Four by Four Archives - Page 4 of 12

Can I Use Denim in Place of… ? Substituting Denim for Olive Grey in a Four by Four Wardrobe

February 22, 2017

You asked, and it was a really intelligent question - can I use denim in place of olive green, in a wardrobe from The Vivienne Files?

Heck yes! Neutral colors can be interchanged, especially in casual wardrobes in which rigorous color matching isn't terribly important. Let's recreate a recent wardrobe and make this substitution, to see how it works out.

First up - remember this amazing painting by Salvador Dali? I've changed the associated color palette to include the denim that we want:

I'm starting from the same point as before - a solid core of grey garments:

The first difference is immediate - instead of the olive tee shirt from before, I found a shirt that feels very denim-ish!

Tee – ... View the Post

How to Choose Accessories for an Olive and Grey Wardrobe – Start with Art: Head of a Woman by Dali

February 17, 2017

Yesterday, I finally got up the courage to tackle a wardrobe based in olive and grey, and it turned out pretty great, I think. it was based on this most amazing painting by Salvador Dali and color scheme:

But a simple wardrobe isn't really useful, nor fun, until you add the accessories...

Cardigan – L.L.Bean; tee - Uniqlo; jeans – L.L.Bean; Top loafers – Dansko; middle – Dansko; bottom – UGG Feminine is Where You Find It She works outdoors quite a bit - half the time in the lab, and half the time sitting on the ground, counting the plants and animals she finds in a 1 meter square of virgin ground.

Cardigan – L.L.Bean; tee - Uniqlo; jeans – L.L.Bean; First earrings – Kenari; ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe with Olive and Grey – Start with Art: Head of a Woman by Salvador Dali

February 16, 2017

I've been asked repeatedly to look at grey and olive together in a wardrobe, and I finally found a painting that put a really interesting spin on those 2 colors:

The colors in "Head of a Woman" by Salvador Dali are amazing - a huge variety of neutrals, including olive, grey, black, shades of brown, and even a bit of faded denim blue. But it's that pink that really sets this apart!

Just to give us a different look at how to go about building a 4x4 wardrobe 1 piece at a time, I'm starting with four of the grey garments that we've been using in wardrobes for the last few days. My thinking is that you might already own a pretty good core of one neutral, but be stuck as to the steps to take to incorporate your ... View the Post

Expanding a Travel Capsule Wardrobe: Winter Scene in Moonlight by Henry Farrer

January 20, 2017

This is such a lovely painting, and such a truly simple and straightforward color-scheme:

When we first visited this painting, it was to help inspire a cold-weather long weekend in the country. This was the wardrobe (minus the nightgown!) that our heroine packed. Many of you asked me if it would be possible to expand this wardrobe a little bit, into a more complete winter wardrobe; I'm ALWAYS happy to try to oblige!

That translates into half of a Four by Four Wardrobe, arrayed this way:

As much as that star cardigan could be worn every (cold) day for a decade and not grow old; it only makes sense to have at least a couple of cardigans for the colder weather. A zipped black cashmere ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Olive-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 9, 2016 The wardrobe is as far from colors that I wear as is physically possible, but I still think it's really nice - very well-balanced, lots of attractive choices, and a wide range of ways to pull outfits together.

I'm always surprised to see how organized these wardrobes turn out to be, even though I made choices for a lot of months based on things that just interested me, or that I found attractive. In this wardrobe example, the Four by Four wardrobe possibilities were really easy to find:

When we look at this wardrobe in terms of how well it serves the owner for a range of activities, through a full year of weather, the only real "blanks" I see are in the area of very dressy activities. ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a Navy-Based Capsule Wardrobe: An Evaluation

December 1, 2016

Back in November, when we left this wardrobe, it was in pretty good shape. Eleven outfits had been collected into a pretty coherent, and pretty comprehensive, capsule wardrobe that would see most people through a great many of their activities:

As I've said before, no wardrobe is ever really finished. Clothes wear out, or get damaged. Our sizes change, and sometimes, we just plain get completely fed up with a garment that we've worn a lot, and feel the need to replace it. So it's useful to have a few different ways to really look at a wardrobe and determine what might be needed, or useful, or helpful, to add. I thought of a couple of different ways to evaluate things...

