OOTD: Style Imitating Art - Portrait of Saskia van Uylenburgh by Rembrandt

I'm not surprised that this Rembrandt portrait of his wife caught Terri's eye for the Style Imitating Art challenge. Saskia's decked out in sumptuous finery with a lovely interplay of textures.

Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I knew that I would not be able to bring in some of the painting's aspects, such as the hat, fur (or faux fur), feathers, lace, and dramatic sleeves. But with so many sartorial delights on offer, it wasn't difficult to identify a few elements that I could work with.

My primary inspiration elements from the painting were:

--Color scheme of black and burgundy

--Velvet

--Jewelry, including multiple pearl items, multiple chains, drop earrings, collar necklace, brooch on the bodice

--Pulled back hair

I definitely wanted to showcase my black velvet vest, and I thought it would look right over a column of burgundy.

This long vest pairs very well with slim-fitting pants, so I selected a T, skinny pants, and ankle boots in similar shades of burgundy for the base of the outfit.

Saskia is wearing a good amount of jewelry in her portrait, and she has various decorations from her neck down her front...which I took as a great opportunity for some necklace layering. I picked the long black and pearl pendant first, to represent the dark ribbon and brooch (?) on her bodice. Next came the strand of pearls to mimic the ones she's wearing. In place of the lace trim (?) on her dress, I added this gold/crystal collar necklace. I finished it off with a necklace of black and burgundy beads and a multi-metal chain necklace.

I pulled my hair back into as sleek a ponytail as I could manage with the help of some hair gel and left my face natural except for a bit of lipstick. I wore pearl drop earrings that coordinated with the pearl/gold necklace.

I don't know what to make of the decorations on her wrists...are they beads? metal chains? In any case, I interpreted them as bracelets and added a bracelet stack consisting of DIY burgundy garnet, rose gold, DIY mixed garnet/malachite/lucite, silver, DIY black seed bead with faux pearls, and gold stretch bracelets.

For my rabbit selection, the rich soft velvet texture of the dress found its lagomorphic counterpart in the plushy fur of this black otter Mini Rex doe. I like the correspondence between the bunny's small dewlap under her jaw and Saskia's slight double chin. (Female rabbits use the dewlap as a source of fur to pluck and line their nests with. It's placed conveniently close to her mouth for ease of access.)

Black Otter Mini Rex Rabbit

To see other outfit interpretations of the Sweet Dreams video, check out the round-up on Meadow Tree Style.

Is there an element from this painting that you find inspiring for your style?

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