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2D to 3D: Artist Room Studies, Jennifer Hawkins Hock

To emphasize a captured moment in the daily life and environment of these artists is my goal ; to spotlight their appreciation for the art f...

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Environmentally Dressed.

With the onset of the twentieth century, artists and thinkers began to discuss concepts of attire... ideas of blending-in versus standing-out.  One belief was that everyone should dress alike socially - relegating self-expression to the home environment.  Taking that thought further, there were also experiments in having attire match decorative motifs within the home.

I like the concept of matching attire and home furnishings... which seems - harmonious and consistent.  This would require a clearly-established and committed sense of self, I think - to align oneself with a particular style and stick to it.

Now returning to the concept of dressing uniformly within a group - we see this quite often... teams dress alike, people dress rather regionally, and to some extent - even people asserting their sense of self-expression sometimes achieve similar end-results.  Dressing for formal occasions, men - more often than women - tend to have a unified appearance. 

From a hotel window my husband and I recently observed an odd example of uniform dress... herds of young women in towering heels and tiny bandage-tight dresses teetering, trotting, and stumbling along the sidewalk on their way to and from the clubs.

But today - because it's a wintry fall day - chilly, rainy - grey and green... and there's more of the rain and cold and grey to come... I decided to try this:  when the weather is dull and overcast, I plan to wear one little cheerfully bright accent - a sunny yellow scarf or hot pink lipstick or red socks... just for the happy effect it might produce in other people.  Then, when it's sunny and bright - perhaps the rest of the crowd needs to see a bit of cool blue, or might benefit from a minty fragrance passing by.