The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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How to Wear A Navy Cardigan for Spring – 8 Outfits!

April 22, 2016  

This started out as a Chic Sighting post, but after I saw the first woman, I didn't see ANYONE else... But I really like the idea of buying a new cardigan for spring and summer wear (counter-intuitive as it seems, a lot of us that are in and out of buildings during the hottest weather have to carry a cardigan or jacket at all times, to keep from freezing to death!).Here I'm working with 4 different possibilities for below the waist - white linen pants, beige linen pants, navy linen pants, and dark-wash denim pants. This gives choices that range from cool-ish spring days, to pretty doggone hot dead of summer!

Cardigan – L.L.Bean; green onyx stud earrings – Alok Jain; green & white top – Phase Eight; ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Marguerite au Chat Noir by Henri Matisse

April 18, 2016  

Yes, I saw this in Paris last week! 

Aside from the charm and beauty of Marguerite, I was immediately attracted to the colors:

  Quietly Rebellious  

Cardigan – J. Crew; pants – Boden; tee – J. Crew; skirt - A.P.C.  

She seems like the most conventional of women. Very pretty, always very nicely dressed.

 

Cardigan – Stella McCartney; jeans – L.L.Bean; tee – L.L.Bean; denim skirt – A.P.C.  

She's rather quiet, a bit shy, and well-suited to her work in the library...

 

Blue top – Part Two; ivory shimmer tee – Mint Velvet; soft teal tee – L. L. Bean; salmon sweater – Odeeh  

And yes, she owns a cat!

Tie dye tee – ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 by Georgia O’Keeffe Part 3

March 26, 2016  

Remember our friend in the cabin? She's made a bold decision...  

  WWSM (Widowed Woman Seeking Man) for sporting events, opera, symphony, dining, and whatever else we want to do... (she thought about specifying an age range for respondents, but she really doesn't care if her new friend is just out of college...)

Must be a man who appreciates simple pleasures, and is unimpressed by logos, bling, and obvious displays of wealth or debt. (if they're hanging around with her thinking that they'll get written into her will, they've got another thing coming!)

 

I will buy tickets if you do the driving! (maybe this will give them a hint that she remembers when Nixon ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 by Georgia O’Keeffe Part 2

March 25, 2016  

When we left our heroine, she was unpacking her things in her new cabin...Remember, her original wardrobe inspiration was this:

 

After a few weeks of settling in, she had met new friends and discovered a new routine of activities, interspersed with delightful leisure... And she realized that her love of wearing jeans was a reflection of her need for relaxation, which was now being fulfilled! So she decided to invest in a few new ensembles, to give herself a few more wardrobe options.

Her new home was a perfect combination of urban and rural: street lights on poles in the front, fireflies among trees in the back; city water in the front, a natural spring (far) in the back; mail delivery in the ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Denim, Stone, Pink and Soft Blue: 1 Piece at a Time

March 23, 2016  

This woman is one who really love denim, and a good sweatshirt, but who also has a side that wants a bit of the feminine, and the softly colored...Her starting "favorite" outfit:

shirt – Uniqlo; sweatshirt – H&M;  jeans – L.L.Bean; scarf – Hinge  

And this is the color scheme she has in mind. This is a really good scheme, in that the two neutrals are both typically available in a variety of casual fabrics, so they're a good "couple" to work together. And since both of the accent colors are equal in intensity and value, they will also be usable in the same situations, and very likely to appear together in prints and patterns. When your chosen colors have a certain "feeling" in common, ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932) by Georgia O’Keeffe

March 15, 2016     There are so many different ways that this painting could be interpreted, but I kept seeing denim blue...  

Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932) by Georgia O’Keeffe     Of course, I can always revisit this painting, if you're interested....      

  The Closing? She's flying out to close on the new cabin. Everyone's horrified...

Coat – Norma Kamali; crossbody bag – Phase 3; earrings – Judith Jack; socks – Polo Ralph Lauren; loafers – Cole Haan; jeans – L.L.Bean; sweater – Iris and Ink; scarf – Mosaique; watch – Movado;   duffel bag – Norma Kamali  

It's tiny. It's simple. And since she seems to have sold or donated about 90% of ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories: Navy, Beige, Turquoise and Yellow, 1 at a Time

March 14, 2016   Maybe it's the unseasonably warm weather here in Chicago, but this wardrobe felt very summery to me...  

