hot pink Archives

Analyzing the Six-Pack – Start with a Scarf: Royal Tulips by Katchmagic London

January 13, 2023

She's going to be really methodical about this...

And we are going to listen in to her brain, to see what we can learn...

First, she chooses her current favorite scarf as her inspiration, and then isolates what her accent colors will be:

Hmm... packing six garments and wearing 3 on the train/plane/bus means that she will have a total of 9 garments with her on her trip. She pictures it like this:

Her first outfit is straightforward - dark pants to avoid the mini-drama of spills. A warm cardigan that's pretty bulky to pack, so she chooses to wear it. And a bright tee shirt to bring color and life to her face...

She will almost certainly wear her inspiration scarf too!

Next, she chooses the ... View the Post

Start with a Bracelet – Shine On by Fierce Lynx Designs

October 14, 2020 We Want to Record Your Acceptance Speech...

Well... it's one thing entirely to win an award in the middle of a pandemic, but quite another to be invited into the city for the weekend...

But they offered a hotel room for Friday, Saturday AND Sunday night, if she could come into the recording studio for an hour or so and record a video that they could use when they announced all of the winners. So into the city they go!

Her original plan was to use 2 accent colors, but she struggled and STRUGGLED to find a good "bridge" garment or scarf, so she finally just threw her hands up in the air and decided on a full-tilt pink and black weekend!

Sometimes you have to know when you aren't going to find the right ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting Foxes by Becky Kelley

October 7, 2020 The Sculpture Bienniale is OUTDOORS... And it's expected to rain the entire week. So guess who gets to go?

Yep, the heroine that we've seen before, visiting a small museum before a client's show, and then at a multi-artist show, looking for new clients...

She's a fan of a bright, bright color palette!

She knows, without doubt, that someone is going to be wading through the mud in 7 inch heels (probably in some animal print!) and will SNAP them off, about 15 seconds after they arrive. And they will make a BIG spectacle of the whole process...

Not for her; she understands that you can stand out in a crowd, be your own person etc etc without dressing inappropriately for the weather and the resulting ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Teal and Hot Pink Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 12, 2020

It seemed like a good idea - take a couple of the scarves from yesterday, along with the accessories, and see how they would work for a travel capsule wardrobe. So let's go!

There are the 2 scarves that are going to be the starting point for this wardrobe:

First up, I added a tank top to both of these Accessory Families, so that the accent colors would be well-represented in the clothing for this trip...

Navy would be a lovely neutral with these 2 accents, but I thought that I'd go full-on summer with beige and white:

This would be such an easy trip - travel wearing the beige cardigan and pants, and the beige espadrilles, with any of the 4 tops. Pack the other 6 garments and the accessories, and ... View the Post

Start with Art: My favorite puppy’s Life by Fiona Rae

May 7, 2020

The capitalization of the painting is the artist's; artists see things in ways we hope to learn, some day...

While there are quite a few really fun colors in this painting, any heroine worth her salt knows that you've got to limit yourself a bit, at least at the start of a wardrobe "build."

First up, our wise heroine decides to make certain that she has a solid base for her wardrobe in navy and white:

Her heart was SET on hot pink and purple... but the marketplace of clothing didn't really help her out much!

This is one of the hardest parts of putting together any wardrobe - deciding that you KNOW what you want, but then finding that your lovely dreams are not readily available in the retail ... View the Post

How to Focus and Refine a Pretty Good Wardrobe

I am asked this question more frequently than I might have expected - it goes kind of like this: "I really like my wardrobe, for the most part, but I feel like I don't really have a good focus or defined style...."That's tough to address, but I'm going to give it a try!

Let's start with this wardrobe; frankly, it looks pretty nice just like this!

My first thought is to sort all of the clothes by function, to see if maybe our heroine doesn't have enough pants, or needs a couple of tee shirts - that sort of solution would be pretty straightforward! But this wardrobe seems pretty well-balanced for functionality...

