Styling Old Favorites and Recent Additions in Cardigan Outfits for SIA Puppeufee (The Circus)

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the 1945 painting "Puppeufee (The Circus)" by American artist Zelda Fitzgerald (better known as the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald). She chose this artwork because she is watching a drama about the Fitzgeralds in which she learned that Zelda was an accomplished artist - "It is not my favorite of her works, but I like that the colors are Christmasy for a December outfit but the subject matter is not holiday related."

Source: https://shelbeeontheedge.com/

When I first saw the artwork on Shelbee's site, I thought the color palette was red, white, and navy blue, but of course now I can see that it's red, white, and black...which makes a lot more sense given Shelbee's characterization of it as "Christmasy." But since I saw shades of blue rather than black and grey tones, that's how I interpreted the painting in my outfit.

Or I should say outfits because when Shelbee's post went up to announce the artwork, I already had a pre-planned red and navy outfit lined up to wear - this became my "precog" outfit for the challenge.

This outfit is mostly recent wardrobe additions with one old favorite: the maroon cardigan that I featured in a post about 2014 clothing purchases that I still wear. Yes, the cardigan has been in my wardrobe for over a decade, and it still makes the occasional foray out of the closet and into an outfit! I was excited last December when I purchased a pair of maroon pants that the maroon colors of the old cardigan and the new pants coordinated into a "outer column/suit"...a polished color formula that makes it easy to get dressed by popping a top in another color/print under the "suit" and calling it a day. Because I typically wear this tight-armed cardigan with a sleeveless top, I took the opportunity to layer a simple navy blue polka dot top (purchased last August) under it as a darker fall-forward variant on my beloved red and navy color scheme.

OOTD 11/26/2025

I brought the navy and maroon colors together in a new DIY layered necklace set that I made using the Sweater Weather Bargain Bead Box from September 2025 and some beads from my stash (e.g., the white pearls that were part of my 2024 birthday beads surprise gift).

I was inordinately thrilled that I figured out a way to feature the stunning large, flat navy flower beads in my design by crossing two strands of wire (one from the front, one from the back) through the center hole in the flower bead, covering the wire with 11/0 seed beads. (I do not claim to have invented this technique! But it wasn't something I'd seen before so I discovered it for myself, if that makes sense.) I also used a technique I've seen on other people's jewelry videos to wire wrap the large flower bead and a small red bead onto a piece of filagree to make the pendant for the long necklace.

I made two pairs of earrings to go with my layered necklaces, and I chose to wear the flower pair with this outfit. These flower beads are unusual because they have a chunky squared off shape compared to the more delicate bellflower bead shape. I enjoyed working with the two interesting flower beads in this box.

Once again my new rainbow striped sneakers have made their way into my outfit, and I liked the punch of added color, brightness, and interest that they created in this overall dark look. They also lent a playful, casual vibe to an outfit that could otherwise slant in a business-casual direction. A colorful print shoe is one answer to Jodie's recent question: Do your shoes have to match your outfit? If introducing an outright different color of shoes for that "pop of color" effect isn't what you want in a given look, a print shoe in colors that relate (but don't necessarily match) the colors in your outfit is a great option to make your shoes stand out while also sort of fitting in.

Because I am a Color Integrator at heart, I also chose my bracelet to coordinate with my shoes, repeating the bright and fun accent colors in another place in my look. While this DIY memory wire bracelet looks like I made it to match the shoes, that's not the case - I actually made it to match a paisley print scarf from my wardrobe. The fact that the bracelet pulls several of the colors from the striped shoes is just a coincidence that I was happy to exploit when putting my outfit together!

So enough about the precog outfit...let's take a look at the outfit I created specifically for the challenge.

Remember that I saw red, white, and navy blue as the painting's color scheme? I selected two old favorites from my closet as the basis for my outfit: a simple navy and white striped t-shirt from JCP (6 years old) and a candy red Target cocoon cardigan that I thrifted (bought over 7 years ago). Note: I actually wore the same exact cardigan in my last SIA along with the red version of this t-shirt! If two silhouettes work, they work, right?

