Some Winter Thoughts

earmuffs - Pendleton

I grew up in a very snowy and cold place, so these Polar Vortexes don't completely overwhelm me, although they're pretty doggone dreadful...

My parents were particularly adept at handling the cold, and so I have a few ideas and insights that might be useful.

• Cover your head - at least your ears.  It seems really obvious, but lots of people manage to skip this part.  If your hair absolutely won't sustain a hat, at least put on some earmuffs - those bare ears sticking out of the side of your head are a freeze magnet.
• And you should avoid wearing big earrings, necklaces next to your skin, or anything metallic that touches you directly.  Metal gets cold, and cold metal against your flesh is really bad...
• Don't forget to wear sunscreen or something gooey and emollient on your skin.  The air is super-dry when it's this cold, and your skin is not going to be happy.  AND...  gooey stuff will help hold in some of your heat.

David Williams, entering the English Channel, slathered in something called Channel Swimmer's Grease.  Seriously.

• Do NOT go out with wet, or even damp hair.  I once saw someone's hair BREAK... Her very long hair was hanging down the outside of her coat, and a six-inch long chunk of it as big around as a broom handle SNAPPED OFF...  She absolutely had to have a new hairstyle the next day.  It was astonishing...
• In a similar vein, consider keeping your nails as the very shortest possible length with which you're comfortable.  Nails get really brittle in cold weather, and when you combine that with the fumble-fingered joys of cold hands, snapping off a couple of your nails INSIDE of your gloves is a definite possibility.  And a really painful headache...
• Many thin layers are as good or better than one heavy layer.  This is particularly handy if you live somewhere that doesn't merit stockpiling cashmere.
• And on that note, 2 pair of thin socks will be better than one pair of heavy ones.  And don't cram your feet into tight boots with too many socks; constructing your circulation won't help you stay warm.
• Leather soled shoes aren't the best, unless they're multiple layers like men's welt-bottomed shoes.  Thin soles on cold pavement = frostbitten toes.
• You've probably got to cover your face when you go out -  might I suggest that you tie a cotton handkerchief around your face BEFORE you put on your regular winter scarf.  It's softer, and washable, and more absorbent.  You know your eyes are going to water, and your nose is going to run.  Might as well have your hanky right there... (why don't we just quit pretending that only men need handkerchiefs?)

handkerchiefs - Nordstrom 

• Cold helps you lose weight.  Really.  Seriously.  University of Maastricht researchers published results in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism.  They theorize that the increase in obesity could result in part of the overall warming of ambient temperatures in our homes and workplaces.  Turning down the thermostat certainly saves money, will help the environment, and if it helps weight control, I'm on it!

The "Difficult" Scarf: Liberty London Ianthe Scarf

Yes, I was going to take the day off,  but I had this post finished...

 Liberty London makes this scarf is a variety of colors, some assorted sizes, and at least two different fabrics that I know of, but no matter how it's done, the Ianthe scarf is a popular classic.  But this scarf is subtle, understated, and challenging...

I really honed in on the subtlety of the coloring, and determined that very muted, dusty or milky colors would blend best.  The overall curved patterns combine to form a starburst feeling, which I wanted to hold in the back of my mind, and the very fine detailing meant that I was going to be watching for small stones in jewelry, fine but visible textures in fabric, and little finessed details that would only be apparent to the truly observant.

scarf - Liberty London

The jewelry - I'm always drawn to pearls, and the softness of the taupe pearls on the taupe cord were a natural fit.  The bracelet has the texture that I was looking for, and the great ring has both the starburst shape overall, combined with the tiny stones that give texture to the large geometric.  The brooch is sort of the same idea - it radiates out from a central motif, but has a lot of small details that lend richness and texture.  The earrings are both a perfect color, and share the starburst thought, as well as the delicate lines that make up the gold setting.

Scarf – Liberty London, pearl and silk necklace – Nikki Baker, cord and silver bead bracelet – Vivien Frank Designs, ring – Thierry Mugler, brooch – Adriana Orsini, earrings – Kalan by Suzanne Kalan

Colors have got to be subtle, for me, for this scarf.  I always look first for blue or red, and this very dusty, almost opalescent blue blouse felt right.  The watch is classic, but still has that bit of soft color that is one of my guiding aesthetics today.

For jeans, something with just the slightest bit of dusty color, along with some fun sunglasses, are balanced by the textury and soft sweater.  Woven shoes in a darker color ground the outfit without clashing or calling too much attention to themselves.

