Forevermore Opera Duster (Full Length)

This duster is steeped in old-world romance — deep green, brilliant blue, rich red, and weathered gold woven together into something that feels centuries old and beautifully alive. For everyday wear, we love it open over dark denim and a soft cream blouse, finished with classic leather boots — the kind of look that feels like you’ve just stepped out of an epic novel ;) For something more romantic, layer it over the matching Bohème Slip Dress with a long pendant necklace and delicate ballet flats for a sweeping, painterly look that honours every detail of the print. And for evenings that call for a little ceremony, wear it over a long slip dress in cobalt blue, add a beautiful chain-link belt, tall boots, and a few antique-inspired accessories — and you’re ready to step straight into your own great romance. 

The beloved, the devoted heart. Women who love with the courage of old legends, who would cross centuries for the ones they hold dear. Women who know some stories are forever. 

“I had wanted to create a collection around The Meeting on the Turret Stairs for years, but I could never quite find my way in. The painting gives us so little of the world beyond the lovers — just a winding stone staircase, with barely a glimpse of what might lie outside. Then one night, I dreamed I was inside the painting. I was somewhere above the lovers, near the top of the stairs, surrounded by darkness except for the light from a small window. I couldn’t see Hellelil or Hildebrand, but I could hear them below me, and somehow I knew exactly where I was. When I woke up, I realized the dream had given me my way in: I didn’t need to build outward from the painting. I needed to shift my perspective. What if we were outside the story, standing in an enchanted garden and looking in at the lovers through an ancient stone archway — almost like a window into a storybook?” — Danielle

The Meeting on the Turret Stairs was inspired by a medieval Danish ballad about Hellelil, a king’s daughter, and Hildebrand, her personal guard. When their forbidden love is discovered, Hellelil’s father sends her seven brothers to kill Hildebrand. The tale ends in bloodshed, but Frederic William Burton chose to paint something far more tender: the lovers’ final meeting on a winding stone staircase. Painted in 1864, the work isn’t an oil painting at all, but watercolour and gouache on paper. It is so sensitive to light that the National Gallery of Ireland keeps it protected behind closed doors for most of the week, revealing it to visitors for just two hours. In another lovely twist of history, the medieval ballad was translated into English by Burton’s friend, Irish scholar Whitley Stokes; Whitley’s sister Margaret later came to own the painting and eventually bequeathed it to the Gallery in 1900.

And so, for Forevermore, we did exactly what Danielle’s dream suggested. We stepped outside the staircase and looked back in, framing the lovers within an ancient archway and creating a world around them from tangled flowers, a distant castle, medieval dragons, an old sword, and the moss-covered tree from Arthur Hughes’ The Long Engagement. Perhaps that’s what drew us so deeply to Burton’s painting in the first place: he captured a single moment and somehow made it last forever. More than 160 years later, Hellelil is still caught mid-step, Hildebrand is still reaching for her — and somewhere beyond the ages, the lovers are still meeting on the stairs.

...