Add a Pop of Color to a Neutral Summer Outfit for SIA: Stork Gather

Marsha at Marsha in the Middle is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the color lithograph "Stork Gather" by late 19th century Dutch artist Theo van Hoytema. She learned of this artist from another blogger, and she chose this particular artwork because "storks are beautiful, and the colors just spoke to [her.]" Of course, she had me at birds!

source: https://marshainthemiddle.com

I found it very easy to pull in pieces to interpret this artwork:

(1) The soft green grass background translated as my aloe vera crop pants;

(2) The textured stork feathers translated as my ivory lace jacket; and

(3) The storks' orange feet translated as my orange ballet flats.

This created such an interesting and unusual color palette for an outfit! As a bonus, my crop pants hit the 30 wears mark with a current cost per wear of $0.46 with this outfit.

I finished off my base outfit with a darker aloe-olive tank to create a column of color under the lace jacket. I like that the deeper green causes the lace texture of the jacket to stand out, which heightens the resemblance to the scalloped stork feathers in the artwork.

OOTD 6/29/26

I love the bright orange flats as a pop of color with the neutral outfit. Bright orange with soft green is not an obvious color combination, but I think it looks good!

I built another 3 piece layered necklace for this outfit using:

(1) A multi-strand seed bead necklace in various shades of orange, which ties in with the orange flats and also harkens back to the orange beaks of the storks;

(2) A DIY paper pendant {tutorial} featuring a white bird on an olive green background - though the bird is not a stork specifically, I liked including the bird motif in my look; and

(3) A big thrifted necklace with chunky glass pearls, clear glass shapes, and chain that has strong vintage vibes.

Surprisingly, I do not have a paper bead bracelet set that combines a soft sage or olive green with orange and gold! So I just created a 7 piece bracelet stack from various beaded bracelets in my collection. The top gold one is from an Amazon set, but the others are DIY pieces that I pulled to work with my overall color palette. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the multi-color one has both orange and soft green in it to act as a unifying element in my stack. {stretch bracelet tutorial}

When it came to earrings, I wasn't sure whether I had anything in the right colors, but it didn't matter because I wanted to make a new pair using some flower charms in my stash that were a great match to the daisies in the artwork - white flowers with a yellow center. I dangled the charms from a short bead stack incorporating ivory glass pearls, olive faceted glass, and orange stone beads (see design #7 in this post). I was very happy to get that daisy element into my interpretation.

Now for the main event of every SIA post: our Rabbit Imitating Art selection!

I knew I would need a pretty chill bunny to handle being in an artwork with 5 very large birds! I had expected one of the bigger rabbit breeds to volunteer for this job, but it turns out that a little 4 pound mini rex rabbit was ready to take it on! The tortoise (aka "tort") mini rex has a deep orange coat with darker sooty brown coloring on the ears, face, and feet; apparently this shading reminded some people of a tortoise shell or turtle shell, though I don't really see it myself.

Back in the oldest times, in a place very far from here, the storks gathered every summer day in a field of daisies. The storks had two leaders who explained to the others that the meadow existed for their sole use and no other animals were allowed there. The leaders so impressed everyone with their large size and loud bill-clattering that all agreed they must be correct. Accordingly, the storks were very used to having the meadow all to themselves. In fact, most of them had never seen another animal that wasn't a bird flying high over the meadow.

However, on one beautiful June day, a strange interloper moved rhythmically along the ground onto the field! The storks were confused by his ridiculously soft and stunted feathers, short legs, and seeming complete lack of wings...and the leaders were also unhappy to have an outsider muscling in on their territory.

The first large stork drew his wings out and beat them in the direction of the stranger, attempting to scare the little thing with his massive (61-85 inch/155-215 cm) wingspan. The stranger did not react. The second large stork loomed over the stranger, positioning his beak in a threatening manner. The stranger ignored it.

The smaller storks considered the stranger and talked amongst themselves, wondering how this soft, defenseless creature could be so fearless as to approach such large and threatening birds. Most of the smaller storks were too mesmerized with amazement to act, but one of them gathered his own courage and said, "I would like to become the stranger's friend." The courageous small stork approached the stranger and said "You are very welcome here, brave little one! I hope that you will enjoy the grass and flowers growing in this field." The other smaller storks joined the courageous one in befriending the little newcomer.

The larger storks wanted to disagree, but then they thought a moment and realized that by pretending to welcome such soft creatures, they could more easily treat them as prey. The looming stork said, "Yes, very welcome indeed!" but could not conceal the gleam of ill intent flashing in his eyes from the smaller storks...

...who rose up against their supposed leaders to protect their new friend. The two "leaders" were banished from the meadow, which thereafter was an open place for all to gather who wished to live in peace.

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.

Do you like to wear neutrals with a pop of color? What do you think of the soft green + bright orange color combination? Are you a fan of wearing bird motifs? Flower motifs? How would you have interpreted this artwork in an outfit?

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