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!
Blazer It Up
Posted: May 1, 2020 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, blue jean culottes, maroon monk shoes, navy blazer, red, red striped top 2 Comments
Although I’m working from home these days, occasionally I still have an online video conference, meaning I have to appear a little dressed up than usual. You may notice that I said “appear” – since I’m only showing my torso, it doesn’t really matter what I wear on the bottom. So what I do is simply throw a blazer on top of my outfit, like here, and I’m instantly dressed up. Of course, for these photos, I had to tuck in my shirt and put on actual shoes, but otherwise, I’m pretty much wearing a blazer on top of pajamas here.
Cardigan It Up
Posted: December 11, 2019 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: blue, maroon cardigan, maroon monk shoes, navy button-front skirt, red, red striped top Leave a comment
Yup, this skirt again. The weather is cooling down fast, so it might be my last skirt outfit in a while. At first, I only paired it with the striped top (it was still warm enough that I could get away with just one layer, at least during the day), but then I realize that the color of the stripes perfectly matches the color of this cardigan, which I haven’t worn in a while, so I had to use it to top off the outfit.
By the way, did you know that the cardigan was named after the 7th Earl of Cardigan who led the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War? I was looking up “cardigan” to find a clever pun to title the post (there is no cardigan pun, sadly) and came upon this piece of trivia instead. You learn something new every day…
Playing With Volumes
Posted: December 6, 2019 Filed under: Clothes | Tags: black, black baggy pants, blue, blue linen blouse, brooch, maroon monk shoes, red 1 Comment
One of my style goals this year is to play around with silhouettes and volumes more, especially the loose-loose silhouette. Take this blouse, for example. Before I’ve worn it exclusively with fitted bottoms, but this time, I decided to pair it with some loose-fitting pants to experiment. Actually, I was going for this look, but I don’t think I can pull it off. So to avoid looking sloppy, I’d go with this less extreme version, thank you very much.
But don’t ask me why I accessorized it with this crab brooch. The fabric of the blouse reminds me of Japanese linen, and the brooch reminds me of a chopstick rest in the shape of a crab that my dad brought back from Japan when I was young, so I decided to pair them together… Somehow it made sense in my mind.
Tapestry
Posted: December 2, 2019 Filed under: Clothes, Style Imitating Art | Tags: beige, brown, maroon monk shoes, mustard corduroy pants, socks, style imitating art, white chunky sweater, yellow 1 Comment
I have to admit that this week’s SIA inspiration, “Tapestry” by Sam Gilliam, really stumped me. It features a lot of colors, and I don’t have anything that colorful in my closet. My attempts at combining different colors just looked random. Then I suddenly remembered my socks – they’re certainly colorful, but are they enough? Finally, I decided to pick the loudest pair of socks I have as an accent and base the rest of the outfit on textures instead – the artwork itself is smooth, but I like how the different panels and colors seem to give it a sense of texture, so I chose my wool sweater and this new pair of corduroy pants to reflect that. Plus, the cream of the sweater and the mustard yellow of the pants can also be found in the piece, and if you look closely, there are flecks of different colors on my sweater as well.
And that’s why I love SIA – it allows you to think differently and creatively about your outfit. Don’t forget to check Kim’s blog later in the week to see other outfits inspired by this artwork!
