Green, Lace, Brown Leather, and a Vintage Silk Scarf for Abigale Rose

Hello, and welcome to Style Imitating Art’s “Reveal Monday”. Today is the day that the hosts, unveil our interpretations of the chosen artwork.

What Is Style Imitating Art?

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and me. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday one of us selects an inspirational image 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.

Portrait of Abigale Rose, Artist Unknown

Abigale Rose was painted sometime during the 18th century by a traveling anonymous painter. ” The painting was sold at auction in 2011.

“Plenty of presale speculation centered on the potential purchaser of the exquisite portrait of the 14-year-old Abigail Rose of North Branford, Conn., at Skinner’s November 5 Americana sale.

As bidding opened at $75,000, the gallery went still as a competition among several phone and gallery bidders came down to a duel between Boston dealer Steven Score, on the phone with a client, and a bidder on the phone. Score held out, and prevailed as the picture sold for $1,271,000 against the estimated $150/250,000.

The painting had never been out of the family and was in fine original condition. It was sold with the Battersea patch box in the painting, the sitter’s prayer book, an early Twentieth Century tag indicating that the portrait was painted by a young man from New Haven in payment for board and family correspondence and documents.”

My Take

As usual, I drew on some elements of the painting and left others out. Because of Abigale’s green dress, I decided the main focus would be a Chico long green Ultrasuede duster. I’ve had this for ages (found it on sale at the Chico’s in Joplin, MO), but really never wore it too much. This week, I decided that the belt was the problem and removed the belt loops and like it so much better. There might be hope for it yet!

Next is the lace. I used a nude lace top rather than white lace. I do have a white lace top but felt that the nude went better with the green. This top was thrifted sometime during the past years. It is one of those things that I just keep around and occasionally it comes in handy.

I played off the flowers with a vintage Echo silk scarf that has an abstract flower motif. Also, I think the scarf picks up some of the red-brown that is represented in the drapery.

Extras to Tie It Together

Brown was my answer for tying everything together. I am using a vintage Rodo leather bag (eBay), a pair of skinny brown jeans (pre-loved from eBay), and a pair of mahogany Vince Camuto boots which were new from a few seasons ago.

Since there were gold hardware on the duster and bag, I went with gold accessories. I used a very chunky necklace by Elizabeth Cole (2nd hand from Poshmark) and my Georgina cuff (no longer sold).

All in all, I quite like this whole look and would definitely wear it somewhere out.

That sums it up for me for this round.

I hope you find something in this work that inspired you and didn’t mind the ramble into some of my shopping philosophy. Send me what you come up with at meadowtreestyle@gmail.com along with a small blurb on how the work influenced your choices by tomorrow.

I will do a roundup this Wednesday featuring all your designs. I hope that Abigale Rose has inspired you to put together something.

Take care everyone and stay creative!