OOTD: Style Imitating Art - Underground Posters by Austin Cooper

Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art, and she chose a pair of colorful vintage posters promoting the London Underground for this week's challenge.

source: 14shadesofgrey.wordpress.com

She pointed out that the taglines "It is cooler/warmer down below" sound like an advertisement for hell...and I can't disagree!

I identified the following elements of the posters as possible outfit inspirations:

--Colors: yellow/mustard; poppy red/orange; maroon/burgundy; royal purple; dark blue/navy; denim/chambray; mint/green; white

--Colorblocking

--Squares, checks, geometric shapes, straight lines.

I started exploring my closet for items with that square/check shape, but I didn't find anything I liked for these posters. So I moved on to the colors, and my rainbow striped scarf jumped out at me as having most of the colors from both posters plus straight lines. I knew that I could easily build an outfit around this piece!

Focusing on the "It is cooler" poster, I decided to create a colorblocked outfit using the color gradation from top to bottom with the scarf added to tie everything together. My plan was to use my yellow-ish hair as the first color, but I ended up wearing this outfit on a day I had freshly washed wet hair in braids to dry, so my hair was dark golden blonde without much yellow...oh well. I had to get a little creative with the top because I have removed the (few) bright poppy red and red-orange top/topper pieces from my wardrobe because that range of colors is definitely not the best on me. I decided to use this bright neon coral-watermelon open weave marl sweater to represent the red-orange tier of color because it is (1) as close as I have color-wise and (2) well suited to the current weather worn with a similarly colored cotton tank underneath. As a bonus, the open weave pattern is not exactly squares/checks, but it is a regular geometric pattern that feels in the spirit of the poster design. To represent the dark blue tier, I added dark wash skinny jeans. I finished the outfit with green flats that correspond to the mint/green at the bottom of the poster. I couldn't help but laugh when I realized I was wearing yet another example of the Sweater + Skinnies + Scarf outfit formula! I'm telling you, it's a go-to for me in this transition season, whether I'm intending it or not.

OOTD 4/4/22

Though my clothing colors aren't a perfect match to the inspiration, the scarf carries a lot of that load on its own...and I think the variety of bold hues results in a nice "Sally-fied" version of the artwork. I enjoyed the coral + dark denim + green together, and when I checked it out on my color wheel, I decided that if you squint a bit, you could call it a version of the triadic Red-Orange + Yellow-Green + Blue-Violet combination.

A little more about this scarf...I purchased it from ThredUp in May 2020 for $12.99, which is kind of a high price for a thrifted silky polyester scarf. But I just fell in love with the color combination that screams "rainbow" to me, and when I kept coming back to the listing over and over again, I decided to follow my heart. I tied the scarf in the very simple method described here as "The Classy Knot"...in which you place a knot on one end of the scarf and then pull the loose end through it and tighten it so that your scarf looks like a men's tie (but the knot doesn't create a lot of bulk).

I wore a bracelet stack including a set of navy/green/white/gold DIY paper bead bracelets with a DIY dull orange bead bracelet and a gold bracelet from Amazon.

I finished the accessories with a pair of the easiest DIY bead earrings...orange tiger-eye beads and gold spacers on a pre-made hoop.

Here are a few bonus OOTD from last spring/early summer featuring today's pieces. My favorite way to wear this sweater is in a column of color...yeah, a lot of color! But the column has the same effect whether it's dark or light, neutral or accent. Because this sweater is a little on the short side compared to what I normally wear, I like that the matching pants make that less obvious.

OOTD 5/4/21

When I purchased the rainbow striped scarf, it was with my circus tent striped skirt in mind for a fun double stripe look. I liked this version with the admiral blue vest that matches a stripe in both pieces.

OOTD 5/12/21

This comfortable peasant-style knit top in a tropical bird print has many of the same colors as my SIA outfit. In this one, I brought out the green and blue accents with the flats and braided scarf.

OOTD 6/11/21

Red rabbits with food are on a roll in my SIA posts. My last one featured a red New Zealand doe guarding a Picasso fruit bowl. Today's rabbit selection is this gorgeous Thrianta rabbit with hay-based pellets in a food dish. This breed is known as "The Fire of the Fancy" due to its brilliant red-orange fur.

Thrianta rabbit

Our bunny is taking quite an interest in these posters for the London Underground! The European rabbit from which our domestic breeds are descended (haha) love being underground...they live communally in underground burrows à la Watership Down. Since it's still cool in Minnesota, it makes sense that the "It is warmer" version is the one our rabbit friend finds most appealing!

Underground posters "improved" with rabbit

To see other outfit interpretations of this painting, check out the round up on 14 Shades of Grey.

Do you find the colors, the shapes, or some other aspect of these posters most inspirational for outfit creation?

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