The Vivienne Files

Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

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Build a Whatever’s Clean 13 Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Dragonfly by Miro

January 18, 2017

Such an interesting email....

Say you live outside the United States. You're retired. The weather's always reasonably warm and nice. You only shop every year or two, when you visit in the US...

And THIS is your inspiration:

I'm really liking these colors, and this WHOLE scenario!

In the interests of establishing a solid basis upon which we can build, I'm going to assume that our heroine either owns or already plans to purchase these pieces:

Tee– L.L.Bean; cardigan – Lands’ End; capris– L.L.Bean; pants – L.L.Bean  

At this point, we've got a solid starting point, and a lot of fun things to find!

I'm ALWAYS going to recommend that you buy the sweater or tee shirt or top that goes with ... View the Post

12 Months, 12 Outfits in a A Black-Based Capsule Wardrobe – An Evaluation

December 7, 2016  

Ah, this one is closest to my normal capsule wardrobe, and to what I would buy if I had to start all over...Remember, we left this wardrobe on the first of November like this:

 

You can see the outfit-by-outfit progression of this wardrobe here: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.

Because this wardrobe is so close to my own, I wasn't really concerned that things wouldn't be reasonably well balanced. The easy assembly of a "Four by Four" capsule wardrobe supports my thoughts:  

 

I wasn't quite as certain that things would be as well-balanced for seasons and dressiness - I tend to love cold-weather clothing more than warm, and ... View the Post

The French 5-Piece Wardrobe Starts with Art: Still Life with Bouquet of Flowers and Plums by Rachel Ruysch

Dear Elizabeth, who's favorite designer is Vionnet - send me an email at [email protected] with your mailing address. You won the Mainbocher exhibit book!So what do you do if you WANT something new, but you really don't need anything? You feel the need for brightening up, for some new ideas and inspiration, for some updated options in your wardrobe... I think it's important to take these feeling seriously, and to act on them deliberately, with a clear plan and established goal. If you just start buying things willy nilly, you risk wasting money, and feeling guilty, and still not satisfying that urge that stems from something vital within you.

How about first find something beautiful to help focus that sort of  "all over the ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Red, Blue and White

October 28, 2016   It's always interesting to work with red, blue, and white in a capsule wardrobe - the challenge is to do justice to three colors that look great together, without ending up looking like someone's flag... The grey here, the 2 shades of red, and the 2 shades of blue, give us lots of options to avoid a very "bleu, blanc, rouge" kind of look. (unless that's what you want - I'm not going to tell you no!)  

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; wrap – Nordstrom  

For this very abbreviated little ensemble, I focused on just four colors. Introducing a spectrum of grey could give you a million options...

 

Scarf – Hermes Au Bout du Monde; wrap – Nordstrom   He Falls Asleep.... At ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Yellow and Red

October 21, 2016

 

Strong, classic colors, with LOTS of accent possibilities in the Hermes scarf:

But for just one night, we only need a couple of accent colors in the capsule wardrobe color palette...

 

She LIKES Carmen... But nobody else seems to... so she's going to the opera alone!

A nice pre-theater dinner is in the cards too; if she's going to do this, she's going to do it right!

 

 

And she's got a knockout brunch planned for the next morning...

love, Janice

 

  ... View the Post

Tote Bag Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, White and Red

October 17, 2016    

As you might already know, I'll be in Italy when this post goes "live"! But I've got 2 weeks of lovely capsule wardrobes lined up for you, all of them starting with a pair of scarves. From there, our protagonist is going to spend one quick (but lovely!) night somewhere...Starting NOW!

Living Beyond Breast Cancer scarf – White House Black Market; shawl – Nordstrom  

This is our color scheme, although careful scrutiny of the left scarf suggests that pink might have also been a possibility here:

Living Beyond Breast Cancer scarf – White House Black Market; shawl – Nordstrom   Barely Enough Time... Okay, she checks her watch...

Living Beyond Breast Cancer scarf – White ... View the Post

Capsule Wardrobe Color Palette – A Soupçon of Scarlet, with Six Neutrals

September 26, 2016   You asked for "soupçon," you get it!  

