Sans Neutrals, Blue, and a Turtle Pin for Susan Musgrove’s “Race for the Moon”

Welcome to my interpretation for this round of Style Imitating Art.

A Little Background

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee On the Edge, and me. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday one of us selects an inspirational image and we each post the image on our blogs. The following Monday we share our art-inspired outfits. The next Wednesday, the curator shares all the submissions on her blog.

This Week’s Curator

Salazar is our curator for this round and has picked an amazing piece of textile art. It is “Race for the Moon”, by Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia quilter Susan Musgrove.

I already printed Susan Musgrove’s quote about the piece, but will repeat it,

“Completed over about 5 years, this quilt is made from cotton, ramie, silk and organza. Techniques used include hand painting, silk screen and lino printing, stenciling, and and machine embroidery, hand beading, applique and quilting. It was the center piece for my first solo exhibition in late 2006 and was also selected for exhibition at the Japan quilt Grand Prix for 2008.”

My Choices for this Challenge

I tried to pick up on the major color themes of the painting. Half the work is a natural sand color so I went with my Carol Little linen pants that I have worn since the late 90’s. When I picked them up at an “Off the Fifth” outlet store way back then, I had no idea that I would still be wearing them twenty five years later. I think this attests to the durability of linen

I have linked to The New York Times obituary for Carol Little. I explains how important she was to working women during the 80’s and 90’s

The other natural piece of clothing is the thrifted Chaus linen vest, which I picked up probably about six years ago. It is probably vintage ’90’s because we did wear vests quite a bit back then.

The blue gave me some trouble. First, I was going to use a dark blue straw handbag, but it didn’t look right so I went with this silk knit top that I’ve had from when Issac Mizrahi designed for Target. How along ago has that been?

This covers the three main pieces.

Accessories

As usual, the accessories play a big part. I actually had a turtle pin! This pin is easily fifty years old and I can’t remember when or why I decided to get it. There’s a good possibility that someone even gave it to me. I just don’t remember. Needless to say, I’ve kept it all these years.

I used my Brighton locket to represent the moon.

The sandals, which you can’t see are actually new, ordered off of Amazon this spring.

The structured straw bag is one of my vintage Rodo’s.

Of course, than there is my Coolibar Avery Raffia sun hat. It has been a constant this summer.

That’s it, I’m done.

I hope this art inspires you to create a look and that you will join us. Send a photo of your SIA-inspired outfit along with a small blurb on how you were inspired to Salazar whose email is 14shadesofgreyblog@gmail.com by tomorrow. She will share the submissions on her blog this Wednesday.

Anyone can participate and you certainly do not have to have a blog.

If you do share your inspirations on Instagram use the hashtag #StyleImitatingArt so we know you are there. You can also tag us in the images. Our Instagram names are @terrigardner_meadowtree, @14shadesofgrey, and @shelbeeontheedge.

Time to go and see you later!

Yesterday, I took the same basic pieces, tweaked a few, and wore it to a art museum that my daughter and I went to. I couldn’t wear my Coolibar Avery hat because Rachelle has one just like and I didn’t want to look like twins. So, this time around, I went with my Stetson straw Fedora. The blue tank got traded for a white Tee-Shirt, and I decided to change vintage Rodo bags and went with this slouch one. Just for fun I checked the Rodo listings on eBay, and, as usual, the prices are all over the place.