Adding Whimsical Ladybug Jewelry to a Simple Summer Outfit for SIA: Huang Binhong
Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected an un-named 1932 landscape ink on paper painting by Chinese literati artist Huang Binhong. She chose this artist because she had recently seen some of his work on her trip to China, and it reminded her of West Lake when she was there.
I admit that I just was not on board with an achromatic black and white outfit, but fortunately, Chinese artwork often features red character seals, and this piece was no exception. I used that tiny bit of red on the painting to justify adding red as an accent color to my interpretation. I built my look around two items that have been in my closet for around a decade:
(1) red crochet yoke top - Croft & Barrow/Kohls - 9/2017 - 36 wears (30 Wears post);
(2) black and white reeds skirt - Liz Claiborne/JCP - 11/2015 - 20 wears.
I thought the "reeds" design of the skirt did a good job of representing the smooth curved brushstrokes of the artwork.
I added a cardigan vest with an open weave that makes it a perfect layering choice for summer. This is another long-standing MVP from my wardrobe (Croft & Barrow/Kohls - 11/2015 - 42 wears) that I have featured in a previous 30 Wears post. These pieces came together to create a nice background for me to add some personality with my accessories choices.
Even though I have flats in both black and red, I thought those options would be too matchy-matchy for this outfit. Instead I chose a classic animal print (leopard) shoe in black and a soft shade of tan that creates a low-key print mix with my skirt and repeats the color of my hair for a bookend effect.
For my jewelry, I pulled pieces from a Ladybug collection that I created two summers ago featuring items from the July 2024 Curated Bead Box (supplemented with my stash, including many other beads from the same company). The red/yellow marble-style glass beads and the ladybug motif connectors in the box inspired me to make a jewelry set in the colors of red and black (with bits of yellow and gold) with a ladybug theme that feels perfect for summer and just right for my whimsical taste. The layered necklace has two pieces:
(1) a short necklace (about 19") with red glass ladybug beads (that I think were from Bead Box Bargains) and a red and gold heart pendant;
(2) a long beaded chain necklace (about 36") with a bold long red glass bead as a pendant.
I made a coordinating multi-strand memory wire bracelet using mostly beads from the Curated Bead Box company in a variety of cool shapes, including rondelle seed beads, bicones, peanut beads, and round glass beads. The bracelet doesn't have any ladybug elements but follows the dominant color scheme.
The earrings are a pair I just made this summer to add onto this collection; I made paper earrings {tutorial} using round wood pendant blanks covered with an image from a Fire Mountain Gems catalog showing a gorgeous seed bead project of a flower in my desired color scheme. Because I had the image from multiple editions of the catalog, I was able to cut the exact same circle from each so my two earrings matched perfectly (but it's 100% OK to cut two circles from the same image where the two earrings don't exactly match too!). For extra fun, I added enamel ladybug charms to the front of each earring, giving it a bit of a "ladybug landed on a flower" look. I think these earrings are adorable!
Also adorable are the original pair of earrings I made for this collection, using the ladybug connectors in the Curated Bead Box. It was super-easy to add a red off-center lentil bead to the bottom of each connector with a jump ring to have an extra dangle factor; then I popped on ear wires and I was done.
Now for my favorite part of every SIA post: revealing our Rabbit Imitating Art selection!
When I initially began auditions for this painting, my idea was to show a Godzilla-like rabbit destroying the landscape - Bunzilla! But my first candidate thought this was ridiculous.
Rabbit: This is a Chinese painting, no?
Me: Yes.
Rabbit: And Godzilla is a Japanese monster, right?
Me: Yes.
Rabbit: !!!
Me: What?
Rabbit: Putting a Japanese monster in a Chinese artwork comes across as either (1) you don't know the difference between various Asian countries or (2) you are making geopolitical statement...or both. It could easily be both - you're another American ignoramus who is fomenting aggression between countries on a continent with a deep history you apparently know nothing about.
I decided I would leave such mis-steps to our elected officials and go in a different direction...but what? Luckily our rabbit actor had an idea.
Rabbit: Godzilla is way 20th century coded. And at this point, referencing it is so "oooh, ironic retro" that it's giving vintage cheugy energy. If you want to go viral on HipHop, you need a fresher idea.
So we brought together her doomscrolling aesthetic and my (husband's) subscription to The Economist to identify a current danger that could truly imperil the Chinese land.
Thus, we present "Landscape with Giant Rabbit Lying Flat (Tang ping): a Modern Menace with Chinese Characteristics."
The rabbit actor with the chronically online sensibilities was this deceptively soft black otter Mini Rex. The "otter" refers to the fur coloration pattern that is mostly black but "outlined" in a lighter tan/cream around the edges and along the belly.
I was curious whether the Internet has gotten better at identifying domestic rabbits, so I asked Google's reverse image search to tell me the rabbit breed and color of that photo...and the AI was correct! It didn't know whether it was the big or little Rex, but I thought that was reasonable because there was nothing in the photo to give a size reference.
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 14 Shades of Grey.
Do you enjoy wearing fully black and white outfits? Do you prefer to add an accent color with black and white? What is your favorite accent color to pair with black and white? Does it vary by season? How do you feel about whimsical animal-themed jewelry? Do you like jewelry sets/collections with matching/coordinating pieces?
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