First off, I thought that ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Portrait of Marevna by Diego Rivera

September 23, 2016 A calm, balanced woman, able to see all sides of an issue.... Remember her from the class reunion? This was her visual cue:

When we met her at the reunion, this was what she had with her to wear; she was deftly straddling the divide between warm and cool colors:

Just a few days later, she's headed to Europe for a 10-day... attempt to talk some more extreme individuals down off of a political ledge. It's all pretty quiet - no fanfare...

(yes, she seriously considered packing the matching leopard shell...) She's going to have to talk to a wide variety of people, in a WIDE variety of settings. She will certainly see the inside of a conference room, but also ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

September 22, 2016

Do we remember the veterinarian from the class reunion? She was the woman who used this as her style leitmotif:

And who had packed this eclectic mix for that trip:

Since she's an expert in the study of contagious diseases in free-range ruminants (someone's got to study these things!) she's been invited to an extensive symposium on lifestock health being held at a major university. Thus, she's going to be gone for a while, and is going to need some additional things to wear:

Flannel shirt – Uniqlo; earrings – Aurelie Bidermann; brown turtleneck – Uniqlo; green turtleneck – Jardin des Orangers; cream turtleneck – Lands’ End; tee – Kettlewell; cardigan – Simply Be; scarf ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Cow’s Skull: Red White and Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

September 21, 2016 She's a medical examiner, and she's got her own, very deliberate, way of doing things! When we saw her at the class reunion, this was what she had with her:

cardigan – J. Crew; necklace – Swarovski; ring - Armenta; earrings – Alexis Bittar; scarf – Image Diary; bracelet – Alexis Bittar; scarf – Etro; watch – Movado; sweater – L.L.Bean; black and white tee – Rag & Bone; blue tee – The Mercer N.Y.; dress – Lands’ End; jeans – .L.Bean; pants – L.L.Bean; skirt – Lands’ End; handbag – Lautem; pumps – Cole Haan; boots – Munro; flats – Vaneli; tote – Orciani This is the unifying style inspiration that she uses for her appearance and image; not for just anyone, I'd ... 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 a Young Woman by Henri Regnault Part 2

September 19, 2016

Remember her? Of course you do - we first saw her as the inspiration for this six-pack capsule wardrobe in black and blue.

The CEO Travels

When she left her reunion, this was her travel capsule wardrobe:

black and white tee – Rag & Bone; bracelet – Nest;brooch – One Kings Lane; watch – Movado; necklace – Natasha Accessories; cardigan – L.L.Bean; clutch – Urban Expressions; earrings – Irene Neuwirth; square scarf – Talbots; rectangle scarf – Fraas; turquoise tee – Lands’ End; turtleneck – Armani; dress – Lands’ End; jeans – L.L.Bean; pants – L.L.Bean; skirt – Lands’ End; pumps – Cole Haan; boots – Munro; flats – Vaneli; briefcase - Eddie

She ... View the Post

My Travel Capsule Wardrobe Packing: Italy, September 2016

August 23, 2016

We're leaving for Italy in less than 2 weeks, which means I need to get this travel capsule wardrobe sorted! I'm notorious for having my suitcase out a month ahead of time...

But seriously, I should start setting things aside so that (a) I don't forget anything, and (b) I don't carelessly wear something that I want to pack, 2 days before we leave, and find that I have to do laundry at the last minute. There'll be quite enough laundry the last morning, because we like to return home to clean sheets, clean towels, and as little in the laundry bags as possible!

As always, I start with what I'm going to wear on the flight. I'm still undecided about accessories (probably an upcoming blog post?) but I know that I'm going ... View the Post