OOTD: Style Imitating Art - Solar System Quilt

Style Imitating Art (SIA) is style challenge hosted by Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey, Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks, and Terri at Meadow Tree Style. The hosts alternate choosing artwork to inspire outfit creation and publish a round-up of submissions from readers. I have not participated in SIA before (I don't think!) but this solar system quilt created by American teacher Ellen Harding Baker in 1876 captured my interest right away, and I decided this was a good opportunity to jump into the fray.

Solar System Quilt by Ellen Harding Baker (source: Wikipedia, public domain)

Seeing the quilt, I immediately thought of my black polka dot T to represent the night sky and stars. The green tail of the comet is represented by the olive pants. I added the cheetah Oxfords for more of a dotted star theme and to bring in the warm beige color. The orbits and planets in the center put me in mind of a layered necklace with cream and gold rounded "planet" shapes, a medallion representing the sun, and an open circle necklace for more of the planet/orbit idea.

OOTD 11/14/21

Of course my orbits are a little out of whack here, since many of those white/beige "planets" are not circling the medallion "sun," but it still resonates with the inspiration quilt, I think.

I continued with the circular/spherical shape theme using these DIY large gold hoop earrings with round black beads.

I am completely on board with the concept of "style imitating art" but it did put another idea into my mind...art imitating rabbits and rabbits imitating art! I looked through my extensive collection of domestic rabbit photos and found a great rabbit mascot for this SIA: the Japanese harlequin. With stripes of black and light orange, the body of the harlequin is reminiscent of the golden orbits against the black night sky in the quilt. I also like the correspondence between the one raised ear and the comet tail in the quilt. Can you see what I mean?

SIA Solar System Quilt Rabbit #1 - Japanese Harlequin

When I was dressed in my quilt-inspired outfit on Sunday, I had Robot look up the quilt online without telling him why because I was curious whether he'd notice the similarities between my outfit and the quilt, which he did. I told him later that I had picked a rabbit mascot to go along with the quilt also and challenged him to guess what kind. Right away he said English Spot...which I realized was actually quite a brilliant choice. So I searched my archives for a photo of a black English Spot, whose characteristic markings include the stripe down the center of the back and spots along the flanks, bringing in both the orbit of the planets and the scattering of stars around the edge of the quilt. I think Robot's suggestion made for an excellent second rabbit mascot for this SIA! It seems like this English Spot is eager to be given a big leaf of green lettuce to chomp on, all the better to represent the green comet tail on the quilt (not that a rabbit needs a reason to be eager about lettuce!).

SIA Solar System Quilt Rabbit #2 - English Spot

Every month or two I take another photo of my hair from the back to gauge its growth, and I must say it's getting quite long at this point!

To wrap up this post, I decided to find a rabbit with fur that is most similar to my own...and this light fawn French Angora with voluminous fur was a pretty good match. (Luckily his fur isn't quite as long as my hair is in objective terms, but it is definitely long for his size.) The Angora even ties in with the solar system quilt, as the rabbit's fur is the wool variety and is used as a luxury fiber, and the quilt was created using wool (though probably not Angora wool).

My Hair/Hare Twin: French Angora

To see the other outfit interpretations of the solar system quilt, check out the round-up on Salazar's blog.

Have you participated in Style Imitating Art or similar style challenges? Have you been inspired by artwork in creating outfits?

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