A Winter Print Mix Outfit for SIA Harlem at Night

Marsha at Marsha in the Middle is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the 1948 painting "Harlem at Night" by American artist Charles Alston. She chose this artwork, which she featured on a recent New Year's Eve "Night at Newfields" museum tour she conducted, because "it's full of so many different things...movement, color, Cubism" and because it seemed fitting to highlight an artist with such an "amazing resume" for Black History Month.

Here are two views of the artwork: first an online photo that is darker and flatter looking, then a photo taken of the actual painting hanging on the wall that is lighter and more dimensional. The painting is moodier and more "night"-like to me in the first image, and livelier and more dynamic in the second one.

source: shelbeeontheedge.com

source: marshainthemiddle.com

My goal with this challenge was to capture that dark and moody vibe while also incorporating the colors and shapes of the painting. I found three prints in my wardrobe to get me started:

(1) Black and grey "micro geo" print pants (that's the name that Kohls used for them) to represent the dominant dark colors of the artwork.

(2) Ivory and black plaid scarf to reflect the intersecting straight lines and Cubist technique in the painting.

(3) Cheetah print Oxfords that mimic the organic shapes of the lights in the artwork (in this case, the painting has golden orbs of light against a dark background and the shoes have black blobs of darkness against a light background, so it's an inversion of the original).

The painting includes two other colors: a dark red/maroon (in the buildings) and a dark blue (in the sky). Since I was focusing on the buildings for my interpretation, I decided that the maroon color was essential for my look but the blue could be ignored. I chose a pullover sweater with a maroon-and-black marl knit to bring that color front and center in the outfit (like the maroon wall in the middle of the painting).

OOTD 1/12/26

At a distance, my pants have the look of a false plain because the "micro" print is so small and subtle, but up close, you can see that both the pants and shoes are prints. Sometimes this type of print mix - with two small scale prints and only one shared color, put right next to each other with no visual break between them - is treated like an "advanced" print mix, but I don't think it takes any great experience or skill to put this together and wear it! For me, it's more a matter of your style personality, your willingness to experiment, and your confidence.

I often like to add a long necklace underneath an infinity scarf, and this time I chose one with a series of gold open circles (rings) in various sizes as another nod to the round golden lights in the painting.

For my all-DIY daily bracelet stack, I started with the four-wrap memory wire bracelet in maroon, orange, grey, and gold to bring in the brighter, warmer colors and (once again) the round golden orbs of light from the artwork. Because 4 coils is fewer than I'd prefer (I was working with the end of a roll of memory wire), I supplemented it with two stretch bracelets made with snowflake obsidian, black crystal, and gold spacers. {stretch bracelet tutorial}

My earrings are a very easy DIY pair that I made to coordinate with the memory wire bracelet: a skinny stack design with grey crackle glass, gold crystals, and tiny maroon faceted beads. (See earring design #4 in this post for more examples of this style of earring.) It's a nice coincidence that both my glasses and my hair fit the color scheme of the outfit.

Now for my main event of every SIA post: revealing our Rabbit Imitating Art!

I didn't overthink it this time - I saw this Chinchilla breed of rabbit with the heathered grey and black fur (similar to the rodent for which the breed was named), and I knew that he would both coordinate with the painting while showing up well against the dark background.

I also liked that he had vigilant eyes and an alert posture, since contrary to the popular misconception, rabbits are not creatures of the night! They are "crepuscular," meaning that they are most active at dawn and dusk. For the European rabbits from which domestic rabbits like this one have been bred, this means spending most of the day and night in their underground warrens, emerging in the twilight for their main meal. They do this to avoid both diurnal (daytime) and nocturnal (night-time) predators. Rabbits have evolved to be able to see well in the low-light conditions of dawn and dusk when predators are less likely to be hunting. However, wild rabbits will shift their timing based on local conditions, habitat, etc., to minimize their exposure to predators.

Before agreeing to accept the role of Rabbit Improving Art for this painting, our bunny was wise to ask what animals are active at night in Harlem. Google tells us that the common nocturnal urban dwellers in NYC are racoons, opossums, skunks, bats, mice, and rats. Most of these animals are omnivores that will opportunistically eat vulnerable rabbits - usually young (small) or sick ones - but are not significant rabbit predators. Fortunately, our bunny is mature, healthy, vigilant, and (somehow) quite sizable, so his risk of falling prey to one of these animals is very low indeed.

One thing that is interesting and surprising about this painting is the lack of another common urban animal: humans. At least within the environs of this artwork, our bunny has the streets to himself! However, if he were to venture into one of the jazz clubs of the Harlem Renaissance period depicted in the painting, he would find many, many humans having a good time...and who, I suspect, would pose no threat greater to a rabbit than wanting to pick him up for snuggles. Since our bunny has no desire to be swept up off his feet even by trusted humans (since this action mimics the behavior of a flying predator, it is inherently terrifying), he is satisfied to roam the empty streets and avoid the glowing lights that indicate "here be humans."

Artwork "improved" with rabbit

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.

Would you have picked dark red, blue, both, or neither for interpreting this painting in an outfit? Do you like print mixing? Would you combine 3 prints in one outfit?

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