Flowers, No Butterfly
Posted: June 14, 2021 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: belt, brown, canvas monk shoes, green, green shirt dress, style imitating art, white, white embroidered cardigan 5 Comments
Here’s my outfit for this week’s SIA, inspired by an anonymous watercolor sketch of flowers and a butterfly. This one is a bit of a loose interpretation. I noticed how the flowers in the sketch almost look 3D, so I mimicked those with my embroidered cardigan. My dress is to mimic the background of the sketch, and if I had a butterfly brooch, it would’ve been perfect here, but hard to believe as it may be, my large collection of brooches doesn’t include a single butterfly one! I have a lot of bug brooches – ladybirds and bees and beetles, but no butterfly. I’ve just never found a butterfly brooch that sparks my fancy, I guess. Anyway, I made up for it with my shoes – the color and the “wings” on the sides can be a reflection of the butterfly. So, not an exact match, but I’m happy with it.
Don’t forget to check out Daenel’s blog on Wednesday to see other outfits inspired by this lovely sketch!
Stripes
Posted: May 31, 2021 Filed under: Clothes, Style Imitating Art | Tags: belt, brooch, brown, gray, gray striped dress, maroon monk shoes, style imitating art 5 Comments
For this week’s SIA, inspired by Mary Cassatt’s “The Child’s Bath”, I built my outfit around this dress. The striped pattern perfectly reflects the striped dress of the woman in the painting, and I also added a cross-stitch brooch to mimic the floral patterns of the carpet and the wall.
The only part of the outfit I’m not happy with is the shoes – I wanted something dark, because there is a bit of dark red/brown in the painting, but this dress is so quintessentially 80s that if I wore heels with it, I’d instantly look like an extra in 9 to 5 or Working Girl. So in the end, I went with these monk shoes, hoping they can modernize the outfit a bit, but they’re too clunky. Oh well. Don’t forget to check back on Wednesday to see other outfits inspired by this painting!
Cottage Academia
Posted: May 28, 2021 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: belt, blue, brooch, brown, maroon heeled oxfords, navy plaid wool skirt, white, white lawn long-sleeve blouse Leave a comment
Here’s another “Dark Academia meets cottagecore” outfit. This pairing is actually something I’ve planned to try for a long time, but the weather was never right – when it’s cold enough for the wool skirt, then it’s too cold for the shirt, and when it’s warm enough for the shirt, then it’s too warm for the skirt. I briefly considered wearing a cardigan with it, but I wanted the shirt to shine on its own. Luckily, the insane weather in the past weeks has given me a chance. Yes, it was still a little warm for the skirt, but by keeping things light on top, the outfit was actually quite comfy. And of course, I had to add a floral brooch to make it more spring-like – call me old-fashioned, but once it starts feeling like spring, I always feel compelled to add some floral touches to my outfit.
Simultaneous Dress
Posted: May 17, 2021 Filed under: Clothes, Style Imitating Art | Tags: belt, blue, blue oxfords, brooch, multi color plaid dress, purple 3 Comments
We’re still working from home, so I’m strictly in a T-shirt-and-pajama-bottom capsule wardrobe these days (with the occasional button-up when I have an online class to teach). As you can imagine, this puts a damper on my options for SIA outfits. Luckily, while looking through my backlogged posts, I found this outfit. It’s not an exact match to this week’s inspiration, Sonia Delaunay’s “Simultaneous Dresses“, the colorful plaid is a good nod to the colors and graphic patterns in the painting, and my blue oxford shoes are a good match to the blue background as well. So all in all, I’m happy with it.
Don’t forget to check Terri’s blog on Wednesday to see other outfits inspired by this painting!
Pencil Skirt
Posted: April 16, 2021 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: beige short-sleeve sweater, belt, brooch, brown, brown heeled oxfords, brown plaid pencil skirt Leave a comment
I used to wear the occasional pencil skirt back in LA, but ever since I moved home and started to bike to work, I’d given all of them away. I’ve never been crazy about them anyway – they always come off too “business corporate” for my taste. However, when I saw this skirt in one of my favorite vintage/secondhand online sellers, I was drawn to the kick pleats and the row of buttons (and of course, the brown plaid), so I decided to give pencil skirts another try. It took some getting used to on the bike, but the pleats help a lot in making it easier to move in. It’s too bad that I got it so late and the weather is getting a bit too warm now, but I’m looking forward to wearing it more next fall/winter.
