The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe Starting with Art: a Buddhist Kesa

This was a little bit more challenging than I expected it to be! Finding these colors was surprisingly difficult... 

It's just a small exhibit - maybe 28 items? - but if you have a chance to come to Chicago, to the Art Institute, before February 14th, you won't be disappointed. The exhibit displays only a few of their collection of Buddhist kesa, but they're beautiful. And because this is a "minor" exhibit, in the basement area of the museum, it's usually quiet, and uncrowded (bordering on empty). Very restful, very inspiring, very wonderful way to spend an hour!

I considered using the burgundy as the first neutral, but I think that this olive/sage green is more readily available through more of the year. This kind of color is a ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe Starting With Art: A Porcelain Figurine Version 2

January 12, 2016  

Today's capsule wardrobe is a bit more casual, with a bit of influence from the aesthetics of the figurine; these kinds of things have to be approached carefully, because I don't want to do any egregious cultural appropriation! It's sort of like when people would visit Ireland (when I lived there) and dress all in green, and walk around saying "top of the mornin' to ya...." So I took notes from the fluidity of the figure for some more draped and/or wrapped garments, shamelessly grabbed some pearls, tossed in a really amazing brooch, and included a very origami tote bag. This would be a great addition to the earlier wardrobe - most of these pieces would blend seamlessly with the other garments. Having a ... View the Post

How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe Starting With Art: A Porcelain Figurine

January 9, 2016  

Part of this request was rather standard - someone returning to the workforce, and wanting a 4 by 4 capsule wardrobe based on a navy suit, with grey accents. Very sensible, and something that many of us can find useful, or at least fun to admire.But the real zinger: She drew her inspiration for the colors from a figurine in her bedroom! This clearly means something very special to her, eh?

I stuck with the color scheme she suggested - a lot of navy, accents of the deep red/burgundy, and gray, shading to soft blue:

While many jobs no longer require a suit, it's worth remember that there are still places that REQUIRE them. In order to get the most mileage possible from purchases, I found (after quite a bit ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dantis Amor by Rossetti – Step 3

October 30, 2015  

Now the fun starts! The clothes from yesterday are certainly very nice, if not mind-bending, but in order to give things just a touch of zest, and a sense of finish, some well-chosen accessories are imperative! (well, shoes are imperative, even if you never wear a scarf or a piece of jewelry; when pressed to offer up what piece of clothing every woman, without exception, should own, the only thing I can honestly think of is shoes...)Reminders of our basic style source, and the clothes with which we're working:

 

 

As I said, shoes first! I always look for something comfortable - that's completely NOT negotiable. When men start wearing uncomfortable shoes, I will too. In the meantime, my ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dantis Amor by Rossetti – Step 2

October 29, 2015   Okay, now that we have our color scheme, we'll need to start picking clothes!  

As always, I'm going to start with the neutrals, since they're the really essential foundation garments for your 4 by 4 wardrobe. First up, the elusive camel, or vicuna, or caramel, or walnut (although I think of walnut as darker), or amber, or whatever else this color might be called. This is one of the essential qualities that you have to bring to the clothing search - a real flexibility in how you describe what you want! And look outside your normal comfort zone - Google images and see what comes up. 

This turned out to be a tremendously tough color to find, unless you were interested in spending four ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Pigs on the Wing by wrq.e.d. Version 2

October 22, 2015  

While the first colors that I saw in the scarf were greys and black, there's definitely enough beige and brown here to work with; maybe I see black and grey first because that's my personal capsule wardrobe focus?But this time, this is the color scheme. I like giving myself the full range of the blues and browns as options, I think it works well with the scarf, and makes the blending of different shades of one color possible. While there are a few colors that need to be matched pretty closely, others can blend all over the place and work well - I think brown is one of those!

I didn't mention this, but the border of this scarf reads:

"my song was out of tune, my voice was cracked, but at least no chorus ... View the Post

Building a CONSERVATIVE BUSINESS Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 23, 2015  

One last visit with our friend who spent so many years taking care of her family...

