Summery White + Grey Outfit and Citrus DIY Jewelry Collection for SIA: Going to Market

Marsha at Marsha in the Middle is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the 1860 oil painting "Going to Market" by French painter Constant Troyon. (That his name is only one letter away from "constant try-on" makes this a particularly apt choice for a style challenge!) She picked this painting because she wanted a black and white image that would "free everyone from a color scheme," allowing us to use our own color ideas or stick to the black, white, and grey palette.

Source: marshainthemiddle.com

I do occasionally wear an achromatic outfit but they are not my favorites; even when I am satisfied with such an outfit, I find myself thinking that it would be better with at least one pop of color. So I decided to take advantage of Marsha's offer for us to choose our own color palettes. My color scheme came together very, very quickly based on two additional sources of inspiration.

Inspiration #2: The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale catalog with a "fresh produce" theme...lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, watermelon, apples...all kinds of lovely summer fruit, of which I can only eat a small selection because I am allergic to citrus! (It was interesting that they hewed closely to the citrus color palette and did not include the other major category of summer fruit, which is my favorite: berries.) And note that the model on the cover is wearing a black shirt under a heathered black and white coat with silver boots, which would itself be a nice outfit for this SIA (if an extremely hot one for mid-July!).

Nordstrom Anniversary Sale catalog

Inspiration #3: The June 2024 Dollar Bead Box & Bag, which leaned heavily into the citrusy yellow, orange, and lime green color palette.

June 2024 Bargain Bead Box & Bag

When I received these beads in early June, I knew I wanted to make a citrus-themed DIY jewelry collection based on them, and seeing the Nordstrom catalog and then the Going to Market painting for the SIA, my plan quickly firmed up: an achromatic base outfit with my beloved thrifted lime/yellow-green cardigan and DIY citrus jewelry.

I immediately chose a white tank and my grey wide leg crop pants to represent the black/grey/white of the Going to Market painting. However, the white tank was a back-up option because my usual cotton white tank was in the wash; luckily I also have this exercise tank in white that I could sub in.

OOTD 7/15/24

Since my cardigan had the lime green color covered, I wore my orange ballet flats for an additional pop of bright color.

Using almost exclusively the beads from the Dollar Bead Box & Bag (and a few extras from their site), I made this 3-strand necklace in bold citrus hues. (I added some light green imperial jasper on the bottom strand and some yellow mermaid glass beads on the top strand.) I'm wearing it a little crooked in this photo, but I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I added my go-to long necklace to further the layered look: my gold tassel on a chain that I've worn 94 times (in 10 years).

Outfit total cost per wear (not including earrings and bracelets, which I don't track): $1.33! That's an entire outfit at only a bit above my per item goal of $1 CPW. All of these pieces are older ones that have been worn many times, and they were purchased at thrifted or sale prices:

-Grey wide leg crop pants, $12.00, Loft, 5/2020, 16 wears, $0.75 CPW

-White exercise tank (not tracked)

-Yellow-green cardigan, $3.50, thrifted Jeanne Pierre, 2/2016, 19 wears, $0.18 CPW

-Gold tassel necklace, $20.00, Kohls, 12/2014, 94 wears, $0.21 CPW

-Orange ballet flats, $10.00, Payless, 6/2015, 52 wears, $0.19 CPW

Since discovering the extra large bracelet memory wire at Fire Mountain Gems (FMG) that has a 2.5" diameter, I am enjoying supplementing my stretch bracelet collection with some memory wire ones (if it makes sense to say that when I've only made two of them so far, haha). I used an assortment of small beads in my color scheme...including those strange barbell shaped "peanut beads" from Curated Bead Box that I hadn't known what to do with but absolutely love on memory wire. My seed bead collection and my bead soup contributed quite a few beads to this design as well. The stars of the show are the cute fruit beads that I had ordered on Amazon for my first memory wire bracelet that has a pink lemonade theme (you'll be seeing it later this summer). I meant to make this a 7 strand bracelet but misjudged when cutting the wire so I ended up with 6 strands instead, but that's fine.

My earrings are a diversion from the bead soup earrings I've been wearing lately. I bought these large twisted/striped acrylic beads in 3 bright colors (lime green, orange, and aqua) from FMG recently because I thought they would make some fun bold summer jewelry with a hint of kid-made/summer camp vibes. Because they are very lightweight for their size, they are perfect for earrings. I just added a small lime crystal and a lime heishi bead to either end of the big bead on a headpin and called it a day.

Now for my favorite part of the post: revealing our Rabbit Imitating Art selection! After a run of Mini Lops in our last couple of SIA posts, I went for a very different "miniature" rabbit this time - my favorite breed of rabbit: the incomparably, impossibly soft Mini Rex! Of course I wanted to stick to the achromatic color scheme of the painting as much as possible, so I chose this gorgeous little black bunny with the white edge markings characteristic of the recessive tan (at) gene. I can only assume that Mini Rex rabbits with this coloration pattern are called "otters" because the dark face with lighter color around the eyes and below the nose is reminiscent of an otter. They are definitely not related to otters!

An otherwise normal, gloomy, riding-a-donkey-in-a-dress-sidesaddle Going to Market day took a strange turn when an unexpectedly large so-called "mini" rabbit hopped out into the lane. Two of the sheep exchanged confused glances at the sudden appearance of this gigantic and impossibly soft-looking creature. The donkey started calculating speeds and trajectories in the fear that a collision might be imminent (luckily the rabbit was also well aware of the danger and ensured that her velocity matched that of the donkey).

Artwork "improved" with rabbit

The now-bunnified group companionably continued on their journey to the market, at which point the rabbit veered away toward the area where the fruit and vegetable farmers had set up their wares. Rumor had it that a farmer from the French Riviera had traveled in with oranges, which would be such a treat for the entire warren if he could snag a few! While many humans in the future would come to associate citrus fruit with summer, the rabbit knew that winter is citrus season...a time when the dreary grey can be relieved by some vibrant, fragrant orange!

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 Marsha in the Middle.

Speaking of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale...I did log in on the opening "early access" day to order two things:

-Olaplex shampoo. I bought the giant bottle of conditioner last year, so I should be set for a while.

-A pair of pointy-toed gold flats to (I hope) replace the Amazon flats I have been complaining about.

Did you know that winter is the prime season for citrus fruit...or, like me, did you assume that they were a summer thing? Do you have a favorite citrus fruit or recipe? Do you like to wear achromatic (black/grey/white) outfits or do you prefer to add some color? What accent colors do you favor with a white and grey outfit? Did you shop the Nordstrom sale?

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