Fashioned by Sargent
I could hardly contain my excitement, when I learnt about the current Boston exhibition called Fashioned by Sargent. It shows paintings alongside the actual clothing worn. Meticulously fussy apparently, about all aspects of what was worn by the sitter, it was, for him, like setting up a still-life. Precision styling, can become obsessive, that much I know.
The last time I expressed such excitement, seeing paintings, dresses and jewellery together with the paintings, was in Madrid, and by artist Joaquin Sorolla. In fact, I’m still trying to source a black and ivory narrow stripe silk satin duchesse, I saw in a Galliano lookalike jacket in one of his very paintings! Could that count as an obsession?
My personal fashioning by Sargent began in 2005, when I purchased a long silk georgette scarf of Lady Agnew, at the Museum of Scotland shop. It inspired me to create the first of my portrait dresses. In fact, a late friend Edwin Robertson, from Nairn Antiques, used to call me” Sandra the frock”, which I regarded as a complement.
When I changed artistic direction in 2005, I decided that I too, needed a unique personal dress code, because I would be attending global events. My portrait dresses have been my reliable best friends ever since. I now have 3 timeless dresses. Lady Agnew, Madame X and a less often worn one, called (one of) The Wyndham Sisters. I might look again to restyle it. With slides from the Met NYC, the Glasgow School of Art printed each one, on silk georgette. I had earlier designed one of Lady Macbeth, for a shoot at the Cannes Film Festival, to promote Scottish textiles. All of my dresses are well travelled, and have taken me to Buckingham Palace, Glyndebourne, National Trust of Scotland Gala in NYC. The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle, and many more places besides.
Madame X, also appears in 2 portraits of me, one is in oils, by artist Eugenie Vronskaya, and one is a photograph in a book, called Artfully Dressed, Women in the Art World, by Carla von de Puttelaar. Sometimes, I choose to wear each dress with a black vintage frockcoat. I also wear a long Murray of Atholl tartan coat covered with black wool lace, over Lady Agnew. Then, I’m pretty much ready, to just choose the hat.
There is something empowering, about wearing a statement on the front of a dress, when all the surrounding side panels, back and sleeves of complementary fabrics, play second fiddle, both in colour and texture. Maybe, it even touches on the Dior statement t-shirt ”lets all be feminists”, only my dresses are in silk, with no logos, and no politics. However, it’s not unlike wearing your own coat of arms!
Speaking of Coat of Arms. A recent USA commission, was a pair of Loch Ness wool tartan pillows, featuring the client’s own Coat of Arms. A further commission of a bedspread in Murray of Tullibardine wool tartan, with two smaller embroidered pillows followed. I’m longing to see the book called Classical Shindig, they feature in.
I’m having postcards printed, of the two oil paintings that’s I created during lockdown, which feature the mosaic- like overlapping patterns pieces of two actual coats. A John Singer Sargent again, came up trumps and supplied me with his most appropriate quote, “the coat IS the picture”. In case it’s not obvious!