Modish Matrons #17: Art Deco

I am so happy to welcome friends to the new Modish Matrons party!

In November, the theme is inspired by my writer's imagination...and my writer's closet. I've chosen Art Deco, one of the most fascinating styles of visual arts that became truly international and dominated the world of art, design, fashion, jewelry, cars, trains, ocean liners, and of course architecture - for decades between the two world wars. I simply could not resist picking this theme for our Modish Matrons improvisations! I hope you are as eager as I am to read my beautiful co-hosts BEATE's and TINA's posts and see their visual/wearable interpretations of the theme.

If you would like to learn more about Art Deco, this Wikipedia article is a good way to start. But I am sure there are many not just articles and websites, but serious books written about it, so we can educate ourselves as much or as little as our hearts desire. I do not claim to be an expert of any sort, I am simply an admirer, and I learn mostly intuitively, but I will share a couple of realizations I had while working on this theme. Art Deco was born from the desire to be modern (right after the fanciful Victorian era) and, as any movement, includes a few styles which sometimes were pointed in completely opposite directions. So what I realized was, I needed to choose only some features to represent this style in my outfit, otherwise I would end up with a visual cacophony, which is against the very heart and soul of Art Deco, a clean, symmetrical, streamlined style made of carefully selected rich materials and masterfully crafted details. I will leave it to you to decide whether I succeeded or not, but I certainly had great times creating. And for my major inspiration I picked, perhaps unexpectedly...

...THE ART DECO ARCHITECTURAL LINES AND SHAPES!

The two photos above and three below are of the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal (HERE), one of my favorite buildings of the Midwest, the entire US and beyond. The streamlined shapes and geometric designs of the building, beautiful rich stone, carved details, colorful mural of the interior (depicting local history) are some of the iconic, recognizable features of the style. The Union Terminal was built in 1933, as a passenger railroad station. It had been abandoned for a while, getting into the hands of different organizations which couldn't find the right purpose for this beauty, until finally it got rebuilt and reborn as a thriving and beloved cultural institution of Cincinnati, Ohio (opened in 1990). I enjoyed visiting this gorgeous building countless times in a few short years that we spent in Cinti, and little Anya practically grew up in the Children's Museum and Natural History Museum which found their home at Union Terminal.

So here you have it, my outfit was truly inspired by architectural beauty of this building more than anything else. No, I was not composing this outfit after the building - an inspiration works in less obvious ways I think. I just know that all the time spent in there many years ago, sort of preformed my interest in Art Deco, impacted my inner world, so when I was ready to learn more, I started building my understanding of this incredible style on that platform. That is probably why when I thought about my Art Deco inspired outfit, flapper dresses were not at all what came to my mind, whether it makes any sense or not.

Playing with the idea of a streamlined design, I thought of my favorite jumpsuit pretty much immediately - I've always thought that the inspiration behind it was Art Deco (you can see more outfits with this number in these posts: earlier in 2017, in 2016, in 2015). It took me a while to figure out the warm layer, but I think it couldn't be better than this secondhand cape (more outfits with it: earlier in 2017, in 2016). 

The only two items I haven't shown on the blog before are the pair of patent leather shoes (a Goodwill find earlier this year, $7 or so), and the vintage velvet purse, in a perfect condition (a recent antique mall find, $11). The little purse is so charming and in a perfect condition, I know it'll have many outings. And aren't these shoes fun? They are a bit too big for me, and don't think I will wear them often, but sometimes with a playful outfit, why not?

The striking piece above takes my Art Deco inspired outfit to a new, dare I say more authentic level - a gift from lovely Elle. It looked a bit lonely by itself, so I used a long pearl necklace to sort of give it a nice frame. The rest of my jewelry are old pieces, remixed many times, some are genuine, and some are fake. (But even fake pearls, like this long necklace, illuminate skin beautifully!)

I hope you enjoyed this little play as much as I did! 

Got inspired? Join us! We're never too matronly to play!

Jumpsuit - Chico's (old)

Cape, shoes, vintage purse - secondhand

Jewelry - gifts from my husband and old friends

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