Hi everyone! The lovely and brilliant Miss Ani Holly (@missaniholly on Instagram -- go follow her and then come back and read her post!!!) has written the very first guest post ever to appear on this blog, and I am delighted to finally share it with you!! If you like to learn super neat things while you look at gorgeous photos of amazing clothes and a beautiful lady, you absolutely must check out her blog, The Museum Pinup! Thank you so much, Ani <3!!! -Emily
Hello
everyone!
Miss Ani
Holly [aka The Museum Pinup] here taking over Miss
Emily Hallock’s blog for today! When Emily approached me about guest blogging a
few weeks ago I was so flattered. I had blogged before, but it was a very rigid
academic Art History blog. After much convincing, I started a new pinup blog,
fusing my love of art and pinup. I studied Art History at USC, and I am currently
working in a museum, so almost everything I do includes at least an ounce of my
Art Historical studies. So, thank you, Emily, for the constant support and for
this opportunity!
The
outfit I’ll be highlighting tonight is very special for a few reasons. Firstly,
I’ve loved this dress since I saw it, but it’s currently sold out on the Pinup
Girl Clothing website. So you can probably imagine my excitement when this
dress was up for sale on the PUG Swap and Sell page! Second, I wore it
specially for my fiancee’s graduation dinner from UCLA. So since my man and
Emily share the same alma mater, I just knew this
was the dress I need to highlight in my guest post! Finally, I love [I’ll say
it again: I LOVE] spiders and a
beautifully rich dark plum color, and my ensemble highlighted both.
For this
outfit, I was inspired by two of my favorite artworks. For color, I found
inspiration in Mark Rothko’s Untitled 1960. As
for details and overall aura, I wanted to invoke the cool, hauntingly
beautiful, yet elegant bad-assness of Travis Louie’s Miss
Emily Fowler and Her Giant Spider (2015).
Both
these artists have a special place in my heart. Every time I visit LACMA, I
must see a Rothko. Rothko’s most notable works, the multiforms,
filled in the void of what he believed was missing in contemporary art - human
expression and a breadth of life. He began using darker tones in his later multiforms, which people believed was a reflection of
his internal darkness (after all, he was Arshile
Gorky’s student!).
Mark Rothko, Untitled 1960, oil on canvas
Travis Louis, Miss Emily Fowler and her Giant Spider, 2015, acrylic on board
I fell in
love with Travis Louie’s bizarre Edwardian and
Victorian works of art as a college student. So when the opportunity arose to
intern at the gallery representing him and all the other contemporary artists I
love, I decided to try my luck and apply. Luck was on my side, since I got the
internship! His artworks have so much depth and haunting beauty, you just don’t
want to take your eyes away. Miss Emily Fowler and Her
Giant Spider is a surrealist dream - as Miss Fowler stares coldly at
the viewer while her giant spider is dying next to her. There’s a strange sense
of welcoming comfort hidden behind the shockingly dark scene.
My
Masuimi dress from Pinup Girl Clothing in plum with black trim was a perfect
blend of Rothko and Louie. The dress is shorter than other wiggle dresses, so
it was perfect for my 5’2” stature. It has a double kick pleat for double the
fun, and a show-stopper neckline with lace trim and bust cups. I will be
honest, I definitely am not a fan of bust cups but as usual, Pinup Girl made me
love something I usual wouldn’t because they do it so well. The dress is made
from a comfortable bengaline, so you get the exquisitely high quality look with
the comfort of a t-shirt.
I
probably could have worn this dress without a bra, but I did wear a balconette
bra with no padding to feel more comfortable going out. One of my biggest fears
with bust cups is the most dreaded wardrobe malfunction - I’ll take the extra
precautions to avoid that! Although the straps slight show - people actually
though that was a detail on the dress, so I didn’t feel too uncomfortable that
the straps were showing a little. Sometimes bra straps end up adding to the
whole outfit as opposed to taking away from it.
I paired
the dress with a pair of black suede Steve Madden pumps I’ve had forever and my
black Pinup Couture handbag I got for free at the Yardsale (score!). The purse
is deceivingly big, which I appreciate so much. It looks so cute and compact on
the outside, but it fits my giant makeup bag and wallet - WHAT
IS THIS SORCERY?
I’m
usually a minimalist when it comes to accessories, so I wore my spider earrings
from Insect Diva in honor of Miss Emily Fowler’s Giant Spider and to show my
adoration of spiders. I absolutely love Insect Diva’s jewelry because with
every item she makes, she also provides information about each of the species
in her jewelry, since she has a Ph.D in Entomology. Talk
about an inspirational woman! I wanted the highlight of my accessories to be
my earrings - so I chose not to wear a bracelet or necklace.
I hope
you enjoyed my homage to two extraordinary artworks. Fashion is art, and art is
fashion, after all. Embrace it!
Outfit
details:
Dress +
Purse: Pinup Girl Clothing
Shoes: Steve
Madden
Earrings:
Insect Diva
Lipstick:
Retro Rouge, Charlotte Olympia for MAC
xo,
Miss Ani
Holly
Follow this blog on:
Instagram: @emily.hallock
I loved reading this post and getting to know Ani a little through it! How cool that she works in a museum--that's one of my dreams! Her outfit is gorgeous and so exquisitely planned, and she looks much taller than her 5'2" stature!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it -- she's really fabulous! We've chatted some and I read her old blog, which was entirely art-history focused, so when she said she was thinking about starting a style blog, I could not beg her hard enough to take the plunge!
DeleteI feel like that last bit is a common refrain with petite ladies -- I get the 'oh, I thought you were taller' from people I know *all* the time, but I think it's because I'm a very Type A person ;).