We always have to start out with a couple of basic, essential accessories...

  I thought that I'd introduce some pearls here - to pick up on the pearl/off-white color of the cardigan. I like to tie outfits together through these small, but powerful, little color "echoes."

 

Theoretically, this particular outfit would be better balanced with dark shoes, but I'm assuming that you're going to carry a dark bag, which will serve the same purpose. Let's not go completely nuts trying to do everything perfectly!

If you're an avowed "watch avoider," you can always just ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe of Accessories, 1 at a Time: Beige, Sage and Blush

March 10, 2016  

Adding the accessories is fun  - I'm going to do a few of these in a row, so we can all see the system, and the cumulative benefits that accrue when you get a nice core of accent pieces, growing bit by bit.Here's where this second "1 at a Time" started: (you can see the original wardrobe post here)

Shoes will ALWAYS be the first thing to make sure you have, for obvious reasons. It's entirely likely that you already have the shoes that you need, but it's always wise to be absolutely certain.

 

A bag is, to me, the second most important accessory to have. This time I've put the tote bag first...

 

From those two essential pieces, everything after that becomes much more ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Cobalt, Black and Grey: 1 Piece at a Time

March 8, 2016  

I knew that I had more black and grey wardrobe requests, so I thought I'd jump on another one right away and see how much difference a change of accent colors would make.First up, the hypothetical starter outfit:

It's a pretty somber outfit, but when you drape the scarf over the shoulders of the cardigan, or loop it insouciantly under the collar of the shirt, everything changes!

 

Although this outfit includes an Hermes scarf, I imagined that this was being put together for a woman who really needed some more casual clothes. First up is to consolidate a solid column of black, as well as build a sort of fake twin-set in black.

 

Here's where we start getting much more ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Lime, Coral, Beige and Cream: 1 Piece at a Time

This is a breath of fresh air:

Shirt – L.L.Bean; skirt – H&M; cardigan – J. Crew  

And the one things that makes it ever "spring-ier" is the addition of clear bright green!

Shirt – L.L.Bean; skirt – H&M; cardigan – J. Crew  

This wardrobe really requires a solid core of neutrals to support and balance these 2 strong accent colors.

Tee - LnA  

Cardigan – L.L.Bean  

Pants – Isabel Marant Etoile  

With that solid core of cream clothes in place, your can then go just a bit crazy with accent colors!

Tee – Ralph Lauren  

Cardigan – J. Crew  

After that detour through the world of green, it's time to put together a few good options in a darker ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Brown, Camel, Cream and Turquoise: 1 Piece at a Time

March 2, 2016     I decided to pull a scarf into this one, in order to illustrate the color scheme a bit - I think that adding the scarf lends a bit of validity to the possibility that this outfit could be someone's favorite:  

  Shell – J. Crew; cardigan – J. Crew; scarf – St Petersburg Global Trade; pants – J. Crew  

 

I love the possibilities - dark chocolate, caramel, whipped cream, and.... I do NOT have anything except ugly artificially-colored sprinkles to offer in turquoise!

Shell – J. Crew; cardigan – J. Crew; scarf – St Petersburg Global Trade; pants – J. Crew  

Normally, I try to start building a wardrobe with solid garments, because they feel more ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe in Brown, Cream, Aqua and Golden Yellow: 1 Piece at a Time

February 27, 2016   Wow, this was much more difficult than I expected it to be!  

Tee – J. Crew; cardigan – J. Crew; pants – J. Crew  

This is really a great color scheme - the accent colors are sufficiently different from each other that introducing them into an outfit gives you two very different sensibilities...And I didn't set out to find so many pieces from one source, but when I found that they had matching pieces in brown, it didn't seem like a bad idea!

Tee – J. Crew; cardigan – J. Crew; pants – J. Crew  

So the matching brown pieces made it impossible to resist getting a brown shell, too. I think of this as a wardrobe that's ideally suited for changeable weather, or for those of us who have ... View the Post