Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she went in a bit of a different direction this time; she selected the cover for Pink Floyd's fifth album Atom Heart Mother, released in 1970. The cover was created by English art design team Hipgnosis and features an image of a random cow standing in a pasture. Shelbee notes that the photographer took a picture of "the first cow that he spotted" (good pun). She says: "There is no text nor any other clue as to what might be on the record. It doesn't even include the name of the band. It is weird. It is random. It is funny. It has good colors for sartorial inspiration. And I really like cows." That's a lot of good reasons for choosing this artwork!
My outfit came together extremely quickly. I knew immediately that I would wear my light blue T-shirt to represent the sky and a pair of green pants to represent the grass. I have a medium green pair of pants that are a closer match to the grass green, but I decided to wear my hunter green pants instead. Purchased in December 2022 on a deep discount ($4.80), these pants have not been worn very many times, and I thought they'd make a nice contrast with the light blue. Since this was the fifth time I wore them, the cost per wear (CPW) has already reached my <$1 CPW target.
As for the cow (which I saw as black and white): I don't have any cow print items, but my moto vest in a black and white plaid could stand in for it quite easily. I added a bracelet stack and smoking slippers in black and white prints to continue with this theme, creating a little accessory set/beauty bundle in the process.
This was a situation in which I was working with well-known silhouettes, which made it easy for me to know how the pieces would come together in an outfit. I have this style of long-sleeved T (JCP, purchased 2017-2020) and this style of pants ("Effortless stretch pants" from Kohls, purchased 2022-2023) in several colors each, and I've worn them together before. This means that I know that I can straightforwardly fully tuck the T into the pants without them bunching up or causing any problems, creating a smooth base for adding a topper layer.
The fit and stretchy material of the pants also means it's physically easy for me to tuck the top in; I find it irritating when I try to fully tuck a somewhat long top (as these Ts are) into non-stretchy pants and I run out of room to maneuver my hands/watch/bracelets/etc. as I'm pulling the top down into place. Tucking into these pants is, by contrast, indeed effortless.
I first planned to add a print scarf with blue, green, black, and white to tie the colors together and create a print mix, but I decided that a color blocked light blue and green base accompanied purely by black and white was more in line with the cow photo. Colorblocking is also a way of wearing multiple colors that is more of a stretch for me, since on the Color Blocker to Color Integrator continuum, I'm definitely on the Integrator side. So I took this opportunity to do what didn't come naturally and added a simple white scarf in a gauzy fabric to the outfit instead. (I could have left off a scarf entirely but that would be madness, surely!) I really liked how this basic option looked in the outfit.
Animal print shoes (if not cow, something like leopard, cheetah, zebra, giraffe, snakeskin...) would be a great alternative that works with the theme of the artwork, but I like the matchy-matchy quality of wearing these black and white geometric print knit flats with the plaid vest.
My daily bracelet stack is an all-DIY set of beaded bracelets in black, white, clear, and mixed metals, anchored by the paper tube bead bracelet I made from the cover of an art supply catalog. The black bracelet with the cat charm provides my outfit's own bit of "random animal." {tube paper bead tutorial} {stretch bracelet tutorial}
By lucky coincidence, I'd just received an Amazon order containing a mixed bag of enameled animal charms that happened to have a pair of black and white cows! So of course I put together a pair of cow charm earrings to compliment this outfit. I first selected the milky white glass beads (they look almost light grey in the photos) for the milk/cow connection, added smaller black beads from my bead soup around them, and dangled the cow charms below. The pink on the cow charms is a random color for the outfit, but I figure the cow's pink face matches my own, so it works, haha!
Blue and green with black and/or white is not a color combination I have worn a lot; I tend to wear navy as my neutral with blue and green. But I did find some OOTD photos in my archives that do a good job of showing how I typically combine these colors.
Here the white T, cerulean/cobalt knit cardigan, and grass green pants are pulled together with a scarf containing all of the colors. The green flats are brighter than the pants but coordinate well enough.
This particular mixed print scarf in green, blue, black, and white is apparently my default when mixing these colors in an outfit. My thrifted Target loafers with green and blue flowers against a black background are an easy pairing with this scarf.
Alternatively, the bright green flats make another appearance.
Light blue with olive is a pretty combination, here in an outfit using the print scarf + animal print shoes outfit formula that I wear a lot in fall and spring. Once again, the print scarf is the bridge piece that links the colors together. This was my outfit for a previous Style Imitating Art selected by Shelbee: upcycled textile art by her friend Anne M. Bray.
My final outfit in these colors differs a bit from the others because the bridge print piece is a shirt instead of a scarf, but it's still a color integrated look. The DIY paper pendant is something I made specifically to coordinate with this shirt, and I love how it turned out. Both sides are covered in paper from clothing catalog images. I chose to wear the dark floral side forward to better match the depth of value in the black vest. {paper pendant tutorial}
Now it's time for my favorite part: choosing our Rabbit Imitating Art! I looked in my archives for a black-and-white bunny with a fur coloration pattern that was reminiscent of the cow in the artwork, and when this lovely soft Mini Rex popped up, I absolutely could not resist. While Holstein Friesian cows always have a piebald coat pattern of black and white (or red and white), Mini Rex rabbits come in a wide assortment of coats, including this blanket style broken black and white pattern (note the black "blanket" on his rump).
I'm not quite sure how he managed it, but our Mini Rex friend has positioned himself at the very highest point at the back of the cow. The cow is definitely giving us a "what, you've never seen a cow with a rabbit on its back before or something?" look while the bunny appears to be having second thoughts about placing himself quite this close to the rear end of a cow. Rabbits have a great sense of smell, which is perhaps not doing this little fella any favors in his current situation.
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 Shelbee on the Edge.
Do you like to wear green and blue together, or do you agree with the adage that "blue and green should never be seen"? Do you ever pair these colors with black? With navy? Or a different color/neutral? Are you more of a color blocker or color integrator?
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