A Muted Color Summer Outfit for SIA: Georges Seurat + DIY Jewelry

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the 1886 oil painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by French artist Georges Seurat. She picked this artist in honor of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and she liked that the painting gives "a sense of friendliness and joy among strangers enjoying the same experience in tandem" that was perfect for celebrating the Olympic tradition. She also learned about the pointillist technique in grade school art classes and has been a fan of this style ever since.

Source: shelbeeontheedge.com

The first thing that struck me when viewing this painting with an eye toward interpreting it into an outfit was the gorgeous color palette with so many lovely muted tones that coordinate beautifully: blues, greens, beiges, browns, blush pinks, burgundies, and rusts. (I certainly wasn't attracted to the idea of dressing in a corset and a bustle!) I pulled three pieces from my closet that worked with this color scheme, and I was pleased that the top I selected had a leaf motif that wasn't completely out of place for a painting of a park.

I was very happy with how nice the soft blue cardigan and aloe vera ankle pants looked together. (I like them particularly well with the print top as a bridge piece containing both colors, but I could easily imagine substituting a solid top in either color--I do have both--or a neutral in the future.) The three pieces combined to create an easy-on-the-eyes summer outfit with the same pleasantly calm and relaxed vibe as the artwork.

OOTD 8/8/24

I repeated the navy color from the top's background in my flats for a very cohesive look.

I had fun combining two DIY necklaces with one purchased necklace for a layered necklace look, which continues to be my summer go-to accessorizing option. The shortest necklace in slate blue and silver is from CJ Banks, the middle one I made from large lampwork glass beads on cord, and the longest one is a reversible paper pendant I made from catalog paper on upcycled paperboard {tutorial}.

Outfit total cost per wear (not including earrings and bracelets, which I don't track): $4.55, just below my target of $5. It's funny to see that four pieces were bought from the same store. Here is the breakdown:

-Aloe vera ankle pants, $6.79, CJ Banks, 12/2020, 14 wears, $0.49 CPW

-Navy/olive/beige/burgundy leaf print top, $21.48, CJ Banks, 7/2020, 19 wears, $1.13 CPW

-Soft blue cardigan, $14.83, CJ Banks, 5/2020, 13 wears, $1.14 CPW

-Slate blue/silver adjustable necklace, $6.89, CJ Banks, 2/2021, 7 wears, $0.98 CPW

-Navy pointy-toed flats, $60.00, Andrew Geller/Kohls, 9/2017, 75 wears, $0.81 CPW

My daily bracelet stack is based on a paper bead bracelet set I made to match one of my few dresses in a color palette of navy, soft blue, blush pink, and silver {page to bead details with the second outfit in this post}. The top two bracelets are part of a set I bought at CJ Banks [who should be sponsoring this post :D] and the rest are DIY. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial}

My bead soup earrings du jour are one of my favorite extremely easy designs: the long skinny stack. Dangle earrings that are more articulated so they move around more are also fun, but I really like the way long skinny stack of beads together on a single headpin look and move. They have a swooshy quality that I like.

Now for my favorite part of the post: revealing our Rabbit Imitating Art! For today's painting, which is colorful and covered with figures, I wanted a rabbit with a multi-color fur pattern rather than a solid one. There are many breeds/coloration patterns that could fit the bill, but I was attracted to the alert posture of this Japanese Harlequin with his grey and orange stripes ("Japanese" is used for rabbits with orange stripes; "magpie" is used for rabbits with white stripes). Fittingly, the Harlequin is a French breed of rabbit that was first exhibited in Paris in 1887...just one year after Parisian Georges Seurat finished the painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" and 137 years before the Paris Olympics.

Did you notice that empty section at the lower center of the painting that would be the perfect spot for someone to rest and spread out a bit? So did our rabbit but he wasn't falling for it. There are two dogs and a monkey on a leash waiting nearby to cause trouble, and no bunny wants anything to do with that. Instead he is waiting vigilantly and patiently in a spot hidden from the dangerous dog-monkey cabal's view by a gentleman with a top hat...waiting for the afternoon to fade into twilight, for that perfect crepuscular moment of low visibility for both daytime and nighttime predators when a quick rabbit can dash through whatever figures might remain in this landscape to the safety of the trees at the edge of the park.

Artwork "improved" with rabbit

I learned from Shelbee's post that Seurat died at the age of 31, leaving his ambitious painting The Circus unfinished. Although many of the key figures of this work are included...the horse and its rider, the acrobat, the ringmaster, the audience, the clown...a key component is missing: the clown's traditional foil, the harlequin! It is my great honor to finally complete this painting with the addition of our rabbit.

source: Wikipedia

Thanks for joining me today for this Style Imitating Art + Rabbit Imitating (and Improving) Art post!

To see other outfit interpretations of this artwork, check out the review on Shelbee on the Edge.

How would you have interpreted this artwork? Am I the only one who didn't immediately think of polka dots when faced with a pointillist painting? Do you like the muted tones in this painting as colors to wear? Can you imagine seeing someone with a monkey on a leash in a park??

Blogs I link up with are listed here.