Terri at Meadow Tree Style is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she picked four rose paintings by 18th/19th century Belgian botanist and artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté aka "The Raphael of Flowers." Terri grows roses, and when she recently was informed that two roses she'd ordered had shipped, it reminded her of the two Redouté books in her library that her mother had given her. She selected roses in four different colors to inspire our spring fashion.
This floral style challenge was well timed because spring has well and truly sprung in Minnesota! After getting 8"+ inches of snow a week ago, we are having high temperatures in the 70s and 80s F this week. Gotta love that changeable Midwest weather, right? I had to revise my plans for this SIA a couple times since Terri shared the inspiration artwork because the weather forecast kept getting warmer and warmer. A pullover sweater + skirt + tights/boots became a top + pants + cardigan over the weekend. I had planned to wear the same pink cardigan as in this SIA challenge last autumn ("spring colors in fall"), but I ditched the cardigan idea entirely when I woke up to an even warmer weather forecast on the day I wore my outfit.
Fortunately, the top and pants I'd selected worked just fine without a topper layer. I have an aloe vera T and olive pants that make a simple tonal column of color...they aren't precisely the same color but are related ("tonal") colors that blend together nicely. I like the tonal option for any of the color formulas that are based on same/similar colors, such as this inner column. In this case, the difference between the top and pants colors adds some extra interest to a very simple outfit. I did a quick front tuck to the T-shirt because it is a bit oversized, which can look sloppy with straight or wide leg pants. The result is still casual/not-overly-polished but a bit more put-together-looking than with the T-shirt hanging loose. I thought this column of color in soft greens did a good job of representing the stems and leaves in the rose paintings.
To bring in the rose bloom aspect of the painting, I chose this colorful floral print scarf with a pink background, which is reminiscent of the two pink roses in the paintings. The large orange flowers on this scarf look like stylized roses to my eye. I love a lightweight scarf as an alternative "third piece" in warm weather situations when a topper layer would be uncomfortable. Many people think, UGH, a scarf when it's warm, NO WAY...and I hear that, having lived in the hot humid climate of Oklahoma/Texas for most of my life. But for warm but not hot weather, a scarf can work. You just have to be selective about the fabrication of the scarf and thoughtful about how you drape/tie it. (For more spring scarf styling ideas, see these recent posts from Mireille and Jodie.)
A pair of colorful shoes or print shoes would also have been fun for this outfit, but I stuck with olive ballet flats to continue the soft green "stem" look of the column. Of course, the roses and stems are making me think of the scene in the 1951 Alice in Wonderland movie when Alice stumbles into the flower garden and is insulted by its residents...including "Just look at those stems. Rather scrawny, I'd say."
I kept my headband and earrings subtle and neutral in color to not compete with the vibrant print of my "hero piece" scarf.
My daily bracelet stack is a mix of 3 older pieces and 3 new pieces (all DIY). The olive serpentine and two pink quartz bracelets (the lower two pink ones) I had already made. The watermelon pink bead bracelet with the silver rabbit charm is a brand new creation that I put together for Easter last weekend...and I can already tell I will be wearing this one a lot!
The two paper bead bracelets are the basis of a new DIY bracelet set in a pink, olive, and burgundy color palette inspired by a floral skirt I have.
Now for our Rabbit Imitating Art selection! Today I am sharing with you a very rare flower, almost entirely unknown to botanical science...the rabbit flower. Under conditions as yet undiscovered by researchers, bunnies will cluster "bun to bun" to form the petals of a rabbit flower. This formation can occur among rabbit relatives and friends, but also among strangers, as seen in this photo from the 2016 Minnesota State Fair. Certainly more study is needed to understand the rabbit flower phenomenon, but one thing is immediately clear: It's cute as all get out.
It is highly recommended that one place their rabbit flower separate from other botanical specimens as this "flower" will readily chomp on other plants from hunger or mere curiosity.
Thanks for joining me today for this Style Imitating Art + Rabbit Imitating Art post!
To see other outfit interpretations of this artwork, check out the review on Meadow Tree Style.
Here are the page-to-bead examples for the two paper bead bracelets in my DIY bracelet set. The first bracelet was made from a full-page ad in The Economist with a ballerina in pink on maroon stairs with an olive/brown background, which I thought was perfect for the pink/olive/burgundy color palette. I cut strips for 1" bicones, which rolled up into nice colorblock...but notice that the maroon stair color is not at all prominent in the beads even though there's a lot of it in the image. I cut strips from the left/bottom side of the page where there was more of the brownish background instead of the stairs. If I wanted more red, I should have started at the top/right instead.
The second bracelet started out as a full page garden image from an alumni magazine. Because the top and bottom of the image has a lot of neutral brown or grey, I covered these areas with pink marker after cutting my strips. On the rolled beads, that pink marker came through as a muted pink tone at the center or ends of the beads. The green and more vibrant pink colors are from the original foliage and flowers in the image. I really liked how these turned out!
Do you like to wear floral prints? Do you like to wear a column of color? Do you ever wear a "tonal" column of color?
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Your bracelets are perfect with this outfit, as always! And I really like the two olives together, the scarf is such a fun topper and really ties it all into the theme! :)
Thanks for joining the Weekday Wear Link up :)
I love the beautiful colors in your bracelets and scarf. The entire outfit reflects the colors in the botanical prints perfectly. Thank you for sharing this post in the Talent-Sharing Tuesdays Link-Up 61.
Carol
www.scribblingboomer.com
Such beautiful braceletsLovely floral collage.
You interpreted these botanical prints beautifully! Love the idea of the monochrome outfit as the flower stem and the gorgeous soft colors in your floral scarf. The bunny flower is adorable, maybe my new favorite kind. Enjoy your weekend and thanks for sharing!