lovin' orange...

These are my favorite things that are orange. My orange shoes always gets loads of compliments. I know this isn't Sesame Street but, yay for the color ORANGE!

Art is Fashion is Art

I had the very good fortune this month to view the Picasso exhibit at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. The exhibit continues until October 9, 2011 and it has 150 pieces representing Picasso's work from 1902 to 1970. It is almost overwhelming and fills NINE rooms.

As imagined such a long career meant that Picasso experimented with many styles. His Cubism and Impressionism years are my favorite and the exhibit did not disappoint. It is so amazing to stand inches away from the actual canvas of famous artworks and see the brushstrokes. To step back and wonder how did he decide it was finished? The works were all so unique and different.

The top painting from 1937 is Portrait of Dora Maar who was Picasso's lover. The lower painting is also from 1937 of another lover Marie-Therese Walter but, the piece is titled The Weeping Woman.

The wild mix of colors, prints and textures that is happening in fashion right now reminds me completely of the wild colors, composition and patterns in Picasso's mid 20th century works.

Fashion designers freely admit that there are definite inspirations behind their ideas. No one in any creative field works in a vacuum.

And I'm probably showing my art student roots but, if it is done well fashion is just another form of art.

Total Tassels

Of course when you're in San Francisco you cannot help but notice trends. Usually the trends are heading your way and may not have arrived yet in your town.

It's fun to be the first to wear a trend and one that I am predicting is tassels on shoes. I snapped photos of a few in stores and the black booties are Vera Wang from an ad.

...and I totally hope I am right about tassels being a big deal in the Fall because I could not resist these darling shoes with ( count 'em ) FOUR tassels!
Not only did the shoes break my rule of not buying repeats ( already own too many brown shoes ), but since I am 5'11'' the super high wedge makes me freakishly tall!
But love is love and I do love these shoes.