My next thought is to see if we can gain some insights into our heroine's preferences by sorting her wardrobe by ... View the Post

Can You Expand a Successful Travel Wardrobe? Revisiting Start with Art – Vernal Yellow by Lee Krasner

November 20, 2017

It might be the time of year, but I'm feeling very nostalgic about looking back through old posts here on The Vivienne Files! So when I was asked to revisit my little tale about an eloping couple, I couldn't resist the chance...

Here's where we left our heroine - wandering around Paris with her new spouse, smiling like a crazy lady, and making everyone around her smile...

They've decided that they want to go back to Paris for a long-ish weekend - maybe 5 days? But they want to be MUCH more casual this time! So she goes back to her original inspiration:

First, she looks at what she already has. PLENTY of bags, I'd say, and quite a few pairs of shoes. I have a feeling that this particular heroine rather ... View the Post

How to Accessorize a Navy-Based Fall Capsule Wardrobe – Start with Nature Central Cygnus Cloudscape

September 8, 2017

When we left our heroine on Wednesday, she had a tidy 16-piece wardrobe, but no accessories!

Of course, she probably still had lots of accessories that can work really well with her new clothes; let's go piece by piece, step by step, to choose some essential additions for her...

Shoes seems really important, I'd say!

And I'm going to be really practical and get her a bag pronto!

Now a bit of fun - some stars!

Scarves! Always remember that you might find the perfect scarf in an unexpected place - someplace you don't usually visit...

Don't discount the impact of a great watch... (yes, that last watch doesn't go with everything in this wardrobe, but if you were the kind of woman who didn't ... View the Post

A Birthday Surprise for a Special Girl…

June 23, 2017

My great-niece is a big fan of pink and purple, so this flashback is for her... I was delighted to note that a few of these pieces are still available!

Look closely at the scarf - do you see the horses with the riders on them? You might want to do some enlarging...

This was a pretty great wardrobe - chock full of cheerful bright colors and a few really bold prints! It requires a certain woman, but she would certainly stand out in any crowd!

Sorry to spring 2 "flash backs" on you on 2 consecutive days, but when I was reminded of Kiki's birthday, I could NOT avoid pink and purple. It's a little girl imperative!

love, Janice ... View the Post

How to Pack for a Quick, Dressy Trip? Start with a Scarf…

June 15, 2017 Her Favorite Artist Everybody probably has one that they like the most, but this is the one about whom she wrote EVERY English language essay she had to write, all through high school and college.

She has framed posters in her home. She's read the biographies. She even listens to music that was supposed to be the artist's favorite.

And now there's an exhibition.... IN MADRID.

She has no vacation time to take. Okay, maybe 2 days...

But she has some airline miles to spend...

And enough money for a few hotel nights...

And enough money for a couple of AMAZING dinners...

Yes, she's going alone. Nobody else is going to want to spend 2 solid days in 1 museum...

Well okay, she might ... View the Post

NEVER Wear Pink and Orange Together??? Humbug… Accenting Navy and Beige with Unexpected Bright Colors

June 1, 2017

Big important notice - the "Six Scarves, Six Wardrobes, over 12 Months" post for June will be here tomorrow! I hope! The Internet in my building (yes my entire building!) has been off and on, as they work on it... Don't they know that we have important blogging to do? Knuckleheads...

In case you haven't seen the earlier versions of the navy and beige summer wardrobes, you can find the one accented with dark camel and moss green here, and the first one with accents of mint and lavender here.

Today's colors just jump off of the screen:

Just for the benefit of those among us who are joining this adventure in progress, this is the neutral starting point - a half-dozen core pieces around which I will try to build a ... View the Post

How Can You Pack a Foolproof Travel Wardrobe? Use the Whatever’s Clean System!

May 9, 2017

I can always tell when a lot of you are planning travel because I start to see more and more emails with packing questions. Many people want a wardrobe that they don't really have to think about once they've arrived at their destination; that's why I cooked up the idea of a "Whatever's Clean" Wardrobe. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to pull any available garments from these wardrobes and assemble a reasonably presentable outfit. Certainly, some combinations are going to be better than others, and you're going to like some outfits more than others, but overall, you've got mountains of flexibility, after doing a bit of strategic thinking...

First off, let's start with a great color inspiration - ... View the Post