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Dress: Ankoa cotton, lace
Mules: Wittner leather
Bag: Elk leather
Bangle Stack: Target woven straw
Hinged Bangle: Wallace Bishop silver
Hat: Fair Dinkum Bargains woven straw
Hat Band: Review grosgrain ribbon, beading
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A pastoral is a literary or artistic work that portrays or evokes rural, agrarian, rustic or country life, usually in an idealised, bucolic or Arcadian way... as they say in Evelyn Waugh's celebrated tome, Brideshead Revisited when looking at the famous shepherds of antiquity painting by Nicolas Poussin from 1639 (now hanging in The Louvre) "Et in Arcadia Ego" or "Even in Arcadia, there I am." Arcadia is a Greek word that alludes to a vision of pastoralism, harmony and communion with nature and in my case, refers to a morning spent in & around the historical township of Rosewood, posing in bushland near cattle fences, traversing dirt roads & stopping outside a weatherworn, historical pub established in 1905 called The Rising Sun Hotel in my own little version of an Australian Pastoral.
For the occasion, I am wearing a stunning cotton prairie dress with high neckline, pleated bodice, ruffled shoulders, waist-tie detailing and slightly fluted midi length hemline in an off-white & dainty blue floral print from slow fashion label Ankoa designed in Australia in 2021 by the delightful Lucy but truly reminiscent of the days of yore, a pair of tan leather pointy-toed mules from Wittner with matching tan leather shoulder/crossbody bag from Elk via the beautiful Mott and Mulberry boutique at Indooroopilly Shoppingtown to carry all the essentials, both of which have only gotten softer & more supple with age, a chunky silver hinged bangle from Wallace Bishop, trio of natural woven straw bangles from my local Target store (their spring/summer offering was an absolute revelation) that have a rustic vibe & finally, a cream woven straw sunhat from Fair Dinkum Bargains (yes, really) with a heavily-beaded grosgrain ribbon band, repurposed from a belt, from girly antipodean label Review to complete the look.
