Style Imitating Art | Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket by August Wilhelm Holmström for the House of Carl Fabergé 

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Salazar chose this week’s art inspiration because she wanted to shift from all the paintings that we have been featuring lately. Also, lilies-of-the-valley rank among Salazar’s favorite flowers. Lilies of any type are my favorite flowers and I also have a special fondness for lilies-of-the-valley because they are my birth month flower.

The Artwork

Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket by August Wilhelm Holmström for the House of Carl Fabergé

About the Artist: August Wilhelm Holmström for the House of Carl Fabergé 

Born in Helsinki, Finland, on October 2, 1829, August Wilhelm Holmström was a Finnish silversmith and goldsmith. From 1845-1850, Holmström apprenticed with jeweler Karl Herold at his workshop in St. Petersburg, Russia. By 1857, Holmström was a master with his own workshop.

After achieving master status, he became a senior member of the House of Fabergé, acting in the capacity of head jeweler and also producing parts for composite articles. After Holmström’s death in 1903 at the age of 74, his son Albert Holmström continued his father’s work, using the same mark of AH. His daughter Hilma Alina Holmström, granddaughter Alma Pihl, and grandson Oskar Pihl were also jewelry designers and workmasters for the House of Fabergé.

The House of Fabergé was a Russian jewelry firm founded in St. Petersburg in 1842 by Gustav Fabergé. Gustav’s sons, Peter Carl and Agathon, as well as his grandsons continued running the family business until the 1917 October Revolution. The firm became famous for their Fabergé eggs, elaborate jewel encrusted eggs that were designed and created for Russian emperors, as well as other intricately detailed high quality pieces. Over the years, the brand went through many different iterations and was sold to a variety of companies which launched clothing lines, created colognes and perfumes, marketed hair products, and even developed a film production company. Today, the brand is owned by Fabergé Limited which is known solely for jewelry and gem stones.

About the Art: Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket

Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket is an 1896 sculpture created by August Wilhelm Holmström for the House of Carl Fabergé. It is considered Holmström’s highest achievement and the most important Fabergé piece in the United States.

Crafted from yellow and green gold, silver, nephrite, pearl, and rose-cut diamonds, the sculpture consists of 19 individual gold stems that are decorated with diamonds and pearls to form the lilies-of-the-valley. The overall dimensions of the piece are 7 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 5 7/8 in. (19.1 x 21.6 x 14.9 cm). It was presented to Czar Nicholas II’s wife, Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, during her visit to the Pan-Russian Exhibition in 1896. The czarina cherished this gift as lilies-of-the-valley were one her favorite flowers because they symbolize domestic happiness and conjugal bliss.

The inscription in Cyrillic on the base of the sculpture reads, “To Her Imperial Majesty, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, from the Ironworks management and dealers in the Siberian iron section of the Pan Russian Artistic and Manufacturing Exhibition in the year of 1896”.

Through the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation, the Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket came to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where it is currently part of an ongoing exhibition.

Resources/References:

• The Met: Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket
• Wikipedia: August Wilhelm Holmström
• Wikipedia: House of Fabergé

About My Outfit

This outfit actually came together really easily. I took an image of the artwork into my magical closet room and quickly spotted this green floral dress that I had thrifted a year or two ago but have never worn. While the floral print on the dress does not include lilies-of-the-valley, there are some tiny white flowers that resemble little white lilies so that was close enough for me.

The dress is a tad big so it needed a belt. Since I wanted to pull in some ivories and whites to represent the pearly lilies-of-the-valley, I opted for a white and tan chevron belt which coordinated nicely with my white cowgirl boots. I added my yellow ruana as a nod to the gold basket while my olive green tights, along with the background color of my dress, represent the green leaves.

Of course, I was going to incorporate pearls into this outfit so I wore a pearly flower necklace and dangly pearl earrings. My olive green floppy hat was the perfect headpiece once I wrapped a long strand of pearls around it as a hat band. In yesterday’s post, I wore a belt as a hat band and wrote about all the different things you can use to make your hat coordinate with your outfit.

The cold weather is upon us with a big old lake effect snowstorm predicted for Thanksgiving weekend so a heavy coat was also necessary. Keeping with the color palette, I added my olive green coat with the faux fur collar. I wanted to wear this outfit for the day after taking these photographs, but it was just too cold for these lightweight layers even with tights, boots, and a warm coat.

How did I do with this Style Imitating Art challenge?

Be sure to check out how Salazar and Marsha have styled their outfits to represent this stunning sculpture. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, be sure to email your photos to her at 14shadesofgreyblog@gmail.com by Tuesday, November 19, 2024, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all wear!

Happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

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