I love the Baroque period in art,
music, architecture and philosophy. It's a period of elaborateness
of design only surpassed by the era that followed, the completely
over-the-top Rococo period. Next to the Rococo, it's positively
restrained.
The Ecstasy of St. Theresa
Bernini
The Calling of St. Matthew
Caravaggio
According to the OED, the era's name
derives from similar words in Portuguese, Spanish and French for a
"rough or imperfect pearl." What a lovely idea.
Baroque pearls!
To our contemporary eye, a little
Baroque goes a long way. Although, clearly there have been some fans
in the design world who are making more than a little of it. This
fall especially, and in contrast to some pretty stark minimalism and
a sea of highly tailored and simple silhouettes, we're seeing
unabashed references to the Baroque all over the place, in
jewelry and embroidered fabrics and laces ... but very little of it
is casual. Or even close to affordable for the likes of me.
More D & G, but with putti prints.
Leave it to good old JCP to once again
surprise me, and provide me just the right amount of what I want. I
just found this very sheer Baroque print with a faux leather panel by
Bisou Bisou.
It's just a sleeveless tunic-top,
which I'm looking forward to wearing with a skimpy black camisole
underneath and an "after 5:00-ish" jacket on top. But of
course I want to wear it NOW, so I'm layering it with a light weight
tee for this suddenly cooler weather we're having and more casual
occasions. I also like the contrast of faux leather trousers,
and added the suede heels with tassels for yet another texture.
Just a little Baroque for little old
me. I'm such a sucker for a bit of historical romance!
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I'm joining our favorite Lovely Patti, the Lacy Cat Lady at Visible Monday
and the Ever Elegant Elena Fay at
Hope you'll pop over and see what everyone is up to!