If you're going to have a red sweater, why not a cozy cashmere cardigan? This is one of those garments that you could keep forever, and wear it mostly for Christmas and Valentine's Day, but there are a lot of other times when it could be just the ticket. Some gloomy day in November, when the sun has never shone...

First up, scarlet and olive! This is a combination that might veer too far into the Christmas-y, if the green is too bright. (Which isn't a problem, unless you don't like the look.) However, this olive green mutes those holiday associations, and provides a good base for the brightness of the scarlet.

  I've worn red with grey for ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art Part 2: Cow’s Skull: Red White and Blue by Georgia O’Keeffe

September 21, 2016   She's a medical examiner, and she's got her own, very deliberate, way of doing things! When we saw her at the class reunion, this was what she had with her:  

cardigan – J. Crew; necklace – Swarovski; ring - Armenta; earrings – Alexis Bittar; scarf – Image Diary; bracelet – Alexis Bittar; scarf – Etro; watch – Movado; sweater – L.L.Bean; black and white tee – Rag & Bone; blue tee – The Mercer N.Y.; dress – Lands’ End; jeans – .L.Bean; pants – L.L.Bean; skirt – Lands’ End; handbag – Lautem; pumps – Cole Haan; boots – Munro; flats – Vaneli; tote – Orciani     This is the unifying style inspiration that she uses for her appearance and image; not for just anyone, I'd ... View the Post

One Red Dress in a Capsule Wardrobe: Fourteen Ways to Wear It

August 22, 2016   I love doing these... and this dress just calls my name. How can I NOT own this in black? This dress also comes in yellow (remember last week's post about a yellow dress?), black, and raspberry, which is a gorgeous rich hot pink... sigh...  

It probably doesn't amaze you to learn that when I do similar blog posts, I reuse the original template, and just make the appropriate changes. So after I went into this template and changed the dividers in the middle from red to yellow, I removed the yellow dress from every page, and just plunked the red dress in...And didn't have to change ONE THING, for these two options! How many different colors could work here? Certainly the black dress would be perfect ... View the Post

Building a Wardrobe of Bags – Accessories for the Capsule Wardrobe

August 19, 2016  

A couple of weeks ago, Belovedest and I were wandering around Chicago when we happened upon a store called The Shudio. Yes, it's a "hybrid of a retail shop full of eco conscious goods... combined with a metalsmith jewelry studio."  And yes, this is some fun...I could have purchased a lot of things, but I'm trying very hard to avoid that kind of reckless madness (especially with THREE big vacations coming up in the next year!), but I did buy a lovely little black leather wristlet, from a company called CHC. They donate 10% of their revenue to a local organization for homeless women, and all of their materials are local. Pretty nice; I was happy.

But when I got home and dug out my bag for our upcoming trip ... View the Post

Build a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Mariana by John Everett Millais

August 2, 2016  

 

  Deceptive But not in any damaging way; she doesn't meant to mislead anyone...

But in her heart, she longs for castles, and brocade hangings on stone walls...

  In reality, her life is casual. Relaxed. No need for ANY dress - certainly not a fluid, draped, swinging and swaying swath of velvet in a rich, luscious color... But she keeps these feelings in mind when she's shopping: rich colors, intricate prints, and indulgent details and trims.

  The boldest thing she might do is mix a pair of deep, saturated colors. She does dare to wear a velvet hoodie, as well as one in cashmere. They are small rebellions, but essential for her well-being.

  Her jewelry ... View the Post

A Winter Travel Capsule Wardrobe in Black, Red and White

July 29, 2016    

After yesterday's fun with packing capsule wardrobes, I couldn't resist changing the accent color, just to see how it would look! So let's revisit the first outfit, and change the shirt color from blue to red (as well as swapping out a different scarf and socks).

I've changed the earrings for something more round, so that we can look at softer or rounded shapes for prints and accent items. This, of course, will change our color scheme, too:

The 2nd outfit only sees a change of shirt and earrings - as much as I was considering a softer print for the shirt, the idea of a flannel shirt in Ireland and England just makes TOO much sense to abandon!

 

The 3rd outfit - our indoor ... View the Post