Terri at Meadow Tree Style is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she picked the 1890 painting Ladies Having Tea by American artist Frederick Judd Waugh. Her daughter saw the painting at a museum and sent it to Terri as something she might choose to present for the SIA. Terri appreciated the richness in color and pattern in this work and pointed out the "plaids, Persian rugs, Oriental screens, reds and golds, celeriac green, and a bit of black for contrast" that appear in the painting. There are so many wonderful elements to this artwork that could be translated into an outfit!
I started with my relatively-new hunter green pants as a sideways glance at the bright celery green dress of the woman seated on the right. My pants are definitely a much darker shade of green, but I had been looking for an excuse to wear them again...and I really don't have the correct shade of green anyway! Next I added a thrifted black paisley sweatshirt to mimic the black tops/jackets of the two ladies on the left.
I knew I wanted a scarf to reflect the deeply colored prints of the painting, and I started by looking through my collection for a rich print with black and green. I expected to have a dozen contenders but this dark grey floral infinity scarf was obviously the best of my limited options. I thought the deep red flowers on the dark background were a nice stand-in for the floral painting at the upper right of the artwork, and the overall print worked well for the bird/foliage on the screen at the left of the artwork. The colors were reminiscent of the Persian rug as well. I added the gold necklace to represent the gilding in various parts of the artwork as well as the large golden fan at the upper left.
Continuing with the fan detail of the painting, I selected red leaf-shaped leather earrings to capture the shape and color of the two remaining fans. My black DIY 5-strand braided headband was my take on the black hat worn by the woman in the middle.
I was inspired to add these black and white smoking slippers by the plaid clothing and the central of the 3 fans in the upper left. Something about the very optic, high contrast black and white teardrop shaped fan compared to the more richly blended colors and patterns elsewhere in the artwork really caught my eye, and I thought these shoes did a good job of bringing a similar juxtaposition to my outfit.
I choose a black, green, and gold color scheme for my daily bracelet stack: a DIY green glass + gold spacer bead bracelet I had just made so this was its initial wearing, two DIY black glass bead bracelets, a gold bracelet from Amazon, and a DIY dark green/gold paper tube bead bracelet.
Next up is our Rabbit Imitating Art selection! It was easy for me to decide on a black rabbit, but I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go in with the rabbit's fur. A black rex/mini rex with plush velvety fur was one option, but I had chosen a black otter mini rex for the Rembrandt SIA. So I picked this black Satin rabbit with gorgeously sleek and shiny fur (caused by a recessive gene that gives the fur a translucent sheen).
The bunny found herself right at home on the Persian rug underneath the tea table. I love how the rabbit appears to be "dressed" in a way that combines the satiny texture of the green dress with the color of the black outfits on the three ladies. The unevenness of the fringe at the edge of the rug might have been unexpected at first, but how that you see the rabbit's favorite loafing spot, it's clear that she has chewed up some sections of the fringe!
I really enjoyed translating this richly colored artwork filled with many rich, dressy aspects into a very simple and extremely comfortable outfit. I'm basically wearing a sweatshirt, pull-on pants (with some stretch to them), and knit flats, plus some accessories, but the overall vibe captures the sumptuous quality of the artwork.
Because I did not otherwise include the hawk/falcon from the painting above the green dress lady's head in my look, here is a version with the Harris's hawk print that hangs on the wall next to my husband's computer. Rabbits are not big fans of any birds of prey, but our Satin has been assured that the hawk is completely blocked from entering the room by the pane of glass in front of it so she consented to join us in this image.
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.
Do you wear chartreuse/celery green? Or other shades of green? Do you like dark, moody floral prints? Do you own any items that are much more comfortable than they look?
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