Scarf – Liberty London, silk blouse – Saint Laurent, pants – Maxmara, watch – Coach,  saddle shoes – Sebago, sunglasses – Elizabeth and James, sweater – Ted Baker, grey cotton pants – Swildens , flats – Sketchers 

And I always look for the red family - this absolutely gorgeous color would look good on pretty much anybody!  The earrings have the elongated diamonds that the scarf introduced, and the clutch share that diamond-y idea.  On the outfit on the right, notice the variety of buttons on the boots - those are the details that are the delight of the discerning...

Scarf – Liberty London, earrings – Alexis Bittar,  dress – JilSander, clutch bag – Suede, leather jacket – Alessandra Marchi, beige sweater – Theo, tweed pants – Toast, boots – Dansko

While warm weather isn't the best time to wear scarves, you can still be consistent with your aesthetic motivations - here, by wearing the colors of your scarf, as well as a bit of texture in the shorts (yes, I would wear these shorts in  New York minute...), and the bracelet reflects the black and grey tones of your inspiration scarf.  Your comfy sandals have texture too...

And a simple tee shirt in muted blue, along with soft-toned pants and ballet flats still seem to share the overall ideal that we're pursuing.  Note the starburst pattern in the earrings, and the small stone details?

Scarf – Liberty London, tank top – Uniqlo,  Bermuda shorts – Societe Anonyme, bracelet – Chan Luu, sandals – Propet, earrings – Peggy Li,  tee shirt – T by Alexander Wang,  pants – Etro, ballet flats – Pretty Ballerinas

And finally, for work, you can always get texture from a combination of sweater and skirt, and fun shoes that have a bit of small-detail sparkle...

Evening?  Let's work on the warm end of the spectrum with a blouse and pants in the same tones, and then kick it up a few miles with lacy earrings and similarly detailed pumps.

Scarf – Liberty London, sweater – Samuji, tweed skirt – Oasis, briefcase – Mandarina Duck, thinestone flats – Sperry Top-Sider,  lace earrings – Krista R.,  silk blouse – Mauro Grifoni, pants – MSGM, lace pumps – Lucy Choi London

All together, this is a great wardrobe!

 Which gives you quite a few options:

Many Small Thoughts - Collected

I often notice things that I want to remember to tell you all, but much of the time, no single thing is worth a full blog post.  So today, you get a whole bunch of relatively random factoids in one place.  ( can you believe that Spell-check did NOT reject the word factoid?)

First up, the weather in Chicago has been uniformly dreadful - bitterly cold.  But my feet has NOT been cold when I was out, and that's because I wear Bogs boots.  I  wear them with nothing but tights on my feet, and my feet don't get cold.  Ever.  It's amazing.

They're not sleek,and they're not elegant, but when you're dressed in 14 layers of clothing and you look like a walking boudin noir, warmth is all you care about, really.

Bogs - highly recommended

And I wanted to talk about mail-order catalogs.  We all get waaaaay too many of them, and we need to quit getting them.  There enters catalogchoice.org, a service which will get you OFF of mailing lists.  Think of it this way: if you receive a catalog, and you spend 2 minutes looking through it, that's 2 minutes of your life you can never get back.  You might  find something you've always desperately needed, but more likely you either don't see a thing that you need/want, or you suddenly develop a desire for something that you didn't even know EXISTED 5 minutes ago.  Either way, if you don't get the catalog, you've saved the time, the trees, and the temptation.  Register and get off those mailing lists.

Since the holidays, I've received a couple of VERY attractive clothing catalogs.  Really, really nice looking. But I decided to do a little bit of due diligence (as the finance peeps say), and I've discovered that these companies are...if not an out and out scam, at least pretty disreputable.  Bottom line: a beautiful catalog is nothing but a document - you've not seen the actual clothes,and you have no information about the company. At a minimum, do a LOT of research, pay with a credit card, and keep very close tabs on your order...

Books!  Read more!  Especially if you have an e-reader of any sort, you can get wonderful books from gutenberg.org. Free...

And if you're struggling with controlling your shopping, read

 

It will help you shop less, and to control your wardrobe for a long time to come.  A very quick read, and highly recommended.

I've stumbled upon a new internet site where one can sell or purchased clothes: thredup.com.  They send you a bag in which you can send them clothes, and then they sell them and give you a bit of a share of the proceeds.  You're not going to get rich from this, but it's a pretty effortless way to clean out your closets.  I'm curious to see how it all turns out - I'm sending them some thing...  I'll let you know.  And I see some things for sale there that look really inexpensive - it might be a very sensible place to purchase something that you don't need to wear more than once or twice.  If you have any experiences with thredup, be sure to share!