  A Well-Deserved Move Up... She put her head down, learned everything she could, pitched in wherever she was needed, and became more productive and more indispensable every day. She didn't complain about menial tasks, nor repetitious projects. She was pleasant but not ingratiating, helpful but not servile, and intelligent without making anyone want to whap her in the head. She was, in short, a dream employee.

Of course she was - she was mature enough to know what really matters!

So one day, when the manager wanted to talk to her, she had no concerns that she was in trouble for something.

And in fact, it was ... View the Post

Building a BUSINESS CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 22, 2015  

Let's come back to this great painting and color scheme, and see what our wonderful care-giver is up to... 

  A Shift of Focus As time passed, our care giver discovered that her responsibilities gradually diminished. Her parents were in a facility that gave them the kind of attention they deserved, after their life of work and service. Her children were grown and starting their own lives as adults. And her husband - like all of the best life partners - only wanted for her to be happy and fulfilled.

So she decided to get a job...

First thing was to make sure she had something interview-worthy, so she found a navy skirt that she could wear with her navy blazer. While the fabrics are very ... View the Post

Building a CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Festival in Montmartre by Gino Severini

September 21, 2015   I love this painting; it lives just down the street from me at the Art Institute of Chicago. Severini isn't well-known, and I think that's a shame - his Cubist works are lovely...  

This painting lends itself to a color scheme firmly grounded in versatile neutrals, but sparked with some extraordinary accent colors. In addition to the pink and blue that I've chosen, you've got some beautiful yellow, a hint of true red, and some aqua too!

Care-giving as Art  She took care of them all - children, spouse, parents, neighbors, and never missed a beat...

And she always looked lovely while doing so! Never over-done or fussy, and ALWAYS appropriate to the occasion and the activities. But ... View the Post

Building a DRESSY Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

One last look at our beautiful art, and the very unusual, but workable, color scheme that I chose from it: 

You Must Always Look Elegant and Refined That's what they told her when she accepted the position. They even give her a clothing allowance any time they change the color scheme of the business, which is every 4 to 6 months, sometimes more often!

But she's clever, and knows that they aren't going to ask for receipts, so she chooses timeless, elegant, classic clothes that might be "recyclable" into a later scheme...

Cashmere cardigan – Uniqlo; wool skirt – J. Crew; Silk shirt – Stella McCartney; trousers – J. Crew  

She knows that a simple ivory silk blouse might be usable in any number of different "aesthetic ... View the Post

Building a BUSINESS CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 11, 2015

Yesterday, I put together what I thought was a pretty casual wardrobe, based on this painting. It wasn't the MOST casual thing imaginable - it included skirts and nice sweaters - but it would certainly be appropriate for most non-work activities that didn't include garage cleaning, painting, or basement mucking...This is our art, and our color scheme:

 

In order to take yesterday's wardrobe to work, I upgraded the skirt and the pants from the more casual cotton to nicer wool pieces. Depending on how casual your office actually is, you might easily have been able to wear yesterday's pieces to work too!

For the off white - same thing; the tops were keepers, but the skirt and pants were moved to slightly ... View the Post

Building a CASUAL Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: A Bridge in a Snowy Landscape by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 10, 2015

It's a question that comes up from time to time, and I'm long overdue to respond: "does the color scheme dictate the level of dressiness?" I don't think so, although I can easily see how it might seem logical. Often, by the time I've incorporated the aesthetics of a piece of art into a particular wardrobe, it can seem like there was no other POSSIBLE way that it could have gone. But in fact, I think that there's a lot of versatility possible in most color schemes.

Let's start with this simple, but gorgeous, little work, submitted for our consideration by Belovedest!

 

This gives us the possibilities of every sort of cream, ivory, off-white etc. shading through to any depth of warm grey we want. The ... View the Post