How to dress as an artist.

I cannot claim any expertise in fashion world, but it is something I struggle with before every event! ‘What to wear?! How do you marry smart with artistic? Businesslike, but creative? I seem to be trying to balance two extremes.

I googled ‘How to dress as an artist’ and came up with this wikihow link. I can only assume it’s a piss take, but it’s pant wettingly funny. 

I see a lot of outfits like this, fine but a bit ‘I milk my own goats’ although it’s pleasingly named ‘form and whimsy outfit 5’

Blue fish clothing

I love going to art fairs and see how other artists dress, there was a group of three women at a show last year who were wearing between them; a cat ears hairband, neon (pink and yellow), tartan tights, copious velvet, and the obligatory eyewateringly bright kaftan. My gut feeling is that if you want to be taken seriously by buyers or potential galleries then cat’s ears are probably not going to swing things in your favour. 

I’m not keen on the ‘toddler in dressing up box’ look either. In fact, I tend to find that the more a successful an artist is, the less they look like an “artist”. Who knows where the fashion for crazy artist dressing stemmed from, Dali perhaps. Picasso always looked a bit like an onion seller to my mind.

The final group I see alot of are the boho crowd, but it’s not really me. It’s too floaty, and impractical. I think it’s faintly ridiculous on someone the wrong side of 35. 

I tend to stick to less shouty outfits, with as much Anthropologie as I can afford in the sales. Private view at the Affordable Art Fair tomorrow, I won’t be the one wearing animal ear accessories!