“Being the art was motivational. Dressing multiculturally, meaning no jeans or exercise togs, invited conversation about style, material, technique, and customs of the makers. It also allowed me to tell stories about my travels, making teaching less anonymous, more alive.” [Joyce J. Scott] In the 1970s and 1980s, Scott made artwear, head-to-toe looks for herself and her friends. Incorporating materials and techniques that pay homage to the diverse cultural traditions encountered in her travels, Scott’s artwear invited conversation about these sources, while inventing a style all her own. Scott created the leather ensemble at far right for the artist and scholar Dr. Leslie King Hammond (born 1944) to amplify her friend as “a walking, well-dressed encyclopedia.” The five-piece look incorporates techniques such as reverse appliqué that Scott honed in Panama in 1976 when she visited with Indigenous Kuna women in the San Blas Islands. For her friend and Baltimore-based artist Tom Miller (1945–2000), she made the jacket at upper right adorned with glinting safety pins and charms to shimmer when he entered the club. She made the two dresses at center for herself, wearing them in performances and daily life. The artist accessorized each look for this display, creating lyrical, stylized headpieces as portraits to represent aspects of herself and her friends King Hammond and artist Oletha DeVane (born 1950).