The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Four by Four Archives - Page 8 of 12

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

Build a Capsule Wardrobe Starting with a Scarf: Silvie Shadow by Ted Baker

August 28, 2015   If you are a fan of floral prints, get yourself to the Ted Baker site... I stopped into his store in Chicago on Saturday, and it was an oasis of beautiful floral fabrics. His items sell out really quickly, so if you see something that really grabs you, it's worth acting quickly. The prints are intricate, beautifully rendered, in lovely fabrics, and very feminine without being at all prissy or twee. Gorgeous...  

Silvie Shadow Floral scarf – Ted Baker  

There are at least a couple more colors that I could have pulled from here - there are touches of apricot, and of course a soft white would be ideal - but this is what I'm working with:

You don't dress like a scientist... She has like ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Still Life with Apples by Henri Matisse

  August 5, 2015   As soon as I saw this painting, I knew we were going to have some fun. I really admire the juxtaposition of the very traditional navy and grey with the striking, almost shocking, colors of the apples. That Matisse knew what he was doing...  

  If I were to expand this wardrobe further, I would pull in more shades of grey, and a wider range of blues... so many possibilities just from this limited palette.

  Just the slightest suggest of unplumbed depths...

The subject of her came up before the Director's meeting started. It wasn't anything that they could actually put their finger on; they agreed that nobody in the room had ever even seen her knees!

She was always dressed ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Northern Flicker

August 4, 2015 When your wardrobe plan gets difficult When I received a note about building a wardrobe around the coloring of a Northern Flicker, I was really excited; taupe and black, with accents of orange? What's not to love?

But as most of us have found, it's one thing to choose and truly commit to a color scheme, and quite another to actually FIND the items that you envision. These beautiful shades of taupe are pretty straightforward to find in winter clothing, but to find them for summer was quite another story!

I specifically chose this photograph because it gives us two really great, and complementary, accent colors to mix in with the taupe and black. At this point in this project, I was filled with enthusiasm, and ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Hermes Cavaliers du Caucase

  August 3, 2015   She never thought she'd be a mom of teenagers in her sixties. But life intervened in the form of two precious and adoptable kids. She has a more casual lifestyle now, but she still loves beautiful clothes. Call her style casual luxe. Her life is all about her children, but she does allow herself a few treasured indulgences...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every plan she ever had for her life has fallen completely apart.

She's never been happier....

This, by the way, is a true story; the first 4 sentences are a direct quote from the wonderful woman herself!

love, Janice

  ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting With Art: The Boating Party, by Mary Cassatt

August 1, 2015   "Mom wants us all to come down for the Regatta... I know we said that after the kids quit sailing we wouldn't go, but I think it would really mean a lot to my mother."     Well, that's a loaded invitation, isn't it? But that's okay, you know she misses her only child, and that she cherishes her memories of Regattas from years past...   "Of course we can go. I'm assuming that we'll be there for the entire week?"

   

yes, you're a saint...    

    While navy isn't the color that covers the most area of this painting, it's definitely the "anchor" ***cough, cough*** color here.    

Same thing with white - especially when you're ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Rose Garden by Ute Laum

July 29, 2015

I am really glad that I asked you all to send me painting suggestions - otherwise, I would never have seen this gorgeous thing!

The Rose Garden by Ute Laum is an example of a painting in which the camel/cognac plays a very small, but absolutely essential, role. None of the other colors would have nearly the same impact if the golden touches were missing.

Today, I'm sorry there's no story, but I've received so many requests for travel wardrobes that I feel like I should address the overall logic or philosophy of putting together a travel capsule wardrobe. There's probably no way that I'm ever going to be able to answer all of the travel questions I receive, so I think an overview of how I think about travel ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Camposanto by J.M.W. Turner

July 7, 2015   To the seaside!!!  Everyone told you that you couldn't have purple as your favorite color for your entire life - but YOU know better...  

  Did you have a favorite color as a child? I never really did, but I always wore my older sister's clothes, so it's maybe just as well that I didn't have strong feelings about it!   love, Janice ... View the Post

Another Template for The 4 by 4 Capsule Wardrobe

It's apparent, when you look back through years of The Vivienne Files, that my thinking about some concepts... evolves... the more I work with them. Foremost among the ideas that have gone through some changes is the Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe. But I'm pretty settled on how I think this best comes together, (finally...) so I built a template from which we can all work, in the future.

You should be able to "right click" on this baby and print it, but if you can't, just send me a note at [email protected], and I'll send it to you.

It felt really odd to work on a document in "portrait orientation"... but it fits much better this way!

And yes, I'm going right back to the navy and beige "Whatever's Clean 13", with some ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Stone: Unakite Jewelry

May 19, 2015   This was an intriguing request - one of you has fallen for jewelry with the stone unakite, and wanted to build their summer work capsule wardrobe (relaxed environment) around their jewelry!   This was some of the jewelry I found:  

One of the first things that I noted was that the accent color in the stone ranges from dark red and terra cotta to a much lighter and more delicate peach or apricot. While we could certainly go either direction, I opted for the lighter shade, to serve as a background for the design of the jewelry.

 

We wanted really simple clothes, so I found three "Cores of Four" in the three non-accent colors.

 

Here's where things got ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Joss Sticks, a Silk Story Scarf

May 14, 2015   A local scarf maker - she travels, takes the photographs, makes the scarf, writes the story behind the scarf, and shares it with all of us! You must visit her site...  

I've used shades of brown, a warm beige, and that divine red:  

This is a Four by Four wardrobe meant to break rules - starting with a printed skirt! This isn't always something I'd recommend, but in this case, the skirt was irresistible, and it didn't interfere with the versatility and the options inherent in this capsule wardrobe.

 

And I'm working with two shades of the 2nd neutral. This is also a variance from my usual pretty strict adherence to one color, but as with the printed skirt, these two shades ... View the Post

Start With a Scarf: Orange Hermes Art des Steppes

May 13, 2015   It's never too late to pull out a scarf that you've owned for years and recommit yourself to building around it, and wearing it more! One of you has been living with, and loving, this scarf (a cashmere and silk blend wrap) for quite a while, but feel like there's more to be done with this lovely thing.  

My first move with any scarf is to take a good look at it, from a distance, with my eyes squinting, and see what neutral colors seem prominent to me. I then look for colors that "jump out" - those are accents. This is the color scheme that I saw in this scarf. Bear in mind that I could easily find more colors - there's no one "correct" color scheme here!  

I'm thinking of this scarf for ... View the Post