One final update - don't ever let Google automatically create your hyperlinks, or your every misspelling will be immortalized forever...

The "Difficult" Scarf: Sepia and Light Grey

 One of my friends asked me specifically to suggest some ways to wear this scarf - Musique des Spheres, from Hermes.  The scarf came out... at least 10 years ago?  And thus is only available on the secondary market, but as you can clearly see, it's a stunner.  There is NOT a pink patch in the upper left corner... I struggled to find the best image of this scarf I could, and this was what I found.

Identifying the adjectives that convey the aesthetic of this scarf is difficult - I had to think and study for quite a while.  But I found that I kept coming back to the ideas of contrast (the clarity of the lines against the background), balanced with an overall sense of muted coloring (the scarf is not pure white, and the lines are NOT pure black), and a feeling of swirling grace and curvilinear fluidity, along with the clear-cut squares and parallel lines of the music staves. Basically, lots of lines...

So when I looked at jewelry, I was drawn to the ring, because of the tones of the pearl, and the contrast of the round and square elements.  The bracelet has the same sort of greyish pearl feeling, with the strongly curving lines of the metal links. (and it's on sale!) The watch - muted contrast, a feeling of the parallel lines, and an overall delicacy that the scarf certainly demonstrates.  Maybe it's just me, but the earrings look almost like treble clef symbols with pearls dangling!  And the pearl necklace (YUM...) echoes the not quite black, almost sepia tone that's found here.   Sometimes,  I would just scroll through pages and pages of jewelry, with the scarf visible on one side of my computer, and the jewelry rolling by on the other, and just let me subconscious take over...

Hermes Musique des Spheres, ring – Delfina Delettrez, grey pearl and link bracelet – Slane, silver knot and pearl earrings – Majorica, baroque pearl necklace – Majorica, watch – Anne Klein

 So when it came to choosing clothing to wear with this scarf, I sort of started from the same point of view that I adopted with the Maillons black and white scarf - let's look for some red!  But this red is muted, shadowed, toned down a notch or two, and the neutral with which it will be worn is something off to one side of stark black - either taupe or a deep grey...  (note the trim around the garnet earrings - parallel lines that curve, and small, delicate detail)

Hermes Musique des Spheres, silk blouse – Marc Jacobs, taupe pants – Burberry Prorsum, bag – Ina Kent, flats – DKNY Active, garnet stud earrings – Blue Nile,  sweater – L.K.Bennett, skirt – Comme des Garcons Shirt Girl, ankle boots – Kurt Geiger

Blue, again, is a color to always consider, but as with the red, I was looking for a more subdued blue.  And the white is going to be softer, and closer to beige or ivory.  These earrings share the same general aesthetic with the red ones above - this type of earring could become a beautiful personal signature!  (and note the subtle rectangular jacquard pattern of the capri pants - little touches of linear detail everywhere...)

Hermes Musique des Spheres, cardigan – Prada Sport, twill pencil skirt – J. Crew,  clutch bag – Mondrina, pumps – Isaac Mizrahi New York, pearl stud earrings – David Yurman, jacquard pants – Chloe, tee shirt – James Perse, espadrilles – Balear Mania

Warm colors are always an option, and this is another case in which I looked for a more low-key, but still saturated, color.  Note that the curves on the handbag echo the violin, the green ring bears the parallel lines that recur in this work, and the tweedy pants are the same colors as the scarf...

Hermes Musique des Spheres, tee shirt – Aniye by Women, corduroy pants – Isabel Marant Etoile,  cross-body bag – Beara Beara, loafers – Rose Petals, green sweater – Authentic Original Vintage Style, ring – Elizabeth and James, tweed pants – Haider Ackermann, loafers – Bernardo

I always like to include a warm-weather outfit with scarves, even though your hair or your handbag might be your only wearing options!  This outfit is very basic, but reflects the only two colors in the scarf, and are a perfect platform for sandals with a touch of linear ornamentation, and a textured bag that comes pretty close to the line colors of the scarf.

And the tweed skirt... Lots of linear details, squared off, includes the two colors of the scarf.  This is a skirt which could be worn with any of the other blouses or tee shirts...  The knit of  the sweater has patches of clearly grid-like texture too...  And another pair of earrings - these with subtle facets - which combine the circular and the square motifs of your beautiful scarf.

Hermes Musique des Spheres, silk sleeveless top – Acne Studios,  linen shorts – Zenobia, flat sandals – Apepazza,  cross-body bag – Cole Haan, earrings – Judith Ripka, cabled sweater – Velvet, tweed skirt – Marc Jacobs, pumps – Trotters

You have a lot of options from these garments!

We Need to Talk...

Study for Conversation 1940 - Leon Kroll

I've been delighted to receive so much feedback about my work recently - it means the world to me to know that you read The Vivienne Files and think seriously about what I do, and how I write.  It's been particularly interesting to me to learn that you're very interested in the thought process behind the images that I create.  I'm happy to take the time to try to "spell out" the steps that I go through in my mind when I work with clothing, accessories, colors and shapes.

That said, I've got to confess:  I'm getting overwhelmed.  I've tried from the inception of The Vivienne Files to post six days a week as often as I possibly can.  This usually meant that I was working at least part of six days a week, and I never minded that.

But recent posts are taking a very long time to compose.  For each garment or accessory I show here, I look at at least 1,000 rejects.  The images usually have to be cleaned up in some way, and resized.  By the time I've created the hyperlinks, and drawn some nifty little dividers on the pages, and tweaked everything to my satisfaction - well, you can appreciate the effort. And then it takes me a couple of hours to find the right words to translate what's going on in my head.

So I'd like to know how you would feel if I posted only five days per week - Tuesday through Saturday. I would then work a five-day work week, and post each day for a post to launch the following morning.  

The last thing I want to do is disappoint you.  But I also want to keep up the standards that I set for myself, and for you, in my work.  What are your feelings?

The "Difficult" Scarf: Black and White

This scarf, currently available from Hermes, is incredibly beautiful - much more interesting in person than any photograph can do justice...

Hermes Maillons de Joel Stein

 But it's easy to see how you could fall into the routine of wearing this scarf pretty much exclusively with black and white garments - it just seems reasonable.  So I'm proposing a mental "reframing" of the scarf that might expand your comfort zone with it...

First off, think of the adjectives that characterize the unique beauty and appeal of this scarf.  To me, this scarf is clear, graphic, and linear.  This gives you a basis upon which to think about the sort of outfits that might benefit from the addition of this scarf.

And secondly, I like to always think of, and refer to, scarves as silk jewelry.  So it makes some sense to look at some pieces of jewelry that reflect the same overall aesthetic that the scarf has.  Then you could make the mental translation that if you would wear certain jewelry with an outfit, the scarf also might be a harmonious choice.

These pieces of jewelry are starkly black and white, but with textural or woven interest, and a sense of modernity and clarity.

Hermes Maillons de Joel Stein, beaded bracelet – Samira13, pearl crocheted earrings – Yoola, folded leather earrings – Giulia Boccafogli, cotton necklace – Alienina, mesh and pearl bracelet – Milena ZU

For me, the obvious way to expand on black and white graphics is the addition of a solid, clear, bright, saturated color - red is the classic choice.

Hermes Maillons de Joel Stein, red dress – Prabal Gurung, black white bag – Joanna Maxham,  cardigan – Oasis, pumps – Isaac Mizrahi New York, black and white sweater – Saint Laurent, red onyx earrings – Ritu,   red jeans – Gerry Weber, loafers – Bass

 But clear bright blue is also beautiful with black and white. Notice the woven wristlet, and the woven ornament on the lapis earrings - all these little touches keep things harmonious and help define your personal style a bit more clearly.

Hermes Maillons de Joel Stein, blue tee shirt – Dash, white cotton pants – Jil Sander, wristlet – Marylai,  blue loafers – Nicholas Kirkwood, linen tee shirt –Mango, lapis earrings – Sissi Bernal,  capris – Marni, flat sandals – Givenchy

 And warm colors, so long as they are clear and bright, work beautifully - although the striped skirt with the patterned scarf is for the bolder among us!

Hermes Maillons de Joel Stein, marigold silk blouse – Aquilano.Rimondi, striped skirt – Ann Demeulemeester, leather bracelet – Marilia Guimaraes,  ballet flats – Repetto,  stud earrings – Pandora, cardigan – Charlott, silk pants – Nina Ricci,  limeloafers – Del Toro

And the scarf itself has nothing about it which limits it to any season of the year, so this idea is as valid with a pair of shorts as it is with a suede skirt.

Hermes Maillons de Joel Stein, tee shirt – Vintage 55, shorts - Marc Jacobs, tote – Jack Germain, green sandals – Marni, paper earrings – Saloukee, turtleneck – Uniqlo, yellow suede skirt – Jitrois, loafers - Via Spiga

 It's an interesting wardrobe - not what you usually see, but certainly workable and lovely!

I have two other black and white scarves that have been suggested as subjects for some wardrobe thought.  They are in gradually more subtle patterns, and I'm eager to see how my selections for wearing them will change as the nature of the scarf shifts.