Graffiti Chic: Paint With your Heart
Hello Fashionistas,
As fall and winter start to approach and everything begins to get a bit dreary, I’m going to inspire you with beautiful and vibrant graffiti images from some recent travels. Graffiti is first and foremost visually eye catching with it’s bold shapes and colors–and then as you keep looking there is usually a deeper meaning in these pieces of art that really gets you thinking about what story the artist was trying to convey. So after you’ve gotten sucked into the beauty of the art, you just keep looking, and maybe find yourself going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole!
Graffiti for it’s colors and shapes has always gone hand in hand with fashion. It usually finds itself a home in the culture of the young and alternative crowd, but it has become inspirational to mainstream fashion these days and as I’ve been doing my fall shopping, I’ve been seeing some great clothing and accessories that carry on that one of a kind special graffiti vibe.
San Francisco: Valencia Street
In the Mission district of San Fran is the wonderfully hip and bohemian Valencia Street which has a wacky array of stores from vintage clothing, books, and record stores to retro technology stores, funky clothing boutiques, to the odd retail store selling curiosities of plants, animals, and fossils–it’s quite the unusual street to meander down. Off of Valencia is a small side street (almost an alley) not open to thru traffic. This is Clarion Street and it’s literally a gallery of graffiti murals that astound you with their beautiful colors
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| The very cute side street, Clarion, that goes on and on forever with cool graffiti murals |
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| A view down the street… |
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| Fun hippy flowers with a very political statement. The coolest part is of this are the flowers on the bottom of the mural that travel down to the street |
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| Topshop in London has vibrant techno fabric sweatshirts with graffiti inspired florals. Wear this with a slim techno pencil skirt in black and you have a pretty sophisticated look. |
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| Calla flowers and cactus–evocative of a Mexican vibe. |
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| River Island scuba dress with a feminine feel but bold graphic painted look flowers |
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| A very sci-fi, spiritual, almost religious theme
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| Toughen up with tattoo, street inspired graphics |
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| And you guys of course recognize my blog girl who I adore. She inspires me because she looks like she’s dressed for adventures yet unknown to her and has a Pandora’s box of “what”–we don’t know!! |
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| Black and White simplistic graphics, but the content referring to war and violence couldn’t be further from “black and white”
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| Shoes for the season even have graffiti elements. I’ve never seen so many printed shoes! |
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| Come on up for the graffiti and the clothes!! |
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| A paint splattered party! The feminine chiffon fabric mixed with the rib sweatshirt trims creates a sophisticated “sweatshirt”. Pair this with some jogger pants and heels and you are sophisticatedly sporty! |
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| Oddities abound at Kulture Klub! |
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| The message is a bit mixed |
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| Portraits for your dining room? |
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| A new religion…. |
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| Paris Issey Miyake storefront on Rue de Rennes showcasing similar graffiti motifs |
Camden Market-London:
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| Some interesting characters that I had the pleasure to meet…. |
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| Photorealism |
Paris, France:
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| Secrets de Fille is the cutest little hide-away feminine boutique. With it’s very special pieces of jewelry–it’s a little slice of heaven on the inside and loaded with crazy graphics on the outside |
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| Sweaty Betty’s newest line of active wear incorporating some soft graffiti prints. I felt a bit of the same soft Parisian vibe in these prints |
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| More Sweaty Betty… a bit more edgy and rough |
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| And more Sweaty Betty. I’m really in love with this look for my workout wear. |
West Coast Customs in Corona, CA: Love this place!
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| Their Cali headquarters |
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| The cars are the focus but what a great graffiti background for all this custom work!! |
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| A super loaded graffiti inspired dress. You have to really spend time looking at all of the motifs in this artwork to really appreciate what’s there…. |
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| A close-up for your viewing pleasure–cupcakes, Day of the Dead, records, butterflies, Cookie Monster, dogs, asian girls…..deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole! |
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| And my fun leather jacket with rose graphics–tough and sweet! Yep that’s me totally! |
Graffiti is such an incredible art form! With its large scale and vibrancy, it almost whacks you over the head when you see it. It speaks to us in both subtle and not so subtle ways. I think that’s what makes it so impactful on us. Keep these fun vibrant colors with you all winter when your first instinct is to wear black or grey. Grab a fun pop color or print accessory to bring a little sunshine and food for thought into your winter! And as one graffiti artist said–“Art in a frame is like an eagle in a birdcage”
