Minnesota State Fair Flower Dresses and Rabbits for SIA: Sunspots

Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she picked the painting Sunspots (1904) by Swiss modern artist Cuno Amiet. Salazar happened across the artwork on WikiArt and was attracted to "the impressionistic, graphic way the dappled sunlight is depicted." She thought it would be appropriate to the hot mid-September weather because of the cooling effect of green.

Source: 14shadesofgrey.wordpress.com

I often create an outfit for SIA challenges starting with an analysis of the different elements in the artwork that could be reflected in clothing and accessory choices. But sometimes a specific piece comes to mind and the outfit goes from there. In this case, the green grass, white shapes, and summer feeling in this painting reminded me strongly of my sleeveless rabbit blouse from the Kohls Disney Alice in Wonderland collection with the green grass, white rabbits, and yellow flowers against a navy background ($26.40, May 2016). I was definitely on board with wearing this blouse one more time before the cooler fall weather arrives!

It was easy to add my bright green pants to reflect the overall greenness of the painting. You may be thinking that a skirt would be more in keeping with the inspiration piece, and I wouldn't disagree, but my only green skirt is an olive green, which just doesn't have the lush verdant quality of the painting that these pants do. For this look, color trumped shape.

OOTD 9/13/22

For a topper, I chose my navy short-sleeved jacket that I had identified as one of my high priority wear items for this summer. In this photo you can see the short, neat fringe around the edges of the jacket, which is a detail I love. I like how this jacket adds some structure to the free-flowing top. I continued the navy theme with my "dressy" pointy-toed flats that I tend to wear more in spring and fall than during my relatively casual summer, when ballet flats reign supreme. Because the blouse has a built-in bow, I often don't wear a necklace with it (shocker!).

I did not attempt to mimic the painting's elaborate floral hairstyle, sticking with my typical messy waves + headband combo. I wore bright green and silver earrings for another dose of the painting's dominant color.

For my daily bracelet stack, I selected 4 bead bracelets: 6mm + 4mm silver beads, 6mm navy/dark blue beads with silver spacers, 8mm white beads, and 8mm bright green + 4mm silver beads (all DIY except the navy, which is from a trio of stackable bracelets from CJ Banks).

I am very pleased with how my outfit turned out, but it is not the most on-point outfit in this post. Technically, the rabbit blouse was the second thing to come to mind when seeing this artwork. The first was this mannequin from the 2016 Minnesota State Fair flowers and fashion exhibit wearing an elegant dress consisting of white roses and green ivy. (Yes, real flowers, not fake.)

Did she nail this look or what?!

She was not alone in donning a floral frock for the fair. This mannequin has a sumptuous short poofy dress in richly blended shades of orange and pink. The addition of hat and cape gives it a bit of a fairy tale vibe to my eye.

My personal favorite is this stunning multi-colored dress with an array of gorgeous flowers in varying sizes - smaller on the bodice, larger at the bottom of the dress - that lends a magical flowing quality to the silhouette.

The flower dress ladies were not alone in the exhibit...this greenery poodle with a white bird perched on its tail was there to keep them company.

Of course I must make my Rabbit Imitating Art selection and how could it be other than the prototypical "white rabbit"? I believe this lovely loafer is a Florida White, and he is also from the Minnesota state fair!

Florida White (?) Rabbit

Today's "improved" artwork combines the original Sunspots painting with a few elements from the Minnesota state fair (which ends on Labor Day each year) for an end-of-summer display of flora and fauna in green and white.

Sunspots "improved" with rabbit, poodle, bird, and rose dress lady

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 14 Shades of Grey.

Do you see bright green as a summer color? Does green have a cooling effect for you? Have you ever seen an exhibit of botanical couture?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.