An Early Fall Brown and Orange Outfit for SIA: A Bird in the Hand

Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the circa 2019 oil painting "A Bird in the Hand" by contemporary English artist Lizzie Riches. She chose this "Renaissance-esque portrait" because it felt appropriate to the autumn season...which is 100% correct.

source: https://14shadesofgrey.wordpress.com/

There was no chance that I was going to bypass my woodland critters top for this style challenge. The rich autumnal foliage and the little animals peeking out (deer, foxes, rabbits, and squirrels) were perfect for the painting; the only thing that could have been better is if it featured a bird...but I knew I could take of that issue elsewhere in my outfit. For the orange edging in the painting, I picked a t-shirt weight knit jacket in sandstone coral to layer over the print top. I have never worn this combination before, but I really liked the idea of it...

...and I thought the result was fabulous! Because we are still having warm weather (highs in the low 70s F/low 20s C), I did not wear the brown jeans and plaid sneakers I'd originally planned on, switching in a pair of brown capris and leather flats to stay cooler. This is where the adaptability of "thinking in threes" comes in: by having multiple brown bottom pieces that are appropriate for different weather, I can readily move between them based on what I'm facing on any given day. For example, I have brown capris (warm spring, summer, and warm fall), brown jeans (spring, fall, and winter indoors), and a brown suede-like skirt (cool fall/winter/spring, indoors or outdoors) that I can select from.

OOTD 10/19/2026

At 163 wears to date, my simple brown leather flats from Frye are my wardrobe MVP! (I have coats that I've probably worn more than this, but I don't track my wears on outerwear. If this sounds like a tracking loophole, I don't track them because my coat selection is only as large as I need to cover my weather bases, unlike areas of my wardrobe that are extensive so I need to track to make sure I'm wearing them and getting a good cost per wear, if that makes sense.)

I continued with the fall foliage theme with a 3 piece DIY layered necklace in shades of brown, rust, olive, and silver that I made specifically for this style challenge! (I was lucky that the October 2026 Curated Bead Box had some beads that I used as a starting point, supplementing with other beads in my stash). Each necklace has a silver leaf motif to it: the short one has little leaf beads flanking the oval stone focal bead; the middle one has a large leaf toggle clasp that I am wearing to the front like a pendant, and the long one has a round pendant featuring a branch with leaves. If I'd had more time, I would have looked for paper that had a passerine (i.e., songbird) that resembled the Song Thrush to make a paper pendant, but since I ran out of time after making the layered necklace, I added a paper pendant with a stylized owl mama and baby (that I'd already made to wear with this woodland critters top) to bring some avian energy to the look. {paper pendant tutorial here}

My daily bracelet stack was created around a set of 3 DIY paper bead bracelets I made to coordinate with this top in a color scheme of green, black, brown, and mustard-beige. To bring the color palette in line with my outfit, I added bracelets in rust, olive, and brown (all DIY except the top rust stone bracelet with the bunny charm that was a gift from my husband). I liked how the rust bracelets frame the stack and pop against the darker colors. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}

I wore a silky scarf in the coordinating woodland critter print as a headband to mimic the lady's headband in the portrait. In place of her dangly white pearl earrings, I made a super-easy pair using large, rather whimsical silver bird charms connected to ear wires (see design #5, large statement charms, in this post). Pearls would have looked great, of course, but I wanted another bird element in my outfit.

Now for the main event: our Rabbit Imitating Art choice for this painting!

I loved all the orange, brown, and beige tones in the artwork, so I knew I wanted a bunny who would work with those colors. To my immense happiness, a stately Flemish Giant doe in the rich "fawn" colorway volunteered for the job! She's magnificent, and she brings something to the painting that my own interpretation did not...

...a built-in ruff at her neck! (If you've been here before, you might recall that mature female rabbits sometimes have a dewlap that they use as an easily-reachable-by-mouth source of fur for lining their nests.) I was pretty impressed by how well our Flemish Giant matched with the lady in the portrait. Similar hair color, similar eye color, similar face shape, dressed in lovely "fawn" tones with a large puffy collar around the neck. Yep, our rabbit nailed it, no question.

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 14 Shades of Grey.

Do you have any pieces with a leaf motif that you like to wear in fall? What do you think of the brown + orange ("sandstone coral" is my shade here) combination? Do you like to wear bird motifs in your clothing, accessories, or jewelry? Would you have attempted to include the big white ruff in your interpretation?

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