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Capsule Wardrobe Project 333 Autumn 2014 – I’m IN!

September 6, 2014

No, it's nowhere NEAR cool enough to wear autumn clothes in Chicago - I think right now the temperature could be around 90, the humidity nears 3 digits (I swear it goes over 100% - it's like swimming in a bathtub...) and we're going to get thunderstorms any time now. But I am travelling very soon to cooler climes, and it's only reasonable to be prepared when the weather whiplashes us into cold, as it will...My clothing requirements become more and more simple; after I spend eight hours a day looking at thousands of garments and accessories for The Vivienne Files, I only want to wear black or grey. Maybe some pearl jewelry. Maybe a scarf! I now understand why some fashion designers wear ... View the Post

Start With Art: The Magpie by Claude Monet

September 4, 2014 In our mythical leisure, Belovedest and I watch art courses from The Great Courses. Our current course is The World's Greatest Paintings, in which we studied at some length the beauties of this:

Talk about mixing warm and cool colors to great effect! I was irresistibly drawn to use this as a Start With Art subject. Note one really interesting innovation that I'm trying: rather than attempt to nail down two specific browns and greys, or one color to represent the damp and frozen branches, slats on the gate, and branches in the fence, I'm working with a spectrum of brown to darkest grey. Doing this frees you up to build a wardrobe around any color that might be found in the ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Capsule Wardrobe in Burgundy, Pearl Grey, Black and Petrol Blue

September 3, 2014 I love burgundy - it has subtlety and richness, while still maintaining the complexion-flattering qualities that it shares with red, pink, peach, and all of those rosy-ish shades. For those of us gradually migrating away from black, and toward grey in our capsule wardrobes, I could see that burgundy would be a very wise accent color to consider for those days when we're feeling a bit pale.

This is a pretty casual wardrobe - no skirts...

In my mind, this color is distinctly different from the color of denim - it has more grey to it. It's a very difficult color to find - if you're a fan of petrol, definitely also look for slate blue, smoky blue, and dusky blue.

This ... View the Post

Adding a “Pantone” Accent Color to a 4 by 4 Capsule Wardrobe: Mauve Mist

August 30, 2014

What do you do with a Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe if you want to dabble in a currently trendy accent color? This has been asked a couple of times in the last few days, and I think it's a pretty important thing to think about; we all know that stores will show colors WAAAAAY outside of our plan...

This applies to those of us will well-established Four by Four Wardrobes, and for any of us who are still considering what to use for accent colors. If you have a wardrobe that includes a LOT of your neutrals, sampling a seasonal neutral is a good way to give yourself some variety without breaking the bank.

I actually put together a little (relatively) document that shows all ten of this seasons "new" colors, ... View the Post

A 4 by 4 Capsule Wardrobe in Smoky Blue, Pearl Grey, Navy and Grey

August 27, 2014 The same core of navy and grey looks a LOT different when the accent colors are soft and subtle!

I think this demonstrates that you can invest in a core of neutral colors, and then, as your preferences and tastes (and personal coloring...) change, you can shift into a different "feel" of accent colors, without having to completely redo your wardrobe.

I changed out a couple of these tops, in order to soften up some of the more crisp colors and graphics of earlier wardrobes.

Realistically, if you've chosen pearl grey as one of your accents, you've opened the lovely door to all shades of grey in your wardrobe. Grey is a great color ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Bright Blue, Ultra-Violet, Navy and Grey

August 26, 2014

This capsule wardrobe is a perfect case study in having to be really patient in the search for the accent colors! While navy and grey are pretty readily available, these particular beautiful, vivid shades of blue and violet were quite difficult to find! But that's okay - you've lived this far into your life with your current wardrobe, and even if you only have the navy and grey pieces of this wardrobe for quite a while, you've got plenty of options. If you settle for something that's close, but not exactly right, then you won't love your new clothes any more than you love your existing wardrobe, and that accomplishes nothing for anybody except the retailers!Here's our color ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Mint Green, Grey, Denim and Brown

August 21, 2014

I've decided to change up the order of the colors in the titles, so that when we scan through a large number of them, the accent colors will be better emphasized. They are, theoretically, where the fun it! So one of you (you know who you are, you scamp!) fell in love with a deeply INAPPROPRIATE scarf:

I would do hideously inappropriate things for this scarf in grey and pink, so I understand...

So this lovely scamp had pretty much committed to a color scheme with two neutrals of denim blue (not necessarily denim FABRIC, but that blue), and brown. Her first accent color was planned to be grey, and she had not settled on a 2nd accent. I proposed this color scheme to ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Brown, Grey, Green and Gold

August 16, 2014

One last visit to these four grey garments - this time, a entirely different color scheme!

Making grey work with otherwise warm colors isn't difficult if you keep a few simple things in mind. In order to make everything hang together here, I made sure that the accessories mixed cool and warm. For example, the brown linen bracelet has silver beads, the smoky quartz earrings are set in sterling, rather than the most obvious gold, the brown leather band is on a stainless steel watch - even the grey boots have brown heels!

These little touches make a lot of difference to the way things look to me...

Today, let's start with the colors:

Starting with the brown ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Denim, Grey, Pink and Rose

August 15, 2014

The same grey clothes are going to get a bit more mileage - this time, combined with denim, and softest shades of pink and a kind of lavender-ish rose. When I built this color scheme, my thinking was that when the accent colors are so closet together and have so much the similar feeling and mood, that it sort of gives you the freedom to use any color within that entire family.First up, the finished capsule wardrobe:

This is the color scheme, with that absolutely annoying grey that will NOT show up well once it's transferred into a PDF. Sheesh....

When using denim as one of your neutrals, it's can be helpful if some of the denim has some texture or pattern, so that ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Grey, Camel and Cream

August 14, 2014

Yesterday, someone asked if it was possible to change the colors in the Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe.

Well, yes, I plan to show a whole BUNCH of these so that we can see some of the color schemes from The Vivienne Files Color Planner in action. (that's why I asked which combinations are your favorites; so I can work specifically with them)

All of yesterday's grey garments are still here, but the other three colors have been switched. If I were building this wardrobe for myself, I would ABSOLUTELY buy the scarf first and then very gradually build around it. This is a scarf that would be an ideal long-term focal object for all purchases; the colors and the design are just that perfect!

This is the capsule ... View the Post

A Four by Four Capsule Wardrobe in Navy, Grey, Teal and Burgundy

August 13, 2014

The Four by Four capsule wardrobe - in which you focus on four garments at a time - is a great way to move toward a complete wardrobe when you can't face a ton of shopping at one time. The fours can easily be pulled from your Step by Step Capsule Wardrobe; this is sort of Step by Step with lots of resting in between steps!

One of the great beauties of Four by Four is that sixteen garments, plus accessories, is a great quantity of clothes for travel...

While these sixteen items could be purchased in any order or combination, I've got to admit that I would be VERY tempted to get all of the solid navy pieces at the same time, and maybe even from the same place. Navy is not a color that can just be ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Nature: Pigeons

July 23, 2014

I have to confess, I think pigeons are beautiful. Annoying little sky rats, yes, but beautiful; their shades of grey, with iridescent green and purple...

So when I was asked to build a wardrobe based on a photograph of a pigeon, I was happy to do so. But there's no way I'm addressing those red eyes!

I think this makes a lovely wardrobe...

love, Janice

... View the Post