Art History, fashion, Style Imitating Art

Black, White & Silver for John Singleton Copley’s “Paul Revere”

by terrigardner1

Hello and welcome to my styling of this round of Style Imitating Art.

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Daenel of Living Outside the Stacks and me. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday one of us selects an inspirational work and we each post the image on our blogs. The following Monday we share our art-inspired outfits. The following Wednesday, the curator shares all of the submissions on her blog.

This Week’s Inspirational Work

This SIA inspiration is the Jonathan Singleton Copley’s portrait of Paul Revere, which was picked by me. Last Monday was President’s Day here in the US and this work seemed very appropriate.

My Style

I was inspired by the simplicity of the photo: a beautiful white shirt against a dark vest and silver, silver, silver!

My first decision was the all important white shirt. I consider a good white shirt to be #1 of all Closet Essentials. This particular white shirt, with it’s gorgeous tucked 3/4st length sleeves, was found at my good friend Debby’s shop What To Wear, which is on the square in Butler, MO.

Unfortunately, I bought it one week before lock down and never really got to wear it out. Correction, I got to wear it one time to a wine tasting event for our wine club. This was the last social event with people that Michael and I have been to. It will be one year March 10th. I bet many of you can relate.

Fond Memories–Our husbands rarely get in our pictures, but they were there (taking our pictures!) For its first outing, I decided to tie, not tuck my shirt.

Getting back to the matter at hand. Next came the vest. I will admit that I think Revere’s vest is a very dark blue but that I didn’t have that. However, I have a great black vest by Covered Perfectly, which now seems to be back under new ownership. I featured this vest twice on my blog HERE and HERE. It’s been one handy dandy piece for my wardrobe.

However, it’s not available anymore. But I found a really nice one on sale at JJill.

As far as pants, it’s hard to match blacks and I wasn’t happy how my black jeans or other black pants looked against my vest. Then I remembered that I had an older pair of damask motif jeans, which with their multiple textured pattern worked great.

The grey suede Rebecca Minkoff boots (bought new) are very old and have been on here so many times, I can’t even list them. This pair is a perennial favorite. I’m wondering if she is discontinuing her shoe line because there are only four styles on her site.

Accessories: Silver, Silver Silver!

I decided to use my silver that had scroll work detail, which included a Brighton cuff and Brighton locket which I purchased new from my friend Debby’s shop. The Brighton link bracelet was found second hand on eBay. It’s funny, I never really cared for Brighton. But, spending time with Debby, I started to see some pieces that I could see me wearing and now I have my locket and cuff. I haven’t noticed Brighton jewelry on other blogs. Does anyone else own some?

Buying Brighton on eBay is hard because there are so many fakes around and it’s hard to tell if it’s real from a photo. Sometimes, you just have to hold it in your hand and feel it. I’m not sure I’ll try it again.

I’ve had my black belt with its southwestern styled buckle for almost twenty years and probably found it at TJ Maxx because that’s about the only place I shopped for new stuff back then.

My silver ring is by Kansas City designer Cheryl Eve Acosta. Cheryl is originally from Puerto Rico and the ocean and nature are very strong motifs in her work. My ring is a small ocean wave. Her work is beautiful and I hope you check out her designs because she is astounding (and has the awards to back it up).

My bag for today is my Campbell exotic leather Camera Bag by Coach; an old one but a good one when I need a smaller cross body bag. I actually found on (used once) on eBay!

My Hair For Today

I know that a few of you are curious and have asked me to do a post on my “alternative hair styles” I still may write that post but I am also going to try and talk about my “fun with wigs” a tad more on my regular stories.

For my hair today, I wanted to continue the silver theme and picked the color Illumina-R in Aria, an older Renè of Paris Style (no longer available.) You can get a similar style at their sister company Noriko. I bought this wig from Heather of Cyster Wigs, as I do all my wigs. It definitely is a fashion color but such a fun one and I do like having some fashion color styles in my collection.

A little extra news is that Heather has come out with her own Illumina type color that she calls Illuminaughty Rooted in her signature wigs. Of course, it is sold out, as quickly as she released it. Fortunately, she’s good about restocking her styles that she knows customers love. Her signature wig line is a new adventure and she is starting out with really reasonably priced products.

A final note-I did have my Rène styled by my hairdresser because I wanted it shorter but still wanted the asymmetrical style. Quite a few hairdressers will work with customer’s wigs.

The Portrait-How Could I Resist?

I filled a silver platter with some of my hand-spun yarn that I have made (along with a knitted sock). I had to do this one!

And Finally,

I was in the habit, in the early days, of putting together a STILL-LIFE of some of my accessories used in the post. I did one today featuring my three vintage Rodo metal clutches along with my jewelry.

That finishes me out. It’s now your turn. How have you interpreted this wonderful work of art? If you have not already sent me your design, (along with a small blurb on how the work influenced you choices) please do so at meadowtreestyle@gmail.com by tomorrow. I will do a roundup this Wednesday featuring all your designs. There are no wrong answers and I’m looking forward to your style ideas.

Take care everyone and stay creative!

30 thoughts on “Black, White & Silver for John Singleton Copley’s “Paul Revere””

  5. Hi, Terri Thank you for leaving your post on SIPB. I love reading your posts and just wish you were close by then I would have asked you to make me some clothing, but alas, I will just enjoy what you share on your blog. Thanks and keep up the good work.

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  7. Terri, what a brilliant interpretation of Paul Revere’s portrait! You and I definitely were on the same page for styling this one! That photo with you and your tray of yarn is so, so good! I didn’t realize Paul Revere’s vest was navy blue until you just said it and I looked closer! I don’t think I have a navy vest either so black was going to have to work for me, too! This was super fun and the perfect art selection for President’s Day!

    Shelbee
    http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com

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    1. Hello Shelbee! I absolutely loved your post about the SIA! I thought it held all kinds of possibilities. You are right about portraits. It is fun to try and recreate a little something ressembling them. This was the last portrait I have planned for my part so we will just have to see what the others do. Thank you for participating. Take Care, Terri

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  9. Terri, your interpretation is spot on! Your duplicate photo is just perfect. It made me smile, just because it’s so on the nose.

    That white top is so pretty. I bought a basic one just before lock down and still haven’t worn it. I used to dress up every day for work, then I think about 6 months in, my outfits got a little more casual…

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    1. Hello Daenel, thanks-I didn’t plan for the painting interp at the beginning. It’s just something that happened when I started writing the post.
      As far as white shirts, I probably have to many! This one is just the last one I added. I’ve loved a good white shirt which probably has something to do with why I’ve always loved this painting.

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    1. Thank you, doing a still life makes you think about design. It’s a good exercise. This one is done in a light box but I usually use one of those science fair boards that I got at Wal-Mart. You can stick pins in those to hold things.

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  11. Pingback: Style Imitating Art-The Roundup – MeadowTree Style

  15. What a fun and creative post Terri! A basic white shirt is a must for every fashionable woman and the black vest is perfect, silver adds the final touch, the whole look is fantastic and I LOVE your portrait! This could be a magazine cover!! 🙂

    ❤️carmen

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