yes! And she really loves sweater vests, so she wants to include the vest that matches her blue cardigan:

There's no way she can omit her favorite outfit for outdoor ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Composition by Ernest Mancoba

January 18, 2023

She had always liked to wear ivory, bone, stone - those light, neutral colors.

And denim. ALWAYS denim...

So when she saw this:

She saw her color palette for the rest of the winter, right in front of her!

Although her favorite colors are lighter and brighter, she will include her black pants, at a minimum! Sometimes, you need dark pants...

To start, she pulls her 3 favorite outfits from her closet:

She realizes early on that she's not going to have a "Whatever's Clean" wardrobe - some of her clothes just aren't going to go together. That's fine, so long as the majority of her garments play nicely together and give her options...

An excellent pair of black pants are so ... View the Post

Part 3 December 2022: Six Scarves, 12 Months

December 7, 2022

Our last 2 heroines! I grow attached to these projects...

First, let's visit our heroine with the Chrysanthemum scarf:

This heroine isn't planning to dress up much this season - she's more interested in warm and casual!

Her wardrobe of 40 garments looks coherent and very versatile:

And her accessories are wonderful - accessories make so much difference...

Her new garments can be worn more than 2 different ways (each), but she makes certain that she has at LEAST those options...

And now to my favorite heroine - the one who figured out that wearing brown and black together is magical!

THE BLAZER. Oh great shiny chocolate-coated Buddha on a bagel, THE BLAZER...

If I could wear ... View the Post

Japanese 24 Seasons of the Year

April 25, 2022

When I started working on this post, it was pouring rain in Chicago. I mean pouring buckets and barrels and VATS of rain...

The next day, the temperature is over 20C, and quite lovely. If the wind doesn't (literally) blow you over...

Which made me realize yet again that there are really more than 4 season in the year; they've apparently always know that in Japan!

So I'm very intrigued by the idea of 24 Seasons - which are divided into 72 wee mini-seasons! I'll stick with this 24 for now, but I never rule out doing something fun with 72 seasons!

My thinking, at this early stage: an outfit for each mini-season, 3 garments. That would be a 72-garment wardrobe - considerably smaller than what I currently ... View the Post

21 Garments for 21 Days – Starting with 2 Scarves!

January 28, 2022

I don't know where the specific number - 21 - came from; if someone can point me in the right direction, I will be thrilled to credit the inventer!

But I also want to pause for a moment to consider the real intent behind all of the various "# Garments for # Days" wardrobes that are in circulation.

To me, the whole point of these is to provide a clear structure in which - for a specific period of time - you can test-drive what it feels like to have a clearly delimited, reasonably small wardrobe. 

It started - in a big way - with Project 333. 33 items total (with a handful of caveats) for 3 months. Lots of people who have tried this have come to realize that they don't need to have a huge wardrobe, and that a ... View the Post

Weekly Timeless Wardrobe #36: A Print or Pattern Neutral Top

November 22, 2021

It's getting to be that time of year when you might want to look festive, but not get really DRESSED UP... For those of us who will be celebrating the holidays with only 3 or 4 people in our household, something colorful but not "over the top" might be just the ticket!

I'm a big fan of thermal fabric tee shirts and tops - the texture is casual, but the depth of color in the weave makes them just a bit more interesting than a plain tee shirt...

If it's already quite cool where you are, it's worth considering a turtleneck! (I really wanted to make certain that all of the fans of navy were aware of this top - it's so OBVIOUS to make a dotted turtleneck, isn't it?)

You don't have to wear red and green to be ... View the Post

How Can I Find My Own, Personal, Basic Wardrobe?

November 12, 2021

Ah, I'm going to need a second to remind you of the origins of The Common Wardrobe, and why I was so taken with the idea...

I'm sitting on the sidelines of a big party - about 200 people. These lovely young people (mostly) are my co-workers at an international advertising agency. We are in Madrid, or Berlin, or Chicago - it doesn't matter.

These people are creative. In big bright letters, they are the brightest, most imaginative people I've ever known. And when you look at them, you can tell; they wear sweaters that they knit in their spare time, or shoes made by a friend, or a jacket covered with wee patches that they did to cover holes...

But under all of this amazing color, pattern and print, they were ... View the Post

Start with Art: Construction by Max Weber

October 13, 2021 Difficult...

Very early in her career, she became instantly famous (at least in architecture circles!) for her innovations in combining unexpected construction materials. She discovered new synergies of strength and flexibility that changed the industry...

Since then, she has deliberately cultivated a reputation for being a difficult partner in projects. She's actually a lovely, kind woman, but she finds that she is treated with more respect if everyone approaches her with a certain... trepidation?

Her wardrobe reflects her interest in combining things in unexpected ways; she might show up for a project summit dressed in a soft, approachable way:

But she knows that she's going to want to surprise ... View the Post

Stress Dressing Mini-Wardrobes for Changing Spring Weather

March 10, 2021

The weather is impossible right now - in the best way! After literally weeks of single-digit temperatures and mounds of snow, we're now experiencing lovely afternoons, with sun and noticeable warmth!

But what to wear? Especially if you've got your hands full and don't want to think too hard...

I'm sure you will notice that I changed a few things, but left some from our earlier adventures in Stress Dressing for cold weather. There's nothing like the stress of having to find ALL NEW THINGS for your emergency wardrobe, eh?

I gave some thought to what my general guidelines might be for choosing these pieces, although I'm pretty confident that you could sort this for yourself pretty easily:

These wardrobes ... View the Post

Searching for Balance: Start with Art – Meadow by Mainie Jellett – The 2nd Version!

March 5, 2021

Let's take another look at this painting, with a heroine who is looking for a balance of light and dark, soft and bright...

The original post is here...

Here color palette is more like this:

you'll notice that this heroine has chosen quite a few of the same garments as our heroine from a couple of weeks ago; I'm interested to see if this will work!

The pants that she's chosen as the base of her March (ish) wardrobe are a mix of darker and lighter:

From here, our heroine is going to choose 5 small, 4-piece clusters, and these 20 garments (plus 1 Wild Card choice) will make up her Garde-Robe du Mois for the next 30 days, more or less!

This will look familiar; with a great scarf or jewelry (or on ... View the Post

March 2021 – Six Scarves, 12 Months, 12 Outfits

March 1, 2021

Hurray! February is OVER....

Let's check back with our 6 heroines who are assembling wardrobes loosely along the guidelines of Start From Scratch, and trying to stick to color palettes suggested by 6 scarves.

The guidelines in Start From Scratch suggest finding a core outfit in the 2nd neutral in our wardrobes, as well as an accent top and scarf...

Starting here!

This heroine has neither grey pants, nor a black cardigan! And a tee shirt that almost matches her pink oxford will give her a chance to layer the 2 together. Filling in those gaps gives us something that's not really an outfit, but more a group of useful wardrobe additions:

It makes more sense when you see the 8 garments, plus ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Triangle Magic by Jessie Zhao New York

February 17, 2021

One of you has treated yourself! I think it's important to do that, from time to time...

(I splurged on a scarf too - I'll share a link at the end of this post...)

I'm pretty certain that our friend uses green as one of her accent colors, but I'm going to use denim blue instead - this scarf certainly gives you options!

As I've been inclined to do these days, I'm starting with a classic navy and white Common Wardrobe of 12 garments. When I talk about Common Wardrobes, I mean those classic, timeless garments that many of our wardrobes have in common...

With 12 garments in hand, anybody who wants to pull together a Garde-Robe du Mois (see Fiona Ferris for the explanation of this) just needs 9 more ... View the Post