Baroque Inspired Fashion: Patterned Tights & French Couture
Imagine this wasn’t your only lifetime. Let’s dream a little dream together and spin a story about your previous life. Think about your current character traits, your strengths and flaws, and all the joy that you feel during certain activities. Let’s go wild and assume that your character has been here before - what kind of life would it be?
Don't get me wrong - I don't believe in fortune tellers or the indefinable power of stones. I just use this little imaginary experiment to tease your creativity.
Look at yourself in the mirror and try to imagine where all this passion, anger, love, frustration and joy might come from. Do you have a talent that is far away from your family’s values - and nobody knows where that might come from? Do you love to sing, dance or act? Do you have this weird feeling of missing something that you don't even know?
Do you know these moments when something strongly familiar comes over you and you cannot classify it?
I have this weird character trait that seeks for baroque aesthetics. When I walk along a street and see baroque architecture, I have to stop and admire it for a while. I am taken away by majestic window crowns with rich ornamentations, columns, gables, and the shapes full of force and movement. It’s triggering something that I cannot explain.
I feel the same attraction when I see baroque fabrics, such as lace, jacquard, tweet. When a cloth is embellished with pearls, ribbons or golden embroidery, I have to touch it and feel it.
Indeed, my fashion style is rather classy. I remember when my friends wanted to play „doll“ with me and dressed me in shiny gold hipster pants and an artsy t-shirt with a bashing slogan. It was funny, interesting and inspiring - but it was not me at all.
Fortunately, one day I spotted the French label Anne Fontaine. It was like a magic moment in a picture book: A person in a black-and-white lace dress is staring at a store window full of black-and-white lace dresses. There was this feeling of a deeper connection again. Almost every dress, blouse, skirt and bag was black or white.
Anne Fontaine is a French fashion designer in her forties, and when I did a little research about her, I found out that she opened her first boutique in the Rive Gauche section of Paris in the nineties. She is one of these designers with a sharp target group and extraordinary designs. You don't buy the same dress in three different colors - you buy one signature piece and wear it for the next ten years.
I picked four elegant Anne Fontaine dresses and combined them with patterned tights by FALKE. It's my favourite brand because even with my squirrelly hands I cannot destroy them. I went for an opaque black model with a squiggly structure, a transparent one with small dots, lace and - of course - a white baroque pattern. In general, you have to be careful that you don't „overload“ an outfit with these artsy tights. However, I did not have this problem with Anne Fontaine's designs: The dresses and the tights even added value to each other.
Consequently, you only need two pieces for a baroque-inspired outfit. You can dress up in a transparent lace dress and walk along the streets, admiring the great architecture and world around you.
To summarize my character experiment: Apparently I was an elegant lady living in the baroque period in the 17th or 18th century - maybe even in the Rive Gauche section of Paris.
Text: Andrea Bruchwitz. Hair & Makeup: Katja Rosasco. All dresses by Anne Fontaine. Tights by FALKE.
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