Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls

Style Imitating Art with Ever Pretty: Serving Fish by Victo Ngai

September 8, 2021 / 32 Comments
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Daenel of Living Outside the Stacks, Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, and Terri of MeadowTree Style. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms! Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Daenel or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was curated by Daenel of Living Outside the Stacks. You can read why she has chosen this specific piece as her inspiration artwork here.

Serving Fish by Victo Ngai (Mixed Media, 2018)

Style Imitating Art, Serving Fish by Victo Ngai
Serving Fish by Victo Ngai, Mixed Media, 2018
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls, Serving Fish by Victo Ngai
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls

About the Artist: Victo Ngai

Victo Ngai (born Victoria Ngai [pronounced ‘nye’]) is an American illustrator who was born in the Guangdong Province of South China and raised in Hong Kong. She was born in 1988, the only child to middle class parents. Her father worked in finance and her mother held a variety of different jobs including Chinese literature professor, newspaper editor, and investment company manager.

During her very early years until the age of 6, Victo suffered from very high fevers that often left her bedridden. She took up drawing as a way to pass the time and express herself creatively while her mother gained a new interest in traditional herbal treatments. These herbal treatments ultimately cured Victo’s fevers and led to her mother’s next career as a doctor of Chinese medicine.

Victo’s great uncle was a surgeon with a passion for meticulous Chinese ink drawings and drawing with him was one of Victo’s first encounters with art and artistic expression. When she was young, her mother also took her to many art exhibitions which also helped her gain knowledge of the art world. Because her family moved around frequently during her childhood, she did not have many lasting friendships. She credits this solitude and early instability as the birth of her artistic identity.

When Victo’s mother first noticed her artistic talents, she feared that the “rigidly technical Chinese art taught in school was stifling it” so she enrolled her in private art classes on mainland China. Although the trip to mainland China was geographically close, Victo had to travel through customs each time she attended her art classes making it feel like she was going to a different country. It was at this point that Victo’s creative confidence began to grow.

Victo and her family believed that there was a prejudice in Asia against art and design and so her father encouraged her to embark on a career in finance until a friend who attended Yale art school suggested that Victo look into the Rhode Island School of Design. It was the only school to which she applied and she was accepted in 2006 when she began her studies in illustration under the tutelage of award-winning illustrator, Chris Buzelli.

When asked why she chose illustration over fine arts, Victo replied, “One of my RISD professors told me this back in freshmen year, ‘Fine artists like to create problems for themselves while illustrators like to solve problems given to them’. I love drawing and I love problem solving, hence illustration.”

Her first work appeared in print in 2009, one year before graduating from RISD. She would go on to illustrate for publications like The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Penguin Random House, General Electric, IMAX, McDonald’s, and Apple. Her earliest artistic influences are Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and her college instructor, Chris Buzelli. She also credits her inspiration to Norman Rockwell, Windsor McCay, Mary Blair, and the fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

In 2018, she created The Victo Ngai Scholarship Award for the Student Competition held by the Society of Illustrators. She has won various awards and honors herself and continues to teach and lecture at university workshops and conferences. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls

“Flounder, flounder in the sea, rise up from the depths for me…”

‘Serving Fish’ by Christopher Caldwell
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls

About the Art: Serving Fish by Victo Ngai

Serving Fish is a mixed media illustration that was created in 2018 as part of Victo’s Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Spiritual 2 Collection which is a selection of illustrations for sci-fi, fantasy, and spiritual stories. This illustration was created for the short story of the same title written by Christopher Caldwell. The story and illustration appear in the collections, People of Color Take Over Fantastic Stories of the Imagination by Nisi Shawl and Wilde Stories 2018: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction.

Christopher Caldwell’s short story “Serving Fish” tells the story of growth and evolution about the main character Eric who is a drag queen. I have only browsed quickly through the story myself and there is lots about Eric talking to a fish as a coping mechanism. At one point the fish claims to have once been a man. Since it is a fantasy story, I think I have to read more carefully to get what’s going on. If you are interested, you can read a bit of it on Amazon.

The illustration that was the inspiration for this Style Imitating Art prompt features the figure of Eric, I imagine, dressed in drag and draped in strands of pearls with flowers in his big bouffant hairdo while he gazes at his reflection in the mirror. In the reflection, you can see the fishy scales on the face and arm of the figure implying that perhaps the main character Eric was himself part fish or something like that. Darn it. I wish I had more time to read the whole story, but I am already a day late with this post!

References/Resources:

Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls

About My Outfit Inspired by Serving Fish

I had one more dress from my collaboration with Ever Pretty that I had every intention of using for a woodland fairy photoshoot of some sort. However, when Daenel shared the inspiration artwork, one glance at this layered tulle and lace prom dress in shades of green, white, and black hanging in my closet and I knew it was serendipity once again for this SIA challenge.

The colors are an absolutely perfect reflection of the shades in the illustration. The lacy overlay with scattered sequins is reminiscent of fish scales and I aslo added a gold sequined clutch for its scaly fishy effect as well. Of course, I reached for my ever growing collection of pearl strands and I piled them all on, leaving the longer ones draping behind me as in the illustration. My black lace kimono is part of a layered dress (it has a long black slip dress that goes underneath it) but I have only ever worn the top lacy piece open like a duster or kimono. I finished the look with some strappy black heels that I think most drag queens would approve of. And don’t the straps kind of resemble fish bones, too?

I still want to do my woodland fairy photoshoot in this dress, but for now I am super happy with the end result of this Style Imitating Art challenge. My dresses from Ever Pretty have really come in handy for this series. This is the third dress of the five I have received that has appeared in an SIA post. You can see the other two here and here.

If you are looking for affordable bridesmaids dresses or other special occasion gowns, Ever Pretty is offering my readers 25% off all orders over $50 so now is the perfect time to rethink your dress game. Just use code Blogger25 at checkout to receive your discount. 

Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls
Style Imitating Art, formal gown, Ever Pretty, green dress, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge, pearls

To see more outfits inspired by Victo Ngai’s Serving Fish, please visit Daenel’s post for the complete roundup of submissions. You can also read the details of Daenel’s own inspired outfit here, Salazar’s here, and Terri’s here. Have you joined the Style Imitating Art challenges yet? Be sure to check for the next prompt on Monday, September 13, 2021.

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Dress-c/o Ever Pretty / Black Lace Duster-Torrid / Shoes-DSW / Jewelry-All Old

I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.

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