Let me confess something to you: I don’t love fashion. I don’t read runway reports, I only buy the big September issue of Vogue, and I don’t really care to know who Rachel Zoe is. My relationship with fashion is one of appreciation: I love the idea of personal expression through colour, I love the notion that we can use clothing as visual representations of our identity: the times we live in, and the places we’re from. More simply, I love beautiful things. I feel much the same way about home decor. In fact, most of my decisions about fashion and design come from my deeper love for art and art history, in which I hold my degree. More than any magazine, that tends to be the driving force behind the way I decorate my home, and myself. I’ll buy a bed spread because it matches the Monet in my bedroom, and yesterday, I wore a red blouse with yellow flats because it made me feel like a Lichtenstein panel:
This look was a happy accident. I thrifted the red Evan Picone blouse from the Salvation Army on Saturday, mostly because it looked kind of like Minnie Mouse. I found that it tucked in nicely with a navy skirt, and only once I added the yellow flats did the Roy Lichtenstein girl come to life.
Like any good edgy art student, I was in a Pop Art phase for most of my college career (I kinda still am), so I was quite delighted by this pop art palette. If the image up top didn’t ring any bells, Lichenstein was a pop artist from the 1960s New York scene. He is the man behind the now-iconic recreations of vintage comic book panels, using hard lines, bold colours and half-tone (dotted) filling.
Given the subject matter I was referencing, it only made sense to top off the look with a bold red lip and a Betty Cooper pony tail.
This won’t be the last time I reference an art movement in my choice of dress – I thrifted a RAD Modrian-style mini dress the same time I picked up this spotty blouse, so you’ll have to stay tuned for the De Stijl edition of We So Thrifty. Don’t hold your breath for a Duchamp-inspirted outfit though (#artjoke).
One more fun fact to close out the post: The lovely notebook I’m holding was a gift from my friend Jenna, who dresses up dull notebooks with retro fabric and makes them look way more stylin’. Thanks Jenna!