Spring Colors in Fall for SIA: Tom and Jenny

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she picked the 2022 Cubist painting Tom and Jenny by 10 year old American painter Andres Valencia. That's right: the artist is 10 years old and is already making waves in the art world. Last June he put on a solo exhibition that sold out all 35 paintings and sold another work at auction for $160,000.

Shelbee chose this work from Valencia's Instagram to feature for the SIA challenge because she "liked that there is an equal balance of bright bold colors with contrasting black, white, and grays." For those of us who gravitate toward the colors of the artwork in creating our outfits, this painting has a lot to work with.

Source: shelbeeontheedge.com

Since scarf season is well underway in Minnesota, I decided to go through my scarf collection first to find a print scarf dominated by pink and green. I was very attracted to this one that has the vibrant colors and a sinuous movement that reminds me of the artwork...

But the way I was thinking of styling it for this challenge with the grey and black worn by Tom in the painting was too reminiscent of this recent OOTD that I shared in my last 30 wears post. So we'll consider this one the Tom and Jenny precog outfit (worn just over a week before the SIA artwork was selected).

OOTD 11/11/22

So I went back to my scarf collection and found this colorful scarf with a fractured floral print that reminded me of the broken up and reassembled faces in the Tom and Jenny painting. Bright pink and lime green are present here, but the dark neutral is navy rather than black or grey. This made me decide to portray only Jenny with my outfit rather than a mix of both Tom and Jenny (as was the case in my precog outfit above).

Pink, yellow-green, and navy is a color palette that says spring to me...so this color combination felt both out-of-season (in a traditional color association sense) and fresh (because I haven't worn it all fall). I first selected my top, a textured apple green tank that I also wore for the Sweet Dreams SIA last January. It was an easy choice as it is my only yellow-ish green top! I didn't want to wear the same magenta cardigan as in that outfit so I went with this light pink one instead for a "coordinate rather than match" option with the scarf. Because the cardigan has a slouchy oversized quality, I pulled out dark denim skinny jeans for a more streamlined bottom half.

OOTD 11/28/22

I wanted the green top + pink cardigan combo to show well even with the scarf on, so I tied it using a very basic loop (wrapped once around the neck like Method 1 shown here) so that the scarf ends were shortened and did not cover up the green of the top. I like that the wavy texture of the top captures some of that sinuous nature of Tom and Jenny's jackets in the painting.

I went all-in with the spring vibe in my daily bracelet stack, choosing 5 DIY bead bracelets in shades of yellow-green and light pink.

I was tempted to wear my apple green loafers but that felt a bit too much of a good thing even for me so I went with these pewter snakeskin textured loafers instead. They have a pink-ish sheen which makes them a nice choice with pink-based outfits.

To complete my Jenny look, I added pale green rectangular earrings (since that's how I interpreted the green shape next to her face), a soft pink lipstick (which is only a bit darker than my natural color so it's a favorite), and left my blond hair loose and styled it a bit puffy on top (rather than the usual wavy) to more closely resemble Jenny's hairstyle. At this point, I felt I'd captured the Jenny half of the painting, but what about the Tom half?

For about 5 seconds I considered whether I could convince my husband to attempt a Tom, but I quickly had a much better idea! Enter the cardboard Marx Brothers cutout that I shared in my favorite movies post. Outfit of grey, black, and white? Check. Sideways glances? Indeed. Dark colored hat? Yes (Harpo). Cigar?? Yes (Groucho)! Marx Brothers + Sally in St Paul = Tom and Jenny. Nailed it.

As soon as the Marx Brothers entered the picture, I knew exactly which rabbit would be perfect for our Rabbit Imitating Art selection. Not just which breed of rabbit, but which specific rabbit: this female Himalayan rabbit from the Minnesota State Fair . Our bunny's black and white color scheme is a good fit with Tom's outfit, but more importantly...

Himalayan Rabbit

This rabbit strongly resembles the actress Margaret Dumont who played the straight woman in seven of the Marx Brothers' films. Pale, gently curved body; dark ears (for her hair); softly angular face; narrowed eyes and a haughty expression. Can't you just see her scoffing? I photographed this bunny in 2016 but her Margaret Dumont-ness left quite an impression on me! And now her time has come.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_Dumont_-_A_Night_at_the_Opera_(1935).png

The Himalayan brings her regal bearing into the painting, loafed properly on Jenny's shoulder, displaying Dumont's usual "courage and steadfastness in the face of the [strange humans'] antics."

Tom and Jenny "improved" with rabbit

And here she is joining me and the Marx Brothers. With Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Margaret Dumont represented, this must make me Zeppo Marx (the fourth Marx Brother who played the straight man in the first five Marx Brothers movies)!

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 Shelbee on the Edge.

How do you feel about wearing "out of season" color combinations?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.