I wanted to wear dark wash jeans with this outfit, again resembling my last SIA look. To make it at least a bit different, I decided to go with a different style of jeans, pulling my old ankle length skinny jeans...

OOTD 11/30/25

...and a pair of navy suede ankle boots to recreate a beloved combo that peaked in popularity circa the 2010s...that I would argue is just a classic style at this point. (Styling skinnies? Here are 8 different shoe options to consider for 2025-2026 according to InStyle. Ankle boots is one of them!)

Although the fish motif of my scarf is seasonally confused and does not relate directly to the artwork, I'm calling this July-in-December combination "Happy Nautical Christmas" style. I just could NOT resist how well the scarf matched the outfit with a dominant red background (like the cardigan) and navy/white stripes (like the t-shirt) so I went with it! Because I wanted the striped top to show well, I rolled up my sleeves to create a striped cuff and I tied the scarf so that it was on the shorter side (using method #3 from this post - a Lover's Knot/Pretzel Knot tie).

My daily bracelet stack is based on a navy, red, and silver paper bead set that I made 4 years ago to coordinate with a particular cardigan, but since this is a favorite color scheme for me to wear, it turns up in a lot of different outfits. (Sorry, no page to bead images for this set.) {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}

Also about 4 years ago, I made this pair of the world's easiest hoop earrings by adding irregularly-shaped dark cobalt blue seed beads to a premade hoop from Amazon and finishing it with a fish charm. Notice how the blue beads stop just underneath where the fish dangle? I had a very subtle visual pun in mind with this: they are my "fish out of water" earrings.

Now for the main event of the SIA challenge: revealing our Rabbit Imitating Art selection! My thought process was a little bit odd here, but let's face it: that artwork is really odd! The figures - are they people? are they puppets? - are rather grotesquely shaped and, in my opinion, rather ugly. In desperate need of improvement with rabbits indeed! But not offering anything in terms of choosing the rabbit because rabbits are, in contrast, perfectly formed and gorgeous. But something about the red and white circus stripes encircling the figures reminded me of the bars of a cage, so I went looking for a caged rabbit to join the fray. This drowsy grey rabbit (called the Chinchilla breed because the fur coloration resembles said rodent, not due to any relationship) volunteered for the job.

"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," they said, but when you're young and hungry, the cause and effect of crime and punishment is crowded out of your mind by the need to eat, bolstered by an irrational feeling of invulnerability. And OK, even if you're not technically hungry per se, sometimes the allure of a delicious treat is just too hard to resist!

I mean, the humans of the household were eating the strawberry oat bars, so why couldn't he? Oh, because the humans had hands that allowed them to remove the plastic covering and only eat the food while his approach was to chew (and eat) the plastic covering away. And it turns out that rabbit digestive systems aren't optimized for ingesting plastic.

Thankfully, he didn't get the very worst punishment ("going to the vet," a euphemism for torture) but his era of being a free-roaming house rabbit while his humans were at work was OVER. Now he was subjected to the cage 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday. I mean, sure, he spent a lot of time snoozing in the cage during the day anyway, but it was the principle of the thing!

It was on that first afternoon in his cage that he had The Dream. As he looked out of his cage at the room, the bars became the stripes of a large tent. He had somehow been instantly transported to a circus where distorted humanoid marionettes jangle-danced with their heads thrown back and their faces empty of expression. Faster and faster they moved with jerking limbs in a staggering display of discoordination. They lurched and twitched, shuddered and shook, endlessly. Why?? Instantly he understood. These were humans at work, performing in the circus, not in control of their own lives. And with that realization, he awoke and took a moment to feel grateful that he was merely hanging out in a cage and not working in the circus under the direction of a deranged and demanding puppet master!

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 Shelbee on the Edge.

Did you know that Zelda Fitzgerald was a painter? What colors do you see in this painting? How would you wear skinny jeans in 2025-2026, if at all? Do you have any old favorites in your wardrobe that have come out to play this season?

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