When Fashion And Nature Collide – The Illusion Edition

Playing with sights, sounds and feelings – this is fine art at its finest. In fashion, we use colors, prints, designs and layers to create illusions as well. Personally, I take great inspiration from Salvador Dali because of his ability to completely warp reality on a whim to get his point across.

The entire premise of When Fashion and Nature Collide is to take some of nature’s best ideas and add our little Dali-esque twist to it. Darren has outdone himself this month with his artistic pictures of unusual flowers that resemble something other than flowers. They are olfactory and visual decoys that attract pollinators or repel predators. Great illusions and proof that Mother Nature has a funny sense of humour.

My outfits this month are based on three flowers and one insect.

Note: In case you’ve not seen these capsules before, the When Fashion and Nature Collide project is a monthly collaboration with two of my WP friends: Lisa of Lismore Paper and Darren of The Arty Plantsman. Artwork Copyright ©Fashioned by Nature.

The third Wednesday of each month you can see outfits styled by me, and art from Lisa, that were inspired by Darren’s flower and critter pictures and sometimes other photographers who collaborate with the team. With the spirit of protecting nature I pull together my outfits with clothing already available in my wardrobe. When purchases are to be made, these come from vintage shops and thrift stores or from socio-eco-friendly brands.

Enjoy the issue!

Yellow Horned Poppy 

We shot this look in my hubby’s Cave Automatic Virtual Environment – a cutting-edge, room-size display system that combines stereoscopic projection and high-resolution 3D computer graphics to create the illusion of being present in a real environment. I have used a flower field picture as the backdrop, posing with my outfit in the CAVE. The illusion gives an interesting aesthetic to the photos.

By the way, I am wearing a vintage bright orange skirt with a yellow flower embroidery that looks a lot like the horned poppy picture above. This skirt is reversible so it means that I double my outfit options. It is one fine piece of clothing that should appeal to eco-friendly travelers who want to pack light without losing quality and function!

Inspirational Peony

This outfit features a red coat-dress and a white skirt with red peonies. The objective was to create a camouflage illusion coming from the backdrop. I wanted a red peonies floral fabric mural that matches the skirt’s general pattern. Unfortunately, I did not find such fabric. The textile I opted for completely has the opposite effect. I like the mix of pink, beige and red a lot though.

Variation of Moraea Flowers

Is it just me, or do these flowers remind you of butterflies? Darren had his original work printed on a silk scarf, which he sent to me for Christmas. (Thank you so much again my friend. I looove the scarf!) I went to an exhibition at the Botanical Garden a few weeks ago to shoot this look surrounded with butterflies. I still have great stuff that will come from this shoot. Stay tuned!

Stick Insect With Pink Wings

The outfit below was inspired from an illusion of a shadow ballerina. Fascinating how our brain continually tries to make sense of abstract images based on our life experience.

New designs available on our shop

We have a few new designs as well: Darren did a fun drawing of a “pocket ostrich” that makes me laugh every time I look at it. This drawing was inspired from a picture that he took when we went to an ostrich farm on his last visit to Montreal (September 2018).

Lisa did the Fresh Cut Flower design with Darren’s Moraea drawing and also the Inspirational Peony artwork & the Monet Flower Lady that you saw above. I like the Art Deco feel of the Monet Flower Lady and immediately had a crush for that design.

These designs are available on many different products through our shop at fashionedbynature.threadless.com.

We’re super happy about what we came up with this month, and you can also expect some inspired designs in the very near future. In a few days Darren and Lisa will visit me in Montreal. I’m truly excited to see them in person. We will tell you all about the giggles and things we’ve done together. Did I already say stay tuned?

Credit: Photography of 3C Style by Marie-Claude Viola (except the photos done in the virtual environment, which are by Annie Gaudreau) –– Flowers and Critters Photography, Ostrich artwork and Moraea Flowers & digital reproduction of the Moraea on the typewriter picture by Darren Sleep, The Arty Plantsman –– Inspirational Peony, Tiny Dancer and Monet Flower Lady artwork by Lisa Lawrence, Lismore Paper –– Stylist: Dominique Nancy, 3C Style –– Photo collages by 3C Style

Don’t forget to visit LismorePaper and The Arty Plantsman to get an overall view of our monthly collaboration.

Next edition of When Fashion and Nature Collide: June 19th 

Let’s stay connected: Bloglovin – Instagram @3cstyle_fashion

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