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Getting down to business, this post was perfectly timed with a two part photo shoot I had just done with my wonderful friend and photographer, Richard Panse. What you’re seeing and reading about here is actually the first of two guest posts on one of everyones favorite subjects: outfit inspiration! For this first post my focus is a daytime look (but keep your eyes peeled for the glamorous post to come!). Knowing we’d be spending the day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of my favorite haunts, I allowed the museum itself to be my muse.
Between a degree in Art History and countless hours of my life spent wandering the halls and galleries of the Met, I came to the outfit planning table with a solid understanding of what I’d be up against, literally, when it came to backgrounds. When we plan looks, we take so many things into account…. Who will be seeing them, the nature of the occasion, the setting, our mood, etc. I wanted my ensemble to not only fit in aesthetically with the art in the museum, but to also be directly inspired by it.
This outfit was brought about with some of the French, English, Austrian, and Italian period rooms in mind, primarily from the 17th- early19th centuries. Gilded wall moldings, Baroque and Rococo ornamentation and detail, intricate stained glass, all of these elements appear in the backgrounds of my images and were in the forefront of my mind when I got dressed in the morning.
For this particular look I wanted to keep the colors softer so as not to compete with my surroundings. Pops of reddish pink in the form of the flowers on my early 1940s New York Creation label cap and my lipstick along with lively green notes in my blouse add accents of color without being overwhelming.
My main focus was channeling the attention to detail rife in the particular art works I was inspired by, without seeming overwrought. My 1940s blouse features an opera/theater themed novelty print, vastly popular forms of entertainment during those centuries, and I cinched it in with a clasping hands belt buckle, a gift from a friend and one of my greatest treasures. I find veiled hats are just the thing for an extra touch of drama, as their sheerness keeps them from feeling too heavy-handed. Still, I prefer drapey veils to the stiffer sort, and think they blend softness with vampiness to great effect! Final touches included a 1930s beaded and embroidered French handbag, a 1940s cameo bracelet, and my usual fistfuls of rings. Hope you enjoyed taking a look!
