pink Archives - Page 13 of 21

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Hermes Napoleon

November 18, 2015 This is the scarf of the day:

Falling in Love, Gradually...

She knew the scarf was beautiful - rare, intricate, quite fascinating just to look at, to pick out little details that weren't apparent when the scarf was being worn...

But it took her a while to realize how many different ways she could wear it!

Her love for Napoleon was long-standing - she has the "bee" jewelry to prove it. So she started carefully, gradually, wearing her gorgeous scarf with a simple brown dress (but NOT with the matching fabric belt!), and then with a white sweatshirt and her brown corduroy pants. Every time she put it on, she loved it a bit more...

Dress – River Island; brown earrings – Fornash; gold belt – MICHAEL ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Vintage Rose by Kathkath

November 13, 2015

Who wouldn't want this?

Such lovely colors....

I wanted to think more about the idea of the "Whatever's Clean 13" and different ways to go about creating a grouping that will simplify your life - at least when you're getting dressed!

So I thought I'd dig WAY back into the archives of my brain, and The Vivienne Files, for the "Not So Crazy Eights" - the idea that owning eight garments in the same color might be the smartest thing you can do.

Let's hypothesize that someone in the world is pretty committed to her black wardrobe, so the first eight aren't terribly difficult. That said, she's in a little bit of a pickle for the upcoming holiday season; her friends and family aren't the strapless sequined ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Black Dahlia by Yuh Okano

November 5, 2015

When this scarf arrived Chez Vivienne Files, I thought "there's no way on planet Janice that I'm giving this scarf away!"But of course, I managed to rein in my enthusiasm and genuine admiration for this beauty, and I'm going to give it to one of you. Leave a comment... and yes, no matter where you are in the world, you may certainly comment and be entered to win! I'll ship anywhere...

It's a crispy but sheer silk organza (?), and it's primarily black, white and shades of grey, but there's this elusive hint of pink that makes it just... riveting. You can get truly mesmerized looking at it! The size is about 6' by 1' - a nice manageable size for a big fluffy bow...Colors were so ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art – Festival in Montmartre – Version 2

September 28, 2015 So when we last visited our heroine, former family caregiver become corporate Public Relations executive, she was thriving in her new position. And it didn't go unnoticed by her employer's competition!

Headhunters began to emerge from the shrubbery...

And one day, she was called into the Director's office.

10 minutes later, she's holding a VERY large retention bonus in her hand, in exchange for her signature on a two-year contract.

VERY LARGE retention bonus.

She went back to her office. She closed the door, burst out laughing. With a bit of silly, breathless squeaking mixed in.

And she cried, just for a second.

Then she called her husband. And then the travel agent...

She ... 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 Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Cvetaeva by wrq.e.d.

September 16, 2015

Another beautiful scarf...This one, entitled Cvetaeva, is from the amazingly talented and creative team at wrq.e.d. The images include collages, ball point pen illustrations, florals, and a poem, by Marina Cvetaeva. It's written around the border: the dear art of oblivion the soul has mastered all the way. some overwhelmingly big feeling melted within my soul today. This is the wondrous object:

The first time I looked at the scarf, these were the colors that I saw. I was always envisioning this with burnished brown accessories, to reflect the beauty of the border of the scarf:

She's a Poet Yes, she earns her daily bread as an office manager for a real estate company. But if you ... 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: Understanding by Parscha Mirghawameddin

August 25, 2015 What a striking painting - a juxtaposition of colors not often found together. And they work so well... thus, the title is Understanding - these colors have found a way to live together with joy and beauty.

This is a great, uncommon color scheme - and it could easily be flipped to use a lot of the beige from the upper left areas as a neutral too!

Eyes the Color of Pond Scum Well yes, her family had always been a little bit... harsh when they teased her about her coloring. Green eyes and red hair were uncommon in her family - unseen for generations, to tell the truth...

But for decades, she's believed that her eyes held depth of beauty, and that ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Joan of Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage

August 20, 2015 French Realist painting at it's very finest...

And this suggests for us a color scheme using one of my favorite combination of neutrals: camel and grey!

Our heroine is going on a voyage, so this seems like an appropriate template around which to build her wardrobe:

Clarity, and Commitment She knew she was on the right track. Now she knew that she had to share what she knew.

It would require travel. It would require speaking to anyone who would listen. It would require unflagging confidence in the merits of her cause.

She can do this!

She knew that a pair of jeans would be handy when she was between meetings and speaking engagements; as she started to pack, this ... View the Post

A Warm Summer Common Capsule Wardrobe, with Seashell Accents

August 12, 2015

Yesterday's comments were wonderful - thanks so much for sharing all of your ideas!

Someone suggested soft pink and peach in a capsule wardrobe, and described it as feeling like being inside a seashell... HOW was I going to resist that idea?

Let's add these accents, shall we?

As a reminder, this was the original Common Wardrobe:

And these were the original accessories. These are still going to be used, and be important!

I think I've paired each new top with each of the bottoms from the original neutral wardrobe. I confess that I was getting a little bit muddled, but you get the general idea - there's everything here from very casual to "nice evening out" dressy. The long cardigan will really ... View the Post

My French 5-Piece Capsule Wardrobe for Autumn and Winter 2015. I think…

August 7, 2015

So now that THAT is settled, let's move on to the really fun stuff - adding to and dressing up (or down) A Common Wardrobe.Just for reference, or if you still haven't printed it, this is the template from which I worked for my 12-piece Common Wardrobe.

And these are the core garments with which I'm working:

black cardigan - J. Crew; black v-neck sweater - J. Crew; black cashmere turtleneck - Saks Fifth Avenue, white cotton turtleneck - L.L.Bean; black long-sleeved tee - Three Dots; grey long-sleeved tee - L.L.Bean; white shirt – J. Crew; black slouch pants - Eileen Fisher; black trousers - Eddie Bauer; black jeans - Eileen Fisher; black skirted leggings - Eileen ... 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