Style Imitating Art: Outfit inspired by The Child’s Bath

This week’s Style Imitating Art inspiration piece is The Child’s Bath which was created in 1893 by Mary Cassatt. Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar (14 Shades of Grey), Terri (Meadow Tree Style), and Daenel (Living Outside the Stacks). Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday one of the hosts selects an inspiration image and they each post the image on their blogs. The following Monday they share their art inspired outfits. Participants submit their art inspired outfits with the curator by 10pm Tuesday and, that Wednesday, the curator shares all of the submissions on her blog. This week, the curator is Salazar. For the last Style Imitating Art challenge, we styled an outfit inspired by Sonia Delaunay’s Simultaneous Dresses (Three Women, Forms, Colours).

Okay, so I’m going to be honest and say that this is not one of my favourite pieces of art. It’s beautifully painted, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not the kind of painting that appeals to me. The outfit I put together, on the other hand, is one I now love lol! I was already a huge fan of lilac with green, but I wouldn’t have thought to add orange and red to the mix, but it really works.

You might have noticed I’m wearing a scarf on my head! It’s not something I do very often, but lately I’ve been wanting to try it—mainly because I have lots of scarves of this size that haven’t gotten much use lately. And I love my scarves lol. If you’re wondering why they haven’t had much use lately, well, I’m blaming perimenopause!! Throughout last winter, I was far too warm around the neck to wear a scarf so I just couldn’t use them. Not to mention, the fact that we haven’t had much chance to get out, either.

Anyway, I figured I would try it on my head and see if it worked. And it did! YAY! In fact, I think you’ll be seeing me styling my hair this way a lot more in future. And it’s great if you’re having a bad hair day lol. I bought this particular scarf pre-covid, from a local Chinese shop. It was the colour combination that I loved, and it goes so well with this outfit inspired by The Child’s Bath. What do you think? Do you like wearing scarves on your head?

The only item that is current are the lilac jeans that I bought from H&M recently. I’d been desperately wanting some colourful trousers / jeans so when I saw these, I just had to have them. They’re not the most comfortable pair but they were only cheap (I think they were 19.99) so I can’t really complain. I bought my coral sandals from Calla Shoes a couple of years ago but I don’t think they’re in stock any more. The last time I looked, they had one size left and it was a 4 (but they are on sale, if you’re lucky enough to have little feet!). I’m sure they’ve probably sold out by now. But I love the colour, which I picked out from the carpet in The Child’s Bath.

As for the handbag, you may remember it from my Fab40s post when we wore an all-black outfit. It was a gift from mother-in-law last Christmas and I simply adore it. She bought it from TJC, which often has some different stuff! I chose to use this handbag because there was something about the face that just seemed to go with The Child’s Bath. I’m not sure what it is. It just seemed to go. Oh, the necklace was another gift from MIL and I think she bought that from TJC too.

My green fine-knit cardigan is also from H&M. I’ve got quite a few in different colours because I just think they’re so versatile. I wear them all the time. This spring I added to the collection with a pale pink one. But what I’m really hoping to find is a bright pink one! Watch this space.

Under the cardigan, I’m wearing a pale blue vest which is from H&M several years ago. I do love H&M’s lace-trimmed vests! I just realised I keep calling them vests but for my US readers that means tank tops. I’ve got rather a lot lol. But they are good and I highly recommend them. In fact I’ve just ordered two new ones: both in the same colour this time because I’ve been looking for a chocolate brown vest for sooooo long (see my previous post) and so I ordered two!

And that’s it, my Style Imitating Art outfit inspired by The Child’s Bath. What do you reckon? How would you style this piece of art? I’d